KRISTEN NG AKA KAISHANDAO DURING HER THREE MONTH NEW ZEALAND TOUR - PHOTO SUPPLIED BY KRISTEN NG
From Cuba Street busker to Defining figure in Chengdu’s musical underground, Kristen Ng has embedded herself in seemingly all aspects of live music. For this instalment of Sine Journal, I yarned with Kristen aka electronic artist Kaishandao between a few too many Bloody Marys in the AM about her New Zealand tour, community born from live music and the underground music scene in Chengdu.
I first came across her production in 2019 at Welcome To Nowhere festival, and soon after invited her up to RadioActive.fm for a live session. A pack of VBs and an hour of nonsensical radio yarns later, and I was in awe of both her highly attuned production and personal warmth. How she made such detailed crisp tracks and vast sonic evolutions in the space of a track from only an Elektron Machinedrum and an Octatrack, to this day, stumps me. “I run my guitar through my Octatrack as well, which chops the guitar up into tiny fragments in a way that is connected to the beat. That’s my trick. A square LFO on the guitar and just fuckin' send it ay. Then if you muck about with the high pass filter it sounds mean.”
The artist’s debut EP Homeland showcases complex and on-point production. So many changing sounds creates an effortlessly fluid array, one that melts and moves the listener. When recording the EP, Kristen was practicing profusely for her Boiler Room set. After countless rounds of recording, listening back and refining her set, she realised those recordings could extend further than the live setting. “So a lot of Homeland came from those jams.”
KRISTEN PERFORMING HER BOILER ROOM SET IN 2021 AFTER THE FIRST MAJOR COVID-19 LOCKDOWN
After moving to Beijing in 2013, Kristen went on a trip with friends to her now-home Chengdu, which was her first look into the central province and its rich underground. "My mates took me there and just showed me all of this totally wild shit.” Ng recalled one party on a bridge with house music playing out of a trolley next to a tractor, and another in the middle of a forest with fireworks, a pool and a bath full of ice and beers. “I was fully just like what the fuck is happening. It was so different from Beijing. I just remember spinning around in a donut in the pool with in the middle of some forest in the middle of nowhere and thinking this place is a bit of alright ay.” Moving to the central province of Chengdu quickly became a no-brainer for Kristen.
Upon moving there in 2015, she was introduced to The Poly Centre. By day the 42 story skyscraper sported unassuming bridal wear stores and offices, and by night transformed into a techno and house music hub, with clubs and bars on every floor. “You’d queue for the elevator and once you’re in there, most of the floor number buttons would be pressed because everyone was just wanting to experience every level. We all knew it was unheard of and would never happen again, which made everyone make hay while the sun shines sort of thing.” It was places like The Poly Centre and other Chengdu clubs such as Here We Go and TAG Electronic Music Club, where she now holds a residency at, that were integral to her own musical development.
KAISHANDAO PERFORMING AT TAG ELECTRONIC MUSIC CLUB IN CHENGDU - PHOTO SUPPLIED BY KRISTEN NG
Kristen was quickly absorbed by the Chengdu music scene, and what started as putting up posters and handing out flyers for Chun You Festival turned into media and artist communications. Pretty soon Kristen had worked as events manager at New Space to booking manager for New Art festival, and it’s no wonder she was named a Defining figure in Chengdu’s musical underground. “It’s hard to say exactly what I do, and it hasn’t been a very linear evolution. It’s more just doing what I want and what I can with the resources and opportunities that I have at any given point.”
To add to her many hats, Kristen established Kiwese in 2015, an independent touring label, promotion agency and blog focussed on strengthening connections through art and music, and bridging Chengdu and New Zealand’s underground music scenes. Between 2015 and 2019 Kristen toured New Zealand bands All Seeing Hand, Orchestra of Spheres, and Womb all throughout China. "The early to mid 2010s in Wellington was an era of crazy performance costumes and Lady Lazerlight visuals, and I just wanted to buzz out all my friends in China with these New Zealand bands, I knew they would all love it, which they did. It was touring one of her all-time favourite bands The All Seeing Hand that inspired her to give producing a go and play live. "I wanted to open for The All Seeing Hand so bad. So after two months of live experimentation it was straight into a ten show tour across China."
KRISTEN NG, CREATOR OF KIWESE TOURING, TOURING ALL SEEING HAND BEN KNIGHT, JONNY MARKS AND DAVID MORRISON IN 2015
For years following, Kaishandao existed solely as a live project. Kristen put this down to not knowing how to record and translate her live sets into recorded music the way she wanted. “Live music and recorded music are entirely different artforms, and attempting to translate that live energy to the recorded form continues to be one of my challenges. I don’t think you can necessarily bring one to the other.”
Her music has since been featured on Boiler Room, NTS Radio, BBC World and MixMag Asia.
Kristen brings a special unmatched energy to every live performance. “I live for live performance. Whether it’s as a performer, audience member or behind the scenes. I live for the gigs we’re doing now and ones that you will remember for the rest of your life.”
KAISHANDAO PERFORMING AT THE JOURNEY STAGE AT CAMP A LOW HUM 2024 - PHOTO SUPPLIED BY KRISTEN NG
“When I was younger I was at the front of every mosh I can remember, and being back in Aotearoa it’s been amazing to reconnect with that side of myself. All it takes is one audience member to throw their arms around for everyone else to feel comfortable to do the same, and I love being the catalyst of that too. It’s about allowing people to feel like they can be comfortable being a bit weird, and it’s important because it’s so cathartic.”
Having not been back home to Wellington New Zealand in over four years, she landed on Christmas day and carried out a 10 show tour over summer, touring her debut EP Homeland over three months. “I didn’t want to just pop back and just get coffee and catch up, I wanted to fully immerse myself. I wanted to walk up and down Cuba Street fifteen times and bump into random people I hadn't seen in years, so I unpacked back into my childhood bedroom and just embedded myself back home.”
In between multiple immaculate sets at Camp A Low Hum, I would spot Kristen at the very front of seemingly every set at the festival, and if she wasn’t at the front, she was probably crowd surfing away from it. “I just love that interplay of energies that occurs between an audience and a performer. It’s this unique feedback loop, they feed off each other and there’s that beautiful interplay of energy.”
KAISHANDAO PERFORMING LIVE AT CAMP A LOW HUM 2024 - PHOTO SUPPLIED BY KRISTEN NG
“When I come back to Wellington, I remember my roots and how this city has shaped who I am. I’m a musician.” As a teenager Kristen ritualistically busked on Cuba Street with an acoustic guitar every weekend for years. "There was such a nice busking scene at the time, and I loved being in town and having something to do that contributed to the vibe of the city."
“The best part of the trip has been the kōrero. Once you can chat and engage without thinking about it, it opens all of your systems. Once those systems are open, you’re going to get so many awesome things coming back to you, and that’s what it’s been. Yes it’s been a music tour but more importantly a tour of the heart, tour of the soul, and a tour of the people. It’s been all about the people, and that has really filled my cup.“
—————————————————————————————————————
You can listen to Kaishandao's debut EP Homeland via Bandcamp HERE, or preview it below via Spotify.
