Hong Kong-born Zight (Yau Yiu Ting) is a composer, songwriter, and producer of music. He hails from the far east and aspires to have a significant influence on the world dance music scene.
Zight was successful in landing “Fly Away,” his debut collaboration with Disney singer Sonna Rele. “Everybody Keep Running,” his third single, was chosen for “Billboard Electric Asia Vol.5”.
On July 1, 2022, his most recent song, “Work It Harder,” featuring Chris Willis and Maximals, was made available on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Three nations worked together to create the commercial Pop-EDM song “Work It Harder” (UK, US, Italy). The record company (Mixfeed) invested in a music video, which was filmed in Madrid. Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:
1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how you got started?
ZIGHT: What’s up guys! Zight here. I’m a songwriter and electronic music producer from Hong Kong.
2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
ZIGHT: Pretty formal. I graduated with a creative media and music diploma back in 2012. A local university. During the college days, I was already a beatmaker, making beat and selling them on BeatStars. Lucky enough, I was able to land my first collaboration with the Japanese hiphop group “MIDICRONICA”.
After graduation, however, my music career didn’t went well. I made music for local musicians. But the fact is, you couldn’t make a living from it. I was a front-end web programmer in a mobile game company. I started several startups with friends, which, all failed except an online painting gallery.
Anyway, 6 years later. In 2018, I left the city and re-studied electronic music production in London. I started my new journey to become an EDM (electronic dance music) producer.
3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘ZIGHT’?
ZIGHT: My dad had a huge CD collection, a 2-meter tall glass cabinet in the living room. We had all types and genres of Western music, from Elvis Presley to Bob Marley, Beatles to Vengaboys. I must say, thanks to dad, I have a pretty diverse taste of music and a strong foundation of pop music knowledge.
I remember it was 2014 when a lots of EDM music broke into the Billboard chart, Calvin Harris and Martin Garrix. And then I visited the Tomorrowland festival in Belgium for the first time. I saw Martin Garrix playing his controller on the stage. It just blew my freaking mind harder than anything I’ve ever experienced. Since then, I fell in love with EDM music.
Oh, the name “Zight”? That was an old trivial history. Back in 2010, when I started selling beats on Beatstars, you need a cool user-name, right? I was thinking to use “Sight”, but it was registered already. And then I twisted that a bit to even cooler – Zight. User-name available! Yay! Here that is.
4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
ZIGHT: You know, there are many sub-genres in the EDM music scene, trance, house, techno and so on. Some genres like techno are pretty beat-driven, boom-boom-boom-boom. The type of EDM music that I produced, I’d describe it as melodic and lyric driven.
Say “Fly Away”, the second single that I collaborated with British singer Sonna Rele. There was a line in the song “You’re gonna be okay, you gotta fly gotta fly away”. The song was about discovering your talents, leaving your safe-zone, fly away from your home country. When I wrote the song, I was just telling my story, flew away from Hong Kong, studying music in London.
ZIGHT: I’d say the first 10 years of my music career were upsetting. When I was in college, I listened to the most trending hiphop music on Billboard, making beats and selling them on Beatstars. After graduation, I listened to Canton-pop, and I made some very commercial tracks for my musician clients.
If I recall it today, I was making music not for myself.
After that, as mentioned above, I flew to London in 2018, re-studying electronic music production in Point Blank Music School. Now I finally get to write music not of my own stories and feelings.
6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative and entertainment?
ZIGHT:
Well, gotta admit I’m not interested in politics, BLM, LGBT movements and such things. I write music relating to my own stories and my hobbies like marathon (Everybody Keep Running) and Formula One racing (Number One).
7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
ZIGHT:
Absolutely. The truth is, I never expected to go this far as a musician. You know media in Hong Kong, they called me the first international music producer in the city. My third single “Everybody Keep Running” got selected into the Billboard Asia collection. Right. But I knew that was some bubble reputation. My music was in the collection, but it ain’t good to get on the chart yet. So this year I started to collaborate with producers from Italy and German. I hope to learn and to improve my production skills during the co-work projects.
8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
ZIGHT:
It do it all alone. I can hear came-from-nowhere melodies occasionally. When I hear good melodies, I recorded it in a mp3 player (in the early days) or my iPhone. I put these melodies in a huge folder, categorizing them by paces and moods and genres — sad, angry, rock, electro etc.
Anyway, when I start a new project, I usually start with the chorus melody. And then I listened to melodies in the huge folder and put them together like puzzles. When there were missing pieces, I “squeeze” it from my head. That is a pretty hard process like, you keep thinking of the chord in your mind and eventually, you come up with hundred pieces of melodies. At last, you listen to them and you pick the best melodies for the song.
And then it comes to the lyrics part. Luckily, English is one of the simplest language on earth. Even as a non-native speaker, I was able to echo my thoughts and share my feelings through my lyrics.
9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
ZIGHT: Money. I had a few years writing songs for local musicians in Hong Kong. It was a pretty tough period like, making music is cheaper than washing dishes in the city. But it was history already and I’m glad that I found my own path forward.
10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
ZIGHT: Getting on “Billboard Asia Electric Collection”? But I keep thinking that, it is just the beginning. I’m going to be the first Hong Kong musician to get on the UK and US Billboard chart, I promise.
KEEP IN TOUCH:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | TIKTOK | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE
Photo credits: Zight