Adai Song is establishing the links between the cultures in her music. This is a Beijing-born artist, producer, and DJ who has released a radical new album known as The Bloom Project, and his new release is based in New York. The album has been nominated under Grammy Awards in the Best Global Music Album category.
The Bloom Project is inspired by such a musical style of the 1930s Shanghai, one shidaiqu that combined Chinese folk music and Western jazz. Adai takes this old-fashioned sound into the current day in a feminist and progressive manner.
The album comprises eight songs that mix traditional musical instruments of the Chinese such as guzheng, erhu, and pipa with contemporary electronic music such as EDM and trap. It is music to the glory of the past and also a music that was to be absolutely new. It is soft and powerful at the same time making listeners experience something emotional.
Making Way and Carmen 2025, among others, turn the classical tunes into proclamations of self-esteem and personal power. The other song, River Run, states the messages of grace and liberty.
Adai is a professor at Berklee and a producer of music that breaks the traditional isms and glorifies cultural identity. The Bloom Project is not only a bunch of songs. It demonstrates how the traditional music may evolve and develop instead of falling into extinction. Adai through this work shows that music can pay tribute to the past and look at the future.
Listen to The Bloom Project below
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The Bloom Project — the title alone sparks curiosity! What inspired this beautiful name?
A theater producer friend actually gave me this name! I knew from the beginning that I wanted the word “Bloom” in it, because blooming represents resilience through difficulty, and positivity through conquering. It’s the moment when something delicate breaks through the soil toward the light. For me, that movement mirrors the creative and emotional process behind this album — growth, persistence, and beauty born out of struggle.
Your new album feels like a fresh journey. How would you describe the vibe and energy of The Bloom Project?
It’s cinematic, feminine, and electric, full of motion and contrast. The album moves between nostalgic melodies and hard-hitting beats, between softness and strength. There’s a kind of emotional rhythm to it. You’ll dance, you’ll reflect, you’ll drift into memory, and then wake up in something futuristic.
What emotions and stories did you pour into this album that you’re most excited to share with your fans?
I poured a lot of “becoming” into this album by stepping into my power as a woman producer and rewriting narratives I grew up with. Historically, shidaiqu songs from 1920s Shanghai were often written by men, even when sung from a woman’s perspective. The lyrics revolved around beauty, desire, or waiting for love. But as a woman in this century, I wanted to tell a different story about self-worth, ambition, and joy.
The creative process was intense and deeply personal. For A Lost Singer, I actually got an ear infection right after recording the erhu for 3 hours straight. There were definitely mental breakdowns when I spent hours trying what felt like a million different shakuhachi solo sounds for “Wild Thorny Molihua.” But there were also breakthrough moments, like when I was making “River Run” and had this awakening when I applied an altered melody from a southern China folk song to a metallic synth stack. That moment felt like everything clicked.
Were there any unexpected moments or surprises during the making of this album?
“Wuxi Tune”, the last song we finished on this album, almost didn’t happen. I received stems from Siyi Chen’s jazz-inspired arrangement of the famous Chinese folk tune that has almost a version in every region. It’s such a famous tune, and I really didn’t want to screw this up. What my co-producer Yuanming Zhang and I ended up doing was deconstructing those stems — chopping, flipping, and re-processing the tracks, weaving UK garage beats into the arrangement.
I reassigned notes across instruments, sometimes slicing a melody so the first few notes went to saxophone, the next to piano, and then to guzheng. That’s how the track became this intricate collage, choppy, yet fluid.
Sometimes, the spark comes from a single iconic sound I’ve imagined for years. Take “Carmen.” Growing up, I was obsessed with the melody of Carmen’s “Habanera,” and I always wondered how it would sound on a guzheng. When I began this album, I already knew that had to be the centerpiece — the guzheng carrying that famous tune. I built the bass line around it. Then, for the solo, I didn’t want a simple reproduction of the original melody. I wanted something wild, almost “unplayable” — a version that stretches the instrument beyond its tuning limits. That’s why the sampled guzheng plug-in became so crucial. It let me imagine what the real instrument couldn’t physically do.
How does The Bloom Project reflect your evolution as an artist?
My journey really began after The Force competition in Beijing, which opened the door for me to sign my first record deal with an indie label under Tencent Music Entertainment. That was my introduction to the professional world — touring, performing at large-scale festivals, and having my songs synced in TV and film. Through Tencent’s network, I was also invited to songwriting camps hosted by Sony ATV, UMG, and Warner Chappell. Those were incredibly formative.
You walk into a room with total strangers, talk for ten minutes, and then start writing a song together — it’s fast, collaborative, and industrially precise. That environment taught me how to communicate creative ideas efficiently, and how to balance artistic instinct with professional workflow.
My debut album Cyan Black became the turning point where I started to bridge those two worlds.
Working closely with producer Tian Liang, I learned the language of production: how arrangement, sound design, and small sonic choices could completely transform a song’s emotional impact — and of course, I voiced my opinions. At the end of the production process, he told me, “You’ve got a producer in you. You should make your next album yourself.” That line stayed with me.
After Cyan Black, I decided to study songwriting and production systematically at Berklee NYC and ended up teaching there as well. The New York experience shaped my identity as a producer. Being surrounded by global sounds, electronic experimentation, and creative people who constantly blurred boundaries. Over the years, through producing singles, EPs, and collaborations, I gradually developed my own production style, one that blends East Asian aesthetics with electronic textures and emotional songwriting.
The Bloom Project is the result of that entire evolution. It’s where everything I’ve learned — from industry discipline to artistic authorship — finally converges into one coherent voice.
The world is buzzing about your sound—what influences fueled the creation of this album?
It’s a blend of everything I’ve lived and loved — shidaiqu and Shanghai jazz, modern EDM, UK garage, and traditional Chinese folk melodies. Growing up in Beijing, I was surrounded by Peking Opera and folk tunes at home, while Billboard hits and club remixes played on the radio. Later, living in New York exposed me to underground electronic scenes and global pop experimentation.
I think The Bloom Project came from living between those sound worlds — East and West, old and new, acoustic and digital — and realizing they can all exist in one body of work without contradiction. The album is proof that you don’t have to choose between your heritage and your evolution — you can honor both simultaneously.
Can you pick a track from the album that you think will instantly captivate listeners? What makes it stand out?
Well, I can’t speak for all listeners since they each come from different backgrounds, but based on feedback so far, Carmen 2025 seems to captivate them the most because of familiarity. Everyone knows that iconic “Habanera” melody, but hearing it reimagined through a guzheng with trap-influenced beats creates this immediate recognition followed by delightful surprise.
River Run also gets great feedback, even from people who haven’t heard of the original folk tune, but they heard the energy! There’s something about how the traditional melody crashes into those heavy electronic elements that just makes people move. It’s like watching two different musical worlds collide and create something completely new.
For me, both tracks work because they take something familiar—whether it’s a world-famous opera aria or the feeling of folk music—and push it into unexpected sonic territory. They’re bridges between worlds, and I think that’s what makes them instantly engaging.
What message or feeling do you hope will bloom in the hearts of those who listen?
At its core, The Bloom Project is about coexistence, about showing that different worlds can live in harmony within the same sound. East and West, old and new, softness and strength, femininity and technology. They don’t have to be opposites.
They can complement and expand one another.
Because I’ve lived in both China and the U.S., I’ve always heard music through multiple lenses. I might hear a traditional Chinese melody and immediately imagine how it would fit with an electronic bassline or house rhythm. That kind of cross-cultural imagination is what keeps me inspired. It’s where the bridges start to form.
So if there’s one feeling I hope listeners walk away with, it’s possibility, the idea that culture is not a border but a dialogue. When we let sounds, traditions, and perspectives truly meet, something new blooms that belongs to all of us.
Were there any collaborations or creative partnerships that brought something unique to The Bloom Project? 😉
Every collaborator brought something vital. I only invite people whose sound I know will resonate with the track.
For example, SHI is a guzheng player and synthwave producer —perfect for blending organic plucks with electronic textures. Jack Choi brings his incredible EDM and K-pop sensibilities. Electron is a powerhouse in synthwave and electropop. Yuanming Zhang is a well-rounded sonic genius who also handled my spatial audio mixing. Siyi Chen brings jazz and acoustic nuance. Some contributors were first-time collaborations, but some are contributors I had already worked with on previous projects, like Malcolm Welles, who has, amongst other things, extensive experience in producing electronic music.
I give all the instrumentalists and mixing/mastering engineers complete creative freedom as well.
If anything, I’d say I’m really good at choosing the right person for the right job! I build the framework based on my vision, then bring in people who could expand it in ways I wouldn’t expect. The album is richer because of that exchange.
What exciting plans do you have to celebrate and promote this album? Tours, videos, or surprise releases? 😉
I’m planning to bring The Bloom Project to live stages soon —I’m envisioning hybrid sets that merge DJing, live vocals, and visuals inspired by Shanghai’s golden era and modern club culture.
There are also some really exciting remixes and collaborations in discussion following the Grammy voting period — artists who connected with the record and want to experiment with cross-genre versions. The goal is to keep pushing boundaries and showing how The Bloom Project songs can live in different musical worlds. Stay tuned!
