splice: Owning the booth: 6 tips for building your confidence as a vocalist
July 2019
“making music is all about positive collaborative vibes and working with people who make you feel good, are highly capable, and further shape your craft. Below are a few tips I’ve found important and empowering for my development as a recording vocalist.”
forbes: As Music Industry Embraces More Women In Executive Roles, Gender Disparity Remains
May 2019
“The disparity is baked into the culture — so that we women, so often the only ones in writing rooms and studio sessions, just do what we can with what we have, with no space to speak out and demand more and better.”
The Flavr Blue Won't Just Get You High—It Will Also Right the Wrongs of the Drug War
OCTOBER 2018
"For us, plugging in with meaningful community engagement is something we're really keen to do," said Hollis Wong-Wear, the group's lead singer. "Social justice acts as an important framework of mind for our artistry."
billboard: The Flavr Blue Premiere New Album 'Blue Dream,' Discuss Project & How Trump is 'Deceitful'
OCTOBER 2017
"I think the cool thing about the creative process of Blue Dream is that is was our most intentional [body of work]. That is the dynamic of The Flavr Blue. We have been evolving as a live act and recording artists... We really took a step back and didn’t take shows. We were working in a very intentional, retreat-like way, in the studio.”
LADYGUNN X HRDWRKER PRESENT “AS A WOMAN” – HOLLIS WONG-WEAR
March 2017
"I am passionate about the power of stories to transform our world; passionate about finding motivation and momentum in the face of ennui and despair. I am passionate about radical empathy, equal parts resistance and reimagination, and tearing myself away from my screen and being fully present."
A Holiday Wish List From Hollis Wong-Wear
November 2016
“Every nonprofit, institution, community collective, company, and publication within Seattle (and beyond) needs to define common language and work actively to make sure that white fragility isn’t being prioritized over the voices, experiences, and needs of people of color; that they are not complicit in the intimidation, harassment, and exclusion of those on the margins; and that they are actively examining and harnessing their resources—with humility—toward social justice.”
prairie underground: THE LIBERAL ARTS OF HOLLIS WONG-WEAR
September 2016
“As an artist, I don’t believe in the idea of ‘art for art’s sake’ – I feel that anyone who is a generative artist creates with an inherent politic; the question is whether one can create conscientiously, and own the opportunity to shift culture in a more just direction.”
nbc asian america: Musician Hollis Wong-Wear On the Arts, Representation, and Creating 'New Possibilities'
September 2016
“We as people who want to see social change happen cannot keep putting the total sum of our energies into performing that which exists. We have to create new realities and new possibilities to really instruct and inform through leadership and through our own manifestation what the future needs to be.”
KUOW: Seattle's Hollis Wong-Wear wants music to inspire change
May 2016
“How can I be an agent of change moving forward versus somebody that just sits by? There’s no such thing as ‘benevolent bystander.’ I think that silence is an action. I think that you can choose to be silent, or you can choose to speak up, to leverage what you have to move towards a world where all are heard and all are valued.”
color lines: An Overdue Intro to Hollis Wong-Wear, the Grammy-Nominated Musician and Poet on a Mission
February 2016
“Our goal is the make music that brings people together, and I think that, in and of itself, can be a very simple political undertaking—that understanding that the power of music to bring people together. Those moments of joy and celebration are worthwhile.”
jezebel: Meet Hollis Wong-Wear & Jamila Woods, the Women of Color Behind Macklemore's 'White Privilege II'
JANUARY 2016
“I think that white privilege even is difficult for white people to wrap their heads around, and there’s so much defensiveness and personalization with it, and if there’s any influence that can get white people to stop taking what it means to be racist personally, it’s deeply important. Because that’s the only way that work is going to begin: if white people really start understanding what it means to be racist.”
JEZEBEL: SEATTLE PAPER DESCRIBES ASIAN WOMAN & MACKLEMORE COLLABORATOR HOLLIS WONG-WEAR AS HIS ‘SIDEKICK’
MAY 2015
“I’m not interested in being a victim or in sympathy. I am interested in holding Seattle media accountable for its egregious incompetency when it comes to women and people of color.”
FASHION WE LIKE: “MY STYLE” HOLLIS WONG-WEAR
APRIL 2015
“I dress to embrace my body and my spiritedness with mindfulness to balance. There’s a line between flattering and restrictive, and I never want to feel like what I’m wearing will prohibit me from moving or eating however I want.”
THE HUNDREDS: MODERN DAY RENAISSANCE WOMAN HOLLIS WONG-WEAR IS SEATTLE’S QUADRUPLE THREAT
MARCH 2015
“To me, I just want to be creative and I want my creativity to push boundaries, both my internal boundaries as well as societal boundaries.”
THE STRANGER: MACKLEMORE COLLABORATOR HOLLIS WONG-WEAR JOINS SEATTLE MUSIC COMMISSION
MARCH 2015
“This is a special place, the opportunities and resources are rich, and I am privileged to channel my experience and understanding of the landscape here in music and nightlife towards representing on this commission.”
NBC NEWS: “HOLLIS WONG-WEAR SLAMS HER WAY INTO MAINSTREAM MUSIC”
SEPTEMBER 2014
“I never anticipated having a song on the radio,’ said Wong-Wear. ‘I was simply invested in a collective project that I believed in, knowing it was far greater than myself. . . I just want to be the best artist I can be and hustle as hard as I can.”
CITY ARTS MAGAZINE: “HUSTLE MAKES ME WHAT I AM; A CONVERSATION WITH BLUE SCHOLARS’ GEO”
MAY 2014
“I use poetry. It’s such a cold way to get your chops up as a rapper, performer, in general. ’Cause it’s just you and words and that’s it. There’s no nothing; you are the show.”
SEATTLE MET: “OUR GRAMMY WINNERS: MARK MITCHELL AND HOLLIS WONG-WEAR”
JANUARY 2014
“I knew I was a nominee, but I also felt like a nobody in the swirl of celebrity. Mark’s dress kept me grounded. It’s the reason why MTV selected me, a newbie, as a part on their Grammy Fashion feature. There is power and hope in each stitch. It has Mark’s energy in it.”
BILLBOARD: “HOLLIS TALKS ‘WHITE WALLS,’ MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS’ EARLY DAYS: Q&A”
DECEMBER 2013
“Singer-songwriter,” “video producer” and “spoken-word artist” are just a few hats that Hollis has worn in the past five years, before the Seattle artist burst onto the scene with her collaborations on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ debut album, “The Heist.”