Selected by The Naked and Famous

Known for their rhapsodies and elation, The Naked and Famous have timelessly succeeded in supplying the world with a friendly dose of electronic indie pop, with influences of 80s punk. Lead singer Alisa Xayalith has always been consciously vocal about her family’s heritage and tumultuous past as refugees, so in celebration of their new music dropping today, Alisa has curated for Notion a 10Trax compilation consisting of empowering female Asian artists that have broken the mould.

Born and raised in New Zealand from Laotian heritage, Alisa uses her voice to make a stand for voiceless refugees in contemporary society that are consistently stigmatized against due to the racial prejudice that the world suffers. Second generation refugee to Laotian parents, who migrated to New Zealand following her father’s fears of being imprisoned or killed by the new communist regime reigning 1975 Laos, for working in US intelligence forces, Alisa has spoken openly about her parent’s hardship escaping the country undetected with her two older siblings.

“In the music scene in New Zealand, I was often the ethnic minority. An Asian woman fronting an indie rock electro-pop band. Nowadays that wouldn’t sound so strange, but I sometimes wondered whether I would have had more opportunities if I didn’t look like me. That’s a pretty sad thought to have for a kid. There was this one instance where I auditioned for a musical in my high school theatre class to play the role of an Asian character and the teacher ended up picking a white girl to play her and she even mimicked an “Asian accent” in the performance. That was my first big blow in a creative space that I’ve never forgotten.

I never used to feel comfortable openly talking about this kind of thing, but as culture has progressed over the years, there’s a comfort knowing that I have these same thoughts in common with other Asian creatives and there’s an open public platform where these conversations are taking place. Through the years, I have observed and participated in a very homogenous music culture, I’ve always been the ethnic minority in a room and I’m going to keep doing what I do because having a public platform to represent Asian people in music is worth it for other kids who grew up like me to realise that it is possible to get a seat at the table.”

Armed with pride for her past and anger for the hate she’s been exposed to, Alisa has used this opportunity to showcase her favourite Asian music artists who have and are tearing up the music industry with their similar blend of indie electronic pop and techno.

Scroll down to check out Alisa’s 10 Trax featuring the likes of Peggy Gou, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more. Don’t forget to check out the band’s latest track ‘Bury Us’ from their forthcoming album ‘Recover’!