Video for song called “classic pop akin to Paul Simon” filmed by artist’s 11-year-old kid brother on recent trip back to second
home of Hong Kong.
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Chance
Emerson as photographed in Hong Kong
by Manisha Shah
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PLAY, POST
& SHARE
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Chance
Emerson | In The Press
“Classic pop akin to Paul Simon’s peppy take on world music, with wittily perceptive
lyrics and sweetly unassuming vocal delivery.” — The Big
Takeover
“Undeniable charm. At just 19, the maturity of his
lyricism is almost jaw-dropping.” — Atwood
Magazine
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Chance
Emerson | About “How Can I”
Hear “How Can I”
by Chance Emerson now in the Top 10
of Spotify’s “Indie Shuffle” playlist!
“I just gave my brother a camera and we went on a walk
through Hong Kong,” says 19-year-old Providence, RI and Hong Kong-based singer
songwriter, Chance Emerson.
The resulting music video for Emerson’s new single “How Can I” is likely the first
directed by an 11-year-old to premiere
this year.
Emerson’s kid brother, Tree,
says, “I just took videos of things I thought looked cool. Chance pointed at fun things he saw on our walk, but I found the
yogurt cup myself. I’m learning guitar now, so I think next time Chance makes an album he can put me in
it and not just in the video.”
The elder Emerson’s
debut
album The Raspberry Men arrives on March 6th and is the follow-up to his self-released 2017
EP which became a local favorite in Emerson’s
adopted hometown (he attends school in Providence and is originally from
Taiwan.) To date, songs from Emerson’s
“The Indigo Tapes” EP have earned
him just shy of a million Spotify plays.
“‘How Can I’
is probably the most ‘city’ song on the album,” he says. “It’s a fast-paced,
energetic piece with disparate influences I never expected to come together. It
reminds me of rush hour on the escalator system.”
After Taiwan and before moving to the US, Emerson lived in Hong Kong, which he
visits frequently and still considers a second home.
“My hope with letting my brother film whatever he
wanted was that the video would be an authentic peek into where I grew up,” he
explains.
“There’s a lot happening all the time here. We stopped
by the fruit stall in the open-air market. When I was a kid, the owner would
give me free lychee. We stopped at the waffle shop, the glasses store where I
got my terrible vision corrected, the fish stalls and went by where I used to
take guitar lessons too.”
The Raspberry Men by Chance
Emerson is scheduled for release on March
6th preceded by the single “How
Can I,” out now.
Chance
Emerson is available for interviews.
Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
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Chance Emerson
The Raspberry
Men
(S/R)
March 6th, 2020
Track Listing:
02. A Different Dark
03. Annabelle
04. In My Way
05. Coming to Japan
06. Incredible
07. It Won’t Be Pretty
08. Never Been In Love
09. The Raspberry Men
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Chance Emerson | Live
03/06/2020: Providence, RI @ Dream Hau5 (Record Release Show, 1030PM, $8)
04/08/2020: Providence, RI @ AS220 (w/ Breachway)
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Chance Emerson | About
“My Mandarin is pretty bad at this point,” says
19-year-old songwriter, Chance Emerson.
Still just a teenager currently
attending college in Rhode Island, Emerson’s rusty Mandarin is the result of
being away from his homeland for nearly two thirds of his life now. Born in Taiwan to a Taiwanese
mother and American father, Emerson moved to Hong Kong at seven-years-old.
“The concept of home has been very fluid for me,” he
confesses. “Music has ended up being a huge part of how I ground myself in a
place.”
The songs on Emerson’s
upcoming debut album The Raspberry Men (March 6th) will ground you,
too.
They speak to the most relatable aspects of the human
condition in a manner that is empathic and world-traveler wise. Even so, the
humor, high-energy, and edge of a youthful artist with baked-in chops are
ultimately uplifting.
In other words, Chance
takes chances.
In 2017, Emerson
posted his self-produced EP, recorded in his high school music building’s
attic, to his Facebook and Instagram.
“I thought maybe four people would listen to it, and I
have an immediate family of five,” he jokes.
But as things go with music that moves, a few more
than four listened in.
The word spread, local radio got on board, the EP
ascended the iTunes charts, and over the past couple of years, songs from the “The Indigo Tapes” have racked up
nearly a million Spotify plays.
“All of my friends shared it,” Emerson says, still seemingly surprised by the response.
They’ll likely share the new collection, too, though
being his own best critic, Emerson
doesn’t let all of his tunes see the light of day. More songs were cut from The
Raspberry Men than made it on to the final, nine-track album.
“I cut 11,” he says. “They didn’t say enough. They
weren’t honest enough.”
Emerson plays almost everything you hear on The
Raspberry Men, mostly recorded in a wooden shed on his grandparent’s
property in Maine.
“The songs
maintain a lot of summer imagery because Maine is where I find my sense of
place,” he says. “It’s
humid, too hot, and smells like pine.”
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Chance Emerson | Links
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact
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