Imagine a British rock band pulling up its roots and relocating to Taiwan to learn Chinese and in a few short years composing hit songs in Mandarin and collaborating with leading Taiwanese musicians.
Transition (前進樂團) is one of the few Western bands to have achieved this impressive feat and more.
Catapulted into stardom by its first Mandarin hit, Dui Bu Qi (對不起我的中文不好), the band has attracted more than 2.5 million views on its YouTube channel.
More than 100,000 have also viewed a 30-minute online documentary about band members’ lives in Taiwan.
In December 2013, when the band’s album Kua Yue (跨越) was released by Asia Muse in digital format, it stayed in the top five in the Indievox chart in Taiwan for four consecutive weeks.
Transition has also performed on YouTube covers of classic Mandarin hits, such as Ni Zenme Shuo (你怎麼說) by Teresa Teng (鄧麗君), Red Bean (紅豆) by Faye Wong (王菲) and You Are My Flower (妳是我的花朵) by Wu Bai (伍佰).
Composing their own hits in Mandarin was only made harder because they had to do it outside Taiwan.
When applying for new work permits, band members discovered their applications had been blocked because they had performed at a church in 2010 and were given a monetary gift, an action that the government deemed illegal and merited a three-year ban from the country.
The band hails from Bristol, England. In 2002, band members met some Taiwanese who were studying English in Bristol. Their new Taiwanese friends told them that their music would have an audience in Taiwan and encouraged them to search for opportunities to tour Taiwan.
Friends also introduced them to Mandarin music through David Tao’s album Black Tangerine (黑色柳丁), which fascinated them with its blend of Western rock and Eastern melodies and lyrics.
In 2005, Transition took part in the Spring Scream outdoor music festival and immediately felt a sense of connection with Taiwan.
Four years later, the group moved to Taiwan because “first and foremost, it was friendship that made Taiwan feel so much like home,” drummer Josh Edbrooke said.
Moving to Taiwan was a huge learning experience and the band’s members had to unlearn many of their Western habits to embrace the Taiwanese way of doing things.
The leap to Mandarin was a particularly big challenge.
“Singing in Chinese was something that we always felt was out of reach for us. Particularly the idea of writing our own songs in Chinese seemed impossible. But through taking things one step at a time, we found ourselves creating a whole Mandarin album,” Edbrooke said.
His brother Jesse is responsible for guitar and vocals, and Niall Dunne, who was with the band for most of its run in Taiwan until 2013, also handled vocals and several instruments. Another member, Steve Dunne, left the band in 2007 before it settled in Taiwan.
The first step was singing some simple Mandarin covers. After some time, they asked a friend to translate some of their English songs, which they performed. From there, they began to use the simple Mandarin they knew to write songs that reflected their life experience.
In 2012, the band was commissioned to compose the official theme song for the Taiwanese team at the London Olympics.
Having just completed a successful 21-city tour of China, the band is back in Britain putting the finishing touches on a new Mandarin album.
They plan to release the album in Taiwan by the end of this year and hope to perform their new album and hit songs on an nationwide tour in December.
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