TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Local singer-songwriter Lin Yile (林以樂) pursued music with a passion, skipping her college entrance exam for a concert and going overseas to expand her musical influences.
Her first band, Freckles, emerged from the late-night venue, Underworld, and popular café, Witch’s Pub. Lin said that in the beginning, band members would sometimes outnumber the audience.
As her band's popularity grew, she found a larger audience. This led to an invitation to perform in a battle of the bands competition at the Gongliao Hohaiyan Festival in 2003, and again later in 2007, where her band won the Juror’s Award.
But local fame and the promise of a record deal were not enough for Lin, as she would soon become interested in Beijing’s growing music scene, fueled in part by a growing contemporary art movement and a one-time liberalization of policies regarding art and culture.
Lin moved to Beijing in 2010 to join a music scene built around record label Maybe Mars and a handful of progressive venues such as D22, MAO Livehouse, and Dusk Dawn Club. “I really appreciated the indie music scene there. They had a couple of live houses, and one of my reasons for going there is that Beijing is a huge city that has lots of talented artists with a very independent spirit. The lyrics and the music that they improvised and performed reflected this.
As a skilled multi-instrumentalist, she was soon recruited to play drums for notable acts such as Carsick Cars and was later able to release a record with a new band called Skip Skip Ben Ben. “I came back to Taiwan in 2013 to play a show opening for My Bloody Valentine (MBV) at the National Taiwan University Sports Center. The promoter was so surprised that the band wanted us to open for them. They asked me if I had any relationship with the band.”
As it turned out, Skip Skip Ben Ben’s record won over Ricky Maymi, guitarist for the seminal Austin, Texas, psychedelic band Brian Jonestown Massacre, who had passed on her CD to Kevin Shields, founder of MBV. “That’s the time I got more popular and started getting invitations to perform in Japan and Italy.”
Lin is adamant that Skip Skip Ben Ben’s music was never "shoegaze,” though she might have dabbled in the genre with her latter band, BOYZ&GIRL. At the moment, she says her main focus is simply singing and working as a professional producer.
Career Transition
Looking back on her musical career, Lin remembers Taiwan’s vibrant indie scene centered around a handful of clubs and cafes such as Riverside, Kafka by the Shore, and B-side. Another important inspiration was an annual pilgrimage to Kenting over the Tomb Sweeping Festival. The most important festival at the time was Spring Scream.
“When I went down to play at Spring Scream in Kenting, I was in four different bands at the time. It was very exciting because I was playing in bands like Hang in the Air, BB Bomb, and Taimaica Sound System, as well as my own band. It was a good time, but I still remember the hardest part being carrying my keyboard, guitar, and pedals up the hill.”
Lin says the Spring Scream festival was a good chance for indie musicians from around Taiwan to come together. But now this time has passed, and Lin is inwardly focused on producing her own vocals and other arrangements. My solo album was completed in 2021, but then COVID came and the label shut down, so we couldn’t release it.
“I am looking for a better musical production team now and want to write something deeply poetic and beautiful, something with a clear voice and classical style. I want to push myself into a different style with a lot of instrumentation, such as oboes and wind instruments.
In contrast, Lin says she was initially drawn to rock and punk music during her high school years due to the aggressive, high-energy nature of the music. “Many people wanted to play this and spit out their anger. When I made this type of music, I wanted to push my emotions out, but now I feel a little differently when I am working on my solo project.”
Lin laments the fact that the rise of social media platforms has distracted people from enjoying music. “Now they listen but don’t fully concentrate on the music. There are still lots of music lovers, but it is getting harder to find them.”
Lin remembers the time when many would eagerly await a CD release and then go home to enjoy a listening party with friends. Or, better yet, attending a local concert and hanging out afterward.
According to Lin, freedom is a powerful component of the independent music scene. “It’s like they say, to be or not to be. People have a lot of choices about what they want to do and what they don’t want to do. I think we should all appreciate this because some people have no choice in their lives.”
Lin is planning the completion of an album later this year. She believes it will be a radical departure from previous work, and more contemplative or reflective, like a poem. Her most recent transformation as an artist has perhaps been the most difficult yet, with the release of recent material thwarted by the COVID pandemic, and her own high standards for musical production.
But as she turns and walks down the stairs at the end of the interview, the wait will definitely be worth it.
