Goodbye for now, not forever to beloved Canberra-based singer, songwriter, and musician Kim Yang. The past ten years in Canberra have been eventful ones for the songstress; not only did she marry the man she relocated from overseas to be with, but she also launched a successful music career.
Ms Yang grew up in Taiwan, where she spent most of her life before moving to Canberra with her now husband in 2012, the pair having met while he was studying at a Taiwanese university. During this time they spent two years travelling together, as Ms Yang received discounted flights through her job with a major airline.
Once his studies were complete, it was time for him to return to his hometown, Canberra, and he asked Ms Yang to join him. Despite having a decent job back in Taiwan, she decided to give it a chance, one she does not regret.
“I think I’ve been really fortunate because Canberra is a good-sized city and I was able to sort of build my name up from a very nice crowd of people in a nice city. A lot of opportunities coming from word of mouth, and I really appreciate that because I think in a bigger city, it would be so hard to have that breakthrough,” she says.
Feeling unfulfilled in her job, in 2017 Ms Yang decided to pick up her ukulele and try her hand at busking. However, playing well-known tracks in Garema Place wasn’t her first experience with performing. When she was 19 and still living in Taiwan she loved going to karaoke, her friends signed her up to go on Super Idol, a show like X Factor. Ms Yang says she was on one episode where she was brought in to challenge the contestant, after which she was offered a record deal.
“It was just not good, the contract. They only pay you like five per cent of everything. They said they would give me training like guitar and all the different lessons, but it was an eight-year contract and I was only 20 and I didn’t want to ruin my life.”
Ms Yang says the exposure also came with frustration; although she received a lot of positive feedback, she couldn’t look past the negative. She says it was only around one per cent of the comments which said they didn’t like her voice or style, but it was enough for her to not want to keep going.
“A fan girl emailed me and told me that she had cancer and did chemotherapy and my music on YouTube sort of accompanied her throughout chemo. It was that email that got me to realise music is great, I should get back to it.”
Unfortunately, Ms Yang didn’t see the email until she had moved to Australia and when she tried to reply, the account had been disconnected. She wrote a song for the girl to thank her for the motivation and encouragement to get back into music. For Ms Yang, music is a way to share her story; despite thinking she had interesting stories to tell, she couldn’t just walk up to someone on the street and ask if they wanted to hear them.
“Lyrics are really important to me because that is how I connect to the songs, so I always make sure the song has a good meaning to share,”
Ms Yang shares deeply personal insights into her life through her music, her experiences resonate with fans as songs discuss mental health, struggles, and triumphs. Brave, for example, tells how at the beginning of her career she couldn’t say no to any gig to the detriment of her mental health, and how empowering it was to finally turn something down. Another song, The Nurse, is about someone who made her difficult IVF journey a bit brighter.
“A lot of women in the clinic all look very anxious and very nervous and that day I had two blood tests. The first nurse was really grumpy because I was five minutes late, but the second nurse was so kind, she just wanted to chat. If you show a little bit of kindness every day, I think that just makes people stay.”
One of the biggest hurdles for Ms Yang when starting out was that she felt she lacked enough music knowledge. To rectify this, she took six months off to study music at CIT. She says the way music theory is taught in Taiwan was completely different, she knew relative notes while notes like C, D, E, F, G were a new concept.
“Learning a new language in music was really tough, but after those six months, I felt more confident that I can really be a musician, being able to jam with other people and just talk in the language.”
Feeling more confident to share her folk-inspired sounds and supported by her husband, Ms Yang slowly started cutting down her weekly hours at her day job.
“He knew that I have this passion and he knew that I could do it all. But he’s just like, maybe you want to wait a little bit and see whether this is not too consuming – time-consuming, energy consuming – because it can be really tough when you get yourself out there.”
Her employer offered voluntary redundancies during COVID and, for the past two years, Ms Yang has been a full-time musician. Although she still struggles with self-doubt and imposter syndrome constantly, Ms Yang has worked on some incredible shows, playing at the National Folk Festival and supporting the likes of Ben Lee, Katie Noonan, and Josh Pyke.
While abroad, Ms Yang plans to finish creating an album; a grant from ArtsACT meant that she was able to learn how to produce her own music. Her goal for the next eight months is to finish writing the tracks and do the production work from home. After its release, she wants to start touring, hopefully at international festivals in Canada and Europe.
Sounds Australia’s involvement in the Global Music Match program has meant that Ms Yang has been able to collaborate with artists from around the world. Her team comprises musicians from Norway, Wales, USA, Canada, and people in her home country, Taiwan. Together, they create music and connect over their love of music, particularly folk, roots, and blues. She says these connections will make it easier when wanting to play shows and festivals in other countries.
“I think it’s doable. It’s also doable to just have a local show and team up with the musicians I know and just put on a show together; it can be a house concert, it doesn’t have to be festivals,” she says.
Because social media may not always be accessible while she’s away from Canberra, Ms Yang says the best way to stay up to date with what she is up to or to get in contact is through her mailing list, available on her website: kimyangmusic.com
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