Although Will Gao will be known to most through his portrayal of Tao Xu in Netflix’s coming-of-age smash Heartstopper, his musical endeavours as one half of Wasia Project alongside sister Olivia Hardy have been much longer in the making. Far from a side hustle, Wasia – formed in 2019, and named after a conflation of the pair’s mixed western and Asian heritage – craft an accomplished palette rooted in classical training but bringing in modern, Laufey-esque jazz and crooning indie-pop. Recent single Takes Me Back Home is rich with strings and Hardy’s haunting vocals, while breakthrough track Ur So Pretty (featured on the Heartstopper soundtrack) is an appropriately heart-tugging exercise in classical piano minimalism.
The effect is of a duo wise beyond their still-minimal years; Gao is 21, Hardy 19. Full of yearning, they turned to music to escape the pressures of growing up in a constantly advancing social media generation.
“There’s always a bittersweet tinge of sadness and nostalgia with change,” Hardy recently told DIY magazine. On 29 August, second EP Isotope will arrive ahead of a US tour. Full of tempestuous instrumentation (Is This What Love Is?), tender balladry (the Gao-led To Get Better) and concluding with the old Hollywood sweep of instrumental Tell Me Lies, it’s the work of a pair of old souls trying to make sense of the modern world.
