My name is Tzusing, I produce music and I DJ.

I went to international school in Taiwan and Shanghai, and I think just being in international schools exposed me to a wider range of people. I’m 40 now so that was when I was a kid, before the Internet really became such a big thing. Towards the end of the 90s before I moved to the States, a lot of the stuff started going online already but stuff like MP3 trading wasn’t a thing yet and so it was just online record stores that had sample clips for you to buy the record but not full songs.
This is the 90s, and there I was exposed to foreigners that had experienced the rave scene in the US and brought in CDs so I was exposed to this music where a lot of other Taiwanese or Asian kids wouldn’t have been. Also, being able to travel to the States and buy actual mixtape CDs by DJs and stuff like that. Of course, there was also a small underground thing going on in Taiwan but records and music distribution just isn’t the same in Asia, especially at that time.

It comes to you. I don’t get that when people say they want to go out and be inspired. I guess you can put yourself in situations where you experience more things but no, it finds you.

When we were growing up in Taiwan, like I said we went to international schools and we were exposed to skateboarding, which I still do, and we were buying Western clothes and skate brands, like Independent. They had this hat with a green bill and my brother bought it. When he was wearing it at home my dad saw it and he got super pissed at my brother, he was like “take that shit off your head right now!”. When I saw that I was like “wow!”. It was such a strong reaction from my dad, and I was just really curious as to why. So that was my first introduction to this concept of the green hat and how pissed my dad got.
Also, even to this day Chinese people won’t wear green hats and if your girlfriend or wife cheats on you it’s super shameful and a big thing against your masculinity. It feels even worse than death, that shame. That is what is interesting to me: that there’s a thing scarier than death.

Maybe? I don’t think I’m breaking anything; I’m not destroying this culture or anything like that. I don’t think music really does that, I’m just highlighting it and I find it interesting. Again, I have to go back to my dad because a lot of the shit that I do deals with how I was raised. I told him when we were at dinner that I was going to call my record this and my job is to always piss him off, I get a big kick out of it. He was pissed and didn’t talk about it. Then a few months later one day he was like “why would you call your record this?” and I said I was calling my record that to piss you off and to piss guys like you off.
Am I really breaking anything? I don’t know. Will it break anything? I don’t know, but I think it is a problem. The thing is I also see it in myself: I’m a cis male, I have girlfriends and I’ve had to deal with these problems that you mention as well. So, one of the reasons for the title of the record is to address how, as a cis male in this modern age and knowing how horrible the patriarchy is, do you move forward in a correct manner? Because there aren’t many examples! This is why Andrew Tate is such a thing, right? Because young kids don’t know how to be a straight man and there’s no examples except for these assholes and kids are just trying to find an answer.

I merely bring it to light; I don’t know how my stuff can actually help people unlearn these things. I just think I’m dealing with it myself! I think my music is extremely anxiety-inducing, I’m pretty into that and electronic music has a really wide sound palette. What you can do with it is almost unlimited, so if you’re creative enough you can express all of these really nuanced emotions.

There’s a lot of sub, sub is generally associated with thunder and these sounds that, throughout existence, we have associated with scary things. I use these kinds of tones and these kinds of sounds that we have anciently associated with fear but I’ve hopefully arranged it in a more contemporary and interesting way.

Because the music has to be engaging first and foremost. It’s not about reading the blurb, it’s about the music, right?

I feel like on my debut record I was still coming out of this EDM industrial thing. I think it takes courage to make music outside of a more defined form and I feel like, with this one, I’ve gained more confidence. I feel more comfortable with exploring and really letting my ideas take these newer shapes.

They were super good! I really enjoyed both gigs, especially Trance Party, that was crazy. I couldn’t believe David Rudnick was my DJ, I’m a big fan of his graphics.

I’m eager to see how people receive this album and more gigs in Europe! I also want to start working on new music as well, maybe do something more dance floor focussed?