Welcome to Made in Asia, Lifestyle Asia’s podcast series that aims to connect cultural dots and communities across Southeast Asia through the power of voices and storytelling. This episode, powered by Nespresso, explores what it means to thrive and persevere in the arts industry today, and how creativity is fueled through mindful rituals and daily routines. And today, for a casual chat about all things creative over a cup of coffee, is none other than singer-songwriter, producer and music composer Gaston Pong.
With love since 1986, Nespresso has kept reinventing café-quality coffee at home, opening up a world of new tastes, recipes and rituals. Because when you love coffee, you keep asking: What Else? And that’s the question that Gaston has constantly asked himself throughout his illustrious career in music. He lives and breathes music, and has done so for most of his life — he had his first record label when he was only two years old, and he went on to form a musical duo, ‘Pong Pong’, with his sister JE Pong.
Gaston describes it all as starting with “just me and my sister, a camera, a dream and my sponsor… which is my mom”. Gaston and his sister were, at the time, influencers turned singers, doing a variety of content ranging from comedy videos to song covers and remixes of popular songs. By their third month, they were already getting brand deals. “Looking back, I was really, really lucky to have people like my mom and my comrade, my partner in crime, my sister,” he adds.
Today, Gaston has surpassed a million followers on TikTok, and that very question lingers: what else is there? What’s next? To keep chasing numbers seems like an endless pursuit. And Gaston loves what he does, and more than anything, he wants to keep loving it for as long as he can. So, he chooses to focus on the now. He’s got his everyday rituals he lives by, and he’s just excited to see where life (and music) takes him.
Music as both an art and a science
Gaston’s musical journey has been a long and continuous learning curve. He shares with us some of his memorable experiences working with international artists, attending songwriting camps around the world and meeting some of his long-time heroes — from Hong Kong to Stockholm, and even South Korea — and picking up new techniques along the way. Gaston also gushes about his ‘unofficial mentor’ whom he met in Hong Kong back in 2022, who has a wide repertoire of writing for some of the biggest American pop stars and also some K-pop giants.
“Seeing him pull out a full song, out of thin air in the room and being able to play any instrument, and just write and hum melodies on the spot — and at the end of the session, it sounds like a real record, it’s truly inspiring,” Gaston says. “I would say he’s like a magician. It’s really, like, from nothing to something. And I really admire that and I think one day, I want to be like him. I want to be full-time writing and producing songs just like he does.”
As he progresses in his career, Gaston has also learned that making music is as much of a scientific venture as it is an artistic one. It involves a lot of “melodic math”, a term coined by music producer Max Martin, and a lot of trial and error and of course, experience. Over time, Gaston has developed an innate instinct for it, a kind of understanding that allows him to perceive it from aspects beyond just the ‘musical’ — he can also see the vision.
“Last year, we were writing songs for our local girl group, DOLLA,” he tells me, “and they were like, ‘We want something Brazilian.’ So, we were cooking up the beat, which was for the song ‘MWA!’ And at the end, they were like, ‘We should do a dance break.’ And I’m a very visual person when it comes to making music, so I was like, ‘I see you all dancing to, like, a Bollywood slash Malaysian track at the ending.’ So, if you listen to the song really closely, there’s actually an Indian sitar sound going on, and there’s also some kompang. I think we actually managed to make it more unique. It’s one of my proudest songs that I’ve ever made.”
On nurturing a creative community
On founding Plouton Records — Gaston’s very own music publishing and production company based in KL, and also a subsidiary of Pong Entertainment — he emphasises the need to guide young creatives to discover their own skills. “The passion of starting my own thing is because, like you said, my entire life has been in music and entertainment,” he says, “but I feel like there isn’t much [emphasis] on songwriting and music management that’s helping and supporting artists’ growth. I feel like artist development isn’t really a thing here. And I believe in development, I believe in giving them the support they need.”
And so, because of that, a lot of creative people often feel alone, or are only supported by their own peers. Having a community is important. Gaston himself spends so much of his time writing non-stop, but only a handful of his songs get selected or published at a time.
“I want to be straight-up honest, if I were a dad and my kid wanted to do music, I would observe,” he opens up. “I would give them a chance, but it takes so much hard work and also the gift. There is a sense for it. And it takes so much to build something that may not be chosen, which is sad. It’s kind of like fashion. You make the clothes but people need to see them and try them on to know if that thing fits them. It’s the same thing with music. Unfortunately, you need to write and work [a lot] before even getting paid. But I’m really lucky to be able to sustain myself now and to build a name for myself.”
Over time, you will eventually know what you want by sharpening your strengths and understanding your weaknesses, and being patient. These days, Gaston has also more or less mastered the ‘art of detachment’ (that mindful practice of letting go of control so one can experience life as it is rather than how you want it to be). “Don’t get attached so much that it makes you anxious, or make you feel like you’re not good enough,” he affirms. “And being consistent is also very important.”
Channelling creativity in everyday moments
When it comes to unwinding, because Gaston spends all of his working hours listening to music, he listens to nothing after work. Instead, he indulges in his books — and his coffee, or a little espresso martini from time to time — and films. (Fun fact: He’s a big psychological thriller fan!) Yet even through the non-musical things he consumes every day, he finds inspiration for his work.
“And also conversations,” Gaston says, of some of his creative inspirations. “When I work on music, there are also some parts where… okay, so we kind of finish a song, and we come up with a concept and then we pitch it to the artist. And then we look at our catalogue, and we would send an old demo to them. So, one of these catalogued songs started from a conversation with my friend, she was telling me about a guy who’s such a ‘sweet talker’. And so, at the intro of this one song, there’s music and then I whisper, ‘Sweet talker.’ And that became a Kerry Wang song.”
Being “well-versed in the world of words”, as Gaston puts it, is extremely important to him as a songwriter. He believes that putting out songs — which he does pretty much every single day — makes one ‘dry’, and so he is always trying to keep himself nourished with new words all the time. And while being prolific doesn’t always translate to being the most successful, Gaston has a new definition of success for himself these days.
“I’ve made up my mind that I’m done chasing numbers,” Gaston says. “What really started this thinking is when I hit one million followers on TikTok. In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘What’s next? Two million? Three million? What does it take for you to be enough? And I realised that the chase is never-ending. I feel like finding meaning and having intentions in what I do is more important right now. For example, supporting new artists with their projects, writing my own personal stories and songs, and maybe half of it is not even about work. Travelling, being happy, spending more time with my loved ones… that’s just more valuable for me right now.”
Hosted by Puteri Yasmin Suraya, Features Editor of Lifestyle Asia KL, Made in Asia highlights the importance of mindful rituals and daily routines in its fourth season. Stay tuned as we bring you fresh conversations with some of the brightest trailblazers and voices in Malaysia and Singapore.
Special thanks: Le Midi & Crowne Plaza Kuala Lumpur City Centre
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Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
