Tue, Sep 01, 2015 page5

• Student bands set to go on tour after mentoring

  ‘ROCK TOGETHER’: Famed bands like Chthonic lent their expertise to train 20 student groups as part of a program to foster a new generation of musicians

  • By Liang Pei-chi and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  After three months of mentorship and training, 20 students bands are ready to go on a tour to showcase their talent, the Taiwan Music Culture International Alternation Association said.

  “Rock Together, Indie Forever,” a project initiated by the association, was launched at the end of last year for student bands to be mentored by more well-known bands. Applicants were asked to submit a demo recording and state who they wish to mentor them.

  Twenty bands were chosen out of the 80 applicants, said the association, which had asked famed bands such as Chthonic, the Chairman, Assassin, Quarterback and Trash to mentor them.

  

  Members of the band Assassin join a National Chengchi University student band in Taipei on Saturday as part of the “Rock Together, Indie Forever” music mentor initiative organized by the Taiwan Music Culture International Alternation Association.

  Photo: Liang Pei-chi, Taipei Times

  After three months of training, the student bands are to go on a tour and hold small concerts throughout this month, association chairman Chao Chia-chu (趙家駒) said.

  Three talks on the project are also to be held at Tunghai University, National Taiwan Normal University and National Kaohsiung Normal University on Sunday, Sept. 12 and Sept. 19 respectively, the association said.

  Their tour is to be capped by a performance at Legacy Taipei on Sept. 28 from 6pm to 10:30pm to show what they learned, it said.

  Aside from concerts, the student bands have each made a recording of their own compositions in the presence of their mentor bands, the association said.

  The recordings have been compiled into an album that is to be released later, association public affairs division director Chang Jui-fen (張瑞芬) said, adding that the songs would be available on StreetVoice and iNDIVOX,and played on radio stations.

  Videos of the songs and how each band has grown and matured through the project will be uploaded on YouTube, Chang said, adding that if the bands want to add a personal touch they could send photos to the association.

  Chang said she had accompanied Chao and visited each of the bands during the course of the project and noted the differences between the high-school and college bands.

  The high-school bands are typically young people still testing the waters, trying to find their own path in terms of musical style, she said.

  Their mentors tried to point them toward the right direction by offering their own experiences of starting out as a fledgling band, she added.

  The college bands displayed more maturity in style, trying to perfect their techniques and assimilating professional knowledge, she said.

  “The important thing is that, at the end of the day, each band that participated in the project grew with the experience,” Chang said.

  The band Assassin, formed nearly 30 years ago and one of the very first heavy metal bands in Taiwan, said the project still has a long way to go in its goal to foster a generational succession of musical bands.

  The association’s intention was great, but the implementation of the project took kind of a “summer camp” approach, band leader Yuan Hsing-wei (袁興緯) said.

  However, “it is still an impetus that would hopefully plant the seed of music in the hearts of every student group, a seed which would hopefully flourish in days to come,” Yuan said.
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