Siblings Olivia Hardy and William Gao formed their band, Wasia Project, in their teens.
On today's show, they perform songs from their latest EP, Isotope, and they talk about the creative influence of their classical musical upbringing, how they started to develop their own tastes together, and about the impact of growing up between two cultures — they live in the U.K. and take regular trips to China to visit their mom's side of the family.
"I think it's like an openness, really, to, like, absorbing information and being open to, like, difference," Hardy says.
They also talk about how their side gigs affect how they make music together, like Gao's starring role in the Netflix show Heartstopper.
"When you are down one creative path or you are so intensely looking at one, it definitely frees a bit of space in the other side of your brain," he says.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.