Chinese-Pākehā artist dān dān (Ersha Island 二沙岛) is set to unveil her long-awaited music video for folk-pop single ‘pressure cooker’.
Danielle Hao-Aickin's solo work debuted last November to widespread media praise and radio interest (see below).
The upcoming music video was directed by Flora Xie, produced by Natasha Skuljan and made with the support of NZ On Air. Inspired by the transformative film Everything Everywhere All At Once, the video spans multiple locations in its exploration of mother-daughter tensions. It even features MasterChef 2022 Winner Sam Low as a waiter.
The music video begins in a Malaysian restaurant, pulling dān dān through other strange universes such as a laundromat, bar and one where she's an Uber Eats driver, as she chases after her mother— but never quite catching up. "No version of her stops, no version of me feels enough," Hao-Aickin reflects.
She continues, "In many ways, it reflects the unspoken pressure between my mum and I - the weight of expectations, the love that’s there but often buried under generations of misunderstanding, the cultural gaps no matter how hard I try. The more I run, the further away she feels."
The final scenes show dān dān in the rain, "alone and unable to catch up" before the "story loops back". "I return to the restaurant, and this time, she’s there. We embrace. No dramatic reveal. And maybe, for now, that’s enough," she shares.
The single was produced by Dan Martin (Jordyn With A Why) and co-written with ASHY and Huiming Wu (花溪 Flowerstream) at BIG FAN’s Fan Camp: Pan-Asian last April, with sister Tee joining on violin.
'pressure cooker' was featured as The 13th Floor's Song of the Day and included in UnderTheRadar's coveted Release Roundup as a "soaring ballad". dān dān was even featured in The Big Idea's Lowdown, profiled by AsianTones, included in an Asian In Aotearoa Substack, interviewd on Radio One's Breakfast with Zac Hoffman, and performed for 95bFM's Fancy New Band.
dān dān was further considered internationally, with Nicole Mendes of UK site The Other Side described her debut as "sincere, sentimental and filled with raw human emotion". The US site Ticket Fairy' wrote that 'pressure cooker' "courses through strummy acoustic guitar and polished fret movement gently ladled over temperate piano notes". It praised dān dān's "smooth vocal textures" that "carry [sic] evocative lyrics".