Evade is an indie band formed by Sonia Ka Ian Lao (Vocals), Brandon L (Guitar), and Faye Choi (Sound) in Macau in 2004.
Evade's musical style is a perfect blend of many styles including electronic, dream pop, trip-hop, dubstep, and traditional Chinese music. Their music is at times peaceful and tranquil evoking a myriad of emotional responses in the listener. Their music is described by the band in this short poem:
Comfortable, like a cat on the couch.
Bella, like a flower in your heart.
Happy as a bath in the sea.
Sad, like a song in the past ......
In September 2009, Evade released their first EP, entitled "Evade" in Macao, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Canada (Toronto).
Evade will release its first album in April 2012 with the record label Kitchen Label (Singapore) and were invited by Progressive Form to play in Japan.
Sonia, it is a pleasure to meet you. Can you tell us a little about your childhood and how your interest in music formed?
In my childhood, my parents also like Hong Kong Pop Music. They always play music in the cassette player. When I was 7 years old, I have played some pop music in the cassette player. So, I think that I got interested in music at this time.
When did you first meet your fellow band members and decide to form a band?
I met guitarist Brandon and drummer in spring of 2004. In the summer, we decided to form “Evade”. In 2006, the drummer left the band and programmer Faye join the band. From this moment on, the members of Evade have not changed.
How did you come up with the name, "Evade"?
The name is come up by guitarist Brandon. He said that the name does not have special meaning. Just for audiences to feel what feeling just Evade is that meaning!
Had any of you been in a band before?
Yes! About 3 or 4 bands. But all have already broken up.
Your vocals at times sound very subdued. Like singing in a whisper but there is always the hint that your voice could explode with power at any moment. How would you best describe your vocal style?
I think the best describe is gentle and sweet but sad. I think most of the songs and lyrics are from my mind to create. I know the meanings of the songs and lyrics that is helpful for me to sing the songs.
Do you write the lyrics or is it a collaboration?
Most of lyrics are written by me. Except “Strawberry Dream” (From 1st EP (2009)) and “Gift” (From 1st Album (2012)) are written by Guitarist Brandon.
Tell is a little about some of your songs. For instance, "InsideOutside". How do you hope a listener would feel after hearing this song?
“Inside, Outside” is talking about people cannot control their own destiny. Sometimes we don’t know why we live in this world. Many questions are around us. Many situations harass our mind and values. We cannot go to “Outside” to understand our lives and we only stay in “Inside” indefinitely.
What about "Crush"? Is there a story behind this song?
“Crush” is written about dream. I feel dream is a gift for our soul for have a rest.
Your first album will be released in April. Can you tell us about some of the tracks and what we can expect?
The name of Evade 1st album is “Destroy and Dream”. All the songs are talking about destruction (Track 1-4) and regeneration (Track 5-11). We expect when audiences listen our album and they will think the relationship of life, world and universe.
What was it like to record this album?
In 2009, we released Evade 1st EP and the selling is very good. Many people like our music. We get “Kitchen. Label” from Singapore to appreciate and we can perform and sale our Music in Tokyo, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macau, etc. In this period, we hope we can record one all “Cantonese” album and talking about the relationship of life, world and universe. So, this album is just born.
You have traveled around performing. What have been some of your favorite places you have visited?
I also love all the places. All places are special as are our audiences.
Where would you hope to go next?
We hope that we will go to Japan, Singapore and Malaysia again and all China to perform our music in 2013. We have already arranged the live perform in Macau, Hong Kong and Guangzhou at Jul and Aug of 2012. And, of course, I really really hope we can go to more places to perform our music, for example, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, etc.
How do you see your music progressing in the future?
We think we will continue to create our music. We are very enjoy and glad because we can do something that we really like and love to do.
Personally, what music do you enjoy listening to?
Niza, Autumn Grey Solace, Piana, Bjork, RF & Lili De La Mora, Margo Guryan, Late Night Alumni, Anna B Sweet, Melanie Pain, Mazzy Star, Fanny Fink, Caroline, The Postmarks, Keren Ann, Telepopmusik, Cheer Chen, Jeff Chang, etc.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not practicing and performing?
Reading, writing, take care my baby, happy with my family together.
Where can we go to find out more about you and Evade?
There is some website of Evade:
http://www.myspace.com/evademacau
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Evade/37387799734
http://site.douban.com/evadeelectro/
https://twitter.com/evade_macau
http://soundcloud.com/evademacau
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evade
There is some MV and Live Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCMpV3ieZZA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpMekIVk4uc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z14k1C4lzs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQAAYYBOgU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bK-RwtGICM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74VG3hbI-Yc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jaeC-fyukE
There are online shop that can buy Evade 1st EP and Evade 1st Album (The 1st album will release in April 2012.). And there have music comment of Evade from Japan.
http://www.inpartmaint.com/shop/evade-evade/#more
There is one English interview of Evade (There has some MV and Live Video):
http://edge.neocha.com/en/interview-profile/music-from-macau-evade/
後記：
最後，都是要再次感謝Tom讓我有這個訪問的機會！多謝！:)
二零一二年三月十七日，澳門及紐約（Tom是來自紐約）
