Crystal Chen Releases ‘Kiss It Better’
Tamaki Mākaurau-based Chinese-New Zealand singer, musician, and visual artist Crystal Chen shares her new single, Kiss It Better.
An emerging musical powerhouse, Crystal’s songcraft draws from the storied influence of mid-20th-century American jazz, swing, and gospel singers like Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Aretha Franklin while bringing their sensibilities into harmony with the ornate sounds of 1970’s soul music (in the mode of Minnie Riperton and Al Green) and the modern Latin jazz lilt of Esperanza Spalding. Vividly imagined, her songs reach out to the listener like a warm hug or a late-night video call between besties.
At the start of 2024, Crystal reintroduced herself with her R&B/boogie single Love Letter (created with fellow Tamaki Mākaurau musician and producer Kenny Sterling of Mānuka Recordings). In a testament to the synergy between her sound and visual sensibilities, the Love Letter music video (co-directed with Kenny) won ‘Best Music Video’ at the HALO International Film Festival. It was also nominated for an LA Independent Women Film Award and ‘Best NZ Music Video’ at the 2024 Vision Fest Film Festival.
Kiss It Better is a masterclass in dreamy organic soul music. Rendered richly, it captures the feeling of sorting through your memories from a sweaty late summer’s night spent bar hopping and tearing up dancefloors with your best girls. As the double bass keeps pace, the song’s instrumentation unfolds into a free-flowing confluence of RnB, jazz, bossa nova and soul. With elegant percussion shuffling in the background and sultry vocal harmonies surrounding her, Crystal sings with the intensity of a slow-burning flame, relating stories of bad bitches getting the party started, sexily lit cigarettes and smoky sexual chemistry while imploring a nameless paramour – or perhaps even a friend – to kiss it better.
Playing-wise, Kiss It Better showcases the vivid, emotionally interpretive skills of Joe Kaptein (electric Rhodes and synthesiser, guitar, glockenspiel), Adam Tobeck (drums), Hank Trenton (double bass), Francesca Parussini (tenor saxophone), trumpet (Jack Thirtle), Harrison Chau (Harp), and Kenny Sterling (percussion and conga).
Written by Crystal, her keyboardist Joe Kaptein (who also arranged it) and Annika Rani, Kiss It Better was mixed by Christoph El Truneto and produced by Kenny Sterling. In late January 2025, she will unveil an accompanying Y2K-style music video to complete the picture she’s painting here.
Recorded between Roundhead Studios, Sterling Studios, and Hansa Studios, Kiss It Better offers us an intimate window into the studio sessions that went into her forthcoming debut album, due for release next year. Created with support from her creative community (via a recent Boosted funding campaign), the album features an extravagant cast of collaborators from Tamaki Mākaurau’s red-hot modern jazz, soul, and funk music scenes.
Outside of the studio and video shoots, this year has also been significant for Crystal on the live front. In May, she played her first headline show at Big Fan in Morningside. Since then, she has shared stages with the Melbourne alt-indie trio Telenova and the Te Whanganui-a-Tara-based acid jazz, disco-funk and post-punk eight-piece Revulva.
