Interview with Yuang Chen
Yuang Chen (Seycara Orchestral) is one of the most exciting, up-and-coming voices in the world of popular orchestral music. As a classically-trained composer, pianist, and trumpeter, Yuang is a graduate of the Faculty of Music at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. His music is most accurately described as an easily enjoyable jambalaya of catchy pop style tunes and opulently lush orchestral score, all the while being delivered in an endearingly original style that is impossible to find elsewhere.
Deciding to make the merging of the worlds of classical and pop music his calling, Yuang has collaborated with Billboard top 100 artists in creating official, orchestral re-imaginings of their chart-topping hits. In the concert world, Yuang's music has been performed by ensembles such as the Kingston Symphony Orchestra and the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra.
In his "day job," Yuang is a final-year medical student studying at the University of Toronto with sights set on pursuing the specialty of family/emergency medicine. Since 2018, Yuang has been the music director/composer for the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine's Daffydil, an original, charitable musical production starring medical students & staff with all proceeds going to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Q: Were you interested in composition early on?
Like many small Asian children that were forced into playing music, I played piano for a very long time. And I also hated piano for a very long time. But, I started to learn this thing called theory and harmony, a mandatory part of the [Royal Conservatory of Music] system. I almost failed my first theory exam because I just hated it so much. But I still learned all this theory and harmony. I thought, what am I gonna do with this? I decided to start learning how to use this music theory to compose. This slowly became a hobby that I would do on the side. I would go to my theory lessons, come home, and instead of writing the actual theory homework, I’d try to write my own pieces. Those early pieces were pretty bad – I showed them proudly to my band teacher, and they’d give me back a list of many, many problems. “The piece is not well-structured.” “There's no melody.” I eventually got myself a professional composition teacher, because I loved it. Luckily these minor setbacks didn't discourage me from pursuing the art further.
Q: Could you tell us about your undergraduate education in music?
I applied to do music composition at Queen’s and was accepted. I was also doing some bio courses at the same time, in ecology and general bio, but I think this sort of path was definitely unique because I definitely had to make a lot of compromises on a social level. For example, I was transiting back and forth between the bio building and the music building all the time. I lost all of that post-lecture, dedicated socialization time, which I would say is crucial, imperative even, to making solid friendships in undergrad.
But aside from that, I think one of the big benefits was that I had a holistic education in the truest sense of the word. In pre-med classes like organic chemistry, things are very definite. In music, it’s so much more free. Most of my classes were one-on-one, just the professor and me. A professor really got to know you as a student–your strengths, weaknesses, style. They would show me an excerpt of music but remind me not to feel pressured to follow X, Y, and Z–to take [the musical excerpt] as a guide, and play with it. Be creative. See what you come up with.
As an artist, the most important thing is to develop your own style, your own aesthetic and preferences. I came up with pieces that are good, and some, not so good. And I developed the skills and foundation to build music that was my own and unique. This would [end up establishing] the skills I need to go on YouTube and Spotify and publish unique music that people would enjoy listening to.
Q: What opportunities have come up since you started medical school?
I was director of Daffydil for a couple years. One of my fondest memories of medical school so far is directing the pit orchestra and composing the original songs. It was a fantastic collaboration between multiple years of talented med students. We also had music students who helped out and the audience was fantastic. Great shows all around. There's literally nothing bad I have to say. Except for maybe the cockroaches.
Since then, I've been continuing to run my channel, Seycara, on YouTube and Spotify, which has been growing steadily over the years. I've also been doing some more soundtrack work recently. For example, I'm working on a piano concerto for the mobile game, Deemo, which is going to be coming out next year, as well as an original soundtrack for an anime that will also be released next year.
Q: What brought you to pursue music during medical school? What challenges did you face taking a less conventional route?
Back during first-year of medical school, some friends begged me to do a cover of “Shelter” by Porter Robinson, which was a very popular music video and song at that time. For reasons unknown to me, it went viral on YouTube, millions of views. Lots of subscribers came in, and I had to take advantage of this opportunity because the YouTube algorithm in its ever mysterious ways only gives you a chance for a certain amount of time.
I took a year off from med school. In my year off, I did professional music. Crazy amounts of work writing all kinds of covers and original songs for an entire year. I didn’t suffer too many consequences in this case, except for redoing first-year, but the two months of ITM I had to redo? A worthwhile sacrifice.
Going on into clerkship was extremely challenging. To be doing music after you come home and continuing to pass exams and be a functional clerk on a ward or surgical team, that definitely took a lot of determination because when you wanted to sleep, you actually had to do this other thing. But I also felt more rewarded. I ended up passing my exams and learning important medical knowledge at the same time as I was building my music career. But nothing comes free. That is the lesson.
Q: Could you speak to the overlap in skill sets between your two careers?
There's definitely many complementary skill sets [between medicine and music]. For example, as a private contractor composer who works with filmmakers, animation directors, and game developers, you have to have very solid communication skills and people skills to be able to fit yourself into the team because the composer is never the one calling the shots. In these projects, you're there to provide a part of the overall entertainment media experience, and that part needs to contribute to the grand vision of the director or whoever's in charge. So negotiating your vision is a vital important skill.
As a physician, you have to accept the decisions of a capable patient. People skills, and being able to make compromises are one of many examples. People want to be in control of their health and of their art. Scoring a film or taking care of a complex patient case both require a lot of those communications skills as well as the humility to let things happen.
Q: If you had like one protected day with no responsibilities, what would you do?
It can take a long time to encourage music out of my creative subconscious. Sometimes when it's very rushed, I can feel like I'm actively using a boat motor to tug material out of my creative consciousness, which doesn't feel as good for obvious reasons. So, if I had a day to myself that I was able to do anything, I would probably write some vocal songs with acoustic accompaniment. With this free day, I would probably just take my time and write music as I please. And this would come in the form of taking my time to write down the notes, write down the lyrics, try out things at the piano for an hour or two, and then have time to do other things in life, like exercise.
Perhaps this day will come one day, maybe next year, as soon as all [my current] projects are completed. I say to myself, I won't take more paid commercial projects, but I'm not very good at keeping those promises.
Q: Have there been any instances where you’ve been faced with conflict when collaborating with other artists?
I was collaborating with this artist–who will go unnamed–this one time. Basically, their agents had got in touch with me through my YouTube channel, because they saw my “Shelter” cover. I was like, oh wow, this is amazing. And it was great working with that well-known artist. But then problems started to come up when the music was actually finished. Their agents came to me and basically informed me that my work was going to be unpaid.
I wasn’t asking for much, just a fair rate for my work. But they replied that they don't have the means to make it happen. After a lot of thought and not being in any dire financial circumstance, I said that it would be okay. They put a $1 payment for my services in the contract. So that was my very, very bad experience working [with] a bigger label in the popular music industry. And the surprising thing is, it has nothing to do with the artists themselves. The artists themselves were nothing but nice, very approachable people that respected my expertise. All the bad stuff came afterwards, with disregard for the smaller artists working under the label. I think I made a very pragmatic decision given the options. But I will say that I will probably never work in this big music industry ever again, should the opportunity ever present. Once is enough.
Q: How do you compose music across so many genres and media?
I've ventured into many genres at this point. I did my training in classical music, studied the old, classical masters like Mahler, Schumann, Beethoven. That was the stuff that I really knew and really enjoyed and loved. But after graduating and trying to make [music] into a financially sustainable career, I had to diversify. It may not come as a surprise, but pop music these days is not more complicated [than Mahler] in music theory.
A lot of the things I had to learn on the job related to producing music. How do I record things? How do I mix music? How do I EQ [equalize] the sound to make it sound like a pop record versus a video game record versus whatever that I would be working on at that time? But those are more technical skills that you can learn by doing the work itself or [learning it] online.
Q: What's the most enjoyable part of composition for you?
The enjoyment really comes in a sinusoidal function. When I'm starting out with an idea, it’s amazing. I'll get a sudden rush of inspiration. I'll write stuff down. Because I'm a piano player, mostly I play on the piano, new melodies, new themes, new chords, new harmonies. And then it falls. Where should I go from here? And then I will get inspired by something else. I’ll do another burst of writing again, and then there'll be another low and then when I'm nearing the end of the piece, I'm like, holy cow. This is the grand epic finale. I get excited, and I write it down again.
Now, if we're talking about deadlines, it's a linear function. You have to force yourself to finish X piece by X date. There's less time for doodling, less time for experimentation. You just have to put pen to paper, get stuff done.
Q: If you could have a meal with like any musically related person in all of history, who would it be?
I want to talk to Maurice White. He is the lead singer of [the band] Earth, Wind, and Fire. I've listened to “September” so many times.
Q: Maurice White’s “September” famously begins with, “Do you remember / The 21st night of September?” How do you feel about the 21st night of September?
I was born on the 12th [of September]. So, I was the opposite, the Made in China version.
