BONNIE LI
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BONNIE LI

Paris, Île-de-France, France | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF

Paris, Île-de-France, France | SELF
Established on Jan, 2012
Duo Electronic Downtempo

Calendar

Music

Press


"BONNIE LI review by Radio Neo"

Review of BONNIE LI's 1rst EP 'Short Stories Vol.1' by Radio Neo - Radio Néo


"BONNIE LI review by Radio Neo"

Review of BONNIE LI's 1rst EP 'Short Stories Vol.1' by Radio Neo - Radio Néo


"BONNIE LI Unplugged"

Bonnie Li sings unplugged her track 'Stalker' for the final round of the music contest Ricard Lance toi en Live, filmed by Le Hiboo - Le Hiboo


"BONNIE LI ITW C'est Brown C'est Vous"

Interview of the artist BONNIE LI for C'est Brown C'est Vous show - C'est Brown C'est Vous


"BONNIE LI X LOS ANGELES"

This was one of our most renegade shoots ever. The whole shoot took about an hour and a half. We got word that Bonnie Li, who is one of the most talented artists out of Paris right now, was coming to stay the weekend with us. We knew that we had to plan a mini shoot around her. For this shoot we contacted different Etsy shops to pull together a look that is part fashiongrunge part Bonnie Li. - FASHION. GRUNGE. STYLE.


"AN INTERVIEW WITH BONNIE LI BY MATT MOWATT"

THE 22 MAGAZINE: I’d like to thank you for having an interview with The 22 Magazine.

BONNIE LI: Thank you! I’m super excited to be doing this interview.

22: -Laughs- You’re welcome. In fact, you just met me from your studio. What were you working on?

BL: I was working on my last track which is called “Hey Man”. It’s very electronic and…high beat? I don’t know if you can say this.

22: Yeah, high beat.

BL: It’s going to be a total surprise for the [Francofolies] festival. So I hope it’s good.

22: So how do you feel about the festival? I know there are a lot of big names there like David Guetta and Jean-Louis Aubert (from Téléphone).

BL: I feel super excited because, of course, it’s going to be my second big festival, but the biggest I’ve ever done.

22: It must feel exciting obviously to be performing…like “I’m here with Mademoiselle K!”

BL: -Laughs- I know. At least I’m trying not to really think about that.

22: I just love to make you nervous before a big show.

BL: -Laughs- Yeah, I know, thank you. You’re actually doing this very well. In fact, I try to think about my work but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ll see. It’s a festival so people are happy to be there

22: How do you feel when you get on stage? Do you get nervous?

BL: Not really. I’m really Zen and really cool. I’m not [one of those] artists who gets sick before going on stage. Normally the artists go and lock themselves backstage and, you know, do breathing exercises. I can’t do that. I’m like, “Oh, I play in fifteen minutes! I need to go and get ready,” you know, change and put my make-up on and, make up my big, fat bow [hairstyle]! And then I look at myself in the mirror, and say, “You can do it! You can do it!”

22: I saw your music online, on Deezer, so I said, “Bonnie Li must be really big now!”

BL: No, no, no! Not at all. It’s just, well…there’s this new kind of website…and when your EP is released you pay like forty bucks or something and they put your music on all of the digital platforms (Deezer included) where people can buy your music.

22: That’s a really good idea. Your EP is titled Short Stories, right?

BL: Volume One.

22: So is there a Volume Two coming out?

BL: -Laughs- Yeah, if everything goes OK. I don’t really like studio work. I’m much more of a performer, a live artist. So when I decide to go into the studio, I do it very fast. In a week I’m going to record my second EP, and it’s going to be released, hopefully, in late October.

22: Will there be a similar theme as Volume One?

BL: Yeah, it’s going to be in the same vibe, [even] though it’s an evolution. I’ve been working more on sound research and sampling. It’s a little more precise and electronic.

22: I understand that you went to music school.

BL: Yeah.

22: So has there been a drastic evolution from the “Bonnie Li” in music school to the “Bonnie Li” I’m looking at right now?

BL: “Bonnie Li” didn’t exist when I went to music school. It [music school] was just me trying to reassure myself that I was really made for this. It took me a while to actually spread the news to family and friends [that], I really wanted to be a famous performer. Because I was like, “Who the fuck are you to go and tell people you’re going to make it?”

22: So when did you decide, “No, this is what you need to do?”

BL: [At] school. They organized little gigs. The first time I went on stage I felt something that I had never felt before. Something that was so deep and huge at the same time.

22: You have to do it now, there’s no choice.

BL: Exactly. There was no choice. Yeah, definitely, I was made for that.

22: Having a one-woman show must be very heavy on you?

BL: It’s heavy, but it’s relieving because I know I’m the one doing everything, so I’m not scared something is going to go wrong. If something goes wrong, it’s because of me.

22: Could you tell me a story about something that went wrong on stage?

BL: Definitely. I can tell you the last big festival I did was Marsatac. It was originally a hip-hop festival in Marseille but [it] opens its doors to all kinds of styles of music now. So I was up there on stage and did my first loop and everything was OK. So I’m like, “Everything’s going to go fine.” So I played the second loop – no sound. I’m like, “What’s going on?” So at one point I just cut it off. -Laughs- I think that I was the first artist in the history of the festival to actually make a big BLANK. But it was fine. I just told a story and was like, “I’m sorry, but I’m having really big technical problems…so there’s nothing we can do, but try to fix it.” Then, I sang a- capella or something.

22: Yeah, you improvised and I’m sure it was a great show.

BL: Yeah, people were like, “Woo-hoo, you did a-capella!” They were so nice -Laughs-.

22: On the other side of the coin, what are some of the best moments you’ve had on stage?

BL: It happened a couple of weeks ago.

22: Just a couple - THE 22 MAGAZINE


Discography

-Vinyl:
'Bonnie Li' (ComfortZone/2009)

-EP:
'Short Stories Vol.1' (2010)
'Short Stories Vol.2' (Altering-Studios/october2012)

Photos

Bio

Armed with her megaphone, the underground Princess
knows how to make herself heard, in English or in Mandarin. When
performing live, she gets transformed into a hostess that sieges the
masses with hypnotic electro/trip-hop. Raised in Hong
Kong, and then passed through San Francisco, Montreal and Berlin, this
young lady has seen the world and hopes to conquer it. Bonnie Li
makes more and more concerts around the globe, to bring out the
important messages on the status of women, gender, or sexuality, that
lie behind her music. Meanwhile a first album is planned this year, the duo Air Bonnie Li, that she forms with Elia M, releases in February a third EP entitled “PLANE-CRASH“.
An ironic title as her career seems not only safe from flight
accidents, but destined to always have a little bit more of altitude.

Band Members