[K-Exclusive]: Interview with Amber Liu + Henry gate crashing
AMBER LIU is a talented singer, rapper, and songwriter who gained popularity as a member of the k-pop girl group F(x). Amber is known for her unique voice and versatile rapping skills.
This is Amber’s first time in Australia for her appearance at SONICA Music Festival in Melbourne. In this interview, we talked about what she’s looking forward to in Melbourne, creating music, and wildlife.
Amber, how’s it going? Welcome to Melbourne!
Amber: “Thank you, dude it’s amazing, the city’s amazing. I’ve been walking around for the past 2 hours with my team and we’re all just like “wait can we go there, can we go there”, it’s beautiful. It’s hot here, it was so cold in LA. I’ve been playing Pokémon (Pokémon GO), it’s been so great. I got a shiny today, do you know what shiny Pokémon are? They’re rare, people who know, they know, but I got a shiny Pokémon and I was really holding back, like “should I say I got a shiny Pokémon nah I have to say I got a shiny Pokémon”.”
What else are you looking forward to doing in Melbourne while you’re here?
Amber: “Other than performing, we are trying to figure out our zoo tour, we have an escape room later tonight, so we’re going to do that as well. We had some coffee already, I heard that Australian coffee is the best in the world, we had some recs for that. We had some amazing dim sum as soon as we landed. I’m trying to figure out where to run tomorrow morning, I just want to explore. I really want to see a buff kangaroo. Everybody on my team and I are just like “let’s find a buff kangaroo!”.
Congratulations on all your new music, I believe you’re releasing a new song tomorrow (Friday 17th March).
Amber: “Yes! It’s called ‘No More Sad Songs’ and I’m really hyped about this.”
Henry then gate-crashed our interview –
Amber: “For some reason, I knew he was going to do that, it’s just so Henry.”
In terms of your creative process when creating music, can you run us through that?
Amber: “It can be many ways, typical ones are like produce it as a track, you send it to me, I can jot down some ideas, send it back, kind of like back and forth type of thing. That’s like the new internet way of doing stuff. Other times I just go to their studio and we just write things from scratch, we’d be like “oh how are you feeling?” I’m like “let’s do something angsty” and we do a lot of angsty and angst, like screamo and we experiment with everything cause I’ve been influenced by so many different genres, so it’s kind of like “is Amber feeling bubbly today?” Let’s write a really happy song.”
“Sometimes the shower is a great place to find inspiration. I was talking about this to someone else, it’s like the shower is the one place you can really just be alone, no phones, I don’t know how you can shower with your phone. Shower thoughts. A lot of my songs are written in the shower, probably the reason why you don’t know is cause a lot of them are really bad songs. Sometimes you just keep writing and writing, sometimes you re-visit old demos from years ago and I’ll dig it back up like “wait this one’s kind of dope”, then you kind of hear it with fresh ears, cause sometimes you’re over certain songs.”
If you weren’t doing music and weren’t in the industry, what would you be?
Amber: “I think my answer back then was I wanted to be a scientist, something in biology or environmental studies. I think right now, I do still have a lot of passion for the environment and science but animals. I want to do a dog shelter one day, animals are just so innocent, they have their cycle, let’s just do our part to help with that.”
You also have your own zoo at home, you have your dogs and bird.
Amber: “Bird oh yes, I still haven’t seen a cockatoo yet. I need to find a cockatoo. That’s my one mission before leaving. Missions are to see a buff kangaroo, find a cockatoo and hold koalas. Those are 3 things, that’s 3 things I have to do.”
In terms of preparations and Sonica, what can we look forward to with your Sonica performance?
Amber: “I’m bringing back a lot of old songs and some new. I think it’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster. There’s going to be intense moments, some soft moments, some sad moments, and happy moments. In the end, I just hope the crowd vibes with me and my team. I’m just happy to be able to have tomorrow to show all that hard work that me and my team have put in.”
Final message for Aussie fans?
Amber: “Love you guys so much, you’re the best, seriously. I can’t wait to perform tomorrow, I’m super psyched. I hope everybody has fun. I will be back, send me online some recs to explore and give me the tea on Sydney Melbourne rivalry.”
As mentioned above, Amber’s new song has now been released called “No More Sad Songs”, listen below:
KMUSIC would like to thank SuperDuper and Castiglione Arts and Culture who made this interview possible. We would like to wish Amber all the best in her future projects and look forward to her returning in the future!
You can read our coverage of the SONICA Music Festival: officiallykmusic.com/k-exclusive-sonica
Our K-exclusive interview with HENRY LAU: officiallykmusic.com/k-exclusive-interview-with-henry-lau
Written by: May Lam
Photos by: Toby Trinh