Section 36 Music: Vivian Ning Wei & Kiki Liu Visit Section 36 Music!

Courtesy of Vivian Ning Wei & Kiki Liu

Vivian Ning Wei and Kiki Liu are artist-producer collaborators that you will want to have on your radar. Their debut single "ILLUSION" gave a glimpse into the future of this team, and it is definitely a bright. I was flattered that they wanted to visit with us to discuss their collaboration, future goals, and more! I'm sure you'll love what they had to say.

So, let's see what happens when Vivian Ning Wei and Kiki Liu visit Section 36 Music!

How did the two of you meet and start working together?

We met at Berklee in Valencia, Spain, and started collaborating on covers. Vivian Ning Wei is a singer-songwriter, and Kiki Liu is a producer and songwriter. The videos received a really encouraging response on Vivian’s Douyin account, the Chinese version of TikTok. They helped her build an audience and introduced listeners to our collaboration.

As we kept working together, we realised we cared about a lot of the same details. We could spend ages on a vocal phrase or a particular sound because we both felt it made a difference.

Vivian has a vivid imagination. Sometimes we describe a scene or imitate a sound to explain an idea, and the other person can usually understand the direction. When we started writing original songs, we realised we both pictured things while making music. That became a big part of our partnership as an artist and producer. We want listeners to feel like they can step into those scenes with us.

I really enjoyed your first single together, “ILLUSION”. What can you tell me about it?

Thank you! “ILLUSION” was our first original song together. We started the verse and pre-chorus during a week in San Diego, and the early version was quite gentle. Later, Vivian suggested a more intense chorus, so we tried mixing her vocals together with an electronic drop.

Kiki created the dark electronic atmosphere and shaped the arrangement to feel like a scene unfolding. She also repeated little pieces of the hook throughout the track, sometimes subtly in the background, so it would stay with you after one listen.

Vivian developed the layered harmonies and backing vocal arrangements, which help carry the emotion and create depth. She also added some shimmering production touches in the outro, giving the song a dreamy finish. That’s something we love exploring in our songs: how her backing vocals can become part of the arrangement and help the music grow.

The song evolved across Boston, Taiwan, and Los Angeles over about a year, as we found our sound together. The song is about falling for the version of someone you’ve created in your head, then starting to question what was real. That’s what “Just an illusion I had of you” means to us. We wanted it to sound beautiful, but also lonely and a little disorienting.

There’s also an a cappella version, and we’d love people to hear it. It reveals the vocal layers in a different way and shows how much of the story they carry.

You are both graduates of Berklee College of Music. What is the biggest thing Berklee did for your musical career?

Courtesy of Vivian Ning

It gave us a lot individually, but finding each other was a huge part of it.

Vivian had lots of opportunities to perform, and the training helped her grow as a singer. Group projects also gave her experience working with different musicians. Kiki developed much of her production craft during her master’s, then stayed in Valencia for another six months for a post-master’s programme. That was when we met.

Kiki lived close to campus, so Vivian would often come over after class. We’d make covers, write songs, and get to know each other. We also spent a lot of time in Berklee’s studios, so the school was at the centre of how our collaboration started.

Pursuing music can feel lonely, and having someone to share ideas and work through things with has meant a lot to us. Those afternoons making music gradually grew into the partnership we have today.

Who or what would you consider your biggest musical inspiration?

A lot of it comes from what we share with each other. We’re close friends outside of music, so we often exchange songs, films, videos, and images, then talk about how they make us feel. Our tastes overlap, but we don’t always notice the same things.

For example, Vivian’s interest in exploring meditation, and that inspired the outro of our upcoming song, “Cloud”. She imagined it as a conversation with herself, with her voice coming from a deeper place within. We talked about how to give the outro a calm but powerful feeling. Kiki reworked the production around that feeling, and Vivian then worked on the outro too, building on those ideas. It developed through both of us experimenting.

Travelling together also gives us new experiences and time to let ideas develop. Our influences come from lots of places, but we often find inspiration in each other’s response to them.

What would you say is the biggest challenge with your musical career?

Courtesy of Vivian Ning Wei & Kiki Liu

Creatively, it’s making the world we imagine feel real to someone listening. We want people to feel drawn into a song from the first few moments and follow it through the different emotions. They might picture something completely different from us, but we hope the music gives them a place to go.

Distance adds another challenge. Vivian is based in Guangzhou and Kiki is in Taiwan, so we try to spend as much time as we can creating together in person.

Although Vivian’s main focus is singing, she cares a lot about production and also works on it herself. In the same room, we can sit in front of a session, change a tiny detail, and try several ideas straight away. That exchange takes longer remotely, especially when we’re discussing a texture or a sense of space. We’re still learning how to communicate those details clearly.

What are your immediate musical goals?

Our next single, “Cloud”, comes out on 16 November, and we have more original music planned for 2027. We’re excited to share the songs we’ve been developing and let listeners hear more sides of what we create together.

With “ILLUSION”, we explored getting lost in an imagined version of someone. “Cloud” moves towards acceptance and a quieter conversation with yourself. We’re interested in feelings that can be hard to put into words. A vocal can make them feel very close, while the production gives them a much bigger space to exist in.

Many listeners first found Vivian through covers, so we want them to get to know her own songwriting and stories. We also want people to get to know Kiki’s work as a producer and songwriter, and what we each bring to the music.

We’re also developing plans for a live set, exploring how to bring the atmosphere of our recordings onto a stage. We’d love to pursue showcase opportunities, international performances and collaborations, and eventually touring.

How would you describe the problem-solving process between you if changes need to be made?

Courtesy of Kiki Liu

We’re both willing to try each other’s ideas, whether in the production or the vocals. With “ILLUSION”, we were mostly on the same page. One of us would suggest something, the other would try it, and a lot of the song came together that way.

The outro of “Cloud” has been more challenging. We want it to feel like the moment the whole song builds towards, almost as though you’re entering your subconscious and hearing a wiser, more expansive version of yourself speak. It needs to feel peaceful, but also vast and cinematic.

Adding more sounds can take away that calm, so we’ve been trying to make it feel bigger with fewer elements. That makes details like the timing of a sound or the amount of low end especially important.

Sometimes one of us thought a section was working and the other didn’t. That could be frustrating, particularly remotely. We’ve had to get more specific: is it the sound itself, when it comes in, or how much is happening around it?

Then we try things and listen again. Sometimes we compromise; sometimes an experiment leads to something we both prefer. It takes patience, but we want the result to feel right to both of us.

“Cloud” comes out on 16 November, and we’d love you to listen all the way through to the outro. We’ve talked about what we imagined while making it, so we’re curious to hear where it takes you.

I will definitely be listening to "Cloud" all the way to the end!

As always, I want to thank Vivian and Kiki for visiting with us, and for providing the pictures to accompany the interview.

Since I know you want to listen to "ILLUSION" immediately, where's where you can find it:

I'm sure you’ll all want to follow both of them and see what they have going on. Here are the best places to find them:

Follow Vivian Ning Wei

Instagram

TikTok