Interview with Tao Chan

Photo credits: Tingting Yan, 2T3 PB

Q: Tell us about yourself. How did you become involved with Orbital Groove? 

I’m a Toronto native. I used to live in Kensington, then moved around. I actually spent about 3 years in Barbados because of my dad’s business. One funny story is that my dad used to trade Chinese vegetables with Rihanna’s dad – so that’s my connection to fame! My family lives in the Scarborough/Markham area. 

In terms of music, I started early on. When I was seven or eight, my parents took me to piano lessons which I took up to Grade 6 level piano. I was moving around a lot so I didn’t continue. That was a bit unfortunate, but my parents ended up continuing music education for my two younger brothers. They’re both super talented now. I took music throughout high school and played alto saxophone. 

I got into playing guitar in Grade 9. I was going through family storage and found a Yamaha guitar that was essentially untouched. My dad had bought it for mom before I was born because she wanted to learn how to play, but she never ended up having the time to learn after she had me. I started playing it and took a few classes here and there. Later, I just grabbed a foothold and started learning on my own online. You can learn pretty quickly if you find the right resources, so I’d recommend it to anyone who’d like to pick up something new during quarantine. I developed skills from watching videos of artists playing and of acoustic guitar videos, learning the style.

I’m the lead singer for Orbital Groove, but in terms of singing, I didn’t sing in high school. I used to commute a lot and on my way home, I would blast music and sing to myself while walking on the dark roads. I also consider myself a shower singer. Singing in the shower and while walking home helped me to find my tone. I did that through undergrad and my Masters until now.

In terms of my involvement with Orbital Groove, I was inspired by Melinda, Sam, Paolo, and Ben when they were playing the first show last year at The Ballroom. They were so amazing. Then I saw them perform at Clubs Fair and I was excited to hear that they were recruiting members. I really wanted to join as a guitarist because I wasn’t very confident in my singing back then. When it came time for auditions, I prepared a song called “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” by John Mayer. I was applying as a guitarist, but I also wanted to add vocals to complete the gestalt of the song. At the audition, I was super nervous because everyone was super talented and I was just self-taught. I was hoping to get the guitarist position. I knew that my friends Seth and Monish were applying for the position as well. A week or two after the audition, Melinda reached out to me saying that they really liked my audition. They were wondering if I wanted to be their lead vocalist, which was completely not what I was expecting! I told them straight up, “Are you sure? I don’t have a lick of formal singing experience.” And they were fine with that. Seth ended up being the guitarist for the band. It’s really nice to jam out and chill with people you know. So that’s how it started.

Q: How do you think your singing evolved from before you auditioned for Orbital Groove to how it is today? 

Melinda and Sam are very experienced in singing and were really helpful. They gave me useful tips and tricks that you probably learn in choir like breath control, where you make sure you have an adequate amount of air in your lungs before you sing. Otherwise, it would be difficult to hit the notes. I found it quite difficult sometimes to hit higher notes and I would end up switching between chest and head voice which wasn’t that great. So definitely, I had to adjust. 

The band also made many accommodations for me when I asked them to change the key [of a song]. For instance, if I couldn’t hit certain notes, then I’d be like, “Guys, guys, guys, I think we have to go down like one or two,” and Sam, Monish, and Paolo would transpose up and down. Everyone was super supportive. So I think that’s how my singing evolved. I definitely considered getting a vocal coach too, but that didn’t end up happening. And I guess, just have fun with it. In the beginning, I was really worried about how I was going to perform. But after spending more time with them, I realized they’re all super chill. In the end, it’s all just a performance. If you’re having fun up on stage, that’s what people are gonna see. That’s what’s important.

Q: So you’ve had experience with both formal technical training and informal musical training. How do you think those two types of training compare? Do you think musicians should have a mix of both types of training?

I would say having formal training does really help because you end up having a background to build upon. I remember very early on when I was learning new chords, like diminished and augmented chords, I was like, “Whoa, this is so huge!” and it blew my mind. But if you talk to any classically trained musician, they’d be like, “Oh, yeah, that’s like a one, a third and a sharp fifth for augmented?” I think, don’t quote me on that!

So I would say it really does speed up the process of learning different styles, especially for jazz. Jazz is a very technical style, so it’s kind of difficult to just learn if you don’t have the training in it. On the other hand, I also feel that not having that training almost makes it feel like I’m not constrained by all the rules. I’m more free to explore and venture into different styles without being constricted to just one thing. That’s my perspective.

Q: Do you have any tips for people who are trying to self-teach? 

I would definitely say a lot of practice is involved if you want to become self-taught. I think that’s the same even if you’re getting taught by a teacher. When you’re self-taught, there’s a myriad of resources online, and sometimes, it’s hard to tease out which ones are useful. Some could be too easy for you or too technically difficult. Having some sort of guide to your training is really important. 

What ended up happening for me was that I hit a plateau sometime in undergrad. I had learned all the basic chords and was able to do barre chords pretty simply. But after getting to that point, there wasn’t a lot of information online that could teach you more advanced chord types for the guitar. Serendipitously, I ended up finding some really nice acoustic covers on YouTube, and they had really, really interesting chord shapes. So I started learning those and that’s sort of how I found my way into that section of learning guitar. Finding the right resources is really important if you’re trying to learn. That’s the only thing I can say for guitar.

I also self-taught piano. I had a basis for it, so I just picked up the different RCM [Royal Conservatory of Music] level books and learned songs from them. I think that really helped in developing my skills. 

Q: The process of learning an instrument can be frustrating and takes perseverance. How did you persist and persevere despite the challenges or obstacles that you may have faced on your journey to learn piano, guitar, or singing? 

A lot of my motivation came from listening to classic songs like “Clair de Lune” or the Nocturnes by Chopin. I really wanted to play those because they’re popular songs. So just having pieces in mind that you want to play and learning how to play via YouTube or whatnot can really help to develop your motivation. I remember I was trying to learn “Nocturne” for a while and ended up playing hours per day just trying to perfect it. It was just out of my own motivation, just because it sounded really nice. The same is with guitar. Just trying to perfect certain songs really gives you that motivation to keep going. I have two younger brothers who also play, so it was sort of a way to show off to them. [Laughs] I think I gave a lot of motivation to my brothers, too, because they were considering quitting piano. But I was showing them cool things you could do with it, and they ended up going to RCM and now they’re so much better than me.

Q: Performing on stage can be very nerve-wracking, and it often takes a lot of confidence to perform on a stage in front of a big crowd. Would you say you are someone with natural confidence? What are your thoughts on building the self-esteem it takes to perform? 

Confidence is something you really do have to build up. In Grade 9, I performed for Battle of the Bands and that was the first time I was performing music in a small group with me being in the center. I was so scared. I was playing the notes, but my legs were shaking and my mind was just somewhere else. I ended up performing again in Grade 10 with the same band. Giving yourself these new experiences that you wouldn’t have otherwise done, it really shapes your confidence. After doing it a few times, I realized that even if I screwed up, it didn’t matter too much. And it’s actually not too bad. 

I do think I was quite shy in high school and undergrad, but I put myself in a lot of different positions that required me to publicly speak. For instance, I was the social rep when I was doing my Masters, and then I ended up becoming the co-president of my graduate student association which involved a lot of public speaking and interacting with faculty and PIs. I also ended up performing in a Christmas event for all faculty during grad school, so that required a lot of confidence. [Laughs] That’s what I would suggest to people who are trying to develop that self-esteem: just putting yourself out there. And practice! 

Q: On the topic of performance, how does performing solo compare with performing in a group?

I’d say performing in a group is a lot more fun. When everyone knows what they are doing, you can create really amazing music. And it’s just so much talent coming together to produce something so great. Performing solo, you have more of a say in what you can do and what style you want to drive, whereas when we performed in groups it was a more democratic process. We would vote on what songs we wanted to do. But [performing in a group] was also a really nice way for me to exit my comfort zone in terms of exploring new music. Monish has very different tastes from me, who has different tastes from Seth, who has different tastes from Melinda and Sam. I would say that’s a huge benefit of playing with a group, just having that diversity of tastes and music.

Q: What are some of your favourite pieces of music that you would like to share with others? Have you ever performed them and if so, what was that experience like? 

I’m a very top-40s pop, rock, and hip hop lover. Recently, I got into Panic! at the Disco and a lot of throwbacks. I had a phase where I really liked K-pop, so that might have influenced my style as well. There are a lot of nice, acoustic K-pop styles which influence how I play guitar. There’s this one musician, Sam Kim. He’s an amazing guitarist who plays acoustic guitar beats so I’ve been trying to replicate how he plays. Sometimes I do make covers on my Instagram at the behest of many of my followers. 

Q: We were wondering because you mentioned earlier that you were very much a shower singer. What is your favorite song to sing in the shower?

I’ve been really into Harry Styles recently, so usually I enjoy “Falling” by Harry Styles. I think I might have sung that in the shower yesterday. Yeah, it probably does disturb my roommate sometimes. [Laughs] It’s all right. He understands.

Q: Are you a karaoke singer? What is your go-to song, and why?

Oh, I love karaoke! It’s been so long. [The songs] used to come at a snap, but I don’t even remember now. I really love doing throwbacks. I guess a lot of Jason Mraz like “Lucky” and “I’m Yours” – that sort of stuff. A really popular one that a lot of my Chinese friends like is “Tong Hua.”

Q: We had a question about your experiences in composition. Have you written or composed your own song? If so, what is your process?

I think one of these is embarrassing. One of the first songs I wrote was a breakup song. What ended up happening was that I ended up being in this huge friend-zone moment and I wrote a song. Its lyrics were like… oh, shoot. I don’t remember it. Let me try to think of it. [Takes out guitar] Oh, I just remembered. It’s kind of sad. It was a huge friend zone moment. I only made the chorus. I was like...

[Begins to sing and finishes]

Q: We actually got goosebumps! You’re being really humble about your singing. Do you mind if we ask what the process is like in terms of writing this piece?

I guess the first thing would be seeing what emotions you want to bring up and then using that to guide what chords you want to put with it. You can look at any popular song, and there are usually good chord progressions that you can take, then just write words to it that fit. [Songwriting] really is a creative medium. And it’s really nice that you can do pretty much anything with it. You’re not really constrained by rules.

Q: How do you find balance as a med student and lead singer of Orbital Groove? How have music and musical performance influenced your experiences as a medical student and the 2T3 Class Co-President of the Medical Society?

I was really fortunate in that I was able to allocate priorities differently to each event throughout medical school. For example, we just had that MSK Neuro block. That was the highlight of having to focus your priority on school. And during that time, Orbital Groove wasn’t really performing, so we didn’t have to focus too much on that. Also, Jennifer Kao, my Co-President, is doing her MD-PhD, so she’s not following the same schedule as we are. She ended up taking more of the work during that time. When the time comes when she’s defending her thesis or doing huge lab days, I would jump in and take over those responsibilities. So having that support and teamwork between us really helps. 

I would say music really is an adjunct to the whole med school experience because it really helps with my wellness. Sometimes when I’m Zoom-fatigued, I like to just turn off my mic and video and strum a few chords, chill out while CBL is going on. [Music] has been a very enriching experience and has made my med school experience much more fun. So I would really recommend getting involved with any musical opportunities that are offered. And there are a lot, like NoteWorthy, Healing Tonics, and Daffy. Yeah, I would say to get involved, to all your readers. 

Q: Just to add onto that, do you have a message to send to our readers in addition to what was said before?

I guess it’s more difficult nowadays, but I would definitely say to get involved with things that interest you in med school, because, really, you do end up having a lot of time in pre-clerkship. That is sort of what compelled me to audition for Daffy this year, because I was like, “Yo, I’m not going to have time to do this in clerkship. And this is probably the last time that I will ever be free to do something this intense.” So definitely get involved and just apply for everything that interests you. [Jenn and I] really motivate each other and help each other come out of our comfort zones. If I was too worried about what I thought other people thought about me, then I would probably not have applied for so many things. Just putting myself out there has made my [med school experience] a lot more enjoyable. 

Q: We have one last question for you. With performances, unexpected changes can take place last-minute. Can you tell us about the most last-minute thing that has happened to you and how you responded?  Do you have a favourite memory?

Every year, Orbital Groove performs at a Movember event, MoStock, except for this year. It’s an annual fundraising event where they host a huge pub-night-slash-social at this bar called Radio in Toronto. The unique thing about this place is that it has a huge stage that allows for live music, so, oftentimes, you have live bands playing there. [At MoStock], it’s like a med student band playing for med students. We were able to perform there and it was one of the funnest experiences that we’ve had. Something that was really unexpected was that Seth’s parents came to Radio. It was a loud club, everyone was drinking, and you just have Seth’s parents. They were just standing there filming and watching, being proud of their boy. So I think that was a really funny and endearing experience for all of us. Just having our friends being really supportive, jamming with us. 

Q: Thank you so much for joining us and for gracing us with some music!

Thank you so much for this opportunity!