“The past three years have been a continuous process of self-exploration, of taking apart and rebuilding myself,” Matt Lv tells Apple Music. “That’s the creative process.” This three-year quest has resulted in the singer-songwriter’s second album, ME?, whose question mark indicates that the self-discovery process is ongoing. At the age of 18, Lv released Fresh Soul, a debut LP brimming with witty insights into the interior lives of modern youth. At 21, the Chengdu-based artist spreads his wings on an album that goes deeper into his fascination with turn-of-the-millennium sounds: “想太多” [“Overthinking”] recalls both the G-funk era and D’Angelo, while “偷心爱人” [“Heart Stealer”] shades a ’90s R&B melody with Motown hues. Elsewhere, he brings his soulful voice to lush piano ballads, psych rock and slow jams. “In public, I only show a small part of myself, the part in my comfort zone,” Lv says. As ME? shows, that comfort zone has only grown wider over the course of three years. Life, Both Real and Imagined An ambitious performing artist, Lv also has to navigate everyday life, like any other twenty-something, and he expresses life’s aspirations and resignations in his music. The uncertainty of “走走走” [“Go Go Go”]—with mournful lyrics such as “I bought a few trees to put in a corner but they all died the next month”—and the brash confidence of “借过一下!” [“Excuse Me!”] are both accurate depictions of his life, to varying degrees. “‘借过一下!’ may express a split personality, a really attractive fantasy,” says Lv. “But I’m an introvert, so ‘走走走’ is closer to the actual state of my life.” A night owl who typically wakes up in the afternoon around 2pm or 3pm, Lv estimates that 80 per cent of the album was written at night. And as an introvert, he tends to spend the wee hours at home rather than going clubbing. “I’d rather stay in to play games,” he says. “There’s just one exception: billiards.” When he hits the pool hall with other Chengdu-based musicians including Xinwenyue Shi and Aflou, Lv can play billiards in silence for six or seven hours at a stretch as a way to recharge. “It’s not just a game but a form of dynamic meditation,” he says. “I get really engrossed in it, and that focus helps my music making.” Then, when inspiration hits, Lv is ready for it. “Sometimes when I’m on a bus or riding to a gig, I’ll start beatboxing,” he says. “I’ll beatbox every track, then improvise a melody on the keyboard and finally go back and arrange everything. Sometimes I’ll redo it all four or five times—that’s the kind of nerd I am.” Ironically, it’s the flashy “借过一下!” that’s a classic example of Lv’s perfectionism. “I was really stubborn about the groove of this one,” he says. “The drums and bass in the first version gave the song a rushed feel that was uncomfortable to me but which my friends didn’t mind. But I really thought it was a problem! So I spent a week doing another four versions of the drums until I got it to what I feel is a perfect groove.” Seeking a Groove As an artist who grew up listening to jazz pianists and hip-hop, Lv describes his musical growth as a deliberate process. “When I hear a song with a kick-ass groove or awesome harmonies, I want to transcribe it for study,” he says. “Seeing what other people do is part of the learning process. And once you’ve accumulated enough, it’ll come out naturally without you even intending to.” In addition to D’Angelo, he cites Musiq Soulchild and Janet Jackson as major influences that emerge in the music he makes. “It’s a strange feeling, to feel your own hands producing something you once studied,” he says. “And that product produces a wonderful resonance with something else—and then you have a chain reaction. It’s a fascinating and immensely satisfying thing, the act of creation.” Lv adds that he feels like his forte is “taking an image, an idea or a scenario and connecting it to music”, before noting that lyrics require more concentration on his part. His bilingual lyrics switch freely between languages, with Chinese used for depth and nuance and English for more plain-spoken expression. “In English, you can say lots of things directly without any sense of shame,” he says. “But the Chinese language requires you to consider your words carefully to avoid awkwardness.” Assisting with lyrics as well as music and production throughout the album is close collaborator Fann (Duan Fanfan), with whom Lv feels a special connection. “She gets my essence,” he says as he describes how he chose her to help fill in the incomplete production and arrangement of a demo version of “爱，疑难” [“Love Problems”]. Fann had an even bigger hand in “I Care”, whose lively rhythm belies confessional lyrics and a melancholy, introspective theme that’s a tribute to South Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s psychological thriller Oasis. “She picked up a mini guitar and improvised the chord progression that became the embryonic form of ‘I Care’,” Lv says. “I improvised with my voice as she played. The colour of the song comes from her chords, making it pretty different from most of my songs on the album.” Becoming a Pop Star After the release of his first album, Lv struggled under the weight of public expectations. “For half a year after that album was released, I was mired in self-doubt, wondering if I should just conform to the stereotype people had of me and stick to R&B,” he says. “But then I went and listened to all kinds of different songs to find out what my own biggest desire was. I’m more mature now and perhaps less likely to stick to one particular style.” His search to break the mould took him to the US, where he tried working with several producers—with little success. “I discovered that just enjoying someone’s music doesn’t mean we’re a good fit,” he says of an experience in Brooklyn with two musicians he loved. And although studio sessions in LA with Taylor Dexter (Taydex)—who brought in a trumpeter and bassist—led to “Callin”, Lv ultimately came back home disappointed that he didn’t gel with anyone. One by-product of his difficult time in Brooklyn is “Wasted”, a psych-rock-flavoured track with a chopped and sampled rhythm section that came together in half an hour one sleepless night. “I didn’t even have a MIDI device so I did all the chords on the computer keyboard, and the drums too,” he says. “The song made me realise that sometimes crude equipment makes it easier to make good music. You don’t have to think so much. You don’t have as many choices.” With lessons learned from the US trip, Lv remains undaunted in his ambitions. “I consider the market and the audience when I write,” he says. “I don’t think this is impure—on the contrary, it’s a positive, pure act. I want to be a pop star. That’s my goal: to bring out quality pop songs.” And his definition of quality pop is: “I feel like, above all, the work needs to have value—there needs to be something distinctive. And to influence people, you need an artistic personality and a stable spiritual core. That’s important.”