This year’s BIGSOUND brought rising talent from all over the world to Brisbane, with artists from Canada, New Zealand and Taiwan bringing their sounds to our shores.
Taiwan is a powerhouse of talent, and they brought the best of the best to BIGSOUND this year. We were treated to ethereal post-rock group WUTU- whose breathtaking performance revitalises and redefines what rock music can be, Suming, who is bringing Indigenous Amis language to major global stages, and brilliant rap artists wannasleep and Gummy B under their collaborative brand Nightonly.
We caught up with the incredibly talented showcasing artists from Taiwan the morning after their showcase performances, for a group talk all about their time in Brisbane, their careers, 2025 plans, and more.
So you guys played the Taiwan Beats showcase yesterday! How was it? Did you have a good time, and have you played in Australia before at all?
Suming: I have performed in Darwin several times before and actually we are going back to Darwin to finish production with local Indigenous people and artists. We also have a performance in Melbourne next year around February.
WUTU: This is our first performance overseas, we’re really excited and see it as a new challenge! Thanks to the professional crew last night we really had a great time.
Gummy B: this is our first time in Australia, everything is so fresh and new! Yesterday was very energetic and organic.
wannasleep: The weather is very nice! The workers in the bar are very passionate and I love the beer.
Are you guys staying in Australia for a bit? Or heading home soon after BIGSOUND?
WUTU: We head back to Taiwan tomorrow but we'd love to stay here for longer.
Gummy B: Us too!
You’ll have to come back sometime soon and play some more shows!
A question for SUMING now, so you’ve played a lot of international festivals such as Fuji Rock- which is so cool! How has that been as an artist and what has it been like being able to share Indigenous language on such a large platform?
Suming: I think most of the audience didn’t know about the Indigenous culture and music, so I think it’s a great way to share my music in a more contemporary way, to let the audience get to a better understanding of the Amis Indigenous culture and music.
Yeah! Absolutely. Has that always been a goal with your music or is it something that evolved over the years?
Suming: Making this music has been my aspiration and my goal of a lifetime, to convey the culture and music through interactions and design in the live performance. I told the audience how to say I love you in my language- things kind of like that so everyone could have a better or quicker way to get involved in the cultural vibe!
That’s so cool! Thank you guys that’s really amazing.. so moving on to WUTU .. so you guys are kind of like a rock band.. what's the rock scene specifically like in Taiwan?
WUTU: So for me I think we are a band that cannot be defined .. I think we are a very unique existence in Taiwan's music industry and music scene, and we are happy for that and proud for that and would like to keep the style in the music industry!
So you guys are recording an album at the moment! What's the process of making that been like?
WUTU: We are working on it yeah! Might be released next year.
Awesome.. so you have some EP's out already, but is this the first full album?
WUTU: We have an ep and an album out in 2022 .. just two works so far!
I had a listen to your EP earlier, it's fantastic! So do you think you have had an evolution in your music since 2022? Either in the sound, or how you approach your music and recording it?
WUTU: We have a mix of all kinds of music, all kinds of styles now! We’re used to post-rock but we added some electric, shoegaze, noise, grunge … it's very complicated I think!
For sure! Do you have any particular artists that inspired you when making your album? Or any favourite artists you’d like to play with one day?
WUTU: Everyone has their own favourite artists and influences but they definitely include Mogwai, Radiohead, Portishead and Hania Rani ... the main genre we like for every member is different.
Moving over to Nightonly! So this is a collaborative project/ brand between the two of you, do you have individual projects you're working on as well?
Gummy B: Yes, we both have solo albums as well!
Yeah awesome! Do you both actively work on your solo projects while working on this collaboration as well?
wannasleep: Yes!
How long have you been working together?
Gummy B: We have officially been working together for about one year- nightonly is a brand name, so we fall under that as Gummy B and wannasleep but work on our solo albums individually.
So you guys were both on an MTV rap competition! What was that like?
Gummy B: So its like a survival show rap competition- we have to move onto the next level ...
wannasleep: and fight for the first place!
What was that like as an experience? Did you have a good time or was it pretty stressful?
wannasleep: I was not that professional by then when I first entered the competition, everything was new for me! I saw a lot of people who I had only heard in my headphones before …
And got to meet them in person, so cool hey!
So what do you guys want to do in the next 6-12 months?
Gummy B: Im working on my second album .. its all I can think about or do right now! It should hopefully come out in March next year.
wannasleep: And my second album came out recently, a few months ago.
So cool! Are you touring these at all?
wannasleep: Yes, I just finished my album tour! I'm trying to tour more overseas and want to come to Australia- looking at our listener statistics, it's one of our top four locations so something we really want to do if there is opportunity. It's something hopefully we will do in the future and we are searching for opportunities at BIGSOUND!
Awesome!! How was that?
wannasleep: Pretty tiring! The tour was around Taiwan, it's interesting to see a lot of livehouses I don’t know.
For sure! Check out some new venues. Do you have a favourite so far?
wannasleep: Hmm .. every spot is good! I drank a lot of beer.
That’s the way to do it hey! And have you guys had a good time at BIGSOUND this year? Apart from your own showcases, what have you checked out?
Gummy B: I watched the performance of a rapper at JBL Sound Stage, it was very cool!
Gummy B: There was also a singer at the bar opposite our venue .. she was maybe a singer the bar hired, she sung for like 5-6 hours straight and had a great voice and still sounded wonderful! I have to learn from her.
What about you guys? Anything you've checked out?
WUTU: I watched a performance of one of my favourite bands called Worm Girlz... I was excited to later see them interviewing next to us! I immediately messaged them on Instagram to tell them how good they are.
WUTU: On the first day we arrived we saw dust and Jerome Blazé, and we loved that!
Suming: I walked around and saw so many shows on the first day when we first arrived, I really loved the move and the vibe of the song Gotten, and also loved Jerome Blazé. I was really impressed at how they managed and performed with a complicated and undefined music genre. The vibe was awesome.
And what do you guys have planned for the rest of the year? Any big plans?
wannasleep: I do a lot of sport recently. And drink a lot of water to be healthy and make more music!
WUTU: I turned 30 recently and ive been trying yoga.. I'd recommend every friend in the music industry to try yoga, it's very healing!
Maggie from WUTU: I'm also a visual artist, and am having an art exhibition in Taiwan and hopefully one day I can show my paintings in Australia too! And the French fries here are awesome.
Suming: I'm going to release my upcoming Indigenous album next year in January, besides performing in Melbourne in February next year we are running our own music festival called Amis Music Festival around October and have been working and preparing for that very hard! We've been touring a lot but it's been really fun.
Gummy B: I'm still working on my album and have gone back to college!
Wow, sounds like big years coming up! Thank you guys so much. That about wraps it up, have a lovely rest of your BIGSOUND!
Thank you so much to the TAICCA showcasing artists for chatting with us at BIGSOUND. You can check them out on Spotify at the links below:
SUMING | WUTU | GUMMY B | WANNASLEEP
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