Founded by producer waverly, mHart is a Texas-based independent music label dedicated to the AAPI community, blending high-production pop aesthetics with a mission to provide positive representation for Asian American creative storytellers.
is building its own pop universe from scratch, complete with all the sparkly fixings. Choreographed background dancers, high-quality music videos, and elaborate world construction for each of its three signees leave a lush impression – outsized, perhaps, for the independent label’s three years of expertise.
Given founder waverly’s meticulous dedication to professionalism, it’s not exactly surprising.
“We’re trying to be our younger selves’ role models,” the Cambodian-born producer says. “We’re having fun, but we take things seriously. ”, Texas’ first and only Asian American music label celebrates the end of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with the same detail-oriented approach the imprint brings to every aspect of their production.
“It feels like we’re so much uncharted territory,” says waverly. “I just want to make sure that we’re doing it well and in a way that positively represents us as creative storytellers. ” Across the country, he’s not certain there’s another active label focusing on the AAPI community the way mHart is. The distinction bears a certain amount of pressure and self-applied responsibility, but it’s being pop-focused that often feels harder to waverly.
While the behind-the-scenes at the fledgling label may be scrappy, cultivating polished artistic personas, as waverly and crew do, can feel at odds with other genres’ grassroots aesthetics at the independent level. The producer spent some time in Austin’s DIY scene, a notoriously un-commercial space, in his youth, but was always drawn to music’s glossier sides.
A double bass major at the University of North Texas, he studied music production and wound up working with local rapperwhen he returned to Austin after graduation in 2023. It was around that time that he started to dig into his heritage.
“When I started the music project, I was trying to find inspirations and role models, or just other artists. It was really hard to find people that were in music that weren’t straight K-pop,” he says. promqueen became one of those inspirations for waverly and, as she began to perform, for other listeners. singing a Sabrina Carpenter cover with her dad’s rock band.
The idea for mHart was born right as its roster doubled in size.rouelle says she was manifesting a way to get into performing on her own when waverly approached her.
“When I was studying musical theatre in the past, I was always the only Asian person pursuing it very seriously,” the Filipino American singer says. “Coming into mHart, it’s the first time where I really felt like I could relate to other people, and with that comes comfortability and trying things and support. ” Co-writing with waverly, she started to turn her journal entries into sugary singer-songwriter pop, showcased passionately on her August 2025 debut.
Preparing her second album, due September 2026, rouelle is finding her voice, taking full lyrical reins and leaning into hyper-pop elements and electronic experimentation. She says being surrounded by supportive creatives has helped her feel comfortable tapping into vulnerable topics and new sounds.
“It can be messy and cohesive at the same time,” she says of the new project’s ethos. “I think it’s the most honest that I’ve ever been. ” Over a year into both artists’ careers at the lowercase-loving label, promqueen and rouelle are catching local attention: The former performed at SXSW 2026, and the latter was recently tapped to play KUTX’s Rock the Park series. Even before that, the small group behind these big performances was bursting at the seams.
“It got to the point where both of the projects were growing I couldn’t handle it by myself, which is great, but also terrifying,” waverly laughs. He and creative director/stage manager Ellena Martinez were used to wearing lots of hats to sustain their vast visions, but they started reaching out to friends in marketing and theatre to pitch in their talents, constructing a multicultural team.
“They’re very open to everyone being in touch with their own culture, background, and history,” Martinez says of the organization. Nowhere does its culture-centered approach come to life like at its KISSES showcases.
“It really does feel like equal parts concert and community event,” she says. Last year, the lineup made a second stop in Houston to spread the celebration – and the word about mHart. promqueen’s language-blending lyric style, combining Vietnamese and English to echo her bilingual family home, has resonated with other Asian American audience members, and children of immigrants or multicultural families in general.
Meanwhile, rouelle’s Taylor Swift-meets-Addison Rae diaristic songwriting strikes a universal chord in its straightforward earnestness.
“The more specific you are about your experiences when you’re telling a story the more people can relate, because they see the truth in you,” says Martinez. She’s found that to be true of mHart’s mission as a whole, especially given that, as she puts it, “I have no Asian American dish to bring to the potluck. I’ll bring some tamales. ” , whose bubblegum-and-rhinestones sound fits right into its catalog, as its third signee.
All three will take the stage at KISSES, alongside New York-based surf-pop artist Royce Fisherman. Embracing pink hues in her sophomore album era, rouelle is taking advantage of the community-centered show to test out performing her unreleased record in full. As always, the triad’s costumes, stage set, and choreography are deliberate.
“We’re building out their visual world after they themselves pave the path of their auditory world,” Martinez explains, describing her curiosity-driven approach to crafting each artist’s cohesive aesthetic. As it continues to expand each signee’s colorful discography, and their visibility in Austin and beyond, mHart grounds its ethic in the intentionality on display at every performance.
“Ellena, before every single show, will remind us of the team,” waverly says, recalling her mantra that every dancer, stage hand, production assistant, and artist is a representation of themselves and mHart. “‘Be polite, be respectful, let every venue and every single audience member leave thinking that you put on an amazing show. ’” has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene.
Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. Caroline is the Music and Culture staff writer and reporter, covering, well, music, books, and visual art for the Chronicle.
She came to Austin by way of Portland, Oregon, drawn by the music scene and the warm weather.
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