Want to sample the latest music from Taiwan’s indie bands? Look no further than tomorrow’s Taiwan Band Festival (台灣樂團節) concert.
Currently in its third edition, the festival was initiated by the Government Information Office (GIO) to promote independent bands and fund new work.
To apply for subsidies to release their music, bands must submit a demo and proposal to be reviewed by a panel of industry professionals chosen by the government. Earlier this year, 15 bands were picked to receive NT$400,000 each to produce and release a new album.
To cap off the past year’s hard work, 14 of these groups will perform highlights of their music in a marathon free concert, which runs from 2:30pm to 9:30pm at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
The festival’s organizers aim to arouse public interest in the bands, whose music runs the gamut from disco rock and punk to acoustic folk and electronica.
“It’s important to encourage indie bands because mainstream music is very limited,” said Terri Wu, project planning executive of the Taiwan Music Culture International Alternation Association (台灣音樂文化國際交流協會), which was commissioned by the GIO to organize the festival. “Indie music is the arena in which musicians can experiment ... and that innovation can then be borrowed by the mainstream.”
This year, the association helped bands such as Go Chic and Telephone Booth (電話亭樂團) finish debut albums and assisted veteran bands such as Marty Young and Double X (which is returning to the music scene after a 20-year hiatus) reconnect with their fans.
At the request of the GIO, the Taiwan Band Festival has decreased the number of bands it subsidizes from 27 groups in its first year to 15 this year.
This downsizing is being publicized as a choice of quality over quantity.
“The main goal of this event is to help the groups produce and release albums,” says Wu. “We decided to limit the number so that each group could have more money for their production.”
For Wu, the health of the independent music scene can be gauged by how prosperous the “live house” scene is. “These days, there is literally a performance available on any given night in Taipei,” he said.
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