We were lucky to catch up with Yilun Song recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Yilun thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I never thought of actually becoming a musician when I first started learning music. Growing up playing piano, I always hated these lessons and practices, until when I first saw “How to Train Your Dragon”, and immediately fell in love with its score; I never realized how music could be so narrative and full of emotions, that you could almost see colorful images right in front of your eyes. Since then, I started playing tunes and pieces that I fell in love with. I founded a band with my middle school friends, and started using computer softwares to write little pieces of mine; then, we produced our first album during my junior year in high school. This was when I became sure to take the journey of becoming a musician, a creator of sounds that tell stories.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My passion for composition led me towards a freelancing side-job from very early on; I remember writing a song for my high school’s annual event, taking arrangement works from musicians I knew while studying in high school and university. I’m still a freelancer now, wearing multiple hats from projects to projects, including composing, sound design, arranging/orchestrating for musicians, recording and mixing songs, and so on.
One thing I found that came out spectacular from my experience is that, by being able to wear multiple hats, I can see a project from many points of view, and that really allows me to go one step further in helping the project to be better. I can still recall when I was mixing “Sound of Wilderness (旷野之声)”, a dolby Atmos album composed and performed by two wonderful masters of traditional Chinese instruments, how I was able to follow their vision of the sound palette, and understand their pursuit of certain effects or textures from a compositional standpoint, which really helped me to finish a mix that sounded unique and colorful. Working for indie game “Tale of the Singing Peaks” was another special experience, in which I was in charge of doing both sound design and music. This really gave me more control over the entire soundscape of the game, allowing me to set up a more coherent style of the game sound-wise, and I think it has made me realize just another value of being able to wear multiple hats.
This doesn’t mean I’m against collaboration tho. In the contrary, I firmly believe in the power of collaboration, and I always think multiple inputs of viewpoints can create a more well-rounded piece of art; also, by knowing multiple components in the industry, I can be a good collaborator for any project I work on.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My dream is to write music that tells the best stories and touches people’s deepest emotions. I love reading stories, watching films and playing games that have wonderful worlds in them, and I hope one day my music can be with those wonderful stories too.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
During the pandemic, I started an account on bilibili (a Chinese video sharing platform), and started posting music videos of song covers for fun. I would transcribe the instrumentation and arrangement of the song, and record me entirely recreating it with my own mix. People who loved those songs started following me and requested me to do more covers. I gradually stoped making those videos as I became busy with school work, and decided to prioritize on promoting myself as a composer, but I did gain more than 2,000 followers and more than 140k views, and they’re still growing slowly. Some of them would still be willing to listen to my original compositions now when I post them on my account.
So in terms of social media presence I’m definitely not the most successful ones, and I really don’t think I have enough experience to give advice to anybody; but the one thing I have realized during the process is that if I love what I’m doing, I can invest a lot of time on it and feel quite good. So do what you like and keep doing it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.songyilun.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/songyilunivan/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/songyilunivan
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yilun-ivan-song/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SongYilunMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@songyilunmusic
Image Credits
Yucheng Li