Wanting Qu enjoyed her North American tour, but wants to write some new songs

It has been less than four months since I last spoke to Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Wanting Qu, and not much has changed. She's still tired after a long day of interviews, and still trying to think hard and give the best answers she can.

Qu may appear a bit distant at first, but once she starts talking about her fans, her cool exterior usually melts a bit. When I point to her iPhone case — which sports a collage of the cover art from her two albums — she smiles, and reveals how a fan from Los Angeles made it, and gave it to her as a gift during a recent tour.

She is referring to a 17-stop North American tour from February 20 to March 25. While travelling, she also took the chance to do some "touristy" things, such as visiting the White House in Washington, sampling a cheesesteak sandwich in Philadelphia and walking on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

It was the first time Qu had performed so many concerts in such a short period — and the first time she had travelled on a tour bus. "I loved it and didn't want it to end," she says. "We had bunk beds on the bus. They were tiny, but also like a cradle, so we slept like babies on the road."

Born and raised in the northeast mainland province of Harbin, Qu moved to Canada at the age of 16 in 2000 to study. She is now based in Vancouver, where she launched her music career in 2005, playing in bars and cafes around town.

Qu's popularity in Hong Kong and on the mainland rocketed in 2012 when two of her songs, You Exist in My Song and Drenched, were used in director Pang Ho-cheung's 2012 rom-com Love in the Buff. There has been strong demand for tickets for her upcoming shows at Star Hall in Kowloon Bay.