TABL E OF CON TENT S
META MINI ISSUE 04 SPECIAL COLLABORATION WITH MAD TSAI
LETTER FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS JOY CHEN + TIFFANY HUE
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LETTER FROM MAD MAD TSAI
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A SPECIAL NOTE FROM MAD MAD TSAI
PAGE 10 - 11
AN INTERVIEW WITH MAD JOY CHEN + TIFFANY HUE
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THE JOCK SEY YANG + MAD TSAI
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THE NERD SEY YANG + MAD TSAI
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THE MEAN GIRL SEY YANG + MAD TSAI
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THE GOTH SEY YANG + MAD TSAI
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THANK YOU JOY CHEN + TIFFANY HUE
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STAFF
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: JOY CHEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: TIFFANY HUE PHOTOGRAPHER: SEY YANG MAKEUP ARTIST: ANNA-MARIE GUENTHER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF DESIGN: ALLYZA QUIAMBAO EDITORIAL DESIGNERS: GRACY WATTS AND VIVIAN NGUYEN
LETTER FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS
LET T ER FRO EDITOR-INCREATIVE D
LETTER FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS
OM THE -CHIEF & DIRECTOR What makes us who we are today is how our youth shaped our upbringing, and musician Mad Tsai is here to show us how to embrace all aspects of our personalities. In Issue 04 of our MINI series: Coming of Age, Mad Tsai explores how to find yourself in a world of unexpected rides, and how to have fun doing it. From love to self-discovery to heartbreak, homecoming is a tribute to the coming-of-age of our generation. At META, we are passionate about empowering the future voices of tomorrow, and Mad Tsai is no exception. He breaks emotional barriers with his music by making us feel seen. What this issue showcases is not only the versatility of Mad Tsai as an artist, but it also takes us through different characters we may find in our lives that remind us of tropes from our childhoods. From the jock to the nerd to the mean girl to the goth, every one of us presents a different character in our lives. It’s just up to us to unlock it. Read on to explore who you are growing into with Mad Tsai.
LETTER FROM MAD TSAI
LETTER FROM MAD
me is
my na
LETTER FROM MAD TSAI
Dear readers, My name is Mad and I’m super excited to share with you guys this collaboration with META for the release of my debut EP “homecoming!”. Both me and the wonderful team at META have worked hard to create this MINI that coincides with the release of my first project, which has been a passion project from the very start and something I can’t wait to give you! “homecoming!” is a collection of songs that discuss topics like coming of age, identity, and the illusion of youth, so I thought it only fitting that we carry these themes into those of this MINI. This past year has been both a blessing and a curse for many of us, and I’m sure that I’m not alone in the feeling that I’ve been robbed of two years of my life by this pandemic. I had just turned 18 at the start of COVID-19, and now I’m already 20-years-old and still figuring out what I’m trying to do with my life. I would’ve never thought that my coming-of-age would look like this, and I’ve struggled to piece together moments that I can look back on that represent my youth. That’s why I decided to go back and reflect on what would’ve been my comingof-age and write the songs that would become my debut EP and its following sister-project. “homecoming!” tells that story of all that angst, hope, and confusion of growing up, especially from the perspective of a queer Asian kid who grew up in the suburbs of California. I wrote all of these songs by myself in the midst of the pandemic, and worked on all the music videos, production, and visual aspects of this EP as an independent artist. I can’t say it was the easiest journey, but I’m so proud that I was able to bring to life this project given the circumstances. I sincerely hope that you’ll enjoy it as well. :) Thank you, Mad Tsai
A SPECIAL NOTE FROM I really want to explore the idea of coming of age and reclaiming your youth, as my upcoming EP is titled “homecoming!” and expresses a lot of feelings that happen while trying to figure yourself out and come to terms with your identity. I think it would also be great to highlight how COVID has robbed such a long amount of time from everyone, and it feels like we’ve lost a big part of our coming of age to this pandemic. A lot of people have missed out on a lot of experiences that they would’ve been able to experience had it not been for the pandemic, and it’s fair to say that pivotal moments like going to homecoming and experiencing one’s youth have been missed out on. It’s something I’ve certainly struggled with and has helped influence my music and the rollout of this EP, so it’s important to explore this in a coming of age theme.
CHATTING WITH MAD TSAI
CHA T T ING WITH
MAD TSAI
Q1:
“Boy Bi” is the song that went viral overnight for you. However, it was the result of many feelings of confusion about your sexuality and how to fully comprehend it. Your first EP, “homecoming!” deals with similar themes of contemplation, expression, and reclamation. How does songwriting aid in your ability to express emotions that are sometimes difficult to put into words? Mad: Ever since I was 10, I would always hum or make little voice memos. I still have emails that I sent myself in sixth grade from GarageBand, where I’d be humming random words and singing acapella. But the first real song I wrote was when I was 13. I was really emo back then. I was going through it because I was having some sh-t going on in my life. I wrote this entire concept album about identity and it was based off of Alice in Wonderland with a bunch of crazy stuff––I was really comprehensive with the whole thing. And it’s still floating around the Internet somewhere. And back then I was writing all these really emotional and sometimes cheesy songs. But they were still songs that I honestly don’t regret at all. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world. It would help me figure out my writing style and I finally found my footing with songwriting, especially with rhyme scheme and structure. That’s one of the reasons why I still haven’t deleted [my old songs] off the internet––it’s good to keep things out there so people can see it. They can see that I’ve been doing this for a really, really long time, and that I’ve always been passionate about this. I’ve always known that I wanted to do songwriting.
Q2:
When did you start songwriting? Mad: Boy Bi was definitely a little flag I planted at this point of my life where I was confused about my identity, what I stood for, and what I wanted. And that was that was wasn’t necessarily exclusive to sexuality––it was for a lot of things. I was wondering, “What sound do I want to do in my music career? What do I want to focus on? What do I really want to do with my life?” Songwriting helped me figure all of this out, because there isn’t really a way that I can articulate my feelings better than songwriting. Putting things into a catchy song is the best form of therapy for me. And it’s always just been a way for me to uncover the deep rooted feelings that I have. This EP exemplifies that feeling a lot. It’s the amalgamation of a lot of like questions that have always bubbled up in my brain and different things that I want to explore. It’s my way of figuring myself out. It’s the introduction of me, and it’s my homecoming––quite literally. And this EP is just a way for me to figure out where do I start.
Q3:
With a title like “homecoming!”, it is reminiscent of aspects of our youth, what home means in the abstract sense of safety and comfort, and coming of age. There’s no ignoring the fact that for you, the pandemic has taken a majority of your young adult life. While for some that means missing homecoming or prom, for you, it means losing half your college experience. College is a time for independence and new experiences. How has the pandemic impacted you, as you reflect on your own coming of age into the person that you are today? Mad: Like you said, homecoming is both the words ‘home’ and ‘coming’. For home: I wrote all of these songs in my bedroom––where I’m at right now––but the point is that I wrote it in the comfort of my own home. This is where I feel most comfortable, and that was important for me. The pandemic inadvertently gave me this opportunity to stay within the comfort of my room and think about things in this time and space where I could write all the songs that I wouldn’t have if I were back on campus at UCLA running to class every day. With coming: this is like my coming of age, where I was asking myself a lot of these questions and figuring myself out in terms of my identity and other things. But to put a brighter spin on things, I’m glad the pandemic gave me more perspective and opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and that I had time to focus on myself and really hone in on my music.
Q4:
Your recent music videos highlight a distinct style that you have and that you want to emulate. In a photo set you posted on Instagram, you wear a tennis skirt and a letterman’s jacket – a contrast that juxtaposes high school stereotypes perfectly. How did you decide to incorporate ideas of femininity and masculinity into your music videos? How does it differ from what your own style on a regular day-to-day is? Mad: In terms of my fashion sense, I knew that since this EP was about the exploration of identity, I wanted to mix a lot of masculine and feminine themes. And I think that’s how I express myself as well. I don’t really like to confine myself into one box or another. My favorite colors are blue and pink, and I color coded a lot of the music videos as well. That Friend was a very blue video, and Heartbreak Honeymoon was red. I love sticking to certain colors and kind of figuring out things that help show a certain emotion. I really wanted to flip these high school stereotypes like the nerd the jock, the theater kid, the email, like all these different like stereotypes, and also high school movie tropes. I grew up obsessed with high school movies like the Edge of 17 and Euphoria. Different little things. And, and in every single video that I do, you can see homage to different high school movies. I just love high school movies, and I love to be able to have the chance to portray myself into these different themes and as these different characters in these high school movies that I would watch growing up. Now I could star in them and you know, relive my youth, which is something that is really really fun to me. It’s always fun being onset of the music videos and just being like, Oh, wow, I’m like the main character of these movies that I was growing up watching
Q5:
At META, we like to say the best work is that which is the most personal. Your work is no exception. With the lyrics of “that friend” holding themes of loneliness and questioning one’s place in life and all your other songs feeling very vulnerable/ personal, how do you navigate this intimate relationship you hold between your songs and your listeners? Mad: Yeah, I definitely think that all the songs that I write are kind of like markers in my life, but also I kind of use that to speak to the people that listen to my music as well. Like when I was writing Boy Bi, I wrote it for myself just as a contemplative thing but also, I knew in mind if I made this a public song that this would help out anybody that was going through the same kind of thing. It was very, very intimate and the same thing with That Friend. A lot of the things that I write are just very intimate with me and the person that is listening to the song itself. I feel really, really connected with people whenever they DM me or say that they really appreciate the song that really helped them through things. Because it really gives me the hope that I’m, you know, working towards something good and helping out the people that appreciate my music.
Q6:
What is the message you want listeners to take away after listening to your EP? Mad: I think this entire EP was self exploratory for me. But it really really helped me. Like it was a really great stepping stone for what I have planned next. And I think if I wanted to say anything to my listeners, it would probably be that, you know, throw whatever you have out there. And then you’ll figure it out from there. You don’t have to have all the answers at once. You could stick with the questions and then move on to the answers. It’s a growing process. And this was another step, like a stepping stone on to where I actually really want to be at. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I’m grateful for this EP, and I’m excited to move on to the next one. Because it’s 100% me. I think this EP helped me figure out exactly the sound that I want to go into and the themes that I wanted to explore and what I want to do next. Like you guys were talking about the music videos, the looks, and the specific outfits that I want to do the aesthetics. This really helped me idealize everything that I have planned next. It just took a lot of time and effort, and I’m grateful for it.
THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
Thank you for reading our third issue of our MINI series, in collaboration with Mad Tsai, an artist with grace and enthusiasm that reminds us of how valuable our youth is. To Mad, we want to thank you for your talent and incredible music. At META, we want to thank everyone who has helped us share our creative vision and aspirations: Alllyza Quiambao, Elizabeth Walton, Gracy Watts, Megha Gupta, Sey Yang, and Vivian Nguyen. From us to you, thank you. Love, Joy and Tiffany