London-based singer-songwriter Jason Kwan is ready to present new music to fans, and Noctis is excited to share the premiere of his new song.
The new track ‘Paradise’ is influenced by the dramatics and production style of eighties music, with the synths and vocal tones that give this song and his upcoming EP what he describes as “a sense of nostalgia and a sentimental touch.” It all creates the larger than life atmosphere that fans are so drawn to.
Writing such songs is something he thinks of as “pop songs I deserved to hear when I was exploring my identity back in Hong Kong as a queer kid.” “These stories of falling in love, experiencing rejection, heartbreak, and celebration were stories I thought would only ever live in my memory. Being able to perform them and sing them for an audience on stage has been so liberating and freeing for me.”
Accompanying the track is the video, a cinematic visual that focuses on Kwan himself, only adding to the importance of these lyrics for him. Speaking about ‘Paradise’ specifically, he recalls “‘Paradise’ is a song I wrote about yearning. That’s probably the most overwhelming emotion that drives the core of my songwriting and is my exploration into dream-pop, magical-realism, and fantasy.”
It all drives and tells us the narrative of his life thus far from growing up in Hong Kong to present-day London, where he moved at the age of just 14 on a music scholarship. And it’s a story that has attracted such a vast LGBTQ+ audience, who see their own stories reflected in his.
Before his array of pride performances that lay ahead this summer, ‘Paradise’ is a track here to set the tone for Kwan as a songwriter. “There’s something about bringing songs written in the darkness to light, from keeping them hidden to singing them on stage that’s so magical to me, and hopefully to those listening too.”
‘Paradise’ is available now, alongside the accompanying music video.
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Words: Janita Purcell