Sodagreen - History

History

Sodagreen was named by Shih, then the band's leader, and Wu, the lead vocalist. The band was originally named Soda (蘇打), but Shih felt that the band needed a name with three Chinese characters. Wu, whose favourite colour was green, suggested adding the word green (綠) behind the name, thus the band's name.

In May 2001, Sodagreen competed in the Golden Melody Cup held by National Chengchi University and won Best Popularity by the composition "Peeping". Appreciated by Shiao-Ying, one of the judges, they recorded "Peeping" in participation of the compilation Taiwan independent compilation 2001, released by TCM. In April the next year, after several changes in the line-up of the band (guitarist), Sodagreen participated in Golden Melody Cup once again, this time winning the Best Band, Best Composition, Best Lyrics, and Best Music awards.

In March 2003, A-Fu and Jia-Kai, also from National Chengchi University, and A-Gong from Taipei National University of the Arts joined Sodagreen. The band's line-up has been unchanged since. In July the same year, the band played at the Hohaiyan Gongliau Rock Festival's Hot Wave Rock section.

In August 2004, Sodagreen were awarded the Grand Jury Award of Hohaiyan Gongliau Rock Festival. They then signed an official contract with Willlin Music. In September of 2005, they released their self-titled debut album, sodagreen, after a series of singles and EPs. The band garnered a few nominations in the Golden Melody awards of 2006 for this album. In October 2006, they released their second album, Little Universe. That December, they released a single- My Future Is Not a Dream, a collaboration with A-pay, a band under the same label.

In June 2007, Sodagreen were awarded the Best Band Award at the 18th Golden Melody Awards. Wu Tsing-Fong also received the highly-coveted Best Melody Award for the song "Little Love Song", which was also nominated for the best lyrics. Little Universe was nominated for the best album. In November, Sodagreen released their third album, Incomparable Beauty. Shortly after, they held their first concert at a major venue, the Absolutely Beautiful Concert which was held at the Taipei Arena. They were the first indie band to hold a concert there. The concert holds the record for being the longest concert ever held at the venue, with Sodagreen playing for five hours, incurring a large fine for playing too late into the night.

In May 2008, the band released the live album Sing With Me, which included live tracks from the Absolutely Beautiful Concert as well as three new studio tracks. Lover Animal was the official Chinese language theme song for the movie Juno. That year at the 19th Golden Melody Awards, they were awarded the Best Band Award for the second time in a row.

In 2009, Sodagreen began their Vivaldi Project, planning to record and release four concept albums based on the four seasons within two years. The band recorded Daylight of Spring in Taidung and released it in May. They then travelled to London to record Summer/Fever, releasing it in September. The band then went to the Taipei Arena for the second time, playing for two nights at the Daylight Fever Concert at the end of the year. Their plans to record albums based on the next two seasons were cut short by keyboardist A-gong's call-up to the Taiwanese army to fulfil his national service.

In 2010, Sodagreen's two albums led to their double nomination for the Best Band Award. The music video for the song Daylight won its directors the award for the best music video. That year, the band released their second live album, Once in a Lifetime, comprising live recordings from the Daylight Fever Concerts and three studio-recorded songs. The tracks Once in a Lifetime and No Sleep were listed at number 29 and 84 respectively on Hit Fm Taiwan's Hit Fm Annual Top 100 Singles Chart (Hit-Fm年度百首單曲) for 2010. Guitarist A-fu was called up for national service shortly after.

After A-gong's return from the army in 2011, the band released their eighth album, What is Troubling You in November, on the same day as the album releases of Mandopop heavyweights Jay Chou and Eason Chan. The song Enjoy Loneliness shot to fame online after Wu Tsing-Fong sang it on the talk show Kangxi Lai Le. The music video for the titular song What is Troubling You trended worldwide on video-sharing website Youtube for a few days after its release. Shortly before A-fu's return from the army in January 2012, the band announced that their third Taipei Arena concert, As We Walk Together would be held in March that year.

To support the sales of their latest album, Sodagreen kicked off their Walk Togehter World Tour at the Taipei Arena (臺北小巨蛋) on March 3rd-4th, 2012. Then two more sold-out concerts at Kaohsiung K-Arena (高雄巨蛋) on August 18th and 19th., 2012 The band also take their popular sold-out concerts to Singapore, and various cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Nanjing and more. To start the new year 2013, Sodagreen performed at the Cotai Arena of The Venetian Macao Casino/Resort/Hotel in Macao on January 5th, 2013.