Taiwanese-based singer-song writer and actress Enno Cheng is doing a long stay in the Big Apple. She just finished recording a new album, Pluto, due April and she is now working on her first book. Moreover, she just played her debut show in New York at The Rockwood Music Hall in Manhattan.
On a rainy afternoon, we sat down at a delicate coffee shop in Soho and chatted about her stay in New York, her upcoming solo album and her love for cosmology.
Audiofemme: You’ve been in New York for about two weeks now, what is one of your observations so far?
Enno: I have attended a few shows since I got here, and the first thing that I picked up on was how self-centered audience members at concerts in New York are. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. I mean how captivated they are when they are attending concerts. No one seems to care about their surroundings. Everyone is lost in his or her own world. It’s pretty magical!
So, I think my biggest observation is that New Yorkers certainly know how to live in the moment and enjoy all of the moments. It doesn’t matter if they are dancing along with music, walking on a random street or just living their daily routines, they don’t hide nor do they shy away from their feelings and emotions; they enjoy it. I think this is a really special thing.
Audiofemme: What is your daily routine like in New York?
Enno: Walking everywhere, everyday. I walk all over the place because New York is a new city to me, there’s so much stuff to see. Whether it is a broad road, a tiny alley, a wall of graffiti, a funny street sign, an interesting restaurant or just people on the street. There are always things to discover.
Audiofemme: Is there a specific song you’ve been listening to a lot since you got here?
Enno: I have Warpaint’s “New Song” on repeat like all the time. It’s the perfect walking around song for me. And I appreciate their arrangements here a lot.
Audiofemme: What are some of your plans in 2017?
Enno: I’m going to release my new solo album Pluto this year. Basically going to start all the promotions for the release as soon as I am back to Taiwan. Also, I’m currently working on publishing a book. I have been writing a lot. So the album and the book are my two main focuses for 2017, and they pretty much will occupy all of my time this year.
Audiofemme: Your last solo album was called Neptune (2011) and your upcoming album is called Pluto (due April 2017); both of them are named after planets, does the cosmos have a special place in your heart?
Enno: I have been obsessed with cosmology since I was little. I especially enjoyed visiting the planetarium and am very fond of the stars and planets. I find the universe very romantic, in that it can be very gigantic, but it can also be very tiny. There’s no definite; it is all about relativity. This is similar to how I see the world, and the way people interact with each other. One tends to be attracted to the bigger and stronger other. Relativity is all it is.
Audiofemme: How do these two albums differ?
Enno: Neptune and Pluto definitely have different focuses. To being with, I need to start with the relationship of these two planets. Neptune is the farthest planet in the Solar System. Pluto (which is no longer in the Solar System) is a weird one because it interferes with all the other planets in the Solar System except Neptune. Rather, it moves forward with Neptune. They stare at each other in a relative distance.
The surface of Neptune is very cold but internally the planet is hot. At the time when I was making Neptune, I thought this represented me precisely. During the Neptune days, I was still pretty introverted. I hadn’t met a lot of people or experienced many events in life. Therefore, most of the songs in that album were actually monologues to myself; they were actually very personal.
However, years have passed, I have been though various phases, got exposed to other people, grown up and have become a more extroverted and direct person. So, Pluto is more about the strong connection I have with people. It has to do with human relationships; it has to do with love.
Keep your ears out for Pluto, out this April, and in the meantime peep a few of Enno’s gorgeous tunes from Neptune below:
