Soulful, dashed with a few splashes of funk, and rich with a velvet feeling reminiscent of a lazy Sunday evening - creating that perfectly smooth blend of R&B feels.
Meet the all-of-the-above encompassing British-Chinese singer Lui Peng.
Citing R&B icon Drake as one his main lyrical inspirations, hints of the discernible influence is a pleasant welcome.
Making his entry into the music scene at age 19, Lui got discovered the classic way, of course - by posting acoustic song covers on YouTube - and the rest as they say, is history.
In 2017, his Demons remixes EP featuring London rapper Che Lingo was released, gaining him a decent listener-ship on music platforms like Spotify.
Having finally made his debut in Asia last September, we managed to catch up with the singer-songwriter in Kuala Lumpur.
Sharing how he got started in the scene, and his musical aspirations, read on to get to know him better, and why Lui Peng should be on your playlist stat.
Hi, Lui. What brings you to Malaysia?
Well we know some awesome promoters. This would be our fourth stop officially for our Asia tour. Played at the Music Matters Live festival right before in Singapore and that was awesome.
Tell us, what got you into the music scene?
Back in the U.K. I used to do a lot of freelancing, but at the moment I'm mostly doing just music. My management label, Manta Ray, has been awesome to me in regards to paying for my music video and more.
I studied photography back in school, not music, just because I thought the latter was going to be a pipe dream. But after dabbling in music for a bit and after some YouTube covers got some traction, I got the attention of Manta Ray by doing a cover of James Hersey's "Coming Over". The next thing I know Hersey's manager hits me up and says "Are you serious about this music thing? If so, hit me back." And I did. It's been almost 3 years since then.
How has the journey of being an artist going so far?
I love what I do. I really enjoy being a recording artist and writing songs. I would say that's my forte, I could sit down and meticulously perfect every single note.
Who are your influences?
Oh, they come from a bunch of different people. When I was younger it was more like Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz. When I got a bit older, I moved on more to R&B stuff like Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars. Drake has been a really big influence to me. From his subject matter - he's like a hardcore rapper in many regards - and he's still not afraid to talk about his sensitive side like girls, feelings and love. All these things I can relate to.
Besides touring what are you working on currently?
My producer Chris is going to shoot a music video for my new single in Tokyo. Then an EP will follow next.
With about 10 songs out there, would you say that at this point you're quite the seasoned singer-songwriter?
Well, I'd like to think so. But I'm not a performing artist. Performing is not something I really enjoy a whole lot. I'm terrified of forgetting my lyrics and/or the sound man messing up.
But don't you think performing comes part and parcel with being a musician?
Yeah, but I think it is less so nowadays than like maybe 5 to 10 years ago. As the internet sort of progressed, streaming has become much more a thing now and so many new artists are heard from just the internet. The vast consumption of music is definitely via online, and that's something I would like to get into more.
Check out more of Lui Peng's music HERE:
(Photo Source: Tiffin)