Chilled out music
By Chen Nan | China Daily | Updated: 2019-07-27 09:30
Speaking about the band's music, the bassist Frederic, who moved to Shanghai 13 years ago and played many kinds of music styles, like Latin, electronic music and jazz, says: "I love the traditional music of Mauritius, which is known as sega music. I play sega after mixing it with reggae. It's like how Matzka combines reggae with his ethnic sounds. So I am very interested in his music."
Matzka, the main songwriter for the band, attributes his music to his ethnic Paiwan ancestry.
The 34-year-old singer-songwriter says: "I grew up in a village surrounded by hills and oceans. There is a lot of Taiwan aboriginal music in my sounds, which come from the laid-back nature of the ethnic groups there. The older generation passed down the DNA of rhythm and optimism, so my music sounds relaxed and happy.
"Even when we are not happy, we deal with our troubles with a positive attitude."
Matzka also invited his mother, Gulari, a veteran singer, to perform at the show. They performed a song together, which Matzka wrote and named after his mother.
His mother also performed an excerpt of Spanish folk song, called Quizas, and danced onstage.
"I watched her performances in local pubs almost every night when I was a kid. I've seen how hard singers like her worked to make money and how versatile they were," Matzka says. "So, I dedicated the song to my mother and the singers of her generation in Taiwan."