Today we’d like to introduce you to Lei Ng Labrador.
Hi Lei, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As a kid, my Filipino dad would drive my younger siblings and I around in his modified 1994 Honda Civic while blasting trance and techno artists like DJ Tiësto and Alice Deejay — typical AZN dad behavior. We were always on the go and I would play Pokémon Emerald and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on my Game Boy Advance SP. Looking back, I greatly attribute these two aspects of my childhood to my current passion for creating electronic music with a Nintendo Game Boy as part of my sound palette.
I started creating music as Holographic Catholic in 2018. Back then, I frequently performed at Back to the Grind’s open mics in Downtown Riverside. I brought a lot of chaotic energy to their basement and balcony stages and would always have so much fun. My bandmate, Mateusz (or “Matt” for short) joined Holographic Catholic as soon as I started playing live shows. As a duo, we have worked on an LP entitled Excommunication and a handful of singles.
Alongside being in my band, I also run a record label that I launched in 2020 called Fried Tofu Records. In light of the Georgia spa shootings that happened earlier this year in March, I was motivated to organize something through my record label to help heal the Asian community. Thus, the Fried Tofu Records Remedy Compilation was born. I had the honor and privilege to work with so many talented and kindhearted Asian artists from the United States, the UK, Japan, and Korea. Together we created a 23 track compilation album that raised over $700 for the Asian Mental Health Collective.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
A smooth road? Oh no, absolutely not. Not by any means! Honestly, I think the thing I probably struggle with the most as an artist, and even as just a person, is managing my mental health and overall wellbeing. This is actually a very difficult thing for me to talk about because mental health is, for the most part, a sort of taboo subject. However, I am a firm believer that discussing mental health issues enlighten most people who are willing to listen.
I’m autistic and have Borderline Personality Disorder. In short, I’m a socially awkward person with intense emotions and abandonment issues. I would be lying if I said I had my shit together. However, it would be more honest to say, I am trying very hard to get my shit together! Does anyone actually have composure at all times? Do those kinds of people exist in real life?
Another struggle that is very real is the whole process of identity formation. Who am I as not only a person but an artist? What do I have to offer? Do people even care about stupid emotional synthpop with Game Boy arpeggios? A lot of identity formation, for me, is just having to cope with massive imposter syndrome, dispelling the urge to compare myself to others, and somehow trying to figure out who I am and what I believe in on top of all that.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
With humble origins as a solo fakebit project, I now craft electronic music with my bandmate, Mateusz, using an eclectic sonic palette including a Nintendo Game Boy. My band may be called Holographic Catholic, but we should not be mistaken for Gospel musicians. The name is more of a playful masquerade of hyper-religious aesthetics as a means of subversion and digital dissent. With a glamorous façade of black fishnets, razor sharp eyeliner, and iridescent crucifixes, we do not embody or represent Catholicism, but rather, we are a dazzling abstraction of it – a matrimony of the sacred and the profane.
As a band, we approach chiptune quite differently than what is typical in the genre. A lot (not all, but a great deal) of chiptune is made with trackers on retro gaming devices such as the 1989 Nintendo Game Boy (DMG-01) or even the Commodore 64. In our case, we use a Game Boy running either mGB by trash80 or LSDj on a cartridge to incorporate chiptune flair into our music. Pretty much everything else is taken care of in our Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), FL Studio. Some people look down at DAWs and VST plugins and deride them as “lazy” or “unimpressive”, but I don’t believe that artists require a giant studio full of expensive gear to make good music. If it sounds good and you’re enjoying yourself, that’s what’s most important!
I’m honestly not exactly sure what would be the biggest thing that sets us apart from other artists, but I do think our sound is pretty bold. You would be hard-pressed to find another duo who makes music with an obsolete handheld video game console and incorporates impromptu pom pom choreography into their live acts.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Holographic Catholic has existed since Fall 2018. It would be negligent and disrespectful to disregard the immense love and support I have received from family, friends, other artists, and communities such as A Bit of Chiptune. Without these people, I would not be where I am today. It sounds corny and like something you would hear from Kingdom Hearts dialogue, but my friends are my power!
Pricing:
- Excommunication (Digital Bandcamp Album) – $6.66
- Excommunication (Jewel Case CD) – $10 + shipping
- Remedy (Digital Bandcamp Album) – $10
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://holographiccatholic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holographiccatholic/
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/friedtofurecords/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/notagospelband
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/sLrSnX6E8zw
- Other: https://friedtofurecords.bandcamp.com/
