#17: Astro Bunny
A look through a decade of Astro Bunny, the electronic duo that are constantly battling loneliness in the cosmos
In the decade since debuting with their EP If There Is No Future on May 18, 2012, Astro Bunny have become one of the most consistent Mandopop acts. Since their second album in 2016, the duo works on a clockwork schedule, delivering an album in the back half of December with what Juksy described in 2018 as “healing through psychedelic and light electronic music.”
Built from the dissolution of each member’s respective band, you can see parts of how their introduction were shaped by dominant trends in Mandopop. Bassist and producer Nu’s former band Zayin was formed by five overseas Taiwanese students in New Zealand who produced light pop-rock, the kind that could easily play in the background of a KTV studio. Vocalist Léna Cha’s former group, Cherry Boom, seemed to be the opposite, their take on pop-rock seemed more inspired by the punky Western trends rather than catering to Mandopop trends. But by the time both groups had dissolved, pop-rock had gone out of Mandopop’s favour as dance-pop and singer-songwriter sounds took greater prominence—Mandopop left little room for either band.
With If There Is No Future, Astro Bunny reconcile with the changing trends. On the five-track EP, pop-rock is combined with electronic sounds in different iterations, attempting to make sense of how the duo could fit in the Mandopop scene. Astro Bunny felt like an experimental nothing-to-lose scenario, a way to stay connected to music, even in the turmoil of change. They reach high: “Flower Blossoms and Moon Round” was originally written by the duo with Sandee Chan in mind before becoming an earlier rendition of their electronic sound. They do it without expectations, rolling with whatever’s available and when asked about the name, Nu chooses “astro” due to being a fan of anime while Cha mentions loving bunnies and forcing him to do the same.
Astro Bunny’s first album would continue in the same vein as If There Is No Future but their second album would shape the rest of the band’s sound. By 2016, when Loneliness Will Be Away, Over and Gone was released, electronic elements had become more in favour, helping boost the band’s profile. The duo tend to engage in loneliness passively, Cha singing soft sweet confessionals as she awaits another while Nu produces the electronic elements that fill the gaps, buoying her with the cosmic sound they strive for and providing momentary release in the drops that occasionally dress their chorus. Their music is a soundtrack for lonely nights, for putting on your headphones and staring into the sky.
For Cha, she finds a better fit with Astro Bunny. Cherry Boom’s music never rebelled as hard as it should have in part to how Cha’s voice wasn’t strong enough to exhibit defiance. But with Astro Bunny, she sings in soft wisps, the pair making use of electronic textures to produce music that speaks to those feelings that are so hard to voice. To sing about being back into a corner to no one in particular. To gently proclaim freedom as you move away from everything else.
Together the duo have released one EP and seven studio albums, one a year since 2016. They’ve been nominated several times for Best Vocal Act at the Golden Melody Awards. They’re consistent in release and in sound, yet continue to gently push their music in new directions. In later releases they start to expand their vision, still dealing with loneliness but letting themselves see it as something else. Being more assertive in how they handle it, seeing it as freedom rather than the emptiness as nothing.
This month’s issue is all about Astro Bunny. Looking at their first EP and their seventh album, a decade later, as well as singles from the past five years that show some of the gradual evolution of their established sound. There’s a supplemental issue here on some new Mandopop music from last month and as well, the playlist has been updated here.
Albums
Astro Bunny - If There Is No Future [2012]
Astro Bunny envision If There Is No Future as a sort of concept album: the birth of the cosmos from nothing in the electronic ambience of “Intro,” then, at the center of the project, the event of the apocalypse, a fear that firmly sets the EP in 2012. It falls apart by the last two tracks, which trail back to the true intentions of Astro Bunny, a dissection of human relationships, sorting through the expanse of infinity to confront loneliness and isolation.
On the title track, amidst the impending apocalypse, Cha shyly wonders “if there is no future, what’s left that can’t be said?” before she strikes herself down, “if there is no future, then maybe some things don’t need to be said.” Cha renders the first point moot at the end of the chorus, “either way, I’ll have to walk alone,” almost expectantly, as if she already knew the outcome. The event of the apocalypse remains untouched and yet, Cha already stakes her future in being alone. “If There Is No Future” hides the future motifs of Astro Bunny’s lyrics: loneliness, sadness, and gratitude in the starry romanticism of the track’s hypothetical.
While the major motifs of Astro Bunny are easily established on If There Is No Future, their 2012 works are their least emblematic of their later sound. They’re more exploratory, experimenting with different sounds. The pair attempt to reconcile their previous background in pop-rock with electronica, running opposite to the major Mandopop trends. Closer “That Day” stays closest to pop-rock, using its digital sound to evoke nostalgia before glazing everything over with fuzzy guitars. Cha gives her strongest vocal performance here, fighting with her background to hold the memory. In contrast, her wispy vocal performance on “Milky Way” slips too far into ambient wallpaper that it becomes difficult that when the drop appears, it fails to make much of a splash. In the end, “If There Is No Future” becomes most emblematic of the duo’s future, with Nu filling the spaces of Cha’s lonely musings with electronic production that provides more comfort than jolt, polishing it until it becomes their signature sound.
Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify
Astro Bunny - 如果我有勇氣失去你 [2021]
Astro Bunny hinge their hope on another. Their music equates loneliness to the end of everything. It’s done to dramatic and cosmic proportions, like the apocalypse of “If There Is No Future” or on “Miss You,” off their fourth album, when they promise to hold on “until the end of the world.” They respond to farewells with a timely “I miss you,” knowing them only to be brief, holding out for when they’ll return. On “Loneliness Will Be Over, Away and Gone” they prayed: “I’ll be waiting for you to return to my side.”
But on the title track of 如果我有勇氣失去你 (If I’m Brave Enough to Lose You), there’s a finality to their goodbye. “I thought there’d be a day where we’d pick it up once again / but I’ve gone too far and can’t return.” By the point Cha reaches its finality, she’s exhausted of any emotions, finding herself in a numb cycle, that the idea of releasing herself from another—something she’s feared doing for the last ten years—feels like relief. When the drop of “If I’m Brave Enough to Lose You” hits, it feels like freedom for the first time in the duo’s career.
“難道只有我覺得” (“Is It Just Me?”) pushes Astro Bunny a bit further than they’ve gone before. It still carries the same palette the two have taken to since 2016, the glossy electronica that defines the group, but “Is It Just Me?” moves the tempo up, a pulse that makes it for dancing in your bedroom instead of just laying and staring. Parallel to that, “香草天空” (“Vanilla Sky”), kicks up the dance pulse throughout the track but unlike “Is It Just Me?,” finds itself unable to move on from the past, imagining a loving couple who find everything from just embracing under the cover of rain.
Astro Bunny do what they can to try and push forward—they became more assertive last year on Leyou Height but beyond the singles, If I’m Brave Enough to Lose You seems to find the duo in some stasis. “冬雲” (“Winter Clouds”) copies the melody of Leyou Height’s “5 AM” but sounds wearier, exhausted of fighting to stay in the same place rather than be happy. Fitting for a song that wants nothing more than to stop and heal. Yet while some are ready to let go elsewhere, Astro Bunny seem to regress back to some of the same places they were before, Cha the same girl afraid of being lonely and unwilling to push forward. “比寂寞還深的寂寞” (“A Deeper Loneliness than Lonely”) seems to get caught up in that same fear once again, offsetting the sense of freedom that its title track brought. “I’ll Be Alright” brings a similar level of placidity to their production but at least features Cha trying to push forward.
Astro Bunny are nothing if not consistent. If I’m Brave Enough to Lose You balances their past while still gently pushing forward, making it a nice starting place for Astro Bunny’s discography. The tracks that continue to chase after the company that’s long gone may not push the boundaries of their sound but still manage to be pleasant. It’s just that If I’m Brave Enough to Lose You, try as the group might, still can’t escape their greatest fear. There’s a tragedy in how the numbness of stasis seeps in, one easily realized by how the duo have spent the past decade staving off loneliness rather than searching for something more. For a moment, they let go of that fight, and the realization of freedom, because of how fleeting it feels, spurs something grander for the duo.
Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify
Singles: “難道只有我覺得” // “冬雲” // “如果我有勇氣失去你”
Singles
Astro Bunny - “Beauty Tears” [2016]
“Beauty Tears” is this weird moment where Astro Bunny veer completely off course from their sound. Cha opens with an impression of traditional Chinese vocalisms before it bursts with a guzheng. “Beauty Tears” spends its time drawing vivid scenes: “the misty white fog of the street we fell in love,” the “snowflakes that drown out a thousand-year-old oath.” Like “If There Is No Future,” Astro Bunny delve into fiction as a way of questioning their loneliness, this time through traditional imagery rather than the cosmos.
Astro Bunny - “#imissyousobad (feat. Yalu)” [2017]
The formula of their songs had already been established quite early—a soft drop just as Cha reaches the end of her chorus, a line thrown in that represents her feelings—but using a rare feature, Astro Bunny manage to play with the formula in a way that offers a newer perspective. Alone, Cha often acts as a pathetic character in Nu’s atmospheric electronic production, one who spends her time waiting for someone who may never come back. Yet when a second voice from Nu’s former bandmate Yalu joins, it feels like being in the middle of a disjointed conversation. Their thoughts echo across the glimmering production, “I miss you so bad,” called in harmony one moment, messages separately caught by the machine the next.
Astro Bunny - “Edge of the Universe” [2018]
“Edge of the Universe” acts almost opposite to “If I’m Brave Enough to Lose You.” Where Cha looked for an out on the latter due to her exhaustion, she’s confronted with the dissolution of a relationship on the former: “I can’t achieve forever with you,” she apologizes. She follows it with one last request: “let me be heartbroken alone, forgive me for forgetting you.” There’s no freedom here, just an inconquerable wall as Nu goes harder than anywhere else he’s gone on any prior or later Astro Bunny track for their most festival-ready EDM.
Astro Bunny - “青春的歌謠” [2019]
Buoyed by nostalgia, there’s something self-assured on “青春的歌謠” (“Ballad of Youth”) and throughout much of Astro Bunny’s fifth album 在名為未來的波浪裡 (In A Wave Called the Future). Here, Cha isn’t so bent on clinging to the past, singing in the same sweetly casual voice that made her lonely confessions feel so real, but so easily accepting the change. “Maybe we will never meet again.” Perhaps she sees herself immortalizing that period in this song, retitling it as “the ballad of us” towards its end. In the end, “Ballad of Youth” switches up its heavy-handed synth pulse for the even deeper thrums of “Cybertruck,” racing forward as Cha stops holding herself frozen in time.
Astro Bunny - “5 AM” [2020]
Leyou Height is Astro Bunny’s most confused record. It wants so badly to belong it loses itself only to flip a moment later, with Cha taking on the assertive character. On “I Remember,” Cha describes herself as just “a blank piece of paper with just your name written on it,” and resigns herself to that even though you’ve forgotten. But on “Drive,” only a moment later, she turns, perhaps to someone else, to say: “listen to me, I don’t know how to weave beautiful dreams, I just want to take you for a ride.” Through all of that, “5 AM” packs the most confusion, switching between needing another to prove they care and blindly accepting that they do. Playing back the conflict between a partner, while ignoring the inner conflict of her mind. The fighting seems to end there, leaving parts that seemed the same as before: loneliness, sadness, and a thank you. But this time, there’s also an apology, a recognition of Cha’s faults as she decides to move on and do better: “from now on, I’ll try not to miss you.” It leaves with questions, things Astro Bunny begin to fully explore for the first time: “who can I be? who am I? in the end, who am I?”
Find the latest Canto Wrap and Mando Gap playlists on Spotify and me on Twitter here.