Emerging talent Derek Ouyang is an artist with a flair for contrasting uplifting bedroom disco-pop bops with melancholy tales of faltering romance - a strength that he today introduces to new audiences with the release of his official debut single ‘M.I.A.’.
Whipping up touches of pop, R&B, neo-soul and funk into his own sonic vision, Derek Ouyang has crafted a dreamy psychedelic alt-pop jam with ‘M.I.A.’ Performed with a voice that exudes pure pop appeal yet with a sophisticated soulful tone, it tells the story of a love affair which fails to blossom despite its initial early summer promise. What looked to be an exciting new beginning instead ends in disappointment, as captured by the arresting hook, “Cuffed on both hands by the words you said / False hope round my neck in the love we made.”
Derek says: “The song is about assuming that your summer fling is going to be a big Hollywood romance, running away together like you’re Bonnie and Clyde. But then the reality is that he doesn’t give you the same energy back, and you’re stuck thinking about things you could do differently. Maybe you could go M.I.A. and ghost that bitch for a bit. If you seem more busy and less desperate, they’re more prone to chasing you.”
Although just getting started, Derek has already shown his immense potential after writing three EPs for the Chinese pop artist Zhang Yuqi, who won the nation’s leading talent show ‘The Coming One Girls’. One of their collaborations, ‘Moonlight’, went on to win the Asian Pop Music Award.
Derek Ouyang is based in NYC where he studies Music Business at Syracuse University and works as a freelance A&R. His artist project commenced with three introductory tracks, each of which he entirely wrote and produced himself, but ‘M.I.A.’ represents his first work with co-producer Jack 2K (buffchick, NONEWFRIENDS.). His tastes and influences are forever shifting, but his key inspirations include Lorde, Taylor Swift, Troye Sivan, Omar Apollo, Ryan Beatty and Jeremy Zucker.
He was born in Shenzhen, China, where he grew up in a religious family with a father who was a professional musician. That should be the perfect role model for an aspiring musician, right? Wrong. His dad was only too aware that a career in music can make for a hazardous financial future, and instead tried to guide him away from that world. But Derek forged ahead by studying music in high school, and is now out to prove that he can make it on his own terms.
