Energy (Taiwanese band)

Energy is a Taiwanese hip pop boy band formed in 2002. The original band consisted of five males, namely Milk, Ady, Toro, Penny and Joe. Toro and Milk left the band in 2003 and 2005 respectively. Xiao Gang joined the band in mid 2007.

History

Early years

Five-piece Energy had a distinctive Hip-Hop sound, which is sometimes mixed with electric guitars, like in their breakout hit "放手". Energy uses dance to perform their fast tracks, often compared to Korean boybands. They also recorded chart topping ballads like "多爱我一天" and "某年某月某一天". Energy's popularity grew at a time where other mainstream boybands like 5566 and K One emerged. Energy had a fanbase of mostly goth fans or people who liked Japanese rock. However, Energy also attracted mainstream radio play with their pop ballads.

Energy's first studio album "Come On" was released within the same year of the band's formation. The cover of Korean boyband Shinhwa's "Come On" had huge publicity in Chinese pop culture, but this caused controversy between Shinhwa's and Energy's fans. Shinhwa fans claimed that Energy copied Shinhwa's dance moves and musical style. However, the two bands were not in conflict. The album also contains pop ballads such as "第二次爱上你" and "永远不说再见".

Their second album, "Invincible: 无懈可击" features the title track "无懈可击", which is a cover of JTL's "Enter The Dragon". This track continues the band's signature rapcore cum dance sound. The single "多爱我一天" (lit. "Love me one more day") is the best selling single throughout Energy's history, so much that Energy was labelled as a one-hit-wonder in view of this song. Other notable songs are "Boom", advertising Converse, which is a cover of Saliva's song. And "Ra-men Song", advertising a brand of instant noodles. This song features Singapore's Terry Lee rapping with Energy in English. Ady injured himself while filming a music video for the album, and had to give their Asian tour a miss. He also missed out on the filming of music videos and promotional videos for the album.

Their final album as a five member band, "E3", was released shortly after. The single "退魔錄", a Triple 8 cover, is the theme song for an online computer game. Like the previous two albums, ballads were the minority of the tracks. The music video for "只有我" shows Toro behaving coldly towards the other bands members. Although the scenes in the video are obvious acting, Toro left the band not long after this video was released. He formed a new trio called "Typhoon" (or 台風), of similiar musical style to Energy. This other band has only one album - titled "Overflow" - to date.

Four members

Without Toro, the band's popularity declined. The musical style of four-piece Energy was softer then before, and lacked the Rapcore attitude which was influenced by Toro. Their first idol drama "Michael's Dance" was seen as an attempt to revive their popularity. The album "FINAL FANTASY" was criticised for using an excess of freestyle battle.

The remaining four members of Energy continued their career with a Greatest Hits Collection entitled "ENERGY 4EVER", which includes previous songs like "More Than Words" and "Loving You The Second Time" (第二次愛上你). A second disc contained four new tracks ("One Love" is one of them) and two remixes of their previous cover songs. A limited edition of this album contains a VCD advertising Michael's dance, a television drama Energy was shooting at the time. Touring by the band proved "tough" as Toro's lines had to be covered by the remaining members. Energy expressed that they were optimistic about the situation, and even joked about Toro's departure.

In 2004, Energy launched their first Drama serial titled "Michael's Dance" (or "Mi Jia Le Zi Wu"). The Original Soundtrack released contains songs recorded by them, including "Hey You" (The theme song for the show) and "Wo Ting Jian Tian Shi Zai Ge Chang" (The ending theme). "Hey You" featured heavy rapping while the latter track was a melodic ballad. Both songs, and "Hei An Shi Qi" had slight Biblical references. The Soundtrack also contained songs by other artistes like Sugababes or DMX. A notable track is "Yi Qi Zhou Ba", which is performed by Energy and their good friend Show Luo(羅志祥). A "Making Of" VCD of this drama serial is previously included in "ENERGY 4EVER" as a bonus disc. This disc acts as an announcement of the show. Penny sang a solo track for this drama serial titled "Tian Kong Mei You Xia Yu". This song is not listed in the soundtrack, nor released on any other CD. This song was performed by Penny himself in Energy's FINAL FANTASY Concert.

The album "FINAL FANTASY" (or "最後的樂園"), released in 2005, signaled the end of a four member band. The hits "天與地" and "眼淚的味道" had a more pop sound compared to early Energy music. The popular music video for "天與地" has Ady trapped in a castle, and the other three members saving him. This seemed to alude "只有我" and Toro's departure, telling fans that Ady was leaving the band. During Energy's Asian tour, fans tried to persuade the band to not disband. A documentary of this effort is released in the second edition of "FINAL FANTASY". After a series of FINAL FANTASY Concerts, Milk turned to his solo career, which included hosting, advertising, and recording his first EP, titled "Puppet", which was released in 2006.

After the four man split, Energy attended several award ceremonies without Milk. They only performed their award winning hit "Wo Men". The announcement of a new album "猩人类" confirmed that Milk was no longer in Energy.

2006 to Present

After a year of inactivity, the three- member Energy released an album titled "Apeman" (or "猩人类") in mid-2006. This album has a more pop-rock sound, slightly different from what Energy had always been. The cover song "猩人类" features them dancing with extended arms, matching the Ape-man theme of the album. The hit ballad, "爱失控", is a cover of "One" by TVXQ, a Korean boyband. "爱失控"'s lyrics is written by Penny, the rapper of the trio. This fact was emphasized by the band during live performances because Energy was criticised for not writing their own songs, and repeatedly covering other band's singles. The most notable track, "秒杀" is written by Taiwanese rock band MayDay (Wu Yue Tian). The two bands met in a charity drive in Singapore, and MayDay agreed to compose a song for Energy. MayDay sings in the song and appears in the music video. The last song of the album, "打败" is written by well known songwriter 周传雄 (周傳雄/Zhou Chuan Xiong). He, too, lends his voice. In this album, Energy distinctively dropped the Rapcore attitude they had in their previous years. However, Penny still gets to show off his rap vocals despite the band changing its musical style. The band's logo is also revised, despite having an iconic logo for five years. China's release of this album has two songs taken out because of "inappropriate content". One of the removed songs was "秒杀", Energy's collaboration with MayDay. The band remarked in an interview that it was a "pity that the China audience don't get to enjoy the full album".

In Mid-2007, Xiao Gang came as an addition to three-piece Energy. Xiao Gang had helped Energy and K ONE to come up with dance moves, and reportedly is Penny's close friend. On tour, Xiao Gang remarked that he was "not yet used to the performing scene".

Energy's latest 2007 album, "Borned With Reversed Bones" (or "天生反骨") was released on 22 October 2007 in two versions, one of which is a limited edition. The album received generally positive reviews. Energy was praised for being 'more vocally sound', and having unique musical ideas. The title track "Borned With Reversed Bones" received huge radio play and publicity because of its unique mix of hip-hop and rock. Energy's recording company initially didn't want the band to dance for this song, but Energy managed to convince them otherwise. To train their dancing skills, Energy came up with an exercise routine called the "要你三千命" (or "Requires three thousand lives"). Songs like "上隱", "一秒愛上你" and "萬誘引力" has a certain degree of R&B and rock influence, at the same time staying pop songs. "太自由救救我", a track similar to "天生反骨" contains heavy drum beats and guitar riffs. This album enjoyed commercial success also because of the pop ballads. The lyrics of the hit single "星空" are entirely written by Joe and Ady. Another melodic ballad, "答應我" had a musical style that was described by fans as the 'Energy flavour', similar to that of their earier ballads.

Associated Acts

T-Rush, a hip-hop girl group is featured in two of Energy's songs, namely "You better not come home" and "Live it up", of heavy rap influence. This group toured with Energy during their first Asian tour and made a guest appearance in Energy's first concert in Taiwan.

Energy performed a song with Show Luo in the "Mi Jia Le Zhi Wu OST" called "Yi Qi Zhou Ba". This song makes use of 'Freestyle battle', where Energy and Show taunts one another in Rapcore. The music video for this song has Energy and Show outwitting each other in breakdance, which takes place in what seems like a dance hall filled with fans. The video ends with the two sides becoming friends, which mirrors the real life situation.

Note: There's the interesting mention of 'U2' in this song. If it refers to the Irish rock band is not clear.

Other Featured Artists

Terry Lee in "Ra-men Song"
MayDay in "秒杀"
Vanessa Fer. in "Got to be Real"
Zhou Chuan Xiong in "打败"
Wilber Pan & Evonne Hsu in "Universal Love"

Toro & Typhoon

Toro (Alvan Guo Yi Jun) has been a great influence on Energy's music for their early years. He wrote a few songs for the band and was the rap firepower for most of the fast numbers and power ballads. Shortly after the release of Energy's 3rd album "E3", Toro left the band. This caused Energy to have two unfinished music videos, and rumors that a great argument took place within the band. Nevertheless, the band finished filming the two videos without Toro, and even toured as a four member group. This took place at a time where boybands rarely had single members leaving them.

In a solo career, Toro had several gigs where he performed Energy's hits like "无懈可击". He also recorded a single called "Give it up". Toro had several major acts in his new management company, including writing songs for other boybands like 5566 or K ONE, which were assumed rivals of Energy. However, he is reportedly still friends with his ex-bandmates. In 2004, Toro formed the Hip Hop trio TYPHOON, together with Darren & 小村. This band's music style is similar to early Energy's, and has only one album to date- "Overflow". Although Typhoon's popularity peak wasn't as high as Energy's, the trio gained recognition through variety programmes and acts with 5566.

Ady's Injury

Ady, the lead singer of the band, injured his back badly while filming a video for the album "Invincible". It was in the middle of an outdoor dance sequence when Ady fell to the floor in pain. He was rushed to the hospital immediately. Because of this, he was unable to tour and promote that album with the rest of the band. He also couldn't dance in the music video of "Boom", but appears in some scenes.

The album "FINAL FANTASY" was announced when Ady's back injury started to worsen. This spawned rumors that Ady was leaving the band for good, and Energy was no more. In their FINAL FANTASY LIVE concert, Ady only danced sparingly and couldn't take part in other dance sequences. At no time during the whole concert did the band mention anything about disbanding.

"Wo Men"

The Ballad "Wo Men" is the third single from Energy's "最後的樂園" album. The lyrics of this slow number is made up of 15 Energy song titles stringed together. These titles are chosen by Energy themselves, and the tune is composed by Singapore's JJ Lin.

The music video of this song is released in 2 versions, one with more footage of the band members. Energy's 6 albums are featured throughout the video in order of release. The last part of the video shows Energy looking to a big screen where their first concert in Taiwan is being shown.

Both versions of "Wo Men" is in the Bonus DVD of "最後的樂園 [4th Ed.]", which is the very last release of four member Energy.

Chinese Covers

Energy is known to perform many Chinese versions of other songs, and has been criticised for this fact.

Energy Title - Original Title

无懈可击 - Enter The Dragon - JTL
Missing You - Missing You - Fly to the Sky
Come On - Hey, Come On - Shinhwa
Boom - Click Click Boom - Saliva
Wo Hui Hui Lai - Outside Castle - H.O.T.
Everything In My Heart - I Swear - S
Cowboy - Cowboy - Click-B
Ra-men Song - That Booty Song
Ai Shi Kong - One - TVXQ
退魔錄 - Knockout - Triple 8 (also covered by Super Junior)
We are family - We are family
Wo Ting Jian Tian Shi Zai Ge Chang - I Can Hear The Heavens Sing
某年某月某一天 - Come Back To Me - SE7EN
1 Time - 1 Tym
One Love - On Love - S'MAX

Discography

Come On
无懈可击
E3
Universal Love (Single)
ENERGY 4EVER
HEY-YOU
最後的樂園
猩人类
天生反骨