Wasia Project’s EP & more: “How can I pretend?”
Wasia: while a term to describe the meeting point between the West and Asia, it also offers little indication of where Wasia Project’s music comes from, most likely because of its otherwordly sounds. The British-Asian sibling duo composed of Olivia Hardy and William Gao have been making waves in the indie music space: from their 2019 Soundcloud single “Why Don’t You Love Me” to opening for Icelandic jazz sensation Laufey on her US tour.
With only six singles and a four-song EP out, it is safe to say the state of the duo’s discography is small. But it is not to be mistaken with a lack of substance, as every one of their songs can stand on its own as a valid claim to fame. The classical musically-trained, Croydon-born pair creates their inner world using frank lyrics and cozy, sentimental alt-pop with jazz influences. Using a diverse range of musical and thematic inspirations, the pair curates a soundtrack for every part of our day. It can accompany the escapism one feels just as well as the longing to belong that might follow, and it does so by fusing our most complex emotions and reflective thoughts into sonically satisfying tunes. “And you're so lovely / When you cry, it hurts me, oh / You're the only person left, so hold me / Don't leave me” (Ur so pretty).
Despite the danceable, messier indie anthems like Petals On the Moon, the execution is always done masterfully, with every sound working symbiotically to achieve magical-sounding songs with sweetly poetic lyricism. “I feel like everybody's singing out of tune / I feel like I can't help but always be so blue / But in the end I know I must keep pulling through / And brace myself for all the hell-like petals on the moon”. Piano, violin, drums, guitar; all laced with minimal production and a voice that can uncannily do it all, shining especially in ‘Impossible’ the third track of their single EP ‘How Can I Pretend?’. There is something innately special about making music with family, and perhaps their shared ditherings between one nationality to another translates into a common musical language that while we cannot take part in, must sound beautifully.
Notion Magazine writes about the natural growth of their success: “What began as a series of GarageBand songwriting experiments and is now one of the most talked-about rising artist ventures out of London”. Indeed, the piano chords, Hardy’s angelic vocals, and the simple but poignant lyrics of their songs affirm this project is far from a funny little “having a go at it” moment; but a promise to take their music seriously. Blood must really be thicker than water because this promise has been kept exceptionally well.
