It was a sunny day in Saigon. Not a trace of rain which, after neverending storms causing flooding up to your knees in some parts of the city, was a relief. In a few weeks Piu Piu, one of Saigon’s most popular nightclubs that Lee co-founded, would be taking their sound and style to the Mana Resort in Mui Ne for their second iteration of their Piu Piu Beach Festival. Given that Lee had also just recently finished a world tour spanning seven different countries, I figured he had a lot on his plate. Still, from the moment I met him he was calm and seemed, at least from the outside, at ease. Once we got to talking it was even more of a surprise to find that for someone who makes a living working as a DJ, producer, and co-founder of a nightclub and record label, that Lee was really quite soft-spoken. Our conversation proceeded smoothly, going from topic to topic like one song mixed into another with the seamlessness of a well-crafted playlist.
Lee was born in Paris to a French-Vietnamese father and a Moroccan-Russian mother. Besides giving him a more global perspective of his place in the world, his parents’ multinational background also resulted in an early exposure to different types of music. When he was six years old, Lee’s family moved back to Saigon. He spent his formative years there and recalls it being a period that gave him a better perspective of his place in the world: he felt, as most mixed-race children do, simultaneously a foreign and local. Besides that, this period planted the first seeds of his deep love of the country.
In high school, Lee moved back to Paris. By then his passion for music was fully-fledged. He’d spend a lot of his time listening to all sorts of bootlegged CDs and out of all the genres he’d explored, rap always hit closest to home. French rappers like MC Solaar, NTM, and IAM, as well as US rap legends Eric B & Rakim and The Fugees were early influences. With hip hop, Lee’s musical world started to take shape as he had a genre, feeling, identity that he could latch onto. From there, the transition from someone who simply consumed music to someone who curated it came naturally. Before you knew it, Lee started hosting house parties where he’d connect one side of a basic DJ mixer to a DVD player and the other to a Discman. It was the start of a career that the teenaged Lee might not’ve ever seen amounting to world tours and co-founding one of Saigon’s hottest clubs, but I suppose when he was young none of that mattered. All he cared about was that he was having fun. All he cared about was the music.
After graduating from high school, Lee and his family moved to China. They lived in Beijing first where Lee started learning Chinese. When his family left the country, he decided to stay. Moving to Shanghai, Lee got a flat with roommates David and Wei. At the time, music was still a big part of Lee’s life but he admitted that he found it difficult to actually consider himself an artist. The reality was, he was a little shy about the idea which meant he tiptoed around the notion without ever fully committing to it. This materialised in a myriad of ways, one of which was the fact that rather than going out and performing as a DJ himself, Lee, David, and Wei ended up starting a website called City Moments. As a nightlife media site, the concept was simple: to spotlight the best nights in town and send out photographers to capture these events. City Moments quickly picked up steam. It wasn't long before they started hosting their own events and evolved into an event and artists booking agency. Once those became the talk of the town, they started hosting for a variety of brands, and after the success of those they started putting on festivals with DJ bookings throughout Greater China. Despite their momentous success, it was around this time Lee was getting tired of the work. Their rise meant they had to deal with brands and clients that occasionally sucked the joy out of everything City Moments and Lee stood for. In short, it wasn’t just about the music anymore.
In 2016, Lee returned to Saigon. He hadn’t stopped visiting ever since he first left back in high school, but now he was older and had a better idea of what he wanted to do with his life. Tired of work with City Moments, Lee teamed up with four friends Adam, Binh, Bobby, and Thibault to start Piu Piu. The concept was, of course, centered on music. However, what they wanted to do beyond that was to create an ecosystem that allowed them to keep music at the core while also venturing into events and club management, and, a year after they started, artist representation through Piu Piu Records. In order to do this they fostered an ethos that consistently strived to maintain quality while also being open and flexible enough to adapt whenever necessary. As a result, from the get-go Piu Piu was a success. Initially, Lee and the other co-founders didn’t have enough money so they convinced a Spanish restaurant on Hai Bà Trưng street to rent them the space with the promise that they’d buy them out in a year. By turning the Spanish restaurant into a three-floor nightclub, not only were they able to keep their promise but they ended up having the location for five years. During this period, a variety of artists and rappers performed at Piu Piu as well as emerged onto Vietnam’s music scene through Piu Piu Records. This was also the period during which Lee came into his own as a DJ and producer, with more shows that built up his confidence and persona as a performer. Despite all these achievements, reality wasn’t as flashy. According to Lee, they barely profited through Piu Piu and for the five-year span they were on Hai Bà Trưng, they were only really breaking even. Then came the worst of it.
Piu Piu shut as a result of the Covid pandemic. During this time, Lee and Bobby doubled down on music production, deciding if there was any time to really get better, that was it. All in all, it was a period of learning and reflection. By the time restrictions were lifted, rather than jumping straight back into Saigon’s nightlife game, the Piu Piu team wanted to do something different. Piu Piu’s Beach Festival was born. Held in Mũi Né, the idea was to escape from Saigon and the long, arduous reality brought upon by the pandemic. The festival took place in what used to be called Unique Resort and Lee described the experience as something like the tv show, Lost. Friends who hadn’t seen each other in months came together to dance and enjoy music on the beaches of Mũi Né—an altogether surreal experience that seemed as if they just stepped out of the Covid reality into a dreamy paradise. After the festival, Piu Piu picked up steam again. First they started by partnering up with Broma, a venue on Nguyễn Huệ street. It was the prime location for their brand, attracting a mix of foreigners and locals from all kinds of demographics. Besides their collaboration with Broma, Piu Piu also revitalized their record label by opening up their own music production studio. Currently they have four artists on the label as well as a bunch of producers. As per Lee, the idea here is about having an international scope while remaining firmly grounded in Vietnam. That’s why their artists NotYuTing, Premo, Jasi, and Ocens all have some kind of connection to Vietnam while also providing something different whether it be in their background, style, or musical sensibility.
With the growth of Piu Piu and their next batch of artists continuing to develop their own identity, Lee was also given the opportunity to explore his own creativity as an artist. Currently, the majority of his sets are made up entirely of Asian producers and musicians. This is especially the case when it comes to hip hop, given that he believes the sound born out of these countries is great but they never actually get a chance to be heard around the world. Or, as Lee put it, you don’t need to understand the lyrics to feel the vibe. Besides this willingness to put on for musicians that might not get as much representation as those from America or England, one thing you can say about Lee is that he isn’t afraid to experiment. From mixing bass-heavy hip hop tunes into Vietnamese classics like Sài Gòn đẹp Lắm, there’s something playful about Lee’s sets that give you the impression he hasn’t outgrown the high schooler who once only had a DJ mixer, DVD player, and Discman to work with. More so than anything, what I felt during my conversation with Lee was that simply put, the guy just loves music. His soft-spoken, occasionally self-effacing manner wasn’t anything what I expected. He’s chill, low-key and I got the sense that even if he wasn’t in the position he’s in now, he would still be mixing away in his bedroom at home, playing just because of the pure enjoyment he finds in music
Having said all that, Lee is, at this point, what most would consider to be a full-time artist. His decades of work have culminated in a world tour beginning in February of this year where he visited places like Cambodia all the way to California, and though there were pit-stops in Saigon along the way, he didn’t officially end the tour until September. Of the tour, he only had good things to say. How memorable Chongqing in China was, how unexpectedly good the music culture in the Philippines turned out to be. A show on the rooftop of the Guimet Asian Arts Museum of Paris, which felt surreal and like something of a coming-home party. Then to top it all off with a show in Los Angeles at the Lock & Key, considered by many to be a mecca for hip hop. When I asked what was hard about it— whether there were any challenges—he replied that his enjoyment far surpassed any annoyances along the way.
It’s been five years since the Covid pandemic. Five years since Lee and the team at Piu Piu decided that once the doors opened, what they needed most was a getaway. On December 13th and 14th, the team will be returning to Mũi Né for their second iteration of the Piu Piu Beach Festival. There’s been such a long gap because of the fact that they were too busy to host another one but they believe now, more than ever, people need a reason to get away from the city. The formerly known Unique Resort is now called the Mana Resort and Lee guarantees this experience will be bigger and better than the last. For one, Mũi Né’s much easier to get to now and the Piu Piu team will even be offering shuttle buses that leave Saturday morning so you’ll arrive on the beaches of Mũi Né right when the party starts at lunchtime. As for music, they’ve got twelve artists playing over the two-day festival so visitors can expect a wide variety of genres while still remaining grounded in Piu Piu’s unique style. And beyond that? Piu Piu’s 10th anniversary is next April so Lee promises something big for that. Otherwise, he wants to keep promoting the roster at Piu Piu Records in an effort to spread their simultaneously Asian and International sound with the rest of the world. All in all, they’re continuing to experiment, striving to remain open, flexible, and flow with the current rather than against it. No matter what happens, you can rest assured Lee will remain relaxed and humble. After all, good things take time and speaking to Lee, I got the sense he had all the time in the world.
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