Linying - "Dial Tone"

Photo by Michelle Mei

"Dial Tone," the latest single from Los Angeles via Singapore artist Linying, is the perfect style of pop song for those that bristle from pop. The song is a delightfully chill track that combines Adult Contemporary with alt-R&B. Pop music tends to skew to a younger crowd, but "Dial Tone" feels like it's a grown up song while still sounding cool. The song combines ethereal vocals with chilled out beats in a way I don't think anyone can resist. Modern music seems to be doing away with the rigid genre restrictions that have dominated music for decades, and "Dial Tone" is a perfect example of how great music can be without them.

Linying says of her latest single and video:

“Lenne and I are both from Singapore — we’d moved to LA at different times and hadn’t really kept in touch, but I have always admired her work greatly. I remember a personal photo series she did many years ago titled 'A337' that depicted a traditional Chinese wedding between two women: sadly an unlikely scenario in Singapore.

"Lenne did a beautiful and seemingly effortless job of bringing everyone together for this video — she wrote this moving, delicate story about our trans heroine trying to make it through her sister’s wedding, rang up countless dim sum restaurants across Los Angeles and posted casting calls on Facebook groups. We received so many responses from people — extras who were touched by the narrative, crew members whose personal experiences related, art teams, florists and wedding cake designers who went out of their way to make this project as beautiful as it was meaningful.

"On one of our rehearsals where everyone was gathered at my house sitting cross-legged on the floor having tea and mung bean pastries, Leo and Michele, who have been actors in Los Angeles for years now, said that they had never been part of a production with this many Asian cast and crew members, which surprised me. Lenne and I, with our barely passable Singaporean-pidgin-Mandarin (we both speak it somewhat natively, but not very eloquently), took turns translating between our American friends and Andy, an actor actually from China who had a past life as a ballerina in London and who, coincidentally, had his own wedding 30 years ago at 888 Seafood, where we shot the music video.

"I think it’s cosmically nice and apt too that this is all coming out in between Chinese New Year and Valentines’ Day. Familial ties, the moon, love…”

You can watch the video for "Dial Tone" below. Swim, Swim is due out April 4 on Nettwerk Records. For more on Linying, check out the artist on Instagram.