Sodagreen

Sodagreen
sodagreen performing at The Wall in Taipei.
Background information
Chinese name	蘇打綠 (traditional)
Pinyin	Sūdǎ Lǜ (Mandarin)
Origin	Taiwan
Genre(s)	Indie pop, indie rock, Mandopop
Instrument(s)	Drum, Guitar, Guitar bass,
Label(s)	Willlin Music (2004–present)
Years active	2004–present
Website	www.sodagreen.com.tw
Members
Wu Tsing-Fong Liou Jia-Kai Ho Jing-Yang Gong Yu-Chi Shie Shin-Yi Shih Jyun-Wei
Awards Golden Melody Awards Best Band 2007 Little Universe 2008 Incomparable Beauty

Sodagreen (Chinese: 蘇打綠; pinyin: Sūdá lǜ; stylized as sodagreen) is a Taiwanese indie band formed in 2001. Its members has been unchanged since 2003. Sodagreen emerged in the Taiwanese indie music scene after receiving the Grand Jury Award in the Hohaiyan Gongliau Rock Festival in 2004, after which it signed a contract with Willlin Music. The band is the first indie band to hold a concert in the Taipei Arena. The band is well known for its main vocalist and songwriter Wu Tsing-Fong, who is prominent for his poetic lyrics, unique performing style and wide vocal range.

Members

• Wu Tsing-Fong (Greeny) – lead vocals, piano, harmonica, accordion, percussion, flute
• Liu Jia-Kai (Kay) – guitar, backing vocals
• Ho Jing-Yang (A-Fu) – guitar, ukulele, backing vocals
• Kung Yu-Chi (Zephyr) – piano, viola, keyboards, backing vocals
• Hsieh Shin-Yi (Claire) – bass guitar, piano, guitar, guzheng, backing vocals
• Shih Jun-Wei (Wei) – drums, percussion, guitar, harmonica, backing vocals

History

Sodagreen was named by Shih, the band's leader at the time, and Wu, the lead vocalist. The band was originally named Soda (蘇打), but Shih preferred a name with three-syllable. Wu then affixed the word green (綠), his favourite colour, behind Soda, completing the portmanteau.

In May 2001, Sodagreen competed in the Golden Melody Cup held by the National Chengchi University and won the Best Popularity award with the composition "Peeping". With the support of Shiao-Ying, a judge at the competition, it recorded "Peeping" for the compilation Taiwan independent compilation 2001, released by TCM. In April the next year, after several changes to the line-up of the band (guitarists), Sodagreen participated in the Golden Melody Cup again, this time winning the awards for Best Band, Best Composition, Best Lyrics and Best Music.

In March 2003, A-Fu and Jia-Kai, also from the National Chengchi University, and A-Gong from the Taipei National University of the Arts joined the band, forming its current line-up. In July the same year, the band decided to break up upon graduation and mark its dissolution with a final tour. Its first stop was the Hohaiyan Gongliau Rock Festival's Hot Wave Rock section, where it caught the attention of prominent indie producer Will Lin.

In August 2004, Sodagreen were awarded the Grand Jury Award at the Hohaiyan Gongliau Rock Festival, after which the band was signed by Lin's Willlin Music. In September 2005, they released their self-titled debut album, sodagreen, which was preceded by a few singles and EPs. Through this album, the band garnered a handful of nominations at the 2006 Golden Melody Awards. In October 2006, they released their second album, Little Universe, followed by a single in December- My Future Is Not a Dream, a collaboration with A-pay, a band under the same label.

In June 2007, Sodagreen were awarded the Best Band Award at the 18th Golden Melody Awards. Wu Tsing-Fong also received the highly coveted Best Melody award for Little Love Song, which was also nominated for best lyrics. Little Universe was nominated for the Best Album award. In November, Sodagreen released their third album, Incomparable Beauty. Shortly after, it held its first major concert, the Absolutely Beautiful Concert, which was held at the Taipei Arena, where it made history by being the first indie band to hold a concert there. The concert holds the record for being the longest concert ever held at the venue, with Sodagreen playing for five hours, incurring a large fine for playing too late into the night.

In May 2008, the band released the live album Sing With Me, which included live tracks from the Absolutely Beautiful Concert as well as three new studio tracks. Lover Animal was the official Chinese language theme song for the film Juno. That year at the 19th Golden Melody Awards, they were awarded the Best Band Award for the second time in a row.

In 2009, Sodagreen began its Vivaldi Project, planning to record and release four concept albums based on the four seasons within two years. The band recorded Daylight of Spring in Taidung and released it in May. They then travelled to London to record Summer/Fever, releasing it in September. Late that year, the band held a solo concert at the Taipei Arena for the second time, playing for two nights at the Daylight Fever Concert. However, the band's plans for the third and fourth Vivaldi Project albums were cut short by A-gong's conscription.

In 2010, Sodagreen's two albums garnered a double nomination for the Best Band Award. The music video for the song Daylight won its directors the award for best music video. That year, the band released their second live album, Once in a Lifetime, comprising live recordings from the Daylight Fever Concerts and three studio-recorded songs. The tracks Once in a Lifetime and No Sleep came in 29th^[1] and 84th respectively on Hit Fm Taiwan's Hit Fm Annual Top 100 Singles Chart (Hit-Fm年度百首單曲) for 2010.^[2] Guitarist A-fu was conscripted shortly after.

After A-gong's discharge from military service in 2011, the band released its eighth album, What is Troubling You in November. The song Enjoy Loneliness received online prominence after Wu performed it on the talk show Kangxi Lai Le. The music video for the titular song What is Troubling You also trended worldwide on video-sharing website YouTube for a few days after its release. Shortly before A-fu's discharge in January 2012, the band announced that its third Taipei Arena concert, Walk Together, would be held in March that year. The Walk Together World Tour began at the Taipei Arena with two concerts from 3–4 March.^[3] This was followed by two sold-out concerts at the Kaohsiung K-Arena on 18 August and 19 August 2012.^[4] The band also toured Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and various cities in mainland China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Nanjing.

The band's first performance of 2013 was at the Cotai Arena of The Venetian Macao Casino/Resort/Hotel in Macao on 5 January.^[5] Shortly after ending the Walk Together World Tour at Shanghai on 3 August 2013, Sodagreen announced that Autumn: Stories, the third instalment in the band's Vivaldi Project, would be released on 18 September 2013. The release of the album in September was accompanied by six live house performances in Beijing, with tickets to these mini-concerts selling out within ten minutes of the opening of online booking services.

In 2014, the band held its tenth anniversary tour: Aerial Visions, Sounds and Illusions, the title of its first EP. The tour began at the Hong Kong Coliseum on 11 April and saw the band tour various Asian cities over eight months.

In September 2015, Sodagreen announced that the last album in its Vivaldi Project, Winter Endless, would be released on 4 November. On 16 September, the band released the music video for Everyone, a song on the record, which featured members of the band playing in Berlin, where the album was produced and is set.

In 2016, Sodagreen, with its album “Winter Endless”, was the biggest winner at the ceremony in the categories of best Mandarin album, best band, best lyricist, best album producer and best musical arrange. After the awards, the band announced that they will be taking a three year break to look back on their past and decide their futures.^[6]

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sodagreen.

• (Chinese) Official site
• (Chinese) Introduction of Sodagreen at G-Music
• Sodagreen photo and video