Tai Po’s indie star in the making

Singer-songwriter Kevin Tsui Ka-ho's latest single is dedicated to his neighbourhood, a place he refers to as "the capital of Hong Kong" - Tai Po.

The song, Tai Po, off his eight-track release Dear Florence, was inspired by a text from a close friend, saying that he was listening to Tsui's song LKF as he drove home to Tai Po. "I thought, what if he could drive home while listening to a song about Tai Po instead?" says the cheerful 28-year-old, who sings in English. "It was that simple."

Tsui shot the music video in various parts of the New Territories' district before posting it on a Facebook discussion group dedicated to Tai Po. He received tremendous feedback. The video on YouTube has so far had more than 20,000 hits.

He says another track on the album, Subway in Tsim Sha Tsui, is inspired by an old lady who used to perform Cantonese opera in a, well, Tsim Sha Tsui underpass.

"Then one day I didn't see her there anymore. I felt kind of sad, so I wrote the song for her."

But before you dismiss the independent musician as yet another local singer who wails about Hong Kong, it's worth taking a quick look around his Fo Tan studio, which he calls his "holy secret shrine".