A Chinese beat for the world stage

Mixing it up

He wants to relax more. Since collaborating with many international music professionals, he has noticed his foreign counterparts often seem to be more chill, while he tends to take things too seriously.

On April 17, Zhang released a new single, Psychic. It is a collaborative effort with foreign music producers, namely Americans Rykeyz, Sean Douglas and Kyle Reynolds, and British singer-songwriter James Abrahart.

The song's music video was shot in Dubai, with a production team of people from 20 countries.

"It's been a wonderful time," says American cinematographer Idan Menin, who served as the video's director of photography.

"Lay has been outstanding. He's one of the hardest working people I've met."

The track is available in Chinese, English and Korean, and features a dynamic blend of genres, melding emotive R&B chords with garage-style beats and bassy undertones.

"Once one of my songs catches the attention of overseas listeners, curiosity leads them to search my name, exposing more people to my songs infused with traditional Chinese cultural elements," Zhang says.

Zhang's signature musical style is "M-pop", which entails blending Mandarin pop music with outside influences. He introduced this concept with the release of his third album, NAMANANA, in 2018.

By the time his fourth full-length album, LIT, was released in 2020, he had clarified his vision for what kind of music he wanted to create within the "M-pop" framework.

"These songs blend traditional Chinese and Western pop instruments, feature lyrics in both Chinese and foreign languages, and tell Chinese stories. The music videos are visually enriched with Eastern aesthetics," he explains.

He discovers boundless inspiration for pop music from his Chinese roots. Such influences include the iconic book, Shanhaijing (Classics of Mountains and Seas); the Silk Road-era cave murals of Dunhuang in Gansu province; and Xizhouqu (Song of West Isle), a ballad from the Northern and Southern Dynasties (220-589).

"Many traditional Chinese music pieces are slow. Their grand, expansive feel is derived from their plodding rhythms. But younger audiences prefer catchy rhythms. Typically, I choose to preserve this atmosphere while sacrificing the catchier beats," he explains.

"So, some of my songs are very distinctive in style but not necessarily pleasing to the ear."