pretty havoc. is out to make a name for himself.
Born in Singapore and growing up in America as a third culture kid, pretty havoc., whose real name is Tyler Thang, is now aiming to be an admirable representative within the pop-punk and rock scenes in the US, and he’s on a mission to make an impression.
For his most recent release, pretty havoc. has teamed up with Sleeping With Sirens' Kellin Quinn for ‘ATOM BOMB’. The pumped-up collaboration is what he calls a "post-apocalyptic love song" about being deeply infatuated with someone.
With the song’s hook firmly stuck in our heads, Bandwagon had a chat with pretty havoc. to learn more about 'ATOM BOMB,' Asian representation in music, his love for K-pop group TWICE, and more.
Hey, pretty havoc.! What have you been up to these days?
I've just been making a lot of music, trying to advance my career. I've been doing this for a little while - not too long, but definitely long enough to want to get somewhere. I moved to LA after I finished high school in Singapore, around the end of 2018, but I've been back and forth a little bit. I’m doing the best I can to make it in the industry that I sought out, in LA. I feel rock music is not as commonly sought out in Asia, except maybe in Japan, so I thought it'd be the best move for me to try and make it here, in LA.
I just dropped a single with Kellin Quinn from Sleeping with Sirens called ‘ATOM BOMB’, which has been in the works for a while. I actually was visiting home in Singapore last year, around June, and I wrote it around that time so I've been with the song for a while, since I want to make sure that every song gets the best from me. I plan to put out a song every month for the rest of the year. A handful of them are collaborations, and I hope to really and finally make a splash.
View this post on Instagram
Congratulations on your new song ‘ATOM BOMB’, the exciting collaboration with Kellin Quinn from Sleeping With Sirens! How did this come about?
Kellin Quinn’s really cool. Honestly, I think he's probably one of the most genuine rock stars ever. He's been doing a lot of collabs and features with smaller artists. I was just going to put it out by myself. But since he was one of my idols growing up, I thought, “why not just ask him to take over the first half of the song?”. So I sent it to him and he thought the song sounded great! He tracked his vocals himself and sent them to me. We mixed, mastered, and dropped it, and we were talking along the way. So, it's not like I was sitting in a room with him. He's a busy man, you know - he's making songs with Machine Gun Kelly, and he's got his own band. But yeah, that's kind of how it happened!
‘ATOM BOMB’ is almost a post-apocalyptic love song. The instrumental is very industrial, a little bit like Nine Inch Nails, and I used a lot of factory noises as the background. There’s an alternative rock / pop-punk feel to the guitars and vocals. Actually, do you remember when ‘As The World Caves’ became really popular on Tiktok? I heard the song and thought, “Yo, this song is insane”. It's so well done. It's so beautiful. But I also thought, why does it seem like love songs always have to be slow, sensual, or quiet? I love a lot of rock love songs that are heavy, loud, and intense - you know, what it feels like when you actually fall for someone? It’s very intense and never mellow. And that’s how I decided to make the song.
View this post on Instagram
I'm very thankful for the reception. I always strive to do more but it's been doing pretty great. Spotify was kind enough to put it on ‘The Locker’, which is a pretty big rock editorial playlist in the US, and Apple Music also added the song into ‘New and Rock’. I feel like it is a step in the right way for me to pave the way, as a Singaporean artist doing rock music in the US. So I'm quite thankful that the editors at Spotify felt like the song that I wrote was good enough to keep up with all those big rock stars in the US, you know?
On that note, what are your thoughts on the recent resurgence of pop-punk?
When the resurgence first started happening, I thought it was really awesome because it gives me more opportunities to do what I wanted to do. But now, a lot of people are doing pop-punk and it feels really competitive. Generally, of course, I think it's great that rock’s making a comeback. For the last 10 years, everyone was talking about rock music being dead, and declared that it wasn't going to become popular again. I guess it goes to show that we may be wrong and that things tend to come in cycles - I'm sure rock will eventually die out and then come back again in some other form. It's definitely good to see more people getting into punk again and it's especially nostalgic for anyone like me who was born in the '90s or early 2000s, during the height of pop-punk. It's really cool to see everyone try a new thing with the sound, or explore it again.
View this post on Instagram
What’s on your playlist right now?
I definitely listen to punk and K-pop predominantly. I think TWICE is the best girl group ever. also like the popular rock things right now - I listen to a lot of Machine Gun Kelly and YUNGBLUD, as well as the alternative and pop-punk scene. Growing up, I used to listen to bands like blink-182 and Green Day, they're awesome. But I always felt weird that there was rarely an Asian person to look up to in the rock scene. So, growing up, the posters on my wall were these Californian rock bands, and I always wished that there was somebody who looked like me so that I would have felt that I could do it too. It felt like an extra challenge to overcome.
As I got older, I found myself. I really love my culture and how I grew up, where I'm from, and my people. With the rise of K-pop, the world has become more open to Asian music, and there are a lot of Asian artists like Joji who are doing extremely well, so what’s missing is just the Asian dude who's the rock star. I wanted to be the solution. Of course, I'm sure there are other artists who are doing a great job that may not have really reached the heights yet for everyone to see. I would like to create that movement and be that representation.
How do you blend your diverse influences from punk to K-pop in the music that you create?
There are some things that I really love about K-pop and a lot of things I love about punk music but they're seen as quite opposite things. One is quite Asian, the other is very much Western. I thought maybe the best way to get more people into my music and to understand people like me and our perspective is to blend the two sounds - make something that is very reminiscent of American Western pop-punk, but with a lot of Asian influence, and make it Asian centric with the visuals, lyrics, or the musicality.
So, my next song - I'm doing it with a former K-pop idol from 24K, who started making alternative music solo. We made something really awesome that we can't wait to share. I'm singing in Korean in that song as well, and it blends K-R&B with grunge. I’m making the language borderless and having the music be influenced by both styles and sounds, trying to kind of cook a new thing that is uncommon for people to hear something, like softer K-R&B like pop-punk or harder, heavy K-pop.
View this post on Instagram
As an Asian artist in a space and genre dominated by Westerners, what are the unique challenges you face and how do you tackle them? Conversely, what do you feel are the strengths your background has gifted you with?
I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of people in the alternative scene, but the scene is predominantly white. I can't help but get the feeling that they look at me and think “It's kind of weird that Asian kid’s doing rock music”. I get the feeling that my music is not taken as seriously since the whole punk rock star thing would be to be loud and aggressive, but in the US, unfortunately, there is a tendency to think of Asian men as docile. I hope that thinking changes soon. Sometimes, they may not say anything, but I sense micro-aggressions toward me. I would say those are the biggest challenges posed to me.
However, I’ve tried to turn it around. I try not to see my uniqueness and the fact that there hasn’t been an Asian punk star in the Western world as a downfall. I try to think, “I have every opportunity and every chance to be the first one to change minds”. Secondly, if I’m going to be the one Asian doing pop-punk in America, I would love to have support from Asians! It’s where I’m from, it’s my community. I would love to be able to do well in Asia and for Asians to support what I do.
Overall, I feel there are more advantages than disadvantages - there's always a solution based on perspective. My perspective is just that my situation gives me a chance to be the first one to dominate a scene that I feel it's untapped, especially as an Asian.
If you had to choose a pretty havoc song to introduce a new listener to your sound, which song would it be?
Of course, ‘ATOM BOMB’ - it’s my newest track. But I’d also choose ‘Goddess’ if I could choose two. I’ve always felt it was the kindest blend of punk and softer pop. It’s easy to listen to, but it’s just enough rock and pop so it’s easy for anyone to get into. ‘ATOM BOMB’ - I love that song, but it's definitely quite left-field, it’s a straight-up alternative rock pop-punk song, with a lot of aggression - it’s very My Chemical Romance!
Given the various influences and styles that your music pulls from, what would be the dream collab that you’d like to manifest and what type of a song would you like to create with that artist?
I would love to manifest a collab with TWICE! My friends always think I’m joking, but no cap, I've seen them twice this year, no pun intended. What’s more rockstar than selling out four stadiums in four months in the same place? That's insane. What kind of song we’d make? Oh, yeah, I have no idea. Anything would be awesome. If it happened, my life would have peaked, and I could probably just retire afterwards and be happy.
View this post on Instagram
What exciting plans do you have for the future of pretty havoc.?
I think you will be looking at the best music I have ever made. I think it comes with time, since it took a couple of years to find myself or what I really wanted to do. I was struggling to find my footing, especially in a new country where everyone is a musician. Everyone in LA is trying to be something. It’s very competitive. Back home in Singapore, I knew a lot of people because I spent most of my life there. Going from a small music scene in Singapore to a giant place where artists like blackbear and Ed Sheeran live, it took me a while to understand what I wanted to do, and the right way to go about it.
So you can look forward to me putting out the best music ever had in a style now that I feel most comfortable with, and I believe what you’ll hear will be a bit more unique, compared to a lot of the rock music that we hear today! It’ll also transcend borders, because it is music that incorporates Western and Eastern influences. There’ll be some cool collaborations coming up. While I’m also continuing to work behind the scenes for some big artists, I’d say that's what fans can look forward to!
Like what you read? Show our writer some love!
-