The Wasia Project siblings on Laufey, Heartstopper, and their upcoming album Nocturne

“Wasians” are having quite the year. The portmanteau, which refers to people of mixed white and Asian descent, has taken off on social media thanks to stars like Heated Rivalry actor Hudson Williams, singer-songwriter Laufey and Olympic champion figure skater Alysa Liu. But for the siblings behind indie pop band Wasia Project, being Wasian isn’t a trend. It’s just one aspect of who they are and have always been. In a recent interview in Hong Kong, Olivia Hardy, 21, and her brother Will Gao, 23, better known to some as Tao Xu from the hit series Heartstopper, acknowledged how their band name has “plummeted us into the conversation”, but seemed reluctant to engage with the discourse around the term without discussing the nuances around it. The duo is stopping by the city to perform an intimate, pared-back piano concert, to promote their latest single “Bleeding Gold” and debut album, Nocturne, releasing this September. The pair have always aimed to make music which transcends genres, cultures and even their name. “A name is a name,” as Gao says, “but music speaks the universal language.” For Gao and Hardy, who were born and raised in south London and grew up making few but “formative” visits to see family from Beijing, being mixed-race is in fact a deeply personal topic, and one which they prefer to explore subtly and subliminally through their music. “Naturally, inherently, the in-betweenness of being [of] mixed heritage in any way is going to inform the way you create or just walk about life,” says Hardy. Writing music from their lived experience means they see cultural identity as more than just a punchline. “Anything that becomes this kind of shallow hype thing, I always find a bit trivial to the actual depth of what we’re discussing,” Hardy continues. “It can be dismissive of the actual people involved.” That depth is evident across the band’s discography thus far, with hits like “ur so pretty” – featured on the second season soundtrack of Heartstopper – and “Petals on the Moon” blending wistful poetry and delicate instrumentation composed by the classically trained musicians themselves. There’s a naïveté to those songs which belies undeniable maturity – a somewhat existential, anxiety-ridden point of view on growing up that exclusively belongs to young twenty-somethings on the brink of big, unknown changes. Working on a full-length project which reflected their distinctive sound and shape-shifting identity as musicians would only amplify those existential questions. “We toured for the whole of 2024 and then we came back and were like, ‘OK, we’ve got to make an album.’ Like who even are we? How do we do this?” Hardy laughs. The band started out very organically, releasing songs Hardy and Gao had written individually. This would be the first production that demanded full attention from each of them, who had previously been busy with acting (Gao), studying (Hardy) – and playing live shows. “It was the first time we were doing something with intention,” says Hardy, who describes the experience as time-consuming and pressure-inducing. “An album’s a full body of work, a big marker of an artist’s identity. It’s a lot more high-stakes, in my mind, than an EP.” Gao is the playful yet pensive counterpart to his more forthright younger sister – who speaks her mind without hesitation – and he takes a moment to ruminate on an appropriate analogy for the situation. “It’s like being in a room with no air con and no windows! It’s really humid, like being in a room, sitting still too long, no airflow.” The struggle, in some ways, was trying to bring structure to the siblings’ unbridled creative process – “Project” being the key word in the band’s name, to indicate a work in progress with no fixed boundaries, perimeters or limits. Or, in Hardy’s words, seeking out the in-betweenness of it all in a world where “we all tend to stick to boxes and absolutes”. The band is without a doubt a product of the digital age: they started out uploading their debut single to SoundCloud in 2019 before building a devoted, largely online cult following during the pandemic and using social media to connect with fans. Despite being children of the streaming generation, they’re certainly not immune to the pressures of it. The siblings face the same conundrum that confounds many indie artists – to succumb to the numbers game or stick to their own path as artists. “I run between the two with no grace,” Gao jokes. “I run from like, ‘we can make a 1 minute 40 [second] pop banger, let’s do it,’ then the next day like, ‘no, this is s****.’ Usually I play in an arena of extremes. Either let’s go super commercial or let’s follow our instinct.” Hardy, as has been the case throughout this conversation, offers a measured, fully thought-out response: “It’s less ‘do well,’ [more] ‘be good’. The release of the album and reception of it is one thing, but we both believe if you yourself are genuinely proud of and would listen to it, it’s going to attract the right people.” If you could describe Wasia Project with one word, it would probably be “balance”. There’s no outright optimism without lingering melancholy in the duo’s music, influenced by everything from musical theatre – a nod to Gao’s choirboy roots – to jazz. Though they say they’re still figuring out how to collaborate with one another on songwriting, it feels evident that their sibling dynamic carries over quite naturally into the way they perform and present themselves in public. Not unlike Laufey, who Wasia Project supported on the North American leg of her Bewitched tour in 2024, the siblings are big on curating dynamic live performances. They say they learned a lot from working with the Icelandic singer-songwriter and her twin sister, Junia, who serves as Laufey’s creative director. “She’s really good with connecting with fans,” says Hardy. “Being able to be at that level and down to earth with people so you can connect in that way was inspiring. That’s how the best artists work, it’s just part of the day-to-day.” Billie Eilish, who frequently collaborates with her brother Finneas, is also a big inspiration. “One of my first concerts was Billie. And as a teenager, that was really formative. She manages to hold the audience and take them with her on a journey.” For Gao especially, who also stars in the upcoming finale to the Heartstopper series, Heartstopper: Forever, it’s set to be another big year of performances, premieres and other projects. Managing mental health while living a semipublic life hasn’t been easy, but doing it in tandem with his family by his side – as we speak, Gao and Hardy’s mum films them proudly from across the room – has made all the difference. “Last year I took on way too much,” he laughs. “I was going down too many rabbit holes and my body was like, you need to slow down there. But the album was really important for us to do, and for me it was absolutely the thing I needed in order to weirdly untie any preconceptions of what I knew about my creative process. It has completely unbound it. Now I’m a blank canvas again, which is scary.” The siblings share a knowing look. “It means growth,” Hardy chimes in. “Yeah,” Gao concludes with a smile. “As Olivia said.”

The Wasia Project siblings on Laufey, Heartstopper, and their upcoming album Nocturne

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}On their recent stop in Hong Kong, the musicians spoke with Style about making an album they’re proud of, and what the term ‘Wasian’ means to them

On their recent stop in Hong Kong, the musicians spoke with Style about making an album they’re proud of, and what the term ‘Wasian’ means to them