Night music: American duo take their mellow indie sound on the road, including a date in Hong Kong
- Bubble Tea and Cigarettes – Andi Wang and ‘Kat’ Zhang – got serious about music in Covid lockdown, and put out their debut album in 2022
- They hold down full-time jobs – ‘We do engineering stuff,’ Wang says – but have embarked on a mini tour that includes Hong Kong
“We’re in the middle of a nomadic life right now,” says Andi Wang, one half of American pop duo Bubble Tea and Cigarettes.
“We lived in New York for eight years and LA for about a year and now we’re on tour,” he says via Zoom from Seattle, where Wang and Ruinan Zhang (Kat) are playing as part of their six-city tour of the United States. “But we haven’t decided where we’re gonna end up.”
When Bubble Tea and Cigarettes wrap up their US tour they are heading to Asia, and the duo will perform a gig at Hong Kong’s Kitec on April 3.
It will be a chance for the city to experience their mellow indie sound, with its broad range of influences, such as European cinema, Brazilian bossa nova and American psychedelia – “we like all kinds of stuff” – and which is showcased on their 2022 debut album, There’s Nothing But Pleasure.
Their music videos lull viewers into a state of floaty serenity, the music video to “Liz”, shot in a Shanghai alley, inspired by the neon-soaked works of Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai.
Wang and Zhang’s musical ambitions became serious during the pandemic lockdown in New York, which gave them time to write songs, a creative outlet outside their nine-to-five jobs. “We do engineering stuff,” Wang says.
