Born in Hong Kong and based in Shanghai, Tom Bray (better known as Tom Yeti) has been a pivotal figure within Asia’s music landscape for the past decade. Joining the dots within all aspects of the industry from artist management, music event promotions, booking agent, radio host to DJ, he’s the co-founder of YETI OUT collective and subsidiary record label Silk Road Sounds. Holding residencies in Shanghai, Seoul, Bangkok to Singapore, YETI OUT’s been bridging the gap between East & West

Being the few Asian music collectives that hold residencies on Rinse F.M to NTS Radio, their ‘Silk Road Sounds’ show promotes a sonic exchange between cultures from both sides of the Atlantic with consistent label releases that blur the line around Grime, Garage, House, 4×4 frequencies to new found global sounds. His sound design portfolio covers curation projects alongside the likes of Louis Vuitton, Dior, Bottega Venetta, Soho House to NikeLab while cementing his career as a multidisciplinary in Asia’s creative circles.

Thomas started a music blog that mushroomed into an all-out creative collective, Yeti Out, involved in party promotion, art show production and fashion collaborations, and with its own record label Silk Road Sounds and creative agency TEN5. 

Show notes:

2:40 Lockdown life

4:55 Hong Kong upbringing, college educated in the UK and how he got to Shanghai

9:42 How creative collective Yeti Out originally started as a music blog in the UK

11:45 How UK music scene influenced him and the meaning behind the name Yeti Out

15:10 On identifying more with being Chinese and the potential of developing in Asia vs the West

17:00 How club scenes differ from in West and East

20:30 The idea behind the label Silk Road Sounds

25:00 How Asian artist are received by Western audiences

32:20 Different approaches of fashion brands entering China

34:30 Local Chinese brands and the differences in international appeal of fashion vs music

38:40 Discovering new parts of China during the past two years of pandemic

40:40 How the inability of foreign acts to enter China during the past two years has affected the local scene

46:45   The recent flip of lockdown situations of East and West