Chen Hsin-hung, nicknamed Ashin, was born on 6 December 1975 in Beitou District, Taiwan. He is a singer/songwriter and author. He is the vocalist of the Taiwanese band Mayday. Ashin majored in art in college, where he also began his musical career. Mayday is one of the most successful Taiwanese bands and has greatly influenced the Taiwanese entertainment industry. Ashin is also the founder and designer of the clothing line StayReal and a shareholder of the music label B'in Music. He was elected as a board member of the Taiwan Public Television Service in 2013.
Biography
Early life
Ashin was born into a family of four, consisting of his parents, himself, and a younger brother. His family owned a record store, which inspired his passion for music. Ashin's childhood ambition was to become a singer, but his vocal range was too narrow. He claims his bandmates selected him to be Mayday's singer as he was the worst instrumentalist out of all of them. Ashin can play both guitar and drums.
Education
Ashin attended a public elementary and middle school in Beitou District. After graduating from middle school, he was accepted into one of the top high schools in Taiwan, The Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University, where he majored in visual arts. Ashin joined the high school's guitar club and was made president the following year. It was in the guitar club that he met the other members of Mayday: Monster, Masa, and Stone. At the age of 19, he started composing. The first song, "Hao Ju Hao San", was released on Richie Jen's 2001 album "Fei Niao." After graduating from high school, Ashin attended Shih Chien University, where he majored in interior design. Mayday began to start seeing success while Ashin was still in college.
Career
SoBand
In 1995, together with Monster and Qian You-Da, Ashin formed "SoBand". Shortly after the band formed, Masa came on board as the band's bassist. Ashin was both the lead vocalist and the guitarist and during their formative years the band played at a number of major bars across the country. In 1997, shortly after Stone joined the band, the members decided to change their name to Mayday. Ming joined the band later as the group's drummer.
Mayday
first started off as an underground rock band. They sent demo tapes to the then major record labels and were spotted by renowned producer Jonathan Lee of Rock Records. Mayday released their first official album in 1999 and began to gain a steady stream of fans. They released five albums under Rock Records, before teaming up with director of Rock Records, Chen Yong-Zhi to found B'in Music Co. Ltd in 2006.
Composer/songwriter
Ashin used to be Mayday's sole composer; it was only during production of the band's fifth album that other band members began to contribute their own work. Ashin's compositional talents have been highly sought after by other artists and as a result he has composed a significant number of songs for other artists, such as: Fish Leong, Rene Liu, S.H.E.
Author
Ashin published his first book, Happy.Birth.Day, in 2006. It features the lyrics of 60 of his songs, as well as a selection of his photography. In 2008, he published "Escape to Japan", a guidebook to unconventional travelling in Japan. In 2012, he collaborated with Ninagawa Mika and published a photography book called "Stairway to Heaven". In 2019, he collaborated with Jay Chou and released a single called Won't Cry.
Other collaborations
In 2006, Ashin and his high school classmate No2good were invited by BenQ to create the MusiQ dog tag MP3 player. The development process took 8 months with the help of top designers from China and Taiwan. In 2007, Ashin and No2good designed a symbolic lion figure toy named Jr.Q for BenQ. In the same year, Ashin and No2good unveiled their new clothing line, StayReal, in Taiwan.
Influences
Ashin's has stated that he's highly influenced by: The Beatles, Lo Ta-yu, Wu Bai and Mr. Children to name a few. He writes songs in Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien as his parents and grandparents are fluent in both languages.
