Orion Song Is Finding His Path

Orion Song describes himself as a “conscious R&B Asian American artist.” He’s just now begun to see how his music can be healing.

Orion Song could easily be one of the most productive independent artists working in music. 

Over the past four years, he’s amassed a discography that many musicians spend decades working toward with two albums, one EP, and over thirty singles. In 2023 alone, Song released twelve singles, the “Time Machine” EP with Patrick Hizon, and “Moon Boy”, his first solo album. He’s collaborated with several important figures in the AAPI music scene including, Sarah Kang, HOHYUN, and Uzuhan. Song describes himself as a “conscious Asian American R&B artist” and his warm, inviting voice makes him a compelling figure in music. 

On his best tracks, he’s tender and elegiac; a smooth seductor who tells his girl on “what u do” that he’s not asking for all her time, “but you can have all of mine.” In these moments, Song shares similarities with artists like R&B singer D’Angelo or even Jojo, who in the early 2010s self-released mixtapes that traced her journey to independence with an emphasis on mental health. 

You can hear these influences best on “Moon Boy”, a transcendent set of ten tracks that Song collaborated on with the producer Avacie. The name relates to Song’s “shadow self”, or the part of him that only those closest to him know. This Song is questioning and curious as he searches for self-love. “I self-proclaimed to be Moon Boy because I wanted to own that part of me,” he told me in an interview recently from San Diego where he is based.

What makes “Moon Boy” beautiful is Song’s openness. In astrology, he’s a water sign: a Cancer moon, which perhaps explains how sensitive he can be. “Your moon sign is supposed to represent your emotion,” he explained. “I’m a super emotional person.” In the album, those emotions pour out.

There aren’t, he asserted, many men making music like this – especially not in the Asian American community. “It’s not easy being vulnerable. It takes a lot of practice. But you realize people aren’t going to attack you for it or make fun of you,” he said. Song hopes that men will be inspired by his music and lyrics. He wants men to embrace their feminine side; to understand that it’s not a weakness to do so, but instead is a sign of self-love. It comes from knowing oneself. 

“As men,” he said, locking eyes with me, “we have to own this.

Song wants to change your perception of masculinity. “I want to portray that you can be a super feminine man, whether you’re in the LGBTQ community or heterosexual.”

In person, Song is as warm as his music. He’s thoughtful, carefully considering what he wants to say and interested in what I’m thinking too. He has a certain kindness that is rare for artists because it is genuine. Many artists that I meet seem to be looking for an angle, but Song is more interested in what lies beneath. 

He comes from a musical family based in California. “I’ve been a Cali boy my whole life,” he said with a soft smile. Song’s mother, who is Korean, is a pianist and songwriter. “I never heard her sing a cover,” he gave as an example of her skill. His father, who is Filipino, was a DJ. Song remembers countless days from his childhood where his father blasted music throughout their home and garage. “I was always surrounded by music,” he remembered.

Song gravitated towards R&B from a young age because of his mother. “It was a phase for my mom to go through R&B,” he said. “But little did she know that her phase was my childhood. “ 

As a kid, Song became a big fan of *NSYNC, the blockbuster boy group from the nineties who spawned the career of Justin Timberlake, a white boy from Memphis, Tennessee who also loved R&B. “I had the Madison Square Garden HBO special on VHS actually,” he laughed. “That was like my Blues Clues.” 

In high school, Song met Patrick Hizon, a guitarist and singer who shared his passion for R&B. But Hizon and Song were most interested in “intense new jazz” like Hiatus Kaiyote or neo-soul musicians like Emily King. “We were pretty experimental but we always came back to Asian YouTubers,” he remembered. “We took it so seriously and tried really hard to be cool and different.” They loved OG Filipino musicians who were active on YouTube like Jeremy Passion and Jessie Barrera, all of whom showed Song that he could make it too as a Filipino-Korean boy living in California. 

Those years were adventurous for the pair, and the time spent together influenced how deeply experimental they would become as musicians. “We’d just really dig. We were on SoundCloud really early. We were on YouTube,” he said. “I tried to put my roots in too.” Song even put Hizon onto Justin Timberlake’s “Justified” album. 

Perhaps the most important trait Song learned from Hizon was how to sing, which, until they worked together, sounded nasally and whiny. Hizon worked with Song throughout the recording of “Patience” to draw out the soulful voice heard today. “Pat would be really blunt with me and give me really good feedback on my voice,” Song said. 

When they recorded the album’s interlude, Hizon told Song to sing “really breathy, almost like a whisper”. It was there that he learned how to master his vocals.

“I kind of just owned that,” he said, realizing, “I’m gonna sing like this for everything and have a more intimate side to my vocals and a more vulnerable image for my music.” 

What appealed to Song was learning how to express that vulnerability. He looked around at other artists, and found that while women have a confessional level of honesty in their music, men are slower to embrace this level of honesty. He recorded “Moon Boy” as an alternative to toxic masculinity. 

On the album cover, Song is sprawled onto a lawn of green grass. He looks relaxed and at peace with himself; a man who is comfortable in his own skin. Sun covers his face and his bleach blonde hair gives Song a soft, blissful look. The artwork feels intimate, as if you had just walked up on Song dreaming somewhere in a park. 

“I want to portray that you can be a super feminine man, whether you’re in the LGBTQ community or heterosexual. You can still have this image that is missing all the time in masculine men: a very feminine image,” Song told me. He knows this concept is uncomfortable for many men. It deprograms what we’ve been told “being a man” is about. So if it makes you nervous, Song said, “ I’ll do it for you. Let me just lie in the grass. It’s super sunny and the flowers are beautiful.”

“Moon Boy” oscillates between self-love and romantic love, something that Song saw as semiotic of one another. “I feel like most of my profound discoveries and reflections were made because I was in love,” he explained. “That’s why I incorporate both this theme of self love or mental health and love. You have to have good mental health, self-esteem and character if you want to be in a relationship with someone whether it’s lighthearted or something really deep.”

So, on “Moon Boy” a crooning love song like “Chauffeur” is nestled nicely next to the confessional lyrics on “Retrograde”: “I’m changing my inner thoughts/ I’ll play it safe if I restart/ Reflecting but not too much/ Panic might make it worse.”  

“Moon Boy” is made for the kind of long walks I do late at night as I wind through the neighborhood to a peaceful creek. On these walks, the cicadas are a constant soundtrack as I occasionally see a bunny scurry off across a nicely tailored lawn. 

The opening track “It’s Okay” acts as a thesis for the album and hits best when I’m lost in thought. The opener is recorded as a skit where Avacaie asks Song if he’s ready to get to work. “I really don’t know what I want to write about,” he admits to Avacie before apologizing for overthinking. “That’s okay,” Avacie affirms softly. “You don’t always have to know, you know? You don’t need to know everything. Just write.” 

But then the piano kicks in with the same speed that I walk and Song begins to relax. “You’re right,” he says in a calmer voice.“It’s all good. It’s alright. Everything is okay.” When he does begin to sing, the song becomes a cathartic release. “It’s okay/ Just speak from your heart,” he sings as an affirmation to himself. “Don’t think too hard/ Know that it’s okay.” 

But I am most taken by the last two tracks of “Moon Boy”, perhaps the two most vulnerable and intimate tracks in Song’s discography. On the interlude “Grandma’s Message”, Song includes a voicemail that his grandmother left him after she listened to the album’s final track “I Am”. 

“I’m so happy for you and so proud of you that you’re creating the affirmation of ‘I Am’,” she tells him in the message. “That is so beautiful – and so needed by everybody in the world today.” 

“I Am” is the standout track of “Moon Boy”, the album’s heart and soul. It is what gives the album its wings. Song told me that the track is the most spiritual track he’s ever recorded, and it’s one that began lighthearted. “But once I started really honing in on the project, I thought that this is gonna be a really, really powerful song,” he said. The song is the foundation of what “Moon Boy” means. “It’s men being very honest and vulnerable with their feelings and loving themselves.” 

The chorus, “I am worthy/ I am sacred, safe and deserving”, is as much of a comfort as it is empowering. I told Song how so few of my male friends have positive role models for how to express themselves. “I worry about them,”I said, “because it’s so lonely to never feel like you can safely express how you feel.” I don’t think it’s occurred to many men that you can feel safe, much less that you can feel taken care of. 

“There’s a lot of toxic masculinity and it’s considered not masculine to not show your own self-love, which I disagree with,” Song replied. “Making ‘I Am’ the final track I wanted that to be the send off for the listeners. I wanted them to feel positive and feel very confident and remind them that you are worthy, sacred, safe and deserving.” 

The inclusion of his grandmother points to where his empathy is rooted. “I felt like showing some of my family or where I come from helps with portraying that feminine energy,” he told me. “My whole maternal side is my support system. They’re like my therapists. I am so blessed for them.”

He paused as he thought about the song’s message. He knows most men are never given the tools to share their thoughts the way he does. Song is aware how scary it is to be honest with people about your truth. But he hopes that if men listen to “I Am” they might see their own beauty. 

“If that song went viral and none of my other songs did,” he said,  “I’d still be super satisfied.”

“There’s a lot of toxic masculinity and it’s considered not masculine to not show your own self-love, which I disagree with,” Song says.

When Song and I spoke for this interview, he was in the middle of his first extended break in over four years. Thirty-two singles, two albums, and one EP doesn’t come without a massive amount of manpower, and Song had put in the work to have the extended discography he has now. Taking a break was nerve wracking, but his friends assured him that people would find his music. 

But I first met Song in New York City in January after he performed with Sarah Kang on the Hopeless Romantic tour. It was a full circle moment for both Kang and Song who met in 2020 when Kang visited LA. For Kang, the “Hopeless Romantic” tour was a farewell of sorts as she prepared for motherhood. As she sang onstage in “goodbye and godspeed”, she would be saying farewell to this version of herself, the woman who was childless and carefree. She hoped that one day she would meet her again. Song’s break was for a different kind of opportunity: to reconnect with himself. 

I didn’t get to know Song well until after the trip, though, and it was then that I learned how similar we are. What I love most about Song’s music is also what I admire about him as a person: His mind is brimming with possibilities. He’s eager to learn from others. Most importantly, he believes in himself because he’s done the work to be the man he wants to see in others.

Song has faith that this music will eventually pan out, and perhaps this break is proving him right. “Things have just been opening up so much,” he said as he rattled off a list of new experiences. “I have connected with my friends on a deeper level. I’ve been working with myself. I’ve been meeting up with producers in person. More people are coming into my life. I’ve been on this fitness journey.”

In essence, he’s been living. Of course, he’s still found time to make music. An EP and album are both in the works simultaneously, but he’s shied away from marketing himself so heavily. In return, opportunities he never dreamed of have come his way. 

I feel like the universe is rewarding me because now that I’ve taken a break from releasing but a ton of opportunities are coming up,” he said. “I think this was meant to happen.” 

Song believes in the law of attraction, and he feels like now things are shifting towards abundance. So many things are coming in without much effort on his end that it doesn’t feel like a coincidence. It actually feels purposeful. As he said this, I thought back to what his grandmother told Song after she first listened to “I Am”.

“This,” she said with the conviction of divine love, “is your spiritual path.”