AfterGlow Marks a Slower, More Personal Turn for Boston Producer Tessa Ying

According to All Things Loud, the song combines piano with synths, atmospheric textures and a jazz guitar solo recorded by Luis McDougal, a Brooklyn guitarist of Dominican-American heritage. Ying wrote it after travelling through Sedona and the Grand Canyon. When she returned to Boston, a striking sunset seen from a rooftop patio felt like the quiet final scene of the whole trip, and that moment gave the single both its title and its mood.

The release also signals a change of pace. For years, Ying built her productions around fast, high-energy tempos. AfterGlow deliberately slows down, and she links that choice to the more settled sound she is exploring now that she is in her 30s. The track keeps the kick drum and sub bass that have run through a decade of her electronic work, while the piano carries the melody and ties the song back to where she started. Her goal was a piece that feels hopeful and lifts the listener. Early reactions suggest it landed: the single was added to the Relax and Chill and Mellow Grooves playlists, where one curator pointed to the progress in her piano writing and another praised how carefully the sounds were chosen and arranged.

That piano foundation goes back a long way. Ying grew up in Singapore, began playing at four and spent her early years in classical training. Before moving abroad, she was already working as a musician and teaching piano. A scholarship from Berklee College of Music, the Asian Scholarship Tour Award, brought her to Boston, where she took a dual major in music production and engineering and in electronic production and design. She wanted to leave familiar ground behind, and the United States offered a broader community of musicians and audiences open to the niche genres she loved. Boston is not usually the first city named in conversations about music, as Los Angeles and Austin tend to take that spot. Still, Berklee draws contemporary musicians from around the world, and its alumni range from Singaporean artists Corinne May and Nathan Hartono to Laufey, Charlie Puth and John Mayer. Ying feels the city’s arts scene is underrated and says the way Boston values creative work opened doors she could not have found elsewhere.

Her move into electronic music came gradually. The interest had been there for years, but in 2018 she began exploring it in depth, working across mainstream EDM as well as bass and industrial electronic styles. What pulls her in is sound technology itself: how people perceive sound and how producers and engineers craft a listening experience that feels unique. She also rejects the idea that classical piano and electronic music sit at opposite ends of the spectrum, arguing that the two overlap and constantly influence each other. Her path since Berklee includes several steps:

• graduating from Berklee in 2019 and continuing to produce independently;
• releasing EPs and singles such as Be On My Own and Dreaming in Flight;
• collaborating with artists including Luis McDougal, Tommaso Annoni, Angelique World and Elisabeth Waters;
• developing an identity shaped by time spent in EDM, classical, jazz and funk communities.

Experience has also changed how she works. Ying now knows which tools and sounds fit the feeling she wants to create, so her process has become more intentional, and her focus has shifted from matching a genre to telling a story. Next, she plans to write more piano-driven electronic tracks and to work with a wider circle of artists. Outside the studio, she is coming back as musical director for youth musical theatre at the nonprofit Arts for Learning MA and is organising another piano concert for her students. Her example shows that much of Boston’s music scene is carried by independent artists who keep producing, mixing and collaborating year after year.