Oli Hang (杭士琁) was settling into a career as a surgeon when tragedy prompted her to reexamine her life.
Two of her instructors killed themselves within the same year at the hospital where she was completing her residency requirement.
Shaken, Hang, who had been classically trained as a pianist, wondered if she really wanted to be a doctor.
Photo Courtesy of Oli Hang
“I thought I would really regret it if I didn’t give myself a chance in music,” she says.
Hang, who immigrated to Australia when she was nine years old, returned to Taiwan three years ago to pursue a singing career.
Next month, she will release her first album, tentatively titled This Is The Moment. She will perform tracks from the independently produced record, which fuses country pop with rock and folk, at Taipei’s A House tomorrow at 8pm, followed by a show at Riverside Cafe on Dec. 24.
“To come out with an album, it’s kind of what I’ve been living for up to now,” Hang says.
Since returning to Taiwan, she has experimented with a variety of genres. Her rock group Oliband was a runner-up in the music competition TV show SuperBand (創作天團) last year, but Hang had trouble seeing herself as a rock star.
“Deep down, I like to pretend that I’m really cool, that I gave up medicine to do music so I’m kind of a rebellious person, a pioneer, but I’m not,” she says. “I’m more the girl next door.”
Now Hang feels most comfortable describing herself as a country pop singer in the vein of Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks and Lady Antebellum. She hopes country will help her stand out from other singers here, but adds that many Taiwanese still associate the genre with twangy Western music.
“There is very little exposure to country music in Taiwan,” Hang says. “People think of ‘cowboy music’ or very traditional country music. Modern country music doesn’t sound like that.”
Though her musical inspirations also include Shania Twain and Taylor Swift, known for their romantic ballads, Hang says she won’t be turning out songs like Swift’s hit Love Story.
“In Taiwan, people like ballads and they are all about love,” Hang says. “I wanted to do something different that is more inspiring.”
Many of Hang’s songs, like the upbeat, fast-paced anthem Go, Go Fighting, are inspired by her life experiences. When she first returned to Taiwan, Hang says she was “naive” about how difficult it would be to break into the music industry. Hang sang in restaurants while trying to get licensed as a physician here, but failed the exam twice.
“The first time I missed out by two points. The second time I failed by 0.05 points,” Hang says.
She poured her feelings of frustration into a song called Turn (轉) that combines punk pop with country and is inspired by the saying, “If the mountains won’t move, build a road around them. If the roads don’t go your way, choose another path. If you can’t change your path, change your approach” (山不轉路轉,路不轉人轉,人不轉心轉).
“Nothing is ever so bad that it can’t get worse,” Hang says. “[The lyrics] are full of the bad things I have experienced, like having no friends, because when I came back I didn’t know anyone, having only five dollars in the bank, missing out on passing the test by 0.05 points.”
Despite the challenges of being a musician, Hang has no regrets about giving up the stability of a medical career in Australia.
“Instead of waiting for other people to make my dreams come true, I decided I should just make my own dreams come true,” Hang says.
Performance Notes
What: Oli Hang at A House
When: Tomorrow at 7:30pm
Where: A House, 18, Alley 5, Ln 107, Fuxing S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段107巷5弄18號), tel: (02) 2778-8612
Admission: Tickets are NT$350 and include a beverage
On the Net: For more information about Hang’s performance at Riverside Cafe next month and her album release, visit www.facebook.com/pages/音樂大夫-oli
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