Taiwan has some “hidden treasures” waiting to be discovered, says musician Matthew Lien, who is on a mission to bring them into the spotlight. But this time, Lien, who is widely known in Taiwan as the “eco-musician” and environmental activist from Canada, is not talking about wilderness, but something even closer to home for him: music.
Among these “treasures” is the Hakka music that Lien explores on his latest album, Adventures in the Hakka Heartland (旅客), which was released earlier this month. The album is associated with the television series Ha-Fun Taiwan, which Lien conceived and co-hosted with Hakka singer-songwriter Hsieh Yu-wei (謝宇威).
In each episode of the series, Lien and Hsieh travel to predominantly Hakka areas around Taiwan, from the foothills of Ilan County in the north to Meinung (美濃) in the south. They meet local folk musicians who talk about their lives and perform in their daily surroundings. The musicians featured in the show, and who contribute to the album, performed a variety of Hakka music forms, including mountain songs (山歌), an improvisational singing style, and bayin (八音), a ceremonial instrumental music often played at social events.
It is these “musical heroes who perform for the love of culture” that inspired the project, Lien writes in the liner notes to the album. Lien and his co-producers deliberately chose to spotlight lesser-known musicians.
“I thought it would be interesting and beneficial to Hakka culture at large to show that there are a ton of super cool musicians out there; but they’re not interested in being famous or trying to get on stage or into the limelight – they’re just on their chicken farm or wherever playing their music,” he said in a recent interview with the Taipei Times.
Lien took the field recordings, all made during 2007, and added his own music at his Taipei studio. He drew from a range of instruments including synthesizers, drums, flutes, and guitars to create the backing tracks. The results were featured at the end of each episode as a music video, with footage recapping Lien and Hsieh’s time with the featured musician.
In Ba-yin Blues, Lien takes Lin Zuo-chang’s (林作長) rendition of a traditional Hakka tune on the suona (嗩吶), a trumpet-like instrument, and gives it a modern electric blues sound: think BB King’s backing band with a suona as the main voice.
Lien’s instrumentation changes the mood of the tune in a way that traditional music purists might call blasphemous. And Lin, a chicken farmer from Meinung, was not initially convinced of Lien’s idea of adding a blues-sounding backing track to his performance.
“I think he was doubtful and kind of ‘humored’ by the idea,” said Lien. “But nevertheless he gave me a bottle of kaoliang and signed his name on it with the date and gave it to me and said if I succeed, (I should) bring it back and we would drink it together.”
And drink they did. Lien and the TV crew returned to finish taping Lin’s segment of the show, and played the new recording with Lien’s backing instrumentation. Lin’s face “just lit up with this big smile,” Lien said.
While Lien’s distinct musical footprint may come across as a bit heavy for some, he says his purpose is to show that Hakka music can hold its own, even in a pop context. “I felt I could capture the essence of [their music] and lift it up to a new level to make people pay attention,” he said.
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