When Taiwanese pop-rock band Buddha Jump (佛跳墙) won the Best Band title at the 26th Golden Melody Awards in June, you would be forgiven for doing a double take.
Yes, that is Malaysian singer-songwriter Penny Tai (戴佩妮) in the band. Best known for her 2001 hit song Ni Yao De Ai (你要的愛, The Love You Want), the 37-year-old formed Buddha Jump with rock band D-Power in 2011, as a side project alongside her solo career.
In an email interview with migme, the band shared in Mandarin that they have been friends for many years, and it has always been Penny’s dream to form a band. At the time, drummer Alibula (千千) was going to serve national service in the Taiwan army, and keyboardist Yar (牙牙) was preparing for studies in the UK. Feeling emotional about her friends leaving (and being slightly drunk), Penny was determined to turn her pipe dream into reality.
The email that started it all
Penny sent her friends an email with the subject “I’ll admit I’d love to be crazy”:
我已經五天沒出門了。我知道簽了約我也未必會開心，所以決定在入獄前好好享受自由的空氣，再做一張專輯或 EP。我想好好享受做 indie 的快樂，各位一起來瘋嗎？
ps. 歌全都有了，那些16年被壓著的歌等候各位。Translation: I’ve not left the house in five days. I know that I may not be happy even if I’ve signed a contract. So I’ve decided that before going to jail, I’d enjoy this breath of freedom and make another album or EP. I really wish to enjoy the joys of being indie. Would you guys join me in this madness?
And the rest is history. The four-year-old band’s lineup now has Penny (or affectionately known as Ah Nee in the band), Alibula, Yar, guitarists Howe (陳君豪) and SMH (理事長), and bassist OD (奧迪).
Going indie
The band’s first album included songs that had been earlier rejected because they weren’t accepted by the mainstream market or were deemed not commercial enough. The band members wanted to make an album they loved, regardless of what record labels, producers and music executives thought.
“The feeling is really great. I used all the vocal techniques that previous singing teachers told me not to use! This is how you make music. Now that I have another outlet, I have no regrets,” said Penny.
For musicians who had achieved mainstream popularity, the band took the unorthodox route of not setting aside advertising money. Penny told The Star in an earlier interview that this was because they financed the album themselves, and did not have enough budget for advertising.
Winning Taiwan’s equivalent of the Grammy Awards was a nod of recognition and also a boost of their profile in the regional scene. The band has released two albums: Budddha Jump in 2011, and in 2014, Let You See (給你看) which won them Best Band.
Their indie pop rock sound is reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie meets Panic at the Disco. It is a step away from the usual Mandopop and K-pop fare, and shows a more daring, creative side to the Taiwanese music scene.
Fun on the road
Being friends, there are lots of funny encounters while working together. Once Penny was so into the performance that she did not realise she had accidentally pulled out the cord for the bass guitar.
“All six of us are hyperactive children. While singing 坦白 (‘honest’ or ‘candid’ in English), Howe suddenly started dancing uncontrollably. He just kept dancing as if the whole stage belonged to him. Everyone just laughed until they could not sing or play, and it was just him performing solo,” the band shared.
Behind the name
Why the name Buddha Jump? The band members were coming up with names around Chinese New Year, and Penny, being a food lover, thought of 佛跳牆 (Buddha Jumps over the Wall, shortened to Buddha Jump for the band name). The delicacy is made of shark’s fin, scallops, sea cucumber, abalone, fish maw, chicken and pork. It is stewed over a small flame for hours to become a flavorful broth.
“It is very similar to the band’s character. And we all love to eat good food. So we decided on the name,” the band told migme.
Here is the Q&A we did with them in Mandarin.
恭喜妳們在金曲獎獲得最佳組合。你們是真麼組隊的？是真麼認識的
從成員因為黃中岳老師的牽線而相遇說起，提到大家因為戴佩妮，在 2011 年的一封組團邀請信，而從伴奏樂隊，變成今天佛跳牆的六人搖滾樂團。
佛跳牆成團開始於一封信。有天生日，戴佩妮喝了點酒，傳了封 email 給 D-Power 團員。信件標題寫著「我承認我很想瘋」：
「我已經五天沒出門了。我知道簽了約我也未必會開心，所以決定在入獄前好好享受自由的空氣，再做一張專輯或 EP。我想好好享受做 indie 的快樂，各位一起來瘋嗎？
ps. 歌全都有了，那些16年被壓著的歌等候各位。」
於是，佛跳牆誕生了。「其實我從以前想的就是一個樂團，而不是個人。」組團一直是戴佩妮想做的事，她和這群樂手朋友合作多年，那時鼓手千千要當兵，鍵盤手牙牙本來要準備去英國念書，突然少了兩個人，離別的情緒加上酒意，讓她想著要一定要實踐這件事。
出道近15年，她說佛跳牆跟過去十幾年累積的戴佩妮沒有關係，它是從零累積的。「我在樂團裡是阿妮，不是戴佩妮，」首張同名專輯收集了過去被打槍或是較不被主流商業市場接受的作品，不需要遷就唱片公司、製作人、音樂總監的想法，讓他們能跳脫商業模式的嗜好，完全做一張自己喜歡的專輯。回想當初錄音，阿妮開心的說：「真的太爽了，以前所有歌唱老師叫我不可以用的唱法，我全都用了！玩音樂就是要這樣，現在能擁有另外一個出口，沒有遺憾了。」
團名是真麼想到的？是很喜歡吃佛跳墙佛跳墙嗎？
有一年快到過年,很愛吃的主唱,在車上想著團名該叫甚麼,想著想著就想到了[佛跳牆],這道佳餚的食材來自四面八方,需經細火慢燉,才能燉煮出精緻的佳餚,跟我們團的團性很符合,大家又都很喜歡美食,所以就決定了佛跳牆團名了。
4位男生，2位女生，合作時因該有很多搞笑的故事。可不可以跟我們分享嗎？可以是在寫歌，錄音或演唱時發生的一件事。
好玩的事情很多,因為六位都是過動兒,在唱坦白的時候,陳君豪會突然舞技上身,不受控的一直跳舞,整個舞台幾乎都是他的,搞得大家唱不下去也演奏不下去,整個笑場到只剩他一個人獨自表演.比如在創作的過程,大家會玩角色互換的遊戲,吉他手去打鼓,鍵盤手來當主唱,急興發揮寫詞的功力,從頭到尾不按牌理出牌的亂唱,當然這不會出現在最後的專輯裡.還有過動主唱,演唱時太high,high到把貝斯的線採斷都渾然不知等等。
This article was originally posted in migme and written by @nattylim.
