For the cover of his debut full-length, Metamorphosis, Dusa Naga summons his totem animal. “When a snake sheds its skin it’s very painful. It’s the same for people as well,” the Taiwanese producer-songwriter-DJ tells Apple Music. “When we want to grow and leave our old selves behind, it takes a relative degree of pain and consciousness.” Incorporating house, future bass, hip-hop and electronic pop, Dusa Naga has tackled the illusion of entertainment (2017’s Artificial Dopamine EP) and our existential pursuit for a sense of belonging (2019’s Arrival EP). But the eight-track Metamorphosis offers catharsis through moulting of past trauma and self-doubt. “I had always been an oversized boy with a BMI over 30 before age 18. I got bullied on a daily basis growing up, and there was this taunt I don’t think I can ever forget: ‘Your dad’s that cool and your mom’s that pretty. How can they ever have a son like you?’ It was like a nuclear blast and it had been poisoning me for more than 10 years,” he says. “I’d always been looking for an answer to questions like ‘Who am I? What’s there for me to be meaningful and worthy?’ Then I turned to music, trying to become a respected Top 100 DJ. That fell through, and then two EPs after, I realised ‘self’ is just as fictional as ‘happiness’ and ‘belonging’—the respective themes of the two earlier EPs. Suddenly, I was released from a decade-long imprisonment. I’m not obsessed anymore about proving myself or craving approval.” That empowering knowledge of self as a construct is inspired by Buddhist script Diamond Sutra as well as an era of digitisation and the internet. Dusa Naga challenges the reality shaped by social media with “雲端海底” and “Meaning of All This 01” (“01” representing the binary number system). The former is a collaboration with Taiwanese rapper and long-time collaborator K-HOW that expands his growing hip-hop resume; and the dreamy “Meaning of All This 01” draws in listeners with smeared synths, only to deconstruct into angular trap that hits hard. Switching between Chinese and English, Dusa Naga questions reality on the pulsating “I Don’t Know What to Believe” with a harmonised vocal hook that makes for one of the album’s memorable earworms. He revisits a period of depression that led to explorations of Buddhism and Chinese philosophy (“無我相”) and reflects on the endless compromise of dreams through the chilled piano of “忘了死心.” His final track, “Moving On,” is a hazy R&B reflection on past love. As a thematic coil of pain and rebirth, Metamorphosis heralds promising changes to come for Dusa Naga.