Sunset Rollercoaster ( ''Luòrì fēichē'') is a 5-piece

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

-influenced

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

band from

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, consisting of Kuo-Hung Tseng (vocals, guitar), Hung-Li Chen (bass), Shao-Hsuan Wang (keyboard), Tsun-Lung Lo (drums), and Hao-Ting Huang (saxophone)—previously with Shih-Wei Huang (percussion). The name originated from a

Photo Booth A photo booth is a vending machine or modern kiosk that contains an automated, usually coin-operated, camera and film processor. Today, the vast majority of photo booths are digital. History The patent for the first automated photography ma ...

picture the group had taken for their MySpace profile in 2009, which had a rollercoaster in front of a sunset as the background. The band mostly sings in English, despite being based in a Mandarin-speaking country, which, according to lead singer Kuo Kuo, is to allow them to speak indirectly and allow audiences to discern their own meaning.

History

The idea for the band was inspired by

Velvet Underground Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabri ...

videos that lead singer Kuo found on the internet. The band formed in 2009 as a trio composed of Tseng Kuo Hung, Kevin Lee, and Lo Zun Long; they released their debut album ''Bossa Nova'' in 2011, but then disbanded shortly afterward. Singer Kuo Kuo and drummer Lo Tsun formed another band, Forests, with a different, much darker sound. Sunset Rollercoaster reformed in 2015 and released their second album ''Cassa Nova'' in 2018. In 2019, the band released the EP ''Vanilla Villa'', which revolves around the story of an alien who loves a human whom it wants to take to a villa. The band played at the

Summer Sonic The , also known as Supersonic, is an annual two- or three-day rock festival held at the same time in Osaka and Chiba, Japan. The majority of the bands playing in Osaka the first day go to Chiba the following day and vice versa. The line-up cont ...

music festival in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 2011. After their hiatus, they performed at SummerStage in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, as part of the Taiwanese Waves music festival in 2017. They recorded a live studio session at

Audiotree Audiotree is an American music record label located in Chicago, founded in 2011. The company records and publishes live music sessions. It also promotes artists and organizes live events, and invites artists from around the world to enter a profe ...

in 2018, the first Taiwanese band to do so. The band toured North America as part of the "Business Trip Tour" in 2018. In early 2020, Kuo-Hung Tseng wrote in Los Angeles lyrics for ''Soft Storm'' and recorded in part with

Ned Doheny Patrick Anson Doheny "Ned" Doheny (born March 26, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist from Malibu, California, who has recorded eight albums and has performed with other artists including Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagle ...

. Their 2020 album ''Soft Storm'' was named the 4th best album in Asia in 2020 by

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

. They composed 3 songs featured in the anime '' Sonny Boy''.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Bossa Nova'' (2011) * ''Cassa Nova'' (2018) * ''Soft Storm'' (2020)

Extended play

* ''Jinji Kikko'' (2016) * ''Vanilla Villa'' (2019)

Singles

* ''Villa'' (

Jerry Paper Lucas Nathan (born August 7, 1990), best known by the stage name Jerry Paper, is an American musician, singer, songwriter and producer. They began releasing music in 2009, with their first projects being Zonotope™ and the noise music project D ...

Remix) (2019) * ''我是一隻魚 I’m a fish'' (cover, 2019) * ''Candlelight'' (feat.

Oh Hyuk Oh Hyuk (Hangul: 오혁, stylised OHHYUK, born October 5, 1993) is a South Korean singer and musician best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter of indie rock band Hyukoh. Background Born in South Korea, Oh moved to ...

, 2020) * ''小薇'' (cover, 2021) * ''忘情水'' (cover, 2021) * ''Coffee's on Me'' (2021) * ''Let There Be Light Again'' (2021) * ''滾石40 滾石撞樂隊 40團拚經典 - 愛錯'' (cover, 2021) * ''金牛座的牢騷'' (cover, 2022) * ''Little Balcony'' (2022) * ''Jellyfish (feat. Michael Seyer, 2022) * ''Impossible Isle'' (2022) * ''Levia'' (2023) * ''Balloon'' (cover/remake, 2023)

Awards

References

External links

Official siteBandcamp pageFacebookYouTube channelInstagram page
{{rock-band-stub Taiwanese rock music groups