FEATURE: Spotlight: Greentea Peng — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Hadden for CRACK

Greentea Peng

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I am ramping up the Spotlight features…

PHOTO CREDIT: Stefy Pocket

because we are now in 2021, and it is important that we shine a light on great artists who have the potential to do great things this year. One such artist is Aria Wells, a.k.a. Greentea Peng. I have been following her music for a couple of years now; her blend of Neo-Soul, R&B and something a bit more psychedelic is such a wonderful brew that stays in the memory for a very long time! Last year’s singles such as Revolution, Spells, and Hu Man are some of her best work…and I really do hope that there is an album coming at some point this year. I will reference one of her previous E.P.s in a bit, but I want to quote from a great interview - where we get a bit of background regarding the name, Greentea Peng, and what her teenage life was like:

“It’s a bit of an obvious question but I wondered if I could get a quick backstory on the name Greentea Peng?

Green tea is like my favourite tea, and there was a packet I found while I was away, this amazing packet, it was dreamy. It was called Green Tea Seng and the woman on it was really peng so I was like oh, Greentea Peng. That’s literally where it came from. It started as a bit of a joke so it’s not that deep.

I think it’s such a cool name, it suits you well.

Thank you. It’s funny that it does because it’s such a random thing but I hear that it actually does. I feel like it does too, so it’s worked out well.

You were born in South East London, is that where you grew up too?

I stayed there until I was ready for secondary school, then I moved to the seaside in the South of England. A place called Hastings, by Brighton and that. I spent most of my teenage years in Hastings.

What kind of teenager was Greentea Peng growing up in Hastings?

[Laughs] A mad one. Lots of partying and everything. I was always coming back to London for summer holidays, my dad stayed in South London and I moved back when I was about 17.

When did you start singing and what kind of music was inspiring you early on?

I started singing about age 4. My dad inspired me a lot, he was into a lot of classical music and theatre. He’d teach me a lot of the theatre songs, so I started off singing stuff like that, and in the church choir and stuff. Then I started to get inspired by Ms. Dynamite and Lauryn Hill and The Fugees, stuff like that. I was very much into R&B and hip-hop quite young, watching MTV Base and that sort of thing. When I got a little older my tastes broadened a bit, I got into rock music, reggae, ska, and heavy metal, but before that it was mostly R&B and hip-hop”.

If you have not investigated Greentea Peng then I would hugely recommend you do so. Revolution was one of my favourite tracks last year, and I think that she has a very bright and busy future ahead. I also hope that Greentea Peng can get back on the road this year and take her music to the people.

I want to bring in an interview from The Line of Best Fit, because it reveals some interesting information regarding how important London is to Greentea Peng - in addition to why it took her a long time to realise her talent:

“London is at the heart of Peng’s writing, in what she explains as “the tongue-in-cheek of it, the kind of vibe... it’s an attitude, innit.” At present, she’s chatting over the phone while taking a break from a studio session in the city, before performing a DJ set. “It’s the most diverse city I’ve ever been to. Growing up I very much loved London, my Dad brought me up very ‘yeah London town, the best town in the world.” Listening to songs like “Inna City” from the EP, you can hear the capital laced throughout. From the twang of her vocals, to the eclecticism of the production, and lyrics like, “Your double vision, inna city / You can get it if you're witty / Work your way up in a jiffy / What you got, I want it, gimme,” she perfectly illustrates the lovable-toughness of life in the Big Smoke.

Despite always having been naturally creative, Peng admits that she had suppressed her talents for a long time, the result of teenage angst and trying to figure out who she was. “I was quite inside myself and angry at the world,” she confides. However, she took the leap of moving to Mexico once she had left school, pursuing her desire to travel. It was here that her love for music was re-ignited. “I was watching a lot of live music and it reminded me of how much I was in love with it, how much I needed it. I needed a creative outlet,” she explains. While out there, she met her manager who would encourage her to carry on singing. Once she had returned home, her talent became a serious professional opportunity and she released her first EP Sensi in 2018.

Maybe there will be an E.P. rather than an album this year. I think that Greentea Peng has developed a lot since Rising of 2019. That said, I really love the E.P. and it is a beautiful collection of songs that demonstrates huge originality. The Line of Best Fit mentioned the E.P. in their interview with Greentea Peng of 2019:

This progression is evident from the first listen of Rising. Leading with the title track, the EP makes an immediate impact: the combination of swirling production and Peng’s soulful vocals as she repeats the titular word to dazzling effect. “It’s such a mad beat innit,” she says. “It’s the same guy who made “Downers” [from the first EP] Fred Cox, and those two songs, I was in similar thoughts. It was December time, and I get proper mad in that transition of the seasons. I think those songs are both quite restless. And I think it’s quite a brave song to start with, it’s quite violent.”

Seasonal change is also interwoven throughout the first single from the collection, “Mr Sun (Miss Da Sun)”, which blends a sense of longing for ones partner with the end of summer. With lyrics like, “Mr. Sun I need you / I'm only happy with you / No one lifts me like you do” – and considering the inspiration behind Rising – it seems necessary to ask how much influence Peng draws from her environment. “The majority of it,” she says. “I’m greatly affected by my environment. “Mr Sun” is about missing the sun, I was missing my man at the time too”.

Apologies for being a bit random with the information sourced but, as Greentea Peng is such a fascinating and multi-layered artist, I want to include as much as I can. I want to end with an interview from this year. One of the most appealing and striking elements of Greentea Peng’s music is the peacefulness and this positivity that you hear. The hopefulness and uplifting vibes of her music is so powerful. 2020 was especially bleak, so it is understandable that Greentea Peng has been as affected as everyone else. That said, the messages of love and togetherness comes back. When she spoke with High Snobiety, Greentea Peng talks more about what she has learned from a tough year – and why she has such a positive outlook and attitude:

“Since this whole thing has kicked off,” she explains, “it's been very much ups and downs and me having to realize that actually, you are really attached to this material realm, aren't you? Because if we weren't, then this wouldn't bother you. I'm a highly conflicted individual, I'll say that. I've learnt that nothing is as it seems. And that you should fact check the fact checkers. That would be the main thing I've drawn from this year. Nothing is as it seems.”

Nevertheless, “You always got to try and bring it back to love,” she says.

Sharing universal messages of love and hope seems to be particularly effective when coupled with the fact that Aria’s never been one to cling to labels of identity. “If I'm honest, I've never had a strong affiliation or a calling to a certain tribe or, I've always been very out and about,” she explains. Her father, Arabic from the Middle East, was adopted, and her African mother is estranged from her family, so she’s never been able to contextualize her existence in a traditional family tree type of way. “I know I was born in England. I don't necessarily feel like I'm meant to be in England, because from as young as I can remember, all I've joked about is moving to the jungle. So I guess, I could say like I'm a jungle person, I do like jungle music too!” she playfully recounts.

Her jungle heritage, free of the constraints of over-identifying with a certain time, place, or people might allow her to see things without many attachments clouding her vision. When asked what we, as a species, could stand to let go of, Greentea Peng hesitated, not wanting to speak for others. But in pondering her own personal growth over the past few years, she settled on ego. “We're all reflections of each other,” she explains. “The chances are we're feeling it on an individual level and the whole fucking collective is feeling it somehow, in some way”.

I think that this year is going to be a very busy and successful one for Greentea Peng, despite the fact there are restrictions and things will take a while to get back to normal. I would encourage people to support her music and follow her, as one gets something truly special from her music. I love what she is putting out and how she views the world. Maybe there will be a debut album this year but, so long as we keep getting music, then one cannot be too demanding! Lots of people are compiling their artists to watch in 2021 features and, whilst I am getting some good suggestions, I think that Greentea Peng should feature a lot. With music like hers and so much promise for this year, she needs to be…