Image credit: Dylan Chubb

Chinese-British Avant-pop artist Fifi Rong has released her self-produced solo album, There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved on the 10th of December via her own imprint. The LP is accompanied by a video for ‘Out Of Clock’, directed and edited by Zee Marla Osh.  The video for ‘Out Of Clock’ is Fifi’s first video listed as an NFT and is available here. 

The project was independently crowd-funded and made possible by the support of her enchanted listeners. The album is technically a double LP, with the Mandarin version exclusively available to her crowdfunding backers. Fifi Rong appreciates each contribution, giving thanks to her fans with rare NFT gifts as well as allowing people to own/license a stake of her music, the value of which will grow as the songstress does. 

Speaking of the creation of the album, Fifi Rong tells us: “Have you ever given up everything so your dream could live? …I did. To let my music live, I had to let everything else die in my heart.  But the ghosts of doomed romances had nowhere to go except to find their way into my upcoming solo Double Album: my greatest, most important and intimate body of work to date. 5 years of writing, recording and producing this double album on my own went into making sure these delicately crafted, heart-aching ballads would heal in the midst of tragedy and prepare you to smile at the end of your tears. I wanted it to be timeless. For I truly believe in creating soul resonance & meaningful connections between my art and aesthetes who can truly appreciate its multifaceted values.”

What’s your story as an artist? 

Music was once an impossible dream growing up in China’s culture of conformity and collectivism. I’ve been through decades of internal and external struggles to free myself for a life in music, and to bring my Chinese cultural heritage into today’s modern pop music in the world.

What inspired this last release?

Production style: Peruvian Shaman during an ayahuasca retreat. 

Songs: a memoir of love, and the best melancholic love songs I have ever written in one project.

Do you get inspired by other art forms?

Yes. Heartbreak, living and healing can be an art form too.

Any funny anecdotes from the time you were recording or writing this?

Yes.. at the final stages of the mixing, over a few days I heard the tracks were being funny and distorted so I asked my mixer to redo everything, and later realized a friend came around earlier to help me with some livestream stuff, and changed my audio interface settings. False alarm. 

Also I wasn’t planning on making the double album till December last year. It was just a random comment from a Chinese friend, and I thought ‘ok’, then I bought on another 6 months of work and made the Chinese side of the album (the English just realized, not the Chinese one yet).

Also this double album took me 5 years to write, record and produce. Simply mixing and mastering took 2 years:)

But my overly optimistic and unrealistic mind told me I could have nailed everything in a year. 

What’s your favorite place or environment to write?

To produce and record, my home studio.

Song, anywhere, anytime emotion strikes. 

But I have mostly completed my songs in my home studio.

What’s a record that shaped your creativity?

Many. But on top of my mind. ‘Places’ by shlohmo. 

Who is an artist or band you look up to today?

Pink Floyd.

What excites you the most about what you do ?

Freedom.

What is your view on genres and music styles since you mix a lot of them in your music?

They are necessary to sort all the music in the world for listeners. 

I call mine avant pop, meaning a personalized style of sound that is still within pop structure. 

What does music and art mean to you?

reborn religion, or soul savior. 

How would you describe your act in one word?

Bridge.