NINIMUSIC
Interview conducted on November 30, 2022
By Dan Locke
Nini is from Taiwan and she play several different Chinese Traditional Instruments including Zhong Ruan, Liuqin, San Xian, and Pipa. With also playing the Ukulele and the Irish Banjo. Her goal in life is to share and teach the world about traditional Chinese instruments. You can support her. She has a Spotify, Patreon, Instagram and more @ninimusic 🙂
What was your up bring like?
I grew up in a small town in the countryside of Taiwan. My family is an average Taiwanese family, my mother runs a small clothing store on the bottom floor of our house and father has a tire shop he runs out of our garage. They worked very hard to help support my music lessons and put me through an 8 year music conservatory/university. It wasn’t always easy growing up in Taiwan but we made it work.
How did you discover music?
I discovered music and more specifically chinese folk music through my grandfather. He would come over to our home on the weekends and bring his handmade erhu (a traditional chinese folk instrument, like a chinese violin). He would play old folk songs on it and sing to the family. It sparked my interest in music, my grandfather then handmade me my first San Xian (3 stringed folk isntrument) so that we could play together, from then on I haven’t stopped playing (I was about 6 years old at the time).
How did you start to write music?
I took several music composition classes in school, but it was all for an orchestral approach to music, I have written several pieces for orchestras but that isn’t my passion. The music I love to make has rock and metal roots with a blend of Asian Folk. It was hard at first to find the right blend of the two genres that seem to be worlds apart but after a lot of experimenting I believe to have found my sound. I have taken a lot of my inspiration for writing music from my daily life. My religion of Daoism (Taoism) and the culture of Taiwan inspires most of my writing. My latest Album LEGENDS tells the stories of 4 different Daoist Gods/LEGENDS and their journey to earth and back to the Heavens.
How many instruments do you play?
I play 8 different instruments. My core instruments are Ruan (Chinese guitar), San Xian (3 stringed instrument that is the original version of the Japanese Shamisen), and Liuqin (small Chinese lute). But I also play the Pipa, Erhu, Irish Banjo, Ukulele, and my new Kickstarter funded Electric Lute Hybrid the DaoYu!
What was your first performance at like?
I had my first paid performance in elementary school. I played a traditional Taiwanese funeral. In Taiwan it is very common for there to be music at funerals (which last many days and often weeks depending on the cycle of the moon, numerology, and other religious/supersites practices). It was a honor to be chosen to help send off someone into the afterlife, but in our culture people are often worried doing this job will allow bad spirits to attach to you so one must be strong and healthy to perform at a funeral.
Describe your music.
My music is a blend of Asian folk with Rock and Metal. It is east meets west; 4000 year old chinese folk instruments (often with distortion added) playing on top fast double bass metal beats.
Royalties never appear like magic. Royalties are only sent to you through work undertaken by a PRO to ensure that their members are getting paid. If you’re not yet signed up to a Performing Right Organization like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, you may not be receiving all the royalties you deserve.
Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP ?
I do not but I do collect royalties on all of my original music through my distributor.
What makes a good songwriter?
A good songwriter is someone that can express their emotion through their music and get the listener feel that same emotion.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
My first original song was “Rise Up”. The inspiration of the song and title was the Hong Kong protests that were happening at the time. I started the recording process by first coming up with some riffs and melodies. I then went on to record the bones/outline of the song (in my home studio) with drum beats and bass that I liked. I then wrote leads the instruments I wanted to feature on the song: San Xian, Erhu, and Souna (Chinese trumpet). I wrote, recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered everything by myself (as I always do). The music video for “Rise Up”:
Tell me about your new album “Legends”
LEGENDS tells the stories of 4 different Taoist folk Legends and Gods. It tells the stories of “Longma: the dragon horse”, “Mazu: the sea goddess”, “Wukong: the monkey king”, and “Guan Yu: the god of war”. Some songs have singing and lyrics (in Chinese/English) and others do the story telling through emotions in the music. The fifth and final track “The Voyage Home” is my way of calling the Legends back to their resting place in the heavens. In the Taoist culture we often go to Temples and play music meant for the Gods. We have songs that represent the arrival of the god and those that bring their spirits back to the heavens; that’s what this represents.
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
I think streaming is a wonderful tool for exposure and ease of access to share your creations. Although the streaming money isn’t always enough with roughly $4 per 1000 streams on spotify, I do believe this double edged sword weighs on the side of the small artists with the higher chances for being discovered. Prior to apps like spotify and tiktok it was much more difficult to be discovered. Before apps like these getting your name out there required touring, handing out CDs. and other high cost, high efffort grassroots marketing strategies, now all of that can been done with a single click.
Digital vs. vinyl?
I think it really depends. Due to the way that vinyl is pressed it creates a great deal of compression. This sounds wonderful with certain types of music and just does not work with others. With today being a digital age most people no longer have vinyl in mind when they are in the studio which means a lot of music isn’t going to sound right when pressed on vinyl. For example, music like EDM and metal that have a lot of low-end frequency just cannot get the right sound on vinyl. Digital also has major advantages with it being easy and free to share, post, get out to the whole world in an instant. But the having the physical album in your hand with a huge space for beautiful graphics and art is something special.
Do you think that Covid-19 has been a plus to an artist career?
COVID was good for my career but I know a lot of legacy bands and acts that made their living touring (and not online) have struggled due to it. Luckily its looking like things are coming back and shows are back on without any restrictions. For my I was lucky to have just started my music career when covid hit. I quickly shifted to doing a lot of online streaming and gave a lot of people in lockdown entertainment. It was a blast to do and gave me a big jumpstart to my career. I was able to fund 2 albums on kickstarter with the help of my online fanbase and also fund 1 new instrument creation (the daoyu).
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
luckily we didn’t have a lockdown in Taiwan and were pretty unaffected in day-to-day life other than having to wear a mask when out and about.
I see you use a Lenovo Yoga Slim to edit your music and videos. What software do you use?
I use my Imac and macbook pro to do all of my editing. I use Logic Pro X when it comes to music and Final Cut Pro for all of my videos on youtube.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
During the last two years doing music on my own full time I have really become interested in programming drums, making beats for fun (hiphop, lofi, edm) and learning editing tricks for video production.
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merchandise to them at the show?
They must do online Live streaming, stay engaged and chat with fans, and have a consistent stream of content coming out on multiple online platforms. If they do this, they will be able to also sell merch online at the same time.
Are you gaining new fans with your version of Beat it and Crazy Train?
I have gained a lot of new fans and subscribers from those two videos and the more recent cover of “Chop Suey” I put out. It has been great to see the fans come in with support from all walks of life and all over the globe. I am happy to see that the metal community is still live and doing great! I have also been reached out to by a few metal bands about collaboration due to those videos. I couldn’t be more thankful to have the platform I do.
Pay to play has been a thing since the 1950s. It was called Payola. It was the illegal practice of paying a commercial raido stations to play a song. This has been stopped. But in the during the same time music venues took it to the next level. Many venuse started to ask bands to pay for a spot on a bill and this is still going today with large tours having a unknown band paying money to open up for the tour in exchange for the band to get a bigger audience for their music. Is pay to play still a thing?
I am sure it is a thing somewhere but from what I have heard with people in the business it is much less of a thing to buy on to a tour than it used to be just even a couple of years ago. Looks like things are heading in the right direction.
Five Finger Death Punch just had the band The Hu open up for them. Would you be willing to do a tour with the band?
I was so excited when I saw them on that tour! It’s amazing to see there is such an interest for Asian folk instruments and Folk Metal in the west. The whole goal of me playing music is to share my music and culture with a western audience to it is wonderful to see bands like The Hu that are doing the same thing with great success and support!
In the past if a musician stop doing music they find a new career. For example David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants.. If you can’t do music, what would you like to be doing?
If I am not playing music anymore I would likely go back to teaching. Prior to being a musician full time I was a middle school teacher on a very small island off the coast of Taiwan.
What is your happy place?
My happy place is being at a hotpot restaurant with a lot of meat ready to cook and a cold bubble tea to drink. Second to that it would be rocking out up on stage in front of a crowd that is full of energy.
It should be noted, that there is a huge differences between royalties for songwriting and performance. So, if you made a deal to sell off your back catalog you can setup it so you can still perform your own songs. And that anything thing new you create you would still be yours.
The lump sums being offered by publishing firms are more tax friendly concerning estate planning.
Do you think you would be willing to sale your back catalog if someone like Universal is will to buy everything, such as all the rights to all your songs?
I don’t think so. These days record companies are becoming more and more irrelevant with all of the things that can be done with an online fanbase such as; crowdfunding, free online marketing on social media, and so on. I own 100% of my music and have master/songwriting credits on all of them. I wouldn’t sell these rights away.
What is your feeling about TikTok? With Sony Music and Warner Music structing an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
I think it is a fact that tiktok is the most powerful app right now for musicians to use for marketing. Although I do not agree with some of the practices that tiktok does as a company. I think that tiktok is now what myspace used to be for musicians in the early 2000s but so much more powerful.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
I hope in the future to see more bands from around the world that find success in blending the traditional culture of their ancestors with modern music. I think it is really important for people to do this in order to stay in tune with their roots and also not just follow the mold of what is successful in music at the time. There are so many beatiful and interesting sounding instruments that aren’t being utalized from all around the world. I believe it’s ok to put the guitar down once in a while and create something unique and different.
