Name: Wang Hua Li aka Hua Li 化力
Nationality: Canadian-Chinese
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current event: Hua Li 化力's ripe fruit remixed EP is out via Next Door.
Recommendations: I recently bought a copy of Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore. It’s been really wonderful reading McLuhan’s theories alongside Fiore’s graphic design - the way McLuhan’s text is illuminated by Fiore’s design is an excellent analogy for the relationship between lyrics and music.
When it comes to interpreting lyrics, Carmen McRae is absolutely GOATed - I’ve been listening to her self-accompanied record Alone - Live at the Dug a lot lately and I learn something new with each listen.

If you enjoyed these thoughts by Hua Li 化力and would like to know more about her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, tiktok, twitter, and facebook.

For a deeper dive, read our earlier Fifteen Questions Hua Li 化力 interview.
 


Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

Language has always sounded musical to me, and I’ve always associated it with music. My earliest experiences in music were as a classical pianist and even then, I would often remember phrases of music by putting words to them.

When I later became a vocalist, it felt very special to get to use lyrics as an enhanced way of communicating with the language of music.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

I think that’s very true - I often think about how spoken word sounds so much more profound when it is set to music. Musical language is one of evocation and is understood on an emotional level, where words attempt to contain and rationalize emotion.

Musical meaning is more diffuse, and resonates for longer than the matter of fact nature of words.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

Reading was always a form of escapism for me as a young person. I found that the times I was left out of the chaos of my family home were the times I was reading or practising piano. In that sense, both music and literature have been safe spaces for me.

Magic realism like Murakami and Vonnegut tend to take me the furthest away from my present circumstances and for that reason I can read it quickly and with great focus.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

My father played Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush to me and I couldn’t understand how anyone could listen to his voice. But those were the days of liner notes so I read the lyrics in the CD booklet along to the music and it clicked for me.



Lyrically, I love artists that create worlds - Denzel Curry is great at this, as are Bjork, Little Dragon and FKA Twigs.

[Read our Denzel Curry interview about lyrics]

I have always considered many forms of music to be a form of poetry as well. Where do you personally see similarities? What can music express which may be out of reach for poetry?

This may be a little uncharitable, but I think of lyrics as bad poetry. I think we can get away with a lot more as lyric writers than poets can, because their words are unmitigated by the stirring emotional assist that music provides.

In contemporary poetry, consistent meter and rhyme is quite cheesy, but those musical components are central to lyrics.

The relationship between words and music has always intrigued me. How do you see it?

I see music as a form of language itself - organized into phrases and verses much like poetry is lines and stanzas. It is the order and form of music that gives it meaning, and words are the same.

Too much chaos in either realm make the communicative part of these art forms incomprehensible.

What kind of musical settings and situations do you think are ideal for your lyrics?

I try to think of lyrics as something in service to the music, rather than the other way around.

I will say that recently I’ve been writing lyrics over musical forms that are based off of jazz standards, and I’ve been rhyming less and using fewer words than I would if I were writing a rap verse.

Where I’ve tend to be very dense as a lyricist, it’s been an interesting challenge to say just as much with much fewer words - in that instance, I’m definitely relying on melody and harmony to evoke more meaning.

When working on music, when do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

I very rarely write lyrics before I write music. Usually at least a suggestion of musical form is at the seed of a lyric. Sometimes, I may start writing music in service of a line or a lyrical idea, but I find it challenging to develop lyrics beyond a line or two without a musical foundation to write to.

I also write poetry, and I think about writing poetry in a very different way than I write lyrics, which to me, are intrinsically tied to their musical context.

Do you feel like the music triggers specific words inside you? Or is more of a feeling or a memory? Would you say there is instantly an entire idea in front of you or does the story grow as you keep listening to the music?

I very rarely have an entire idea laid before me when I write lyrics. I might be thinking about larger themes but I let the interaction between the words and the music guide my decisions.

More generally, in how far can music take you to places with your writing you would possibly not have visited without it?

Music informs my lyrics in so many ways - I think about rhythm, where the emphasis of words land in relation to the musical phrase, which vowel sounds are best for singing or rapping on … when I write poetry I’m thinking specifically about the sensuality of the language, how it looks on the page and distilling language to its most directly evocative state.

The two modes of being are so different to me - I let myself get away with a lot more when it comes to writing lyrics.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Yes for sure I think about what has the best mouth feel for me when I’m writing.

That said, I don’t think about that much when I’m learning material that I didn’t write - what’s most important as a vocalist is conveying the lyrics with authenticity, rather than the best mouth feel.

In how far are you consciously aware of the meaning of the lyrics you're writing during the creative process? Do you need to have a concrete concept or can the words take the lead?

I would say I’m about 50% consciously aware of the meaning of the lyrics as I write them. I generally give myself a thematic direction to work towards but the specifics of the lyrics tend to emerge as I write them.

What is the value of song lyrics or hip hop bars outside of the music?

I’m somewhat of a purist and I don’t like to think of lyrics as “poetry” even though this gets thrown around a lot. In the case of Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer for instance - I think that’s great because it recognizes lyric writing as a legitimate form of literature.

That being said, I don’t think lyrics should stand on their own - their purpose is to interact with music.

How do you see the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody? Do you feel that honing your sense of rhythm and groove has an effect on your lyrics-writing skills?

Absolutely - I think rhythm is one of the most important tools vocalists have in their communication toolbox.

Rhythm gives life to the emotional realm of harmony.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I think I am most mentally healthy when I can think of the mundane as creative, and I don’t think of my creative life as some sort of specially ordained magic in my life.

One of the most important jazz mentors taught me to think of improvisation in this way - what is improvised is never new, and it’s important to think of each repetition of something as an opportunity to improvise. She describes painting lines on a road - each line looks similar to the previous one, but it is also inherently different from the ones that came before because you yourself are changing as you move through time. Kind of like how you never stand in the same river twice …

Anyway, all of this to say that I feel great when I can tap into that kind of wonder and magic at all times.