Los Angeles indie pop singer Wallice Watanabe spent some of lockdown reading Crying in H Mart, the hit memoir by Michelle Zauner, better known as Japanese Breakfast. In it, Zauner recalls watching Mitski rise to fame and worrying there wasn’t room for more than one half-Asian indie star. “I definitely know that feeling,” Watanabe, who is half Japanese, tells Apple Music. “With that in mind, I wanted to make a playlist that compiled all my favourite Asian artists or bands with Asian musicians. I think it’s important to see [them].” Her exclusive playlist, which was compiled to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month, focuses on indie pop and rock musicians with multiracial backgrounds similar to her own, including both aforementioned women as well as Joji, Luna Li and rei brown. “Having such a specific upbringing unites us and makes our outlook unique, being half Asian in a white-dominated society,” she says. Representing that perspective is important for younger voices. Watanabe was in high school when she fell in love with Mitski’s “First Love / Late Spring” and remembers discovering that the singer was also half Japanese. “There weren’t many Japanese artists or actors in American media back then,” she says. “It was so inspiring to have an indie artist to look up to.” The song, which is included in her selections below, is one of her all-time favourites because of the elegant Japanese lyrics tucked into the chorus.