BEHIND THE GLOOM

Nina Dang (MF GLOOM) is a nonbinary (THEY/HE), Asian-American musician from Phoenix, Arizona. Their musical career started at the age of two, when their parents enrolled them in classical violin lessons. Even though their hands were too small to grasp a violin, they would attend lessons for over 12 years before switching to taking vocal lessons instead. They were then trained in the style of SLS (Speech Level Singing) while also attending weekly dance lessons. These lessons gave them the ability to become an active member in their high school’s arts program. After graduating in 2016, they auditioned and were accepted into the Open Jar Program in NYC, a weeklong musical theatre intensive where students would take classes and workshops from Broadway professionals. As amazing as the experience was, what drove them to start creating their own music wouldn’t appear until years later.

In the fall of 2016 Nina started attending Arizona State University, majoring in supply chain management with a minor in Japanese language. In their spare time, they would post clips to their Instagram stories of them singing songs (both originals and covers) while playing their synthesizer. After their third year of business school, they came to the realization that it was bad for their mental health and took a yearlong break. Around that same time, COVID-19 was starting to appear around the world and resulted in Nina being let go from their job, giving them plenty of time to reflect on what they wanted to do next.

Trying to find new hobbies to fill their time with, Nina purchased a used electric bass from OfferUp and started teaching themself how to play. This led to them rediscovering their passion for music and later purchased an electric guitar from the same website. They started experimenting with songwriting and acquired equipment to record their songs under the moniker MF GLOOM.

After attending InSessions, a virtual, three-day workshop lead by queer, musicians of color, MF GLOOM then later wrote and released their first single “Bedtime Thoughts” in December 2020. They teamed up with fellow musician Stress Actual, who would help to produce and engineer GLOOM’s first EP under the same title as the single.

Wanting to be able to express themselves and create their art independently GLOOM was motivated to learn how produce and engineer music. This led to the creation of the single “To Be A Leaf”, which premiered in early May 2021 during a livestream concert promoting the end of violence towards Asian Americans, raising over $3,000 for organization Red Canary Song.

Having been verbally harassed and being accused of bringing the “Asian Flu” in public only days before their livestream performance, it was made it apparent to MF GLOOM that their visibility as a trans, Asian American musician was necessary in the arts in order to start these kinds of dialogues within communities outside of their own.

With the goal to create music that impacts audiences in the same way that attending InSessions and performing in the livestream impacted them, MF GLOOM re-enrolled at ASU for the fall 2021 semester. They switched over from business school to the arts, changing their major to digital culture with a focus in music to learn audio engineering and music production. They strive to make music that encapsulates their experience as a nonbinary Asian American that audiences can resonate with, even if they can’t necessarily relate to the subject matter. Since then, MF GLOOM has released the singles, “Someday” and “Playing Pretend”, which will be part of their next project.