Ong understands pop. Instead of going along with the common pop theme of single note melodies in today's musical trends, he chooses to use catchy yet simple melody to carry his lyric. A solid beat works well the vamping guitars and a wonderful bass line that rumbles my sub while still staying perfectly in the mix with everything else. For the average pop listener, this is accessible, but for me and many other musicians, you can hear the level of detail that went into the song without over complicating it. Vocoder, ad-lib vocals, harmonies. All things that have been added to make the song work.
Influences that come to mind are Dirty Loops and Zedd’s In The Middle. It is wonderfully mixed and mastered with the help of Phil Levine. For those who enjoy modern pop music, this is definitely something that will resonate with them. If pop isn’t always your thing, you might find this track will pleasantly surprise you.
Geoff Ong wants to be a pop star for dorks. “I love all the sounds and melodies of pop music, but I never really felt like I was cool enough to relate to the people performing it,” he says. “I figure there must be other people out there who feel the same way – my music is for them.”
Geoff’s 2018 single, Fingerprints, a shimmering slice of soulful indie pop, was recorded in his bedroom in Kingsland, with production, mixing and mastering by Phil Levine of the illustrious Igloo Music Studios in Los Angeles, who won two Grammy Awards for their work on 2016’s box office hit, La La Land.
Fingerprints made an immediate impact, peaking at #3 on the Hot NZ Singles Chart and #25 on the overall Hot Singles Top 40 Chart. It was also featured on ZM, The Edge, The Edge TV, and Radio New Zealand.