At just twenty-five years old, Stephanie has already become a multi-faceted artist, traveling the world and embodying what is most important to her: freedom of self-expression. Although she was fairly soft spoken when we met for our interview at BEL Coffee, her tattoos, fashion style, and, of course, her music which I’d listened to beforehand, speak loudly. Tattoo artist by day, techno-house DJ by night, and most recently a producer of her debut EP, ‘Under the Rave.’, Stephanie walked a long journey to get to where she is today. It started back when she was a child, when she discovered her own desire to express herself and the strength that blossoms once you have the courage to do so.
Although Stephanie was born in Saigon, she lived in Taipei until she was six years old. Her father’s Taiwanese while her mother’s Vietnamese. The year she moved back to Vietnam, she was given as difficult a summer homework assignment a first grade student can receive: learn Vietnamese in a few months. Thankfully her neighbor at the time, a retired school teacher, stepped in to help her. Two months later, her parents put in a private international school where was expected to know the language by then.
As young kids often do, she made friends at her new school, but she also experienced something that is true no matter what school you attend: kids are mean, young kids especially. From her classmates’ perspective, she looked different. She sounded different. She had a different kind of name, a non-Vietnamese one. She was from a different world to them—and to hear Stephanie tell it, she wasn’t even sure what world she was on at that point.. As such, as time went on, she started to feel like she was just different. When you’re young, such feelings have a way of morphing into indifference and isolation. Despite that, Stephanie wore her differences like a badge of honor, knowing, even at a young age, that she was okay with being different.
What made it even more challenging for young Stephanie is the fact that she is an only child. Unlike Stephanie, I grew up with three older siblings which meant for the majority of my life I had support from them whenever I needed. When you’re an only child, and on top of that, look, sound, and feel different from your peers, you don’t feel as though you have many people to confide in. You don’t feel like you have a way to express yourself. You don’t exactly feel free. It’s no wonder why then that for Stephanie, this desire to express herself has only grown as she’s matured. It’s a powerful driving force in her life and it’s why she does what she does.
It started with clothes. Barely a teenager, she’d buy clothes at flea markets on family trips to Thailand, then bring them back and sell them. A couple years later at fifteen years old, she got into the art of tattooing. Her cousin, who’s been a tattoo artist for nearly twenty years, was the one who stepped in this time to teach her different styles from old school to dot work. Barely two years after learning the craft, she opened her own studio at seventeen years old. Her friend had a clothing brand store and so Stephanie up set her tattoo chair, creating enough space to do her own work. She had her own spot for about seven months before shutting down to COVID. As it goes, after COVID passed, around the end of 2022, is when Stephanie stepped into her next chapter of self-expression: music.
Around that time she started to develop many friendships within Piu Piu’s music and nightlife community. Funnily enough, she was the only tattoo artist in the group. The rest were DJs, which, upon reflection, makes her laugh, given that she’d tattooed all of them. That said, it was the community around her that really left a mark. Stephanie tells me all of them inspired her to try something new—DJing. After much encouragement, she decided to start. She saw it as another way to express herself without necessarily having to speak, in the same manner she’s able to remain relatively silent while tattooing clients.
The fact is, despite playing shows in front of crowds that seem to be getting larger with every show, Stephanie admits she still feels quite shy. Nonetheless, that childhood desire to have the freedom to express herself was blossoming once again. This time it had an almost magical essence to it. As she put it, “It’s a childhood thing. The most important thing to me is the freedom to express yourself. Music can be magical. Some kinds of frequency can change your mind and how you feel. Tattoos can do that too.”
Stephanie tells me the two people that taught her a lot about DJing were the Piu Piu co-founders, Bobby and Lee. Bobby was the one leading her by teaching her all the finer points of how to actually DJ. On the other hand, Lee pushed her by encouraging her to get on stage. Thanks to Bobby, Lee, and the rest of her friends in Piu Piu’s circle, it wasn’t long before Stephanie finally performed her first show. Again, she laughs remembering how she spent weeks preparing, how she had to go to the bathroom nearly a half dozen times before getting behind the decks for a crowded 2am set at Piu Piu with her new DJ name, NotYuTing. That said, once she finally went for it, she gained a lot of confidence seeing the people on the dance floor grooving to her music and having a good time.
From there, Stephanie would go on to play a couple times a month at Piu Piu before branching out to clubs like Arcan. At that point, her performances really took off. Mũi Né. Đà Nẵng. Cambodia. Bali. South Korea. And most recently, she traveled to France last summer for two gigs. First in Paris at the Asian Art Museum rooftop, Musee Guiment. Second in the south of France in Marseille, where she performed as the first female Vietnamese DJ on Let Him Cook Radio, a live-streamed music show where DJs perform in the kitchen of a restaurant. Imagine bright red facing lights. A tightly packed kitchen with a flaming wok in the background. Sizzling Vina House, Vina Tech, and Trance paired with traditional Vietnamese beats for sixty sweaty minutes.
Although she had started working on it prior to her trip, Let Him Cook Radio served up the ideal moment for an unofficial release of her debut EP, ‘Under The Rave.’ ‘Under the Rave’ features four songs: C0NGA BLUR, B0UNCE IT BACK, UNDER THE RAVE, and t0uch. It was a big step in the right direction because not only was she performing overseas on a popular show, she was also producing her own beats, writing her own lyrics, and singing for the first time, too. Commenting on how she felt at the time, Stephanie said, “It’s time to play my own songs. At first I didn’t want to sing, but I changed my mind. It’s important to add your own touch.” Yet again, another example of her desire to be free and express herself without limitations.
After her trip to Europe, Stephanie returned to Saigon a few months ago and has kept her foot on the gas. She did an official release of ‘Under the Rave’ under the Piu Piu Records label by traveling up to Hanoi with the rest of the crew to perform at the 1900 Club in September. She continues to tattoo at Loco Tattoo Vietnam on Hoàng Sa Street. Even though she admits she has less time to tattoo, she still enjoys bringing her client’s vision to light with art on their skin. She’ll also release a new single in December that she started while back in France. It will be a mix of modern trance music with a Vietnamese touch of traditional zither. Beyond that, Stephanie’s just finished something else, something different—a special mix set. One that she recorded next to the Ba Son Bridge in Saigon near an empty, dilapidated house. She plans on playing some of it at Piu Piu’s upcoming beach festival in Mũi Né on December 13-14. This show will be another opportunity for Stephanie to showcase what’s most important to her: the freedom of self-expression. And what better to embody that principle than getting up on stage where she can share her beats, lyrics, voice, but more so than any of that, share the magic of music with everyone in the crowd.
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