‘Meaningful to me’: Hong Kong singer-songwriter JNYBeatz on setting up the city’s first beatmaking school, and his musical journey
- JNYBeatz has been busy writing and producing Cantopop hits, for himself and stars including Jay Fung and Michael ‘MC’ Cheung
- He talks about his latest project, Vision Music, Hong Kong’s first beatmaking school, where he hopes to inspire a new generation of producers
“It’s like cooking – if someone’s taste buds are accustomed to a certain kind of cuisine, suddenly changing their menu would not work. There’s a way to progressively throw in new flavours for people’s consumption,” says singer-songwriter JNYBeatz, who spent years trying to find his place in Hong Kong’s music industry.
Born Jason Yeung Chun, the 30-year-old multi-instrumentalist is an active contributor to Cantopop’s recent idol-driven revitalisation – albeit behind the scenes most of the time.
In the past year alone, he has co-composed Jay Fung Wan-him’s “You Are Mine For Life”, rearranged Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing’s 1986 hit “Awareness” for rising singer Mike Tsang Pei-tak, and co-produced “The One For You” by Michael “MC” Cheung Tin-fu, the sole singer featured on Forbes’ Asia 30 Under 30 list in 2023.
In his youth, JNY was a drummer and keyboardist, playing in more than 10 bands, including the soul-inspired quintuplet Dusty Bottle. As an R&B and hip hop enthusiast, he struggled in a market that just wanted slow-tempo love ballads.
He tried to stick to the ballad genre in the beginning, but with no success.
“It had been three or four years of me writing pop ballads – mainly slow-paced love songs – and trying to sell them, because that was what the market desired,” says JNY.
“I was told by many senior industry professionals that if I wanted to make a name for myself, I’d need to sell these kinds of songs, characterised by formulaic string and piano arrangements.”
