Shelhiel has returned with the new song ‘BuDeBuAi 不得不爱’, the first off the new EP ‘Superkiss’ – check out the track and our interview with the Malaysian electronic pop artist below.
Today (January 25) marks the Kuala Lumpur-based artist’s first new music since his 2022 single ‘Sayang’, the track ‘BuDeBuAi’. Described as “Malaysian Manyao meets Mando-Pop”, it interpolates the 2005 R&B hit of the same name by Taiwanese-American artist Will Pan – but has its origins in a remix Shelhiel did for the song ‘Ai Ni Ai Dao’ by Chinese hyperpop artist Jiafeng.
It’s an energetic first glimpse of ‘Superkiss (Side A)’, Shelhiel’s next EP dropping March 18 via the label Eastern Margins. The five-track EP features a collaboration with Shanghai-born, NYC-based artist Fifi Zhang and serves as a follow-up to Shelhiel’s 2020 debut EP, ‘Superstrobe’. The conceptual art-pop project, which followed a futuristic narrative of an angel who falls to earth and then in love, landed on NME’s list of the best Asian albums of that year.
Below, listen to ‘BuDeBuAi’ and check out NME’s chat with Shelhiel about bringing co-producers into his process, Manyao, M-pop and much more. This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
How did this new EP come about?
“With ‘Superstrobe’, I was mainly figuring out how to [be a] CD [creative director], how to EP [executive produce], how to really produce – just trying everything on my own. But this time is different. This time I’m working with Eastern Margins and a full team with the right creative and right people together. So I can really focus on the music itself. It feels good, not gonna lie.
“As we’re speaking, I’m still finishing the music – it’s also my first time working with co-producers. I have always been producing everything by myself and this is the only time I’ve had producers. So shoutout Kimj from New York and Mulan Theory from Malaysia.”
What has been the biggest difference, working with co-producers on the music?
“I think there are pros and cons. Working by yourself, you really know your workflow the best. You can control everything very clearly by yourself. Working with others, communication is really important. The first song has three producers working on it. I am the one who has to stitch the puzzle together, which is not easy. The tough part is communication, but you bounce ideas faster and things become unexpected. So it’s fun.”
The first song out from the EP is ‘BuDeBuAi 不得不爱’, a ‘Manyao meets Mandopop’ track. For those who are unaware – how would you describe Manyao, and how would you describe Malaysian Manyao, if there is a difference?
“Let me think. Wow – this is a sub-sub-genre question! We’re talking about the difference between mainland Manyao, Hong Kong, Taiwan… I think the difference between mainland Manyao and Singapore-Malaysian Manyao is that mainland Manyao has a lot more originals or ‘TikTok Manyao’. The lyrics are damn sad and serious. ‘Life is sad, you need to work hard to get what you want!’ In Malaysia and Singapore Manyao, we do covers of [our] favourite songs and reinterpret them.”
“Southeast Asia, I think we have so much to offer… I want us to be more seen and to just do us”
The ‘Superkiss’ EP follows up from ‘Superstrobe’, which had this narrative of an angel who falls to earth and falls in love. Where is the ‘Superkiss’ EP in that journey? Because in my opinion, it sounds like the angel has fallen into the club. Is that accurate?
[Laughs] “I should tell that to my team. It’s a very fun phrase to say. We’ve been saying ‘a bigger realm’, like earth – but the club is one of the stops. I think you’re right – with this one, we decided to make it more grounded. ‘Superstrobe’ is definitely more fantasy: recreating a reimagined fantasy of what my world would be in the purest form. But right now, transitioning from that – I’d say the angel is slightly more grounded.
“With the keyword ‘Superkiss’, I was trying to find a word that rolls off the tongue, is easy to pronounce, and is quite a hook. But it’s something more like: a piece of heaven on earth. A sense of eternity. I would say this project is trying to describe that feeling – but grounded. You’ll see as it rolls out.”
You have a collaboration with Fifi Zhang on this EP, ‘Love Repeat’. How did that come about?
“I saw her song ‘So Beautiful So Lonely’ had blown up on Nowness. I was like ah, OK, she’s like the Chinese PinkPantheress. Then I found out she had moved to the US. She’s originally from Shanghai… I’m glad she is super down for the song and really likes it.
“Another reason I had a concept for her in it is that with my previous EP and all my features, it’s mostly guys. There are no females. I’m confident that I’m a good producer – I just haven’t had the time to produce for a female artist, a female voice. I just feel like a female voice with my production – it would be like hyperpop NewJeans. It would be amazing. [laughs]
“I told her the reason I found her is this is also reminiscent of classic C-pop duets from the older, classic C-pop age: one girl, one boy, singing their hearts out and shit. I want this to be that song – but in a UKG [style] and with a contemporary twist.”
Last time we spoke you talked about wanting to make M-pop – which you described as this organic, multicultural vision of Malaysian pop music. Do you still feel the same way or have your thoughts changed over the years?
“I’m a big fan of pop – but of pop music that is boundary-pushing. Because pop is just popular music. But new, fresh, boundary-pushing music, I feel, is accessible to the public but is mind-boggling even to musicians or people in the underground. I really feel it’s a beautiful bridge, and that’s why I’m attracted to it. Yes – I do still want to do that. It’s just that maybe I’ll revisit the term in years to come. I feel like, straight up: you need money to pump this out. I learned this the most realistic way. I’m not ‘industry’ yet. I’m just me alone.
“There is M-pop in Malaysia right now: it’s girl groups like DOLLA and others popping up. But as for my standard of it, as someone who is very inspired by K-pop and J-pop girl groups: I just want Southeast Asia to have an edge for our version of pop. I don’t want to sound like another… gentrified version of Southeast Asian pop… but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to do angmoh [white, western] style, because everyone’s upbringing is different. But what are the sonics that are inspired from us growing up here – production- and music-wise?
“There’s this artist from Vietnam, Wren Evans. I saw his MV [music video] recently and was like, yo, this guy is pushing the limits of Vietnamese music, pop and international music. Southeast Asia, I think we have so much to offer… I want us to be more seen and to just do us.”
“New, fresh, boundary-pushing music, I feel, is accessible to the public but is mind-boggling even to musicians or people in the underground”
Besides new music, what do you have coming up? You played SXSW a few years ago. Do you have any plans to tour, in the US or elsewhere?
“I might be going to the west. The US, but UK as well. It’s still unplanned, but it’s in the works. Probably a side B [to ‘Superkiss’], who knows, this year? Trying to churn out as much as possible.”
Anything you want to say about the new EP and music before we wrap up?
“This is my first interview about this project, so I’m trying to familiarise myself with it. I would say… it’s a vibe. It’s nothing as conceptual as ‘Superstrobe’, but I definitely think it’s a vibe with good songs in it. So have fun and let me know what you think of it.”