You’re probably sick of hearing about New York’s indie sleaze revival. Spearheaded by The Dare, Fcukers and a generation of post-pandemic partygoers, it’s been hailed as the sweaty solution for those desperate for some good old-fashioned noughties hedonism. Though parts of Chanpan’s colourful, playful alt-pop slots into that lineage, this trio of NYC insiders downplay that exaggerated image. “As someone who likes to party, it’s not really that great out here,” explains vocalist Grace Dumdaw.
“It doesn’t feel as genuine as the New York of before… things are not accessible to everyone,” they continue. “There’s a door guy watching what outfit you’re wearing: ‘How much clout can you bring?’ The Dare, the Fcukers of it all, is also tied to whiteness, as well, at these places. I don’t think any of us are really into that aspect of nightlife, [where] you have to look a certain way to be cool enough to be in the spot.” Drummer Lance Tran reclaims the term entirely, nodding to both his band and Chinese heritage: “It’s called Chindie sleaze!”
Telling us about ‘Chanpals’, ‘Chanpansexual’ merch and their backstage ‘Chantourage’, the band, also including Lance’s identical twin brother Matthew (guitar), shine with happy-go-lucky charisma in conversation that matches their bubbly, lively sound. Weeks after conquering the NME Stage at Brighton’s The Great Escape, we reunite with Chanpan shortly after their victorious hometown set at the 150,000-capacity Governors Ball Festival.
All three moved to The Big Apple in 2021, after Louisiana-raised Dumdaw befriended Missouri native Lance during an internship in Philadelphia three years prior. Before music, their friendship revolved around food, sport and shared moral principles. “We talked about war, growing up in restaurant families and climate change,” recalls Lance. “It was not common meeting Asian people who had similar values, coming from the same places, for similar reasons. What we believe in is equally important as our sense of humour and music taste.”
With that foundation, the band began to regularly busk together, lugging heavy equipment around Chinatown, met with bursts of “enthusiasm and encouragement” from the general public that inspired them to start writing original material. All three wax lyrical about their experience with the city, from the “electric” present-day atmosphere around the New York Knicks basketball team to the rich culture steeped into the streets they inhabit.
But you shouldn’t pigeonhole Chanpan into a wider NYC scene, for both the reasons Dumdaw described and their mercurial sound. Their 2023 debut single ‘Jungle’ threw jazz basslines into its namesake genre, while breakout 2025 hit ‘Endlessly’ perches between airy indie-pop and frenetic breakbeats in a similar manner to Piri or Willow Kayne. Virtually every track on forthcoming second EP ‘Autogratis’ spontaneously shifts genre in under three minutes, nudging the overall intensity up towards fully-fledged rock and tough dance breaks.
Though this beautifully disorganised collage places Chanpan in their own sonic lane, they’ve gravitated towards their people. “We found a lot of community with other artists that are doing their own thing as well,” explains Dumdaw. “We’re not holding hands and following the path together.” “We absolutely have our own community, family and friends that have been here for us since day minus 10,” adds Matthew. Community is important to the Tran twins, who consciously moved to Chinatown to be nearer to other people of Chinese descent.
“All three of us grew up quite isolated from other huge pockets of Asian people,” begins Lance, recalling his excitement when he stumbled upon Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong. “Someone in London told us, ‘I’ve been waiting my entire life to see cool Asian people like you guys.’” “The door is so closed for children around the world to even get three square meals a day or live a full life,” adds Matthew. “I think about the rest of the Asian diaspora – how can we genuinely and meaningfully bring them along with us, too?”
“I think about the rest of the Asian diaspora – how can we genuinely and meaningfully bring them along with us, too?” – Matthew Tran
Dumdaw, who has Burmese heritage, agrees: “There’s so many artists that haven’t had the luck, information or the resources. Something that’s come up a lot is gatekeeping, especially in New York in the music industry. The gatekeepers looked at us as Asian people that are worthy to have access to these resources. Once the gatekeepers let me in, I felt safe enough to express myself, cut my hair, be more expressive about my gender and get face piercings.
“As we get more successful in music, slowly, we get the keys to the gate, and that’s a scary thought,” they continue. “It should be open for everyone, and that’s something I would like people of colour in the industry to think more critically about.” Lance picks up their thread: “Your thought should not be, ‘How do I bring more people over this barrier?’, [but] how to completely remove that barrier, and get rid of that entire gatekeeping structure.”
After they articulate these beliefs at length, we revisit the magnetic allure of ‘Autogratis’, from the racy ‘Buzzin’ through to the bass-boosted pop-rock of ‘Jesus In China’. Mucking around with a remarkable degree of concision, Lance confirms their studio sessions involve “singing absurd, freaky things, doing flips off the wall and spinning around on the ground”. “Chanpan is the first and primary audience of everything we make,” Matthew reminds us. “On ‘Autogratis’, we have become more and more uninhibited.”
“We honestly found our sound with ‘Jungle’ – that is a song that doesn’t really make too much sense, structurally and musically,” continues Dumdaw. “We’re going to keep doing that and being hard to tie down because life is long, we want our careers to be long, and tastes change.” Matthew doubles down: “Chanpan is whatever the hell we’re feeling in that moment.”
Mirroring their volatile sound, Dumdaw stays on the move lyrically throughout ‘Autogratis’; they sing “I’m just running away” in ‘Los Angeles’ before “running to better days” on ‘Driving Away’. “I’m so avoidant, as a person,” they clarify. “A lot of life has been running towards the next thing. Now that we are on tour all the time, part of that has made me want to stay still and start putting down roots in my personal life.” By vocalising their avoidance, it transforms into accountability. “I feel like [the EP] is gratuitous to myself. Being part of Chanpan and all the life changes that came [have] made me extremely good at communicating.”
The subject matter of ‘Autogratis’ centres around relationships, romance and navigating this public-facing space that is accompanying Chanpan’s rise. The EP captures the sense of that whirlwind, flitting between sounds exactly like they trade answers today. Together, Chanpan have already laid the foundations to be this fluid creative vehicle. “We encourage each other to explore together,” says Lance. “You hear us stepping out of [traditional band] roles, and that’s what it means to embrace the spirit of experimentation.”
Chanpan’s new EP ‘Autogratis’ is out June 26 via EQT Recordings.