Exclusive Interview - Sum Ting Wong
Our interview starts with Sum Ting Wong fresh out of bed, having just spent all night making sure the music video for Hypnotise is ready to go. We have a hilarious chuckle about the video being possibly removed straight from YouTube due to a nip slip and then we begin…
Sum Ting Wong, welcome my lovely Spill the Tea magazine. When did you first discover Drag was for you?
I did a little thing where I found pictures of myself on the same date in Drag for the last eight years, so I think eight years ago was my first time leaving the house in drag. It was it was a rugby night or a rugby fundraiser and we had some Drag on, so I went and I was doing the door in Drag and honestly I could send you the picture where I look so disgusting, trust and believe honey, you don't ever want to look like this not in drag, no no. I look back at it now and I'm think A) Why did anyone let you leave the house like that? B) if anyone told you, you looked awful, you would never kept with it. But that was the first time dabbling in drag and then the second time was between then and the year after I think, my housemate at the time was on this TV show, it was called Drag Queens of London, it's like archive footage. Anyway, my housemate was on that show as like a fledgling Drag Queen learning how to do Drag and while he was doing that, I was like, I could do this way better than you can. I got into Drag and entered this UK wide competition called Drag Idol, which was that year, bear in mind it was my first time that I tried really performing a small show and you have to do a 15 minute set. I eventually came third in that competition. Tia [referencing to Tia Kofi off Season 2 of Drag Race UK] in Drag for the first time with her girl group called the Vixens came second. And Danny Beard came first. Then from that point on, I was doing gigs around the UK. But it did get to a point where it was really interfering with my work. There was one time where I was getting paid fairly well to do an office job in London, one day I was in the office, having a bad day and I had a call from one of the venues that said, we've had a Drag Queen drop out can you get here? I was like, are sorry, I can't get out of work in time. I then sat there and I was like, I just turned down more money to do that, than I would here hating what I'm doing at this desk right now. So at that point, I just up and left to do the gig and then quit.
The rest is struggling artists history!
“Music has always been the reason why I do anything. I've always been into singing.”
You of course competed on Series 1 of RPDRUK, as an insider what did you think of Series 2 and who was your favourite or favourites?
The thing about season two is they all get paid 20,000 pounds to go on the show… no no, they don’t. No one gets paid any money! Let me squash that runour right there!
Erm… whose my favourite of Season 2, it obviously has to be Tia Kofi but I had a real soft spot for Ellie and Tayce as we just did a small tour together. Ellie Diamond is so hard working and she's so young. If I was even a smidge of what she is, imagine how amazing she'll be 10 years. I feel like a lot of Drag has boiled down to having expensive clothes and a nice wig, I feel that’s at the heart of whats destroying what drag is. But Ellie isn’t about just that at all, even though she maybe young she is a performer. I think at the heart of it as long as your intention is to put on a good show, which includes Tayce as well, that girl knows how to put on a show. I feel like if there was more…not acting but more performing challenges on drag race, I feel that would be a better representation of what drag is. It’s the same with instagramers ‘Oh, just do a pretty face’ but I’m like where's the Drag, honey?
Moving onto your music, were you always interested in making music or was this an after Drag Race discovery?
Always music, music has always been the reason why I do anything. I've always been into singing. I used to play in bands ever since I was a kid. I was always like the lead singer. I was doing bands since I was 12 up to like 18 doing open mic nights and stuff to just be singing in public, it's something that I've always loved. So when Ru Paul’s Drag Race came along with the opportunities that come with it, I released my first single Crossfire with the intention of it being music. The music I want to put out is the music I want to portray as an artist, which is currently very different than what's currently being shown from the Drag Race alumni.
How would you describe your music?
I don’t know what genre I would put it down as, I have a lot of elements of pop, R&B and kind of late 2000’s emo, it's just an amalgamation of all the music that I love and then regurgitated through my body. I would say with my music, I always want to work with people who will help me create the vision that I want. That vision that I want is normally a snapshot in time of how I’m feeling. I'm very in my emotions with my music. It's always a moment in time, a memory of something that’s happened in a pop ballad kind of way. Everything I write is personal. When I see people making music, which I don't like…I mean, I’m all about the Amy Winehouse, the Adele, the GaGa, Marina and the Diamonds, Florence and the Machine! They all create stories through music and I feel I want to be part of that. I want to create stuff that feels timeless. As arty and snobbish as that sounds, I feel the content of the music that I produce will stand the test of time.
I feel like the only other person making music like that at the minute is Tia, she released Outside In and that's the only song so far that's come out of Drg Race that I was like you know what? You are probably my best mate, but I am more than happy to fight you (not like fist fight), I’m mean I’m so happy to have a peer who I respect doing something with the same artistic integrity that I feel, I can't wait to see how things go.
Your new single Hypnotise recently dropped, what was the inspiration behind the track?
Our friend who wrote the song with us was like ‘I've got this song I recon you’d sound really good on, but make it your own’. I took myself away and made so many bad demo versions of the song that I was never happy with, mainly because we were working in the same way that we worked on Crossfire (Sum Ting Wong’s first single release). I have to change how I work with music, I took the track away and sat with it on a piano, put some words on top, see how it sounded, which was during the pandemic and it just became the song that I wanted it to become.
The song itself was originally just about fame but I've interjected a lot of personal experience into it. The song basically is you have met the devil or a shady bloke with a golden guitar pick in an alleyway. And he says to you, I will make you famous if you give me your soul. It’s the idea of losing yourself and what would you give up just to be famous… and is it worth it?
The music video has also been released, you look amazing in it, the looks were incredible!
Big up to Bang London and Adam Frost, also Weekday Wigs for that amazing wig and then Steven Austin who does my colours!
My favourite look for sure was the polka dot.
REALLY? That’s an Adam Frost original, he created the coat for Tayce’s entrance look (for Drag Race UK Series 2). I like how the last thing in everyone’s mind was how I was on the show. So I just wanted to put this out there to be like, ‘Hey, guys, I've been working on my Drag’.
What was the inspiration behind the video?
For the video I wanted to look sickening in it and I wanted an opportunity to wear some of these incredible outfits I had made. What better way than a music video. It all came together really well.
The venue itself is actually filmed at Sweatbox, it's a gay sauna in the middle of Soho, it was great for my manager because it’s the first time she's ever been in a gay sauna, probably the first a lady that has gone in one. She was having a whale of a time. It was fantastic. I wanted it to feel as if it was little scenes in a random place. The theme behind the video is, it's me with someone captive looking as if I’m basically interrogating them or torturing them. Every now and again, it will flash to another snapshot, I wanted each snapshot to be like their mind, their mind being hypnotised or me getting into his brain. But actually at the end of the video, it's me as the one asking for help from him because I am then trapped in this world, a world where I’m idolised, alone, where I know that I can't get out of this, it’s my fate. Very much what fame is, why is it worth so much to so many people? Is it all about the money and do you lose your artistic integrity? Almost a diss on modern pop at the minute, a lot of it is just rehashing things from the 90’s. I didn't like crazy frog when it came out. So I'm not going to put some lyrics on the top of it… Rita Ora! I feel like people have done so much trying to be famous and to try and stay famous, trying to stay relevant and people have lost the art of it, they've lost the love of it, lost the integrity, I wanted to try and portray some of those in a music video and in the song but still make it not in your face.
Will this track and Crossfire be part of a future E.P or album release?
There are two tracks on the EP, I have a couple that are completely written and ready to go. The whole album will be what I've been feeling over the last year, on boys, money, fame, security and love. It's going to be an album that I'm really proud of, I'll be able to listen to, say in 10 years, where I'll be able to listen to it back and say, this is exactly how I was feeling at this point.
I will probably do another music video for another track on the album before it comes out. But for now, I think I'm just gonna keep it Crossfire and Hypnotise until the album drops.
Any last shout outs?
Shout out to my personal assistant who has driven me around this whole pandemic, so I don’t catch covid! To Pete and Dale and my poor long suffering boyfriend who has had to deal with me this whole time!
You can listen to Sum Ting Wong on Spotify by clicking here and follow on Instagram here.
Note: Some of this interview has been edited from the original transcript.