Stir Q & A: Vancouver actor Amanda Sum forges ahead with music career, releasing new video "Hot-Headed Egos"
The singer-songwriter talks mansplaining, spicy-peanut-sauce stirfry, and how no one takes you seriously when you’re young
VANCOUVER THEATRE fans know Amanda Sum from herlead roles in hit shows like do you want what i have got: a Craigslist cantata, the East Van Panto, Chicken Girl. and The Wolves.
As some of those more musical shows illustrated, the Richmond-born artist has mad singing skills. But lately she’s been forging a separate career as a singer-songwriter, evidenced by indie-pop singles like last fall’s “Groupthink”. Sum has a distinctive, beautifully smooth and ochred indie-pop voice, eclectic in arrangements layered with dreamy guitar and strings. Her lyrics play compellingly with ideas of identity.
Today, she’s releasing a reflective new single on video called “Hot Headed Egos”. Here again, the artist, who plays keyboards and guitar, is backed by an all-Asian, female band—synth bass and e. keys by Mary Ancheta, drums by Jamie Lee, and violin by Cindy Kao—and working with an all-women production team (including directors Sophia Biedka and Hannah Dubois).
Note that you can see her livestreamed—and possibly live, thanks to new regulations—at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, June 26 at the open air Ocean Art Works at 1:30 pm.
Check it out here, then scroll further, as Sum talks to Stir about mansplaining, ageism, spicy peanut sauce stir fry, and the all-female crew that brought the music video to life.
You're a theatre artist and a musician, with both careers taking off simultaneously. What are the biggest similarities between the two fields, and which one comes most easily to you?
Having communities of generous, hardworking, and forward-thinking artists is a definite throughline between the two! I love that both theatre and music each have their own subgenres, and can easily find themselves at the cross-section of other artistic disciplines, like film, dance, and visual arts.
Both disciplines are very adaptable, able to screw with form, and comment on the current climate, which is very exciting to me! Between theatre and music, I go through spurts of which one is more intuitive. It often feels like a grass-is-greener situation: if I’m head deep in a theatre project, I feel like I am neglecting my music, and vice versa. Trying to find that balance!
Hot Headed Egos is a lot about how people don't take you seriously when you're young. Where has that cropped up the most for you? And do you think it happens more to women?
It happens to me all the time, through job interviews, auditions, daily life. Every time I have to go rent equipment from a music store, I brace myself for being talked down to. I have teeth clenched through many mansplain sessions on how to use a mixer. It does get frustrating, but I get it. I look young, my speaking voice is young, I have a youthful demeanor. I am young. It is easy and human to assume the extent of someone’s abilities based on their age. I admit that I sometimes catch myself making those judgments on others, too! I think many women are acutely aware of these judgments, and naturally compensate in order to be taken seriously in whichever field they work in.
Why was it important to you to find an all-female directing and recording team?
It was important to me to have the process of the song and video reflect the themes that the song revolves around. The songs I’ve been writing are about being in relation to societal norms and judgements, so I wanted to surround myself with people who shared similar experiences to me. The behind-the-scenes process and the finished product are of equal importance to me. I think it is easy to be consumed by the “what” and overlook the “how”, especially in such a fast-paced, unforgiving industry.
Representation in the arts needs to be more than who we see on the stage or screen, it must be considered when putting together and curating artistic teams and collaborators. Also, a whole team of women is pretty darn badass!!
Your first performance was at the Gateway in The King and I when you were little, but when did you really realize you could really sing?
I think I was 16 when I started getting comfy-er with the way I sang. I had previously been self-conscious that I couldn’t sing like other girls, after an unsuccessful audition for Annie the Musical when I was 9! When I was 15, I auditioned for my high school’s singing competition. I was so nervous, the nerves made my hands shaky, which then made my voice shaky... Needless to say, I did not get selected to sing.
After that, I decided to teach myself guitar, solely to occupy my hands in hopes of combating my nerves. The next year I re-auditioned with a guitar and got in, which helped me realize I liked the way I sang. I was in choir in high school too, and loved being able to sing choral music at school, then return to more folky sounds at home! It was that year, at 16, when I started posting singing covers on my YouTube channel in hopes of impressing my crush...to NO SUCCESS.…It’s alright. I am thankful for all these forms of rejection.
A part of the video takes place in the kitchen, making something to eat in the video. Do you like to cook and what's your favourite dish to make?
I love to cook! My go-to is a spicy peanut sauce stir fry or a curry rice noodle.
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