Ahead of his visit to Singapore, singer-songwriter Christopher Nissen shares with AsiaLive365 about his excitement in performing here in March.
The 28-year old will be heading to Singapore in March as part of Esplanade’s Mosaic Music Series.
His album ‘Under the Surface’ was released in February last year, where songs like ‘My Heart’ reached 1.7 million views on YouTube.
His recent single ‘Ghost’ was released just last week on 17 January 2020.
Read his interview here before his concert on 29 March 2020!
ASL365: Hi Christopher, Vanessa here from AsiaLive365. Thank you for taking the time to speak to us. Welcome back to Asia and to Singapore. It’s great to have you in the region again. What are you most looking forward to during your time here?
Christopher: Thank you so much! I’m beyond excited to get out on a month long tour in the region, I love being on stage and I love to meet the people listening to my music, it’s such an incredible feeling hearing people singing along to the songs. I look forward to being on stage, I miss the food, the people, the architecture, the culture, I miss everything about being in Singapore and the region.
ASL365: How about food? I know that you adore chicken satay, and that you can eat ‘banana leaf rice’ using your hands, like a local! That’s impressive! Any favourites that you’re planning to enjoy here in Singapore?
Christopher: The food is so great, I love it, I truly enjoy Chicken Satay, I also love Chili Crab! The food has always been amazing in Singapore. I hope someone brings me to have Chili Crab, I can’t remember the name of the restaurant but there was a local place that is said to have the best one in Singapore. 🙂 I believe they were right because it was so delicious.
ASL365: I heard that you’ve gone to study Mandarin. How’s the language studies coming along so far? I.e; Any interesting phrases that you’ve mastered?
Christoper: I’ve just started a little bit, haven’t been as active as I planned yet but I really want to learn, I can do quite some phrases and even sang a song in Mandarin on live TV where there was something like 18,000 in the audience at the venue of recording. It was together with Eric Chou and the show was Hito awards I remember. I will never forget that moment when I started singing Mandarin. The audience didn’t see that coming. 🙂
ASL365: So… Can we expect you to be singing something in Mandarin anytime soon?
Christopher: I do think I will make an attempt on that. Usually, I sing a bit of the phrase I learned from the song I performed in my live shows.
ASL365: Your Danish cover (Min) of Bazzi’s ‘Mine’ is absolutely great! I am loving the colours of the Spotify studio version a lot! I also saw that you once surprised a bride at her wedding singing this song. Tell us the story about that day.
Christopher: Thank you! I really enjoyed recording that at the Spotify Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, their studio is truly epic. I crashed a wedding, got right into the ceremony of the wedding singing Min. The couple were so shocked that I suddenly popped up at their ceremony, it was a lot of fun that day and beautiful to participate. I’d totally love to do that again.
ASL365: ‘First Light’ (also in Danish) sounds so pretty… Is Danish hard to learn? Teach us something in Danish, please!
Christopher: Yeah Danish is pretty hard to learn actually, we have some special pronunciations and phrasings that even our neighbouring countries, speaking pretty similar language has a hard time pronouncing. Jeg elsker singapore og kan ikke vente til jeg kommer og optræder der 29. Marts. It means ”I love Singapore and i can’t wait to come and perform March 29th”
ASL365: You said that you started writing songs since you were 12. What was the title of the first song that you ever wrote and what was it about?
Christopher: Yeah! I always had tunes in my head. The song was written in school and was about girls and love ☺ I can’t remember the title right now really, I always had tunes in my head.
ASL365: Your music has been described as very pop’ish-sounding. Do you agree, or do you feel yourself ever venturing out into other genres; for instance dream pop, psychedelic pop, indie folk, electronic, or even hip hop, and if so, what kind?
Christopher: I feel like my music has grown into something special to me, I love the organic vibes of real instrumentation, really enjoyed how my new songs are produced with the same musicians in the studio, to get that mutual vibe to the sounds and I really enjoy being in the bubble of finalizing the tunes. I’d love to explore club stuff, getting the beat to the floor. Still really enjoy making those songs. Which can be heard in my early days as an artist, such as CPH girls and soforth.
ASL365: ‘CPH Girls’ has such a hip hop fresh hit-the-dance-floor vibe to it. Tell us, what was it like working with Brandon Beal on this song (as well as on ‘Don’t Let The Door Hit Ya’ and Brandon’s ‘Twerk It Like Miley’), and can we hope to hear more of such hip hop and R&B-like vibes from you in the future?
Christopher: Thank you! Brandon Beal is a very good friend of mine these days, I love working with him and really enjoyed making those songs. It opened up so many doors for me. CPH Girls was my first #1 in China. You could totally expect to get into the club hip hop R&B vibes in those songs. Ive made quite a few songs like that during the process of making new music but it hasn’t reached release yet.
ASL365: I know that you love experimenting and working with different producers. Is there any particular artist or producer that you would love to collaborate with some day? Or, what’s currently in the works?
Christopher: Yes I do enjoy that, exploring new sounds, new ways to work gives me a lot of inspiration. My upcoming songs has been written all over the world, from Berlin to Los Angeles. My new single ‘Ghost’ was written in Los Angeles and we produced it in Copenhagen. There are so many artists that I would love to collab with, Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Dua Lipa. Producers that I’d love to get back in with are Jamie Scott and write more music with Neil Ormandy whom I wrote ‘Ghost’ with.
ASL365: Congratulations on the release of your recent album ‘Under the Surface’! We at AsiaLive365 think that it’s wonderful! One of my favourite songs on the album is ‘My Heart’ – for its lightly poignant notes, feelings of love and vibes. It’s a slightly heartbreaking piece, yet quite colourful, catchy and vibe-y! If you could pick a favourite song from that album, what would it be and why?
Christopher: Thank you so much! I’m very proud of that whole album, it really changed a lot for me, I changed my way of writing and found a new direction. Irony was the first song off the album that really changed things for me, suddenly a lot of Europe opened up and I could go and tour in Germany and more new countries. The Irony lyric means a lot to me and it means very much how it affected my listeners. Started a movement back home to discuss how social media affects you. How people today are so addicted to fast consumption on social media and before I released it I was off social media for something like 6 months, to get a bigger grab of real life. I would also say ‘Grow up’, that whole lyric and melody just poured out. Im also very proud of The Chancer which is a really big song for me and I love performing that one live. Hard to choose one fave..
ASL365: Thanks again for answering our questions. Before we end, just one more. What can fans in Singapore look forward to hearing at your first ever gig here at the Esplanade Concert Hall on 29 March 2020?
Christopher: Thank you! I’m gonna give my absolute all at the show in Singapore, I can’t wait to come and perform my music together with you, I’ve been to Singapore quite a few times on promotion trips etc and I always wanted to come and setup a real show there. I’m gonna play a mix of previous and new songs, I’l definitely play Bad, My Heart, Irony, Ghost, Heartbeat and soforth. Heartbeat was first success in Singapore doing the duet version with Kelly Poon. I wish it was March 29th tomorrow, see you all very soon. 🙂
ASL365: Thank you Christopher and we look forward to seeing you on March 29th!
