Kuala Lumpur&rsquo;s hottest music star sound off on the city&rsquo;s sonic underground &mdash; and how she burns the house down.

Try sitting still during a Lil Asian Thiccie track &mdash; it&rsquo;s practically a workout. Her songs hit like a sugar rush: <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/interview-the-magic-of-alyph">high-energy, wildly addictive</a> and packed with lyrics that cut deep while making you laugh out loud. They&rsquo;re bold, unfiltered and occasionally sneak in a heavy truth or two. But as she puts it, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that serious.&rdquo; Your lyricism blends humour, defiance and vulnerability in such a distinctive way. When you sit down to write, what usually sparks that process? Is it rage, joy, release, or something else entirely Honestly, I&rsquo;ve never been great at expressing myself in everyday settings, so songwriting became that space for me. And yeah, I use humour a lot &mdash; sometimes even when it&rsquo;s not funny. That can come off a bit offensive, but it&rsquo;s just how I process things. When I first started writing, it was about figuring out how to make things sound good &mdash; there&rsquo;s a kind of math to music, a rhythm to what makes a song click. I used to just string together words that felt right sonically. But now I write with more intention. I take myself a little more seriously, but not too seriously. Like, sometimes <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/interview-how-darren-evonne-and-chloe-freshened-up-the-local-fashion-scene">I&rsquo;m just writing to clown myself.</a> I don&rsquo;t know who that empowers &mdash; definitely not me &mdash; but I think that&rsquo;s okay. Not everything needs to be deep. Sometimes music is just supposed to be fun. And that&rsquo;s what I remind myself: it doesn&rsquo;t all have to be so serious. How did you figure out the right sound or &ldquo;formula&rdquo; for your music? There&rsquo;s definitely a formula, but it&rsquo;s this weird mix of math and instinct. I&rsquo;m probably the worst person to explain the math part because I suck at math, but it&rsquo;s there. It&rsquo;s about syllables, the way words land, the way they feel. Some songs are super direct, others are more open to interpretation. And sometimes, it&rsquo;s really just that a phrase sounds good &mdash;you can&rsquo;t stop thinking about it, even if it doesn&rsquo;t &ldquo;mean&rdquo; anything yet. I think when you don&rsquo;t have something specific to say but the words just fit the beat perfectly, that&rsquo;s when those more abstract, artistic tracks happen. It&rsquo;s not always intentional &mdash; it&rsquo;s just the magic of how it flows.

You play with satire and sincerity in really clever ways. Do you ever feel pressure to be &ldquo;read&rdquo; correctly, especially in a culture that struggles with irony from women in music? That first part&rsquo;s kind of hilarious to me, because if you look at my catalogue, I&rsquo;m so unserious. But that&rsquo;s all so tied to how I view myself, probably me being hard on myself again. I only really started leaning into sincerity when I began doing remixes during the pandemic. It felt easier to be honest on someone else&rsquo;s track. Once I got comfortable with that, I started bringing that energy into my original work too. I do think <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/interview-this-is-how-noki-does-it">people often don&rsquo;t engage with music the same way the creator does.</a> That&rsquo;s not a diss &mdash; it&rsquo;s just how it is. Most of the time, people don&rsquo;t even catch the lyrics. So when I get all in my head, like, &ldquo;Am I being real enough? Is this who I want to be?&rdquo; &mdash; I remind myself that if it&rsquo;s dope, it&rsquo;s dope. If someone connects with it, that&rsquo;s enough. It doesn&rsquo;t always have to be so literal. When do you know a song is finished &mdash; especially with perfectionism and self-doubt in the mix? Funny enough, I&rsquo;m the opposite of a perfectionist. I try to capture how I&rsquo;m feeling in the moment before it fades. My emotions have an expiration date. Once I&rsquo;ve made the demo, I have a tiny window, maybe five minutes before doubt kicks in. I try to finish it before I start hating it. That&rsquo;s not the healthiest habit, I know. But I&rsquo;ve learned to slow down a little. There was a time I&rsquo;d release something and never want to hear it again, even if I&rsquo;d poured time, money and heart into it. That sucks. So now, I try to sit with the music a bit longer, listen back more, and think before calling it finished. I want to be proud of what I put out.

"Not everything needs to be deep. Sometimes music is just supposed to be fun." - Lil Asian Thiccie

Are there any new sounds or ideas you&rsquo;re excited to explore, whether to push your own boundaries or surprise your audience? Right now, I&rsquo;m just riding the wave. I still pull a lot of inspiration from Twitter &mdash; it&rsquo;s wild how many revolutionary ideas show up in throwaway tweets. I&rsquo;ll see something and suddenly it resonates hard. What I do want to work on next is building a stronger performance identity. I want people to know exactly what to expect when they come to see me &mdash; how it feels, how it looks, the whole vibe. I used to hate performing. I used to hate making visuals too, especially when I had to do everything myself &mdash; editing, makeup, the works. It gets exhausting. But we&rsquo;re in a visual age now, and I want to lean into that and really master it.

CREDITS: Creative Direction Syazil Abd Rahim Photography Joe Ng Styling Amelia Tan Hair Juno Ko Makeup Eranthe Loo Photography Assistant David Ong

Interview: Lil Asian Thiccie doesn't play by the rules

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