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umentaries, and even commercial ro-
audience would sing along loudly and mance films. FancyWall is a personal
interact with the band. Vlog covering all the elements above,”
Min, the lead singer says.
The band believes live perfor-
mance and a wide variety of music While each band member has his
styles are its biggest charms. own music preference and style, Min
stresses the band has never wanted to
“Live shows and recorded music simply come up with only one single
are just like sketching and comics. We style but hopes the audience would
have instinctive expressions based on appreciate a wide range of music.
the occasion and audience during live
performance,” Min, the band’s lead The band says it is hard to attract
singer, says. a larger audience because the music
tastes of many people are relatively
Fancy Wall in 2021. (Photo courtesy of FancyWall) Underground bands in the main- restricted.
land, including FancyWall, have only
ancyWall, a Chinese indie band, current members are guitarist Yang become popular in China due to the Fancywall’s live show in Beijing, 2024. Vowing to walk its own way, the
pledges to keep concert ticket Yutong, lead singer Min Haoyang, popularity of a famous entertainment (Photo courtesy of FancyWall) band stresses it would not just pro-
Fprices low so that more people, bassist Lyu Shang, and drummer Liu show – the Big Band in 2019. Aired duce music purely for the commercial
especially students, can watch its live Yangming. between 2019 and 2023, it was one of FancyWall’s keyboardist remem- and not only students but middle- market.
performances even though it is fa- China’s biggest music competition tel- bers vividly the live performance aged people would also watch its per-
mous now and has been recognised The band’s most famous song is evision shows. Not only making rock marking the release of the band’s first formances.
by one of the most prestigious music the Pink Lightning, which has over music better known in China, the album Millennium Eden in a small “I’m going to do
awards. 260,000 likes and five thousand com- show also brought many less-known venue five years ago. “Many of them jumped happily
ments on NetEase Cloud Music, a rock and indie bands to the fore. during our show,” Liu says. a few great things
Formed in August 2015, the band leading interactive music streaming “On that day, the livehouse was
was nominated for Best New Artist service provider in China. Regarded While FancyWall did not get a packed with 250 people. I checked in the name of the
at the 2023 MIDI Music Awards, an as the most commercially successful chance to participate in the show, Fan- everyone’s ticket behind the table,” Xu
annual award presented by the Bei- song by its fans, the song is about a cyWall still says thanks to it as many recalls. rebellious period”
jing Midi School of Music to honour couple falling in love at first sight and Chinese people become interested
outstanding musicians in the country hoping to treasure every moment. in indie music that they would go to More people enjoy watching its live
since 2009. small-scale live music clubs to watch performance nowadays. In their latest “If we just ‘cater to’ the market, we
This song is always the highlight of live performances of these alternative tour in 2024, FancyWall performed can only reproduce the existing mu-
“We still hope to bring down the FancyWall’s live performances and the rock bands. in 22 cities across China in 2024 and sic,” Xu adds.
prices of our band performances. We each of the 22 performances attracted
will not raise the price unless we can- more than 500 people. The band is now preparing for
not keep us alive,” says Xu Yuhan, the Fancywall in BiKN Shibuya in To- their next album after performing in
founding member of FancyWall. The band’s drummer adds that kyo, 2024 (Photo courtesy of Fan- Tokyo and Seoul.
FancyWall’s audience base has grown cyWall)
A student only needs to pay Joining FancyWall when he was
RMB¥150 (US $20.50), whilst others Apart from live performances, the a secondary school student, the lead
can watch a live show of the band by band’s unique music style also attracts singer urges youngsters to chase their
paying RMB¥200 (US $27.60). Bands many audiences. dreams.
of a similar stature to FancyWall usu-
ally have their ticket prices doubled. In its third album ROTOR HEART “I still highly recommend students
published in 2024, the band members to form a band now. It is romantic and
Xu, keyboardist of FancyWall, re- liken themselves to a rotary engine touching to do music together with
calls the band was formed when he that never stops spinning. people sharing the same interests,”
was a secondary school student with Min says.
his schoolmates. He is the only re- ROTOR HEART (Photo courtesy “Diversity is one of the core fea-
maining founding member, the other of FancyWall) tures of this band. Bands are like E d it e d b y D anie l Ko ong
Edited by Daniel Koong
Debut ceremony of Millennium Eden. (Photo courtesy of FancyWall) movies: comedies, literary films, doc- Sub-edited by Cindy Lee
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