My Little Airport

Biography

My Little Airport (stylized as my little airport) is a Hong Kong–based indie pop band. They are distinguished by the outspoken political lyrics and distinctive local flavor of their songs, many of which featuring English lyrics influenced by the unique spelling, grammar, and rhythm of Hong Kong English. Since their inception, the band has been actively involved in local political movements, most notably their participation in the Umbrella Movement in 2014, and was banned in mainland China in 2019 for their support of the protests in Hong Kong of the same year. Despite this, My Little Airport continues to be popular on the mainland and is one of the most well-known indie bands in Hong Kong. Their Cantonese songs convey metaphors of politics as well.
The band's lyrics and music are written by Ah P (Lam Pang) and sung by Nicole (Nicole Au Kin-ying). The duo occasionally invites friends (Ah Suet, who speaks French, for instance) and relatives (Nicole's younger sister) to participate in their albums and shows.

Career

The band originated during the duo's time as journalism students at Hong Kong Shue Yan College (now Hong Kong Shue Yan University) in 2001, where they began writing songs in both English and Cantonese. In 2004, the duo, along with four other indie bands from Hong Kong, founded Harbour Records and released their debut album The OK Thing to Do on Sunday Afternoon Is to Toddle in the Zoo. They joined Elefant Records in 2006, hoping to gain distribution beyond Hong Kong's small indie fanbase.
In 2009, the group started writing politically themed songs such as "Divvying Up Stephen Lam's $300,000 salary" (referring to the former Chief Secretary of Hong Kong) and "Donald Tsang, Please Die", the latter of which was written after Tsang suggested that the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were insignificant compared to China's current economic power (such social/political themes had already been extensively explored by Ah P with Forever Tarkovsky Club, a side project he had set up with Pixeltoy's Ho Shan between 2007 and 2009).
A fourth album entitled Poetics – Something Between Montparnasse and Mongkok was released on 23 November 2009, which contains many of those politically charged songs. A fifth album entitled Hong Kong is One Big Shopping Mall was released on 26 August 2011, which received numerous awards (including the title of third best album in Cantonese 2011, by Sina Weibo). In October 2012, the band released their sixth album, Lonely Friday, on the Harbour Records label.
On 30 November 2011, Hong Kong arts and culture magazine Muse named My Little Airport Hong Kong's 'Next Big Thing' cultural heroes of 2011. The song "You Don't Wanna Be My Girlfriend, Phoebe" was covered by the Scottish indie band BMX Bandits.

Style and influence

Dubbed the "local indie pop darlings" of Hong Kong by the South China Morning Post, My Little Airport is recognized for their "saccharine vocals and simple, almost dreamlike melodies," as well as the satirical and humorous nature of their lyrics. Their musical style draws inspiration from 60s French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and has been described as "soft", "quirkily erotic", and "bittersweet".
The duo is also notable for their quirky song titles, often addressed to friends, such as "Leo, Are You Still Jumping Out Of The Windows In Expensive Clothes?" and "Victor, Fly Me to Stafford", or addressed to celebrities, such as "Gigi Leung Is Dead", "Faye Wong, About Your Eyebrows".