EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: pretty havoc. On ‘Punching Bag,’ Writing Music, And More!

Honey bees! Do we have any pretty havoc. fans among us? Yes? No? Well, either way, you are about to be one just like us and if you are part of 24U then we have something special for you as well! But first things first, pretty havoc. is a Singaporean artist who made it his goal to bring us alternative music that sounds like k-r&b meets rock and let us tell you he is pretty good at achieving this goal!

Tyler Thang, who goes by the stage name pretty havoc., debuted in 2018 with single ‘i’m sorry i broke your heart’ and since then has been giving us bop after bop. This time around he teamed up with former 24k member Kim Jeonguk – yes, 24k Kim Jeonguk – for his new single. 24U we told you we’d have a treat for you! The song by this duo is called ‘Punching Bag’ and is coming out on August 26th! Make sure to check it out because we are already obsessed with this banger.

In order to celebrate the new single and to make everyone pretty havoc. fans we got to sit down and chat with Tyler all about his music, the collab, and much more. So be our guest and keep reading!

Don’t forget to stream the song here.

Hey there and welcome to THP, thank you so much for chatting with us. Let us start with something simple! As pretty havoc ‘punching bag’ is only your second release this year what is something you want new fans of you to know about you?
Hey THP! Thank you for speaking with me! Hmm perhaps that I’m an Asian artist making heavily influenced alternative music, and I think at least in western Rock, there isn’t much representation for rock music among Asians, so I hope to be the solution to that eventually. If you grew up an Emo kid, maybe I got something great you’d wanna check out!

‘Punching Bag’ is described as k-R&B and pop punk having a baby and we have to agree. As huge pop punk fans here at THP we want to know where the inspiration for this came from.
I grew up a big rock fan, had posters of bands like Blink, MCR, etc on my walls growing up, and growing up in Asia, as I got older I started getting into K-Pop & KR&B, so I thought to myself wouldn’t that be so cool if there was a bridge of that, I seem to see there’s a lot of K-Pop fans who grew up listening to Rock bands, so how about make something fresh yet nostalgic? I thought about blending the sound of modern rock acts like YUNGBLUD and MGK with KR&B acts like Jay Park, DPR IAN and that’s when I got the idea to make ‘PUNCHING BAG.’ So I contacted Jeonguk and we started working on the track we’ve created today!

Kim Jeonguk was your collaborator on this single and you also count him as a friend. What was it like working together on a project? What was your recording process like?
Since I live in LA and he lives in Seoul, we had to do things remotely, I started by producing the track and writing a hook/general idea before sending it to him, we both thought it was a great topic to play on and shortly after he wrote/recorded his parts and sent it back to me for mixing! It was a great experience, he’s a talented guy and I’m thankful to have worked with him on a song!

We believe anyone has found themselves one way or the other in a toxic relationship and ‘Punching Bag’ really captures one’s feeling. Do you have any tips as to how to deal with a relationship like that? How do you overcome it after it ends?
Hahaha, I will admit I make quite bad decisions more often than not, so perhaps not the best at giving advice on this topic but I think sometimes when you’re in a relationship it always feels like the most important thing in the world, that you feel like if you didn’t have that, you couldn’t live, so it’s hard to leave. However, the fact is you’ve probably been in one before, and if not, you’ve probably felt that before, the heartbreak and sadness, but the thing is you’ve survived it plenty of times, and you’ll survive it again, it’s not the end of the world, you will heal, and you’ll be okay eventually, the time it takes just varies from person to person but the end result is the same.

You were born in Singapore but have lived all over the world already. What were your favorite places to live in so far? How do these places inspire your music?
Hmm, that’s a tough question, I think every country/place has its Pros & Cons, it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I think growing up a “third culture kid” that’s what they call them I think? (Not trying to sound pretentious I swear) I feel lucky to have experienced many cultures and befriended people from all walks of life, I think it helps you be more open-minded and realize that the world has a lot of interesting things to offer, and it’s always cool to learn and find something new. So in turn, I guess it’s helped me to want to create music from more than one culture that’s diverse. In addition to that, the amount of experiences that have come with the journey has also helped give me more things to write about!

Was there a city where you felt especially creative in?
Hmm, not exactly, I would say it varies depending on what I am experiencing, but generally, if I have my laptop, guitar, and microphone with me, I think I could create anywhere comfortable!

Your new single really has us hyped and makes us want to release all of our emotions with an actual ‘Punching bag.’ What is a way you release negative emotions? What is your ‘Punching bag?’
I think music provides a huge catharsis, I think any artist/musician will tell you that, I personally always feel enlightened when I create a song about something I was struggling with and feeling, however when that doesn’t work, yea I think an actual Punching Bag helps too haha.

The new single is performed in English and Korean which makes it even more interesting. How did you decide which lyrics would be performed in English and which in Korean?
I’m sure it would vary for every songwriter, but for this particular song I think haha the hook line of “I’ll be your PUNCHING BAG, take it easier on me” makes a little more sense in English than it does in Korean. I believe some slang terms and “modern language” in English can’t be translated well to any other language and vice versa, so I guess that’s why many artists sometimes have English lines in songs even if their first language isn’t English.

We think that pretty havoc. and Kim Jeonguk make an amazing team, can we expect to hear more from you as a team together?
We most definitely hope so! We sincerely hope this song will be enjoyed, especially since we feel it’s quite a unique piece of work in terms of a Pop track, blending two specific genres that are quite opposites.

And lastly, what is next for pretty havoc.? What can fans expect from you in the next couple of months?
I will be creating a lot of content on my socials as well as putting out new music with some collaborations here and there! Would love for you all to join me on my journey, and I hope to be able to reach a wider audience by then! Thank you so much for speaking with me!

Thank you so much for speaking to us Tyler and making music for us emo K-Pop fans, we can’t wait to hear more from you!

What about you, will you join the pretty havoc. fanclub now? What do you think about ‘Punching Bag?’ Let us know by commenting down below or by tweeting us @TheHoneyPOP! We are also on Facebook and Instagram!

We have more interviews for you to check out right this way!

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