Jason Qiu

Classically-trained in piano since age 4, Jason Qiu realized as a teenager that he would much rather write his own music than be dictated by sheet music. After performing for several years as part of pop group Locus, Jason began working on solo material, writing songs with numerous producers from around the world and performing across stages in Japan and his native Vancouver, Canada. His early video performances have garnered praise from the likes of Jenny Berggren of Ace of Base and Hong Kong pop legend Anthony Wong, and his skills as a songwriter have been recognized by the International Music and Entertainment Association – alongside American singer-songwriter Aamirha Fox, he received an IMEA nomination in 2015 for Pop Song of the Year. “Rain,” his most recent collaboration with Egyptian EDM producers MaroXX and Disho, peaked at number 2 on Beatport’s top 100 future bass/trap releases in February 2020.

Although he is most at home when writing in English, Jason also began writing in Chinese in 2012, after only having studied the language for a year in the fast-paced metropolitan city of Shanghai. His Mandarin language debut, Yesterday’s Future, was released in 2019, marrying his idiosyncratic and abstract storytelling style with moody electro-pop elements. “I love how each language carries a song in its own unique way. I made a conscious decision to challenge myself by writing creatively in a language I have not yet acquired full proficiency, dictionary in one hand, intuition in the other.”