6@RubberBand

Lead Vocalist of Pop Band

"I encourage everyone to build close relationships with friends and family - they are your support system."

I am a sentimental person. Since I was a kid, I've always liked to share my feelings with others, especially my friends.

Music is another way for me to express my emotions. I was part of my first band in college, when a few people from my dorm decided to form a band together. At the time, we would sing covers of our favourite songs on the roof of our dorm. My bandmates have since chosen different career paths - I'm the only one who is still a musician. A few years ago, we reunited for a performance at our alma mater, CUHK. When I saw the students applauding for us, I was so moved. Without my bandmates to accompany me through those crazy youthful years, I wouldn't have had the confidence to step out onto the stage.

After graduating from university, I took an assistant job at a radio station. My parents were opposed to me pursuing a career as a musician, worrying that I wouldn't be able to sustain myself. Then I met the four other members of RubberBand and they invited me to join their band. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. My mother was diagnosed with cancer that year. I thought that joining a new band would require a lot of time and energy and I didn't want to miss out on precious time with my mother. The band was supportive and encouraged me to be with my mother during that critical time. After a year, my mother's condition gradually stabilised, and the band was still there - they never gave up one me. In 2004, I joined the RubberBand as lead vocalist.

I've always been indecisive, so I hesitated when it came time to sign the record deal. I asked my bandmates, "Why don't you four sign it without me?" Maybe it had something to do with growing up with my parents' conservative thinking. RubberBand released an album in 2008 and won the Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation's best music group award in 2009. In the car on the way home, I called my mother to tell her that I had won the prize. At that moment, she finally understood what my work meant.

Since forming the band many years ago, I have encountered many setbacks and frustrations over the years. I'm lucky to have a close group of friends around me. They might not be in the music industry or in show business circles, but they have given me a lot of good advice at critical moments over the years. Most of the time, though, they just listen to me as I let it all out. That kind of friendship is priceless.

I firmly believe that writing a song is like writing a novel. You have to put your heart in it to write something good. I truly hope that we can all find the space to tell our stories and express our ideas in our own way. In our band, we've gone from writing songs that sell at the beginning, to writing about social issues, and finally back to ourselves.

We all keep a lot of things hidden in our hearts, but it's not healthy to keep things in. I encourage everyone to build close relationships with friends and family - they are your support system. You have to believe that there will always be people in the world who understand you. No one is an island.