Danielle
Hao-Aickin
Introducing the artist: Danielle Hao-Aickin
Danielle Hao-Aickin is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based singer-songwriter and one half of Ersha Island 二沙岛 (the other half being her sister, Tee). She released her debut solo single pressure cooker last year under the name dān dān (her Chinese name), with the music video coming out in late June 2025 (it’s excellent, there is a link lower down, follow it). In this Q&A, Danielle gives insights into the demands of training at the Beijing Conservatory of Music, the pressures of being an independent artist in New Zealand, and finally, what is coming next in her creative life.
Q. I like to begin with an introduction into your creative life. So, if you were to write a bio about what makes up your creative life both past and present, what would you write?
Kia ora 你好 ~ My name is Dani, and I’m a Chinese-Pākehā singer-songwriter, project manager, photographer/videographer, and advocate!
I grew up in various cities across China including Xi’An, Guangzhou, and Beijing - and moved to Aotearoa at 16, which really shaped how I see identity, language, and storytelling. I come from a classical piano background (trained strictly through the Beijing Conservatory of Music) but only really started falling in love with music when I started writing my own songs and expressing myself through singing.
I studied a Bachelor’s of Music at the University of Auckland and spent a few years working in arts administration, community building, and advocacy - especially around Asian visibility in the music industry. I was part of the co-founding of Where The Asians At?! (Aotearoa) and am one half of Ersha Island 二沙岛, a duo with my younger sibling blending Chinese and Western music influences through bilingual songwriting. I then released my debut solo single pressure cooker last year under the name dān dān (my Chinese name) with New Zealand on Air Funding, and have since transitioned to be freelancing in the creative industry in March 2025 (terrifying!).
Now, my creative life looks like a mix of working on my music, supporting other friends/artists, and working on multidisciplinary projects that centre identity, food, language, and all the silly-serious things that come with being a third-culture artist. It’s chaotic, joyful, sometimes scary—but always honest. I’m in a season of growth and experimentation, and finally prioritising myself.
Q. It has been (and please don’t hesitate to correct me) a very busy year to date, with gigs, including one in Wanaka. Looking back on the shows, what are your memories of them? Can you give a sense of how they felt for you?
It honestly has been the craziest year of my life. I’m yet to digest my full feelings of all the shows that we’ve been part of (including the Wānaka Festival of colour) but gratitude is the overarching theme from everything.
The pressure cooker music video coming out this week also feels like a huge milestone. The song is so personal and ridiculous and heartfelt all at once - and it’s been incredible to see how it’s resonated with people. I feel tired, grateful, and strangely more myself than ever.
Q. Can I go back temporarily to the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing. From an unqualified, outsider’s perspective (mine) this must have been one incredible learning experience. Firstly, can you share your thoughts on the value of that learning, and also, how has that time shaped/influenced your creative work today?
Looking back, training under the China Conservatory of Music system in Beijing was definitely intense. I started classical piano really young, around five, and like a lot of kids in that system, music was more discipline than play. I practised for hours every day, sat graded exams, and entered competitions regularly. It was rigorous and sometimes overwhelming, but I think that structure gave me a really important thing: an understanding that music requires hard work alongside joy.
That said, it’s taken me a long time to unlearn parts of that experience too. For a while, I thought music was just something you did right or wrong. It wasn’t until I came to Aotearoa and started writing my own music that I realised music could also be storytelling, and be political, and be light alongside be vulnerable, and that music is a way for humans to connect with each other.
Q. Please can we stop by the track ‘Like the other kids’ as an example, beginning with the birth and the development of the lyrics. Can you share a little (or as much) about the process you have for writing/creating music with your sister?
Like the Other Kids is a really special one for us. When we started writing for Ersha Island 二沙岛’s Back To Our Roots EP, Tee brought forth the chorus and I really resonated with it. We knew we wanted to turn it into a song that spoke to the quiet, in-between spaces of growing up mixed, growing up Asian, and growing up looking different from everyone else.
Writing with my sibling is actually less intuitive than we thought it would be. Instrumentally, we seem to speak the same language and are able to improvise complete tracks out of thin air - but once words come into play, we actually have to go back and forth quite a lot to settle.
“It wasn’t until I came to Aotearoa and started writing my own music that I realised music could also be storytelling, and be political, and be light alongside be vulnerable, and that music is a way for humans to connect with each other.”
- Danielle Hao-Aickin
Q. Moving to the video, and the video for My Mother’s Mountains and My Father’s Sea, to get these off the ground must have required huge collaborative effort, emails, admin, organisation, funding, time. As an artist, do you find that draining? Or, do you get energised and a sense of ‘yeah, this is what I love doing, I want to do this again and again?’ I think, the nub of what I’m trying to ask (clumsily) is how do you balance the typically creative parts of the process, with the not so creative parts?
Getting the My Mother’s Mountains and My Father’s Sea video off the ground was definitely a mission. It involved over 30 creatives, including musicians, actors, dancers, film crew, and more. There were late-night production meetings, location scouting… And yes, there were moments I absolutely felt drained. But we had a fantastic team with Leah McVeagh + Ann An producing and Daryl J. Wong directing - which made it 10000x better.
And weirdly, I do love it. I think because I’ve always seen producing and project managing as a creative act too - just in a different language. For me, the admin side is about building conditions for creativity to thrive, and I find real satisfaction in pulling people together, making sure they’re paid, heard, and looked after, and then watching us all bring magic to the project.
So yes—it can be exhausting, but it also gives me so much joy. When it’s done with the right people, it reminds me why I love making art in the first place!
Q. Can I ask about your solo work? In particular the work of ‘Pressure Cooker’. I’d love to know about the beginnings of the piano (or keyboard) intro. Did you write the music, and then add lyrics? Can you share a little (or as much as you have time for) about how this piece came about?
pressure cooker was written at Fan Camp: Pan-Asian, a week-long songwriting camp at Big Fan where we were put in a different writing room every day. I brought the lyrics “pressure, I’m a pressure cooker, you could make hainan chicken rice in my belly” to Dan Martin, ASHY, and Huiming Wu, we started with a guitar chord pattern, and the rest came easily.
For this song, I really wanted to write something that encapsulates the feeling of being the eldest daughter in a Chinese family - the pressure to be perfect, to hold everything together, and to never let anyone see you crack. But I also wanted it to be fun and a little ridiculous, because that’s part of how I process things too. That’s where the hainan chicken rice and food puns came in, it felt like the most natural way to tell the story.
“I see my fellow musicians working so hard to carve out space where there hasn’t traditionally been, all while supporting each other within the community. And that to me - is enough to be inspired to continue.”
- Danielle Hao-Aickin
Q. Can we step into a broader question about the music industry/community/scene in Aotearoa New Zealand for independent artists (solo, duo, bands).. Firstly, what are your thoughts on where it is currently? And where it might be heading? Are we in a good place? Difficult place? Is there strong/adequate/dwindling support there for artists to create and perform?
That’s a huge question… and one I’m still constantly sitting with. I think Aotearoa’s music scene is full of potential. There’s so much talent, heart, and kaupapa-driven creativity here, especially within the independent artist community. You can feel that hunger and integrity in every gig, every camp, every collab session. But at the same time, the infrastructure doesn’t always support the scale of what artists are trying to build.
Right now, we’re in a pretty precarious place. Independent artists are often expected to be full-time marketers, producers, grant writers, and content machines, all while trying to make good music. It’s unsustainable, and many artists I know (myself included) are constantly weighing up whether they can afford to keep going.
That said, I also see hope, particularly in the communities we’re building ourselves. Artists are banding together, sharing resources, creating our own spaces when the traditional ones don’t make room for us.
Are we in a good place? Creatively - yes, there’s amazing artists everywhere. Structurally - it’s tough. But I’m hopeful. Because I see my fellow musicians working so hard to carve out space where there hasn’t traditionally been, all while supporting each other within the community. And that to me - is enough to be inspired to continue.
Q. We’re half way through 2025 as I write this. What is coming up for your creative life in the coming months that you are driven by/focused on/just love doing and think about all the time?
Ahhhhh I’m working on my next single and music video for it!!! And then a third single and music video!!!! And then an EP!!!!!! This is my ultimate focus right now, and to show the world what dān dān is made off heheh.
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