“Heroin” changed his life
There is a stereotype that talented people were born this way and that they were just gifted from the sky but Tiga Wu does not believe in that stereotype.
He found his passion only when he was in the eighth grade of school. He was always thinking that his life is going to be connected to art, but he found himself more passionate about design rather that any other art flow. Everything changed when the wave of popular western pop music came to China. Tiga like lots of other teenagers was listening to all those hits from billboards and Grammy records, but in comparison to others, he fell in love with rock music after all.
“The first rock band I’ve ever noticed was Oasis. I saw their poster at Tieba (Chinese social network). There were five people standing in a triangle with Liam at the front, and I just loved Liam’s arrogant and disdainful look.” The look of the artist just stocked in Tiga’s head. He found the group on the internet and listened to their songs. “The first song I heard was “I’m Outta Time”,” said Tiga. “I started looking and searching for indie music after then although Oasis is not an indie band.” Though Tiga was not out of time, he found something that touched him in that song, and this was only the beginning of his music journey.
His favourite band now is Velvet Underground. This group had a huge impact on his ideology. The song “Heroin” opened up the doors to the world of rock’n’roll for Tiga. “I literally bought my first guitar ten minutes after I heard the song, and then I started to learn how to play and tried to make my own music.” He said. That was the moment when he began to listen to the songs and understand them. The song helped him realize what he wants. He started thinking about his life and his plans for the future from a different perspective. He was not so sure if he should pursue his dreams of becoming a designer or if he should try himself in a different field. If he was crazy about creating websites, building apps and doing startups before, now he was more interested in another art direction. “Now I think that I have a lot in common with hippies – I love art, I pursue freedom, I’m eager to find people like me and I don’t care much about material life,” claims Tiga.
Music changed his priorities. He started living like a real rock star. He can spend a whole day sleeping, and he can eat pizza for the rest of his life, but when it comes to music he is becoming another person. He can spend tones of money on a good record or another tool for his guitar without hesitations. He started building his personality from the foundation. He is trying to surround himself with people who share same interests. He is developing his musical skills like singing and playing the guitar. Tiga’s short-term goal is to learn how to play the piano.
In the long term, Tiga plans to start a new music project. He wants to create music which will have its own voice, music which will inspire and lead people. He wants other people to hear and understand him, so one day one of his songs will open up another boy’s eyes, and that boy will find his way listening to Tiga’s song.
“Velvet Underground inspired a lot of people, and I want to be able to help someone the way they helped me.”
