Joanne Tang, better known as 9m88, catapulted into the limelight with her 2018 cover of Mariya Takeuchi’s viral hit “Plastic Love.” However, her relationship with music has gone on for much longer. The jazz-trained singer spent the last two years crafting–and undoing–what would become her second album, 9m88 Radio, released on August 8, 2022.
“[The] pandemic changed my way of viewing life, I guess. You will never know what’s next, and in the end nothing really [matters],” she shares in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX Asia when asked where she got inspiration from over the past two years. The COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on 9m88’s creative process, and she opened up about how it sparked the collaborative process with other artists.
According to the singer, the process of sifting through collaborators could only be described as trial and error. “I did my research on cool producers and artists who might be the right fit to my songs. I listened to their works and imagined if my songs were compatible,” she says. “Collaborations need to be mutual appreciation or else it would sound so imbalanced.”
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The result, 9m88 Radio, brims with dynamic collaborative energy between the singer and various producers and instrumentalists, each bringing a unique element to their respective tracks. The latest outing from 9m88 is a sonically cohesive yet diverse album, with her vocal prowess and incredibly honest lyrics shining through.
9m88 showcases her gift for sincere, affecting lyrics in the standout track, “Dark Night/Sunlight,” which she describes as her most personal track on the record. “It’s a fresh wound of heartbreak…Apart from other songs with colorful and rich sound decos, this one is pure vocal performance with prepared piano,” she says. “In the lyrics I describe heartbreak as a polar night that seems impossible to see the light again.”
However, beyond being just a personal rediscovery of herself, the album is her love letter to a global audience. 9m88 went into the album hoping to pivot away from Mandopop and carve out her own space and style, without having to choose between using Mandarin or English in her songs. Playing with both languages is an “interesting” and “fun process” for her. When explaining why she describes the process as such, “I found English sounds rounded, whereas Mandarin sounds angular…When performing songs with different genres like R&B or jazz, the interpretations need alterations too.”
As 9m88 continues to push her creative boundaries beyond Asia, she hasn’t forgotten her roots as an artist. As someone who’s lived in both New York and Taipei and making music in (and inspired by) both cities, she enjoys bringing the best of both her Mandopop background and jazz influences into her songs–both in Mandarin and English. “Ultimately, it would be so cool to share my native language to foreigners and have them curious about the meanings of the Mandarin parts of my music…I look forward to the styles being more immersed and mingled with our own culture.”
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Stream 9m88 Radio below:
Inline images: Press.
