JS is the rare Taiwanese music act that can succeed in both the worlds of commercial pop and edgy indie rock without compromising its integrity.
The group is comprised of Justin — real name Chen Chung-yi (陳忠義) — who writes the songs and plays the instruments, and younger sister Sophia — real name Chen Chi-hsuan (陳綺萱) — whose crystalline vocals waft across her brother’s folksy sonic landscape. On Thursday night they will be performing a themed concert titled Songs for Good Friends (好朋友的歌), a retrospective of their signature songs from the past decade.
The brother-sister duo got its start by winning top prize in MTV’s New Voice Competition in 1999. They signed with Sony Music and released their first album Say Forever under the name GoGo&MeMe (哥哥妹妹).
It wasn’t all smooth sailing after that promising start. A wave of industry restructuring following the advent of the MP3 and Internet-based music distribution put their recording careers on hold.
“We were shooting the music video for our second album in Japan and we got a phone call halfway through [telling us] that everyone on the team had been fired,” says Justin in a phone interview on Thursday last week.
In the restructured Sony, GoGo&MeMe became an orphaned act with no album release date.
During that period, Justin turned his attention to writing songs for other music acts.
“I completely loathed the so-called balage (芭樂歌) [catchy ballad] back in college,” explains Justin. “It wasn’t until I started working in the industry that I learned to understand it. It’s the art of discovering freshness within familiar terrain.”
Justin has since developed into a highly sought-after songwriter with a knack for penning hits. His oeuvre includes The Moment (sung by Sun Yunzi, 孫燕姿), I Am Fine (我很好) (sung by Rene Liu, 劉若英) and Staying Put With Love (鎮守愛情) (sung by Power Station, 動力火車).
Justin and Sophia eventually signed with Avex and changed their band’s name to JS, under which they have released three albums over the past decade: Meeting the Future (遇見未來) in 2004, The Most Beautiful Landscape in This Life (此生最美的風景) in 2008, and Justin’s songwriting retrospective The JS Moment (THE JS MOMENT JS 的創作故事集) in early 2009.
Recently they’ve broadened their musical palate, releasing three daring concept EPs: the folk-rock ROSSO — Sophia’s Banquet (ROSSO-蘇菲亞的盛宴), the punk-driven Nero~SCREAM, and the folksy Bianco — I Know You Love Me (Bianco — 我知道你愛我).
In May they made the
foray into electronica with
the EP Somewhere.
“With electronica, you treat the vocals as one music instrument,” says Justin. “You break down the music and reconstruct it.”
To support the EP, the group performed as the opening act at this year’s White Party in Taichung and Taipei.
“We were afraid of losing old fans who like our folk-rock sound, but we have to move on,” says Justin. “We see ourselves as a group that’s exploring different styles in its second decade.”
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