“I react slowly to emotions,” Walter Kwan tells Apple Music. “I tend to experience my feelings by thinking them through.” The singer-songwriter conceived the title of his second album, Emotions, during a depressive funk in mid-2024 and then selected a cautionary phonetic equivalent in Chinese, Yí mò shēnsī—“It’s best not to overthink”. “That might sound like it’s stating some kind of truth—a warning, perhaps,” he says. “But I’m not writing from the perspective of someone who knows the answers. Songs like these can only come from someone who hasn’t figured things out.” Following his emotions’ lead, Kwan offers stories and insights that resonate with listeners similarly weighed down by thoughts and moods. The fruits of Kwan’s overthinking include the carefree, funky pop-R&B of “Sunday”, a languid lo-fi beat on “Shared Half”, gospel balladry on “Waves and Shores”—and on “Echoes of the School Bell”, the serendipitous intersection of an original tune with a half-remembered dismissal chime from his childhood in Hong Kong (familiar to many as the theme from the Largo movement of Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony). On this album, Kwan’s melodies are straightforward and his arrangements for live instruments stripped back and uncomplicated, which may seem at odds with his Berklee College of Music training and enthusiasm for artists like Jacob Collier and Hiatus Kaiyote. “Writing and arranging use two different brains,” he says. “If I sit down at the piano, a fairly simple ballad comes naturally. But when I approach arranging, I like adding in stronger musicality. I didn’t think it was always necessary to add too much on the album. But I’ll put more in for my live performances, because I really love that stuff.” An artist who handles almost all aspects of writing, production and performance, Kwan finds collaborations particularly energising. “When there’s suddenly a little bit of someone else in there, it really hits me harder,” he says. “Having two songs with lyrics that aren’t mine adds a lot of colour to the album.” Dong Yufang co-wrote the lyrics to the richly harmonised title track, while “Prelude”, a delicate acoustic ode to a relationship’s possibilities, features lyrics penned by Joi Wan. “Everyone has a different way of looking at things,” Kwan says. “Their language and metaphors bear their personal stamp. I love adding that into my music.” For his duet with Chinese-American Mandopop singer Sharon Kwan on “Waves and Shores”, he was gratified to be able to record in person. “It was hard,” he confesses. “I did around 70 takes of just the first line. She was really committed to helping me with the details, so I did my best to follow her lead. It was a fun experience, even though it involved far more time and effort than my vocals usually do.” Having started his career as a writer and producer for other artists, Kwan finds coming to terms with being the voice of his music a gradual process. In 2024, he toured in support of his debut LP, Just Be a Rock. “Having so many people come out for the tour gave me a big confidence boost,” he says. “But I don’t want to give myself too much pressure. I still feel like I’m more of a musician than a singer.” It’s a recognisable uncertainty, as familiar and resonant—and as susceptible to overthinking—as every nuance of the emotions on the record.