Sodagreen

Sodagreen
sodagreen performing at The Wall in Taipei.
Chinese name	蘇打綠 (traditional)
Pinyin	Sūdǎ Lǜ (Mandarin)
Origin	Republic of China Taiwan
Genre(s)	Indie pop, indie rock, Mandopop
Label(s)	Willlin Music (2004–present)
Years active	2004–present
Current Members	Wu Tsing-Fong Liou Jia-Kai Ho Jing-Yang Gong Yu-Chi Shie Shin-Yi Shih Jyun-Wei
Official Website	www.sodagreen.com.tw
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 Qing-Feng (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). Shih felt that having a band name with three Chinese characters would be easier to pronounce. Wu then suggested to add the word green (綠), his favourite colour, at the end of the name, and formed the name Sodagreen.

In May 2001, Sodagreen competed in the Golden Melody Cup held by National Chengchi University and won Best Popularity by the composition "Peeping". Earning the appreciation of Shiao-Ying, one of the judges, they recorded "Peeping" for the compilation Taiwan independent compilation 2001, released by TCM. In April the next year, after several changes in the line-up of the band (guitarists), Sodagreen participated in Golden Melody Cup once again, this time winning the Best Band, Best Composition, Best Lyrics, and Best Music awards.

In March 2003, A-Fu and Jia-Kai, also from National Chengchi University, and A-Gong from Taipei National University of the Arts joined Sodagreen. The band's members have remained unchanged since. In July the same year, since most of the members were going to graduate and go separate ways after graduation, the band decided to have their last performance tour. In the first stop f they tour, they performed at the Hohaiyan Gongliau Rock Festival's Hot Wave Rock section and caught the attention of the famous indie producerWill Lin.

In August 2004, Sodagreen were awarded the Grand Jury Award of Hohaiyan Gongliau Rock Festival, after which the band signed an official contract with indie producer Will Lin's Willlin Music. In September 2005, they released their self-titled debut album, sodagreen, after a series of singles and EPs. The band garnered a few nominations in the Golden Melody awards of 2006 for this album. In October 2006, they released their second album, Little Universe. That December, they released a single- 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 the song "Little Love Song", which was also nominated for the award for the best lyrics. Little Universe itself was nominated for the award for the best album. In November, Sodagreen released their third album, Incomparable Beauty. Shortly after, they held their first concert at a major venue, the Absolutely Beautiful Concert, which was held at the Taipei Arena. They were 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 movie 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 their 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 performed a solo concert at the Taipei Arena for the second time, playing for two nights at the Daylight Fever Concert. However, their plans to record albums based on the next two seasons were cut short by keyboardist A-gong's call-up to the Taiwanese army to fulfil his national service.

In 2010, Sodagreen's two albums led to a double nomination for the Best Band Award. The music video for the song Daylight won its directors the award for the 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 were listed at number 29^[1] and 84 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 called up for national service shortly after.

After A-gong's return from the army in 2011, the band released their eighth album, What is Troubling You in November, on the same day as the album releases of Mandopop heavyweights Jay Chou and Eason Chan. The song Enjoy Loneliness shot to fame online after Wu sang 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 return from the army in January 2012, the band announced that their third Taipei Arena concert, Walk Together would be held in March that year. The Walk Together World Tour was kicked off at the Taipei Arena over two nights, 3 March and 4 March 2012.^[3] Two more sold-out concerts followed 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 China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Nanjing and others.

The band's first performance of 2013 was at the Cotai Arena of The Venetian Macao Casino/Resort/Hotel in Macao on 5 January 2013.^[5] Shortly after ending the Walk Together World Tour in 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 a series of six live house performances in Beijing, with the tickets to these mini-concerts selling out within ten minutes of the opening of online booking services.

In 2014, the band held their 10 years anniversary tour "Aerial visions, Sounds And Illusions". As a remembrance, the name of the band's first single was used as the name of their concert. The concert kicked start at Hong Kong Coliseum on 11 April 2014.

They will hold two concerts in each of the following places including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai,Wuhan, Taibei,Guangzhou,Singapore,Shenzhen,Cheungdu and Gaoshung. The tour starts in April 2014 and ends in November 2014. Souvenirs such as toot bags, T-shirts, coin banks, card holders and EPs will be sold . ^[6]

Sodagreen is currently planning their last album in their Vivaldi Project. Like the previous three albums, the last one will be related to the winter and Sodagreen will choose Berlin to be the background of the album.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

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