dān dān Announces Debut EP ‘Songs About Food’
Tāmaki Makaurau-based soul-food singer-songwriter dān dān announces her debut EP songs about food, alongside a music video for leading single cigarette breakfast, shot on Kodak 200T 16mm film, and premiering at her EP release party at Te Oro (Glen Innes) on Saturday 22 August.
songs about food is a bilingual English and Mandarin EP about family, identity, and growing up between cultures, with food doing the heavy lifting as the medium of storytelling. Across seven tracks, dān dān (she/they) traces food as culture, family, whakapapa, and the quiet language of love: the story of ancestry that survived on very little, and a generation that gets to make art in abundance.
The EP gathers the singles that built dān dān’s solo chapter: pressure cooker, end of august (hand-pulled noodles), songs about u, and (cookie) crumble, alongside three new songs: sunshine (bag of rice), cigarette breakfast, and baijiu 白酒.
songs about food as a body of work features production from Dan Martin, Sam Nakamura, Christian Tjandrawinata, and Devin Abrams (Pacific Heights), with mastering by Chris Chetland and Benny Tones (Organik Muzik Workz), recording with sound engineer Jess Haugh, and violin from sibling Tee Hao-Aickin.
The EP was made with the support of the Asian Artists Fund.
Co-written with Jefferson Chen and Christian Tjandrawinata, cigarette breakfast is about supporting your loved ones even when you don’t understand them.
“It’s about taking a seat at the table without expectations, and holding space without presumptions. Or at least, attempting to.” dān dān shares.
The accompanying music video, shot on Kodak 200T 16mm film, was directed/DOP by Flora Xie (pressure cooker) and produced by Natasha Skuljan, and camera operated by Dylan Poihipi. It features co-writer Jefferson Chen, and was made with the support of New Zealand On Air’s New Music Pan-Asian fund.
cigarette breakfast (the Official Music Video) will premiere at the EP release party on Saturday 22 August.
dān dān has been cooking up a debut EP and you’re invited for dinner.
Except there’s no dinner. There’s a seven-piece all-wāhine band on keys, guitar, cello, violin, bass, flute, and yangqin, a resident chicken, poetry, improv dance, interactive light/sound installations, a zine, crocheted food, a laundry machine installation playing dān dān’s music videos, a film photo gallery… and you, hopefully (please and thank you) dressed inspired by food.
The chicken will ask.
Saturday 22 August 2026
Te Oro: 98 Line Rd, Glen Innes, Tāmaki Makaurau
Doors 6.30pm, performance 8.00pm
Tickets $35
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