KICCC Releases “Iced Tea” [Q&A].
Interviewed by: Sarah Evangelista
With all that’s happening in the world right now, everyone needs a good tune to dance and forget their problems for a few minutes to, and KICCC is known for releasing absolute bangers. The artist just released his third single leading up to his debut album, coming out in the near future, titled “Iced Tea”. Read my chat with him below.
Where did the stage name KICCC come from? Does it have a deep meaning to you?
Hey TME :-) Thanks so much for the interview. KICCC is actually just a composition of the initials from my Romanized Chinese name (Kuan Ieong Cheng) and English initials (Carson Cheng). I've been sporting this moniker on a bunch of online games and some of my emails since 2010 so it just stuck. I decided to use it as my stage name when I started releasing music because essentially it is just me... but still feels like an alias where I can be a bit braver about how I express myself. Plus it's much more "Google-able" vs Carson Cheng because apparently there are quite a few Carson Chengs out there haha. There's even a picture of another Carson Cheng kissing someone on the cheek and I'm like... "Hey, that's not me".
Your upcoming single "Iced Tea" is so catchy! What did you come with first, the beat, melody, or lyrics?
Thank you so much! I'm glad you are enjoying it! When I write songs, I usually start with the topline melody and lyrics to go with it. I think with "Iced Tea" I wrote the hook first and shared that with ENAN, my producer, and I talked to him about the theme and the track that I envisioned with the song. I am quite imaginative visually when I conceive of a song or any sort of project so I tried to describe where I thought this song took place. We ended up going with a really cool tropical house vibe that I think suited my imagined island beachscape/sunset escapade perfectly!
Is there a specific reason why the song is called "Iced Tea"?
The original title of the song was "Long Island Iced Tea" and it was just in theme with the hyper kind of vibe that I was going for. Also that drink is yummy and the song is sorta yummy too haha. I shortened the name to "Iced Tea" because two verses of the song didn't make it to this particular cut so yeah, if I release a remix or extended version I will be sure to make the name boozy again.
You'll be releasing your debut album this summer, how are you feeling about that?
I am really looking forward to sharing The Water Knows with everyone. It's been a long time coming and I feel like it's going to be such a cathartic thing in my life when it happens. I'm typically a bit more reserved in my personal life but I still desire for others to hear me out and get to know me for me. For a while (before KICCC) I felt like I was being forced to hide parts of myself or that I should only keep a certain image if I wanted to be successful, but I realized that it didn't satisfy me because it was almost like I was an imposter in my own life. Becoming KICCC and writing THE WATER KNOWS became about recognizing and affirming myself for all that I am. It's like a letter to myself about yearning, hope, and the ugly side of things. I hope through the album, people will be able to see me for me. I am really proud of the album and I hope that people will be able to resonate with these songs that I wrote.
This is a pretty basic question, but it's cool to see how everyone's answer is different, if you could collaborate with any artist dead or alive, who would it be and why?
This is so difficult to answer, just like when people ask who my favourite artists are and what I'm listening to ;-(. If my choices were unlimited I think I would be burned at the stake because people would mistake me for a necromancer. If I could only choose one collaboration it would be with the late Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries. I loved her vocal stylings and the songwriting that she did with Noel Hogan is divine. I grew up listening to the Cranberries without even knowing it through another one of my favourite artists, Faye Wong (who released multiple Chinese covers of songs by the Cranberries), but yeah the band was so inspirational. My heart flutters every time "Dreams" come on, the harmonies and la la las send me into euphoria. I don't know what a Cranberries and KICCC song would sound like but I feel like I would learn soooooo fuckin' much just by being in the room!