Wasia Project Is Taking Over the UK Pop Scene
WILL wears JACKET by ACNE STUDIOS, JUMPER by ZADIG ET VOLTAIRE, TROUSERS by ACNE STUDIOS, BOOTS by ISABEL MARANT, GLOVES from CONTEMPORARY WARDROBE
OLIVIA wears JACKET by ISSEY MIYAKE from 18.01 ARCHIVE, TOP and DRESS by ZADIG ET VOLTAIRE, TROUSERS by VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, BOOTS b ACNE STUDIOS, GLOVES from CONTEMPORARY WARDROBE
As teenagers, the sibling duo began songwriting as a form of expressive therapy. Quickly realizing that their pastime could become a legitimate career, they never looked back. Their first song of 2023, "Petals on the Moon", offers a glimpse into their most developed sound yet. Olivia's ethereal vocals are accompanied by an upbeat jazz orchestra track, evoking a playful yet poignant tone reminiscent of Mitski.
Their fan base is growing up alongside them, finding solace in their honest expression as they navigate the challenges of adolescence. The duo explains, "We are expressing ourselves in a way that will hopefully make us understand ourselves more. If our music resonates with them, that's amazing, and if it doesn't, that's okay."
This "take it or leave it" attitude sets them apart; making music for the sake of music is a rare find these days. office had the opportunity to sit down with Will and Olivia to discuss the art of honest songwriting, the revelation that came from hearing "Hey Jude" for the first time, and the importance of their sibling bond.
WILL wears JACKET, COATS, TROUSERS by SAINT LAURENT, T-SHIRT by SUNSPEL, BOOTS by ISABEL MARANT, NECKLACE is talent’s own, BROOCHES from stylist’s archive
OLIVIA wears JACKET, TOP, SKIRT, AND HEELS by SAINT LAURENT, TIGHTS by FALKE, BROOCHES from stylist’s archive
Just to start us off, give me a brief overview of the genre/ genres of music you guys make?
Olivia Hardy— I would probably say it's a fusion of classical, jazz, and alternative, but I think the main thing we've always said is that we’ve never really known how to place our music. There’s never been an intention to place it as indie or alternative or whatever- it's quite organic in that we’ve pulled a bunch of influences from really classical pieces, to Queen to the Beatles and sort of fused it with the sounds we knew growing up. And William was really heavily jazz influenced so I think it all came together in one alternative mess.
Will Gao— Yeah, I think alternative mess is a good one. I think we see it as a kaleidoscope of influences and see it through a beam of contemporary pop. But all of the influences come from a kaleidoscope of like loads of different things, and things that I think a lot, a lot of the time we are completely unaware of when were making the art, which is the fun thing about it, you don't really know what the influences are but you know they're there.
I think that your guys' sound doesn't fit into one genre and I don't think it should. You do a really good job at this because you're so young and because you're learning about music as you're growing- your music is just ever evolving which makes it so interesting. Did you guys have a musical upbringing and what was that like?
WG— Yeah, for sure. I think we both have our own differences in our musical upbringing. Obviously we're siblings so there's a lot of similarities there. We both learned pieces and musical instruments from a young age. Olivia learned violin, I learned piano, I grew up in a classical boys choir. Olivia would you agree that you learned pop slightly earlier than I did?
OH— Yeah for sure. We were both very classically trained. Over the years it was very “this is the song to play, this is the technique to learn, and this is the scale to master, and then I think we really started to focus more on music we liked to listen to which was pop stuff, and I think pop music came to me when I was 12 or 13 when I downloaded Spotify and started to listen to real music from there. And then we started to discover new sounds like rap, and R&B, and soul. And then growing up we had a lot of our dad’s music like queen CD and electric light music orchestra and things like that.
WG— I remember specifically the moment, you know that roundabout Olivia, with that ugly ass building we would pass as kids and we listened to Hey Jude for the first time? I just remember that moment thinking, Oh, just because these guys are singing and it's kind of rock and roll and pop, that's still as respected and as soothing and makes me feel just as much as this classical music does when I'm at school or at college.
That sense of connection was a big moment to me. Because we always knew them as separate. Dancing to Queen was very different from learning something on the piano. I was like, if music is all one world, then it's like, what? It was insane.
The possibilities are endless from there. Olivia, was there a song or like an artist for you that made you feel that switch?
OH— I think the realization that William was talking about came to me a lot later, because I always saw pop and singing karaoke as more of a recreational thing to do in my free time. And classical music practice was hard to get into the discipline of doing, and then it wasn't until quite recently that I began to appreciate how much they play into each other. But in terms of early, early influence I would say Billie Eilish probably.
WG— What about Taylor Swift?
OH— Let's not go there — every journalist we talked to was like “she LOVES Taylor Swift '' — I was like what's going on? No, that's not a huge influence for me, I think I said that once. The direction I like to go is really honest songwriting. A lot of old R&B and soul like Ms. Lauryn Hill.
WILL wears JACKET, COATS, TROUSERS by SAINT LAURENT, T-SHIRT by SUNSPEL, BOOTS by ISABEL MARANT, NECKLACE is talent’s own, BROOCHES from stylist’s archive
OLIVIA wears JACKET, TOP, SKIRT, AND HEELS by SAINT LAURENT, TIGHTS by FALKE, BROOCHES from stylist’s archive
Was there a shift for you guys that you realized you could make music as a career and something more than a hobby or more than the classical training you were raised on?
WG— Yeah. For sure. I think there were those moments of seeing live shows or discovering the art of songwriting and how much of a freeing and positive experience it was. Certainly for me, I felt it was such a liberating thing, songwriting is like therapy and I was like, Oh shit people get to do this therapeutic thing and get to call it a job? It's crazy!
OH— I was always inspired by live performances. I'd go and see and like the interaction in a room. I just thought it was insane and spiritual and just like a crazy unifying experience and every time I go it would be the same feeling so I guess I was so chasing that. And then the recording side of it is just like, yeah a complete creative space that I guess at first is just a hobby but then really grew into something became a thing to do for us.
Who would be your musical influences now that you pull inspiration from?
WG— Right now, I’d say in the past week it has been Benjamin Bretton - he's a classical composer from the last century, and his melodies and his darkness are just quite twisted and I kinda love that. And I’d have to say Paul McCartney has always been a big influence but certainly more so recently.
OH— I mean recently I've been getting back onto my autumnal playlists, so Nick Drake, Mitski’s new album. I was having a conversation about her the other day and how she’s almost musical theater like she's so alternative and performative and I really love the way she makes stuff like that. A lot of Beatles as well right now.
WG— I think it's good to say that these are the influences that we like right now and they're ever evolving, as you said Colleen, and it's going to be ongoing.
Even songs that I listened to just a few months ago, I feel like I might not like now- and that's good, that means my music taste is evolving.
OH— Yeah the playlists that I make never really regurgitate songs, I sort of associate songs with certain periods of time but some of the really good ones will carry over.
I want to go into your guys' backgrounds, being both British and having East Asian heritage. How do you guys try to translate that into your sound?
WG— Yeah, I think it's kind of a thing where it's inherent in all of our experiences and it's kind of been a day to day thing our whole life. For me personally, it was something I kind of ignored but I felt it was there. And the awakening to the experience of not quite being home in either place or feeling misfit came to the forefront during the time I discovered song writing.
So I think it's a part of all of our music because a lot of our lyrics are about our personal experiences and a lot about the adolescent experience. There's a lot of angst, there's a lot of new experience from growing up so our mixed heritage and that diversity is gonna be all over that.
OH— Yeah whenever we’re asked that question, I kinda look back on the western music I was raised on and the western pop music all that. I don't think there was ever a specific sound of the far east that was incorporated into our music because it really is quite influenced by Queen and the classical stuff.
But something that I noticed recently is that there's a pentatonic scale which is used everywhere that is actually traditionally associated with the far east and harp instruments. I noticed even in the studio there is this one scale I kept repeating and I had no idea where it was from. I just thought it was really cool.
How did you figure out that it was associated with Eastern music?
OH— It's used in a lot of traditional folk songs, but there was this one time a few months ago when I was really geeking out on cultures associated with scales. Like Middle Eastern scales, oriental scales, and Irish folk scales and how they all intertwine. It's really interesting how you associate cultures with sounds.
I find that your lyrics are very well thought out and very weighted. When you are pulling lyrics together, do you usually pull from general ideas or like, personal experiences with love, relationships,and growing up?
WG— This is where me and Olivia slightly differ. For me it’s very in the moment, so when lyrics are coming out in real time in complete rawness and openness and like, it's just gluing the page with all these thoughts and feelings. It's normally the song that attaches to the lyric, which attaches to the thought, and it all becomes one.
And I think Olivia, you can say for yourself — but I think that the beauty is when Olivia tries to structure those kinds of thoughts and feelings. Especially with a new song that is coming out, it was very much a stewing and Olivia was like, lets edit this and synthesize these ideas and feelings together. And does so while still understanding me as a person and the craft of songwriting.
OH— Yeah, I mean, like you just described, there's a balance between being really honest and really broad with how you feel about and then making it into something that people are really going to resonate with. There's like a fine line between just like, blurting something and then from that raw idea, shaping it into something more refined and maybe even poetic.
WG— I think that's the best part about our collaboration is that fine line and that balance. Because, i don't know, word vomit is good, but it's also quite disorganized. And there’s glimpses of that in our music but also being quite refined and structured in your songwriting is key.
WILL wears JACKET, COATS, TROUSERS by SAINT LAURENT, T-SHIRT by SUNSPEL, BOOTS by ISABEL MARANT, NECKLACE is talent’s own, BROOCHES from stylist’s archive
OLIVIA wears JACKET, TOP, SKIRT, AND HEELS by SAINT LAURENT, TIGHTS by FALKE, BROOCHES from stylist’s archive
Do you think that it's easier or harder, because you're siblings, to be honest with each other about where the direction of a song is going?
WG— Oh yeah, I think it's much easier. We’re very honest with each other. I don't think I'd be comfortable doing it with many other people. It’s such a weird thing songwriting, we both get to such vulnerable places whilst doing it. Understanding how challenging it is sometimes to share songs that are so very personal.
Another thing I wanted to note is that your lyrics touch on a lot of very raw and real topics that a lot of your listeners your age are going through.What's the main message you want your listeners to take away from your music?
OH— I don't know if there’s a message to be honest, I just want them to feel good when they hear it. I mean you can preach messages and honesty and stuff and I think a lot of artists these days preach being honest with how you feel and being authentic and everything.
But I don't know, I think even myself as a fan of other people who tell me to be authentic, it's really easy to over think how true to yourself and how honest you're being with yourself about your feelings. I think the easiest thing is just listen to music and feel what you do and have a natural reaction to it.
WG— I don't know if there's any particular message, it's just we are expressing ourselves in a way that will hopefully make us understand ourselves more. And if they resonate with that frequency that's amazing and if they dont thats okay. We’re not trying to preach our music, it's just a way to express our feelings and get a bit closer to that frequency.
Yeah, it's very much like this is how I feel, take it or leave it.
WG— Exactly.
Olivia, what was it like hearing the song “ur so pretty” on Heartstopper? And this was the song originally written for the show?
OH— It was never written with the show in mind. It was written a long, long time ago, originally for nobody but myself and I shared it with a couple of friends. It became something that we recorded on the EP because we thought it was a beautiful song that deserved its own recording.
And as William was saying before- it was a very personal thing that I created out of expressing myself and it just really really resonated with a lot of people and when it was on the show. I think it was just an amazing sync and the way it was done it was able to resonate with a lot more people and reach a much broader audience.
So what's next for the Wasia Project?
WG— Well in the next few weeks there's going to be some live studio session recordings of us being put out and that's what people can look forward to. And then there's another song… maybe.
Got it — we will stay tuned for that!
