On the follow-up to his dance-oriented debut album Belated Suffocation, producer Chace gives himself over to the throwback sound of ’80s pop. Also known as Zhu Yihan, the artist is no stranger to the charms of funk and disco in his club music, but on Anti-People Pleaser, he explicitly credits Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones for inspiring the album’s groove-heavy throwback pop sound. Chace eases his genre transition with opener “Tunnel Vision”, a hypnotic dance cut set at the nexus of love and obsession. But with “Fight Club”, a nervy new jack swing number, his typical dance-floor beats give way to an exploration of Questlove’s notion of “syncopated adrenaline”. That concept fuels the fire of “Keep Me Warm”, with toasty vocals inspired by Sade, as well as the funky, Dylan Thomas-inspired “Do Not Go Gentle into Goodbyes”. Thematically, the album—especially the second half—draws from the Shanghai-based artist’s feelings of loneliness and doubt at the tail end of the pandemic. Questioning songs like the meditative “PTSD” and lush R&B ballad “Up in Flames” are given hopeful answers by the soaring “Shine On Us” and the return of booming beats on “Auto-Save”. Below, Chace shares with Apple Music the story behind his move into retro pop. What motivated the album title? “The title is actually more like a warning to myself, because I find music a fairly fragmented process. You really need a guiding opinion of your own during writing and production and then make lots of decisive, tiny decisions. But once you’re done, it’s now a message for other people and there’s a process of passing judgment. So on the one hand, ‘anti-people pleaser’ means I’ve followed my own aesthetics and creative expression, that the message of every song is entirely my own. There’s no people pleasing on this album. On the other hand, it’s a reminder to myself not to compromise, not to do things in order to be liked or cater to other people’s needs or goals in marketing and other areas. “I’m not saying I’ve been called a people pleaser. Perhaps it’s due to the time I’ve spent in Europe, where people are frank and speak directly without any double meaning. Sometimes I feel the market back here is still immature—you’ll find people pushing you to figure out what they’re really saying, and that can be frustrating on a social level. So ‘people pleaser’ also applies to this level of social interaction.” Did your approach to songwriting change for this pop debut? “Most people probably know me from electronic music but in actual fact, pop music has been an influence on all parts of my life at various stages growing up. Michael Jackson, Coldplay, Chris Brown and even the Hong Kong band Beyond are deep in my DNA. Making a pop album was both an attempt at more precise, mature songwriting and a desire to free my music from constraints—sometimes electronic music thrives on atmosphere rather than anything especially catchy itself. “The two areas have different modes of expression, and the arrangements have a different focus. On another level, I’ve never done a solo tour before. Since this album would give me enough material for one, I wanted the music to be catchy. Songwriting-wise, I treated vocals as basically just another instrument in my electronic writing. The same goes for melody. We don’t put the human voice right up close. But on this album, the voice is paramount, as it should be on a pop album. It’s something I’ve never tried before—and a few of the 10 songs are in styles I’ve never previously attempted. Sure there might be a similarity in tone but the overall structures are very different.” How big of an influence are Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones? “I first heard Michael Jackson when I was seven or eight. A relative liked him so I got to watch a video, Live in Bucharest from ’92. What caught me right away was his magnetic stage presence. As I got more skilled at making my own music and wanted to try new things, I studied the synergy between Michael and Quincy Jones, who represented an important part of Michael’s music. Production controls and elevates a song. Michael’s stuff was raw—raw talent, raw emotion—and without Quincy’s work to elevate it, as listenable and popular as the music may be, it wouldn’t have the same depth. I’ve done lots of production work, so naturally I’ve been interested in Quincy’s influence on Michael’s music. They’re two of my idols. “While producing this album I watched a lot of MJ documentaries, music videos and live performances. So my mental space was built out of pop music—infectious, groovy and stadium-sized. And of course I had to imagine how I’d channel that energy and achieve the control Quincy had in his production.” What does “syncopated adrenaline” bring to the album? “It’s an important concept for me because as a drummer, syncopation is something I emphasise in both practice or performance. As for adrenaline, I said I wanted this album to be catchy and feel full of energy. When I heard the term ‘syncopated adrenaline’, it crystallised my thinking about the groove in drum arrangements and the groove in guitars and other instrumentation. Rhythm is my forte. I’m pretty good at arranging percussion from various instruments. Like the funky guitars and riffs on this album—I used the guitar as melodic percussion. The same with the bass and keys. It’s a concept that helped inspire me to find ways to work out the arrangements. “Since I grew up studying the drums, I’ve definitely been heavily influenced by soul and funk music. They’ve been in my DNA since I was a kid. Honestly, if I weren’t a drummer, I don’t think I’d have had the nerve to make a pop album. Michael was all about the groove, whether as a dancer or from growing up with Motown and the Jackson Five. And I’m all about the groove too. Without that connection I would never have tried to make this album.”