Name: Belle Chen
Nationality: Australian-Taiwanese
Occupation: Composer, pianist, producer
Current release: Belle Chen's new single "Three Birds" is out now. Full-length album Ravel In The Forest will follow in February 2024.
Recommendations: Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood for Love and Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / London Symphony Orchestra’s Promises.

If you enjoyed this Belle Chen interview and would like to keep up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook,  and twitter.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I listen with my eyes open.

When I listen to music, it takes me to another space and scenes will unfold in my mind like a film. Sometimes these scenes are very vivid and detailed, while other times they can be more like an atmosphere.

The parallel experience of witnessing reality while enabling my mind to imagine simultaneously is quite interesting.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

I love the ability to experience entire new worlds through music. When creating music, I like to create these musical worlds that are almost like a secret place between myself and my listeners - something to be experienced together. I’d like for these musical worlds to offer another dimension to my listener’s reality.

And I love that about music. I feel like I’m here living my one life on earth, and through music I feel like I’m able to experience multiple lives, dimensions, and stories.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

Neither of my parents nor grandparents are musicians, and as such music wasn’t a common existence in our household before I began learning.

My first steps in music were through group lessons in Taiwan - I was about 5 years old. I remember being drawn to the disciplined approach to learning music and I was fascinated by the vastness of the piano.

But there were no romantic stories about discovering the grandparents’ record collection or anything like that with me. My relationship with music began as a blank slate, evolving and morphing with me as I grew.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

When I was between the ages of 13-16, music was my confidant.

I changed schools quite a lot throughout my childhood: saying good-byes was a norm, keeping long-term friends was difficult, and the piano became my way of expressing and processing emotions that were not easily described in words at that age: grief, saudade, fear, helplessness, nostalgia.

My relationship with music underwent a pivotal change during this time - music became my way of communicating and this is when I knew I wanted to pursue a career in music.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

I feel like my instruments (piano, keys, production software) are an extension of my mind, personality, and vocabulary. I feel at ease and at home whenever I’m spending time with instruments and creating.

I’m not so attached to specific instruments - I love exploring and getting to know new instruments and tools - so I guess it’s the process of creating that is my happy place. I’m at my happiest when creating.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I often find impulse to create when making observations on the relationships between life, nature, and people. These are usually impactful moments when I feel like I’ve gained clarity or understanding of something that may not be easily described in words …

Often these moments come from having a moment of clarity on observing universal human experiences shared amongst the 8 billion people on this earth right now; the intricacies and intensities of relationships, emotions, and personal experiences within our life span, and what any of that means beyond the typical life span of humankind.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

I feel like my music in an externalisation of my mind and my perspective of the world. So it has this sense of alignment, honesty and transparency.

The personality in my music is pretty much also how my personality is - it is alive and will constantly change with life.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

For me, music is my way of communicating experiences, emotions, and perspectives in an honest and transparent way whilst also allowing space for the listener to receive.

As with all communication there are two sides to the process: the person sharing and the person receiving … so in this way, how the listener understands or misunderstands often gives an interesting insight on their own experiences and perspectives.

Whenever there is a misunderstanding, I see that as a feedback that tells me more about the person who is listening or I’m communicating with, which will help inform how to proceed to reach an understanding.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with?  

Yes, I love the playfulness and discovery part of creating!

In music, I know what I like and what I want to say, then I go around and collect the necessary tools … much like a bird gathering material to build a nest.

In a way that echoes how I began my musical journey on a blank slate, since leaving the traditional classical world much of my craft in composing, producing, and improvising was self-taught. I collect tools, methods, and languages that help me communicate the vision, and these differ project to project.

In such a way I’m free from constraints that may come with musical traditions and genres, and I’m able to approach processes in ways that may be unexpected.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Some of the most moving experiences I’ve had happened in the rainforests in Australia, and also in the mountainsides in Taiwan. In both instances, I was totally immersed and surrounded by the sounds from forests: the ruffling of leaves, bird calls, sounds of animal movements.

I felt like I was a very small and insignificant part of a larger, wonderful world, and it really helped put things into perspective for me.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself? What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

I’m an intuitive type of person, so in my creating process I’m not so much guided by numbers.

Music itself is intangible - we experience these sound waves over a specific time frame and then they are gone. Any impact a piece of music has on us is experienced on an emotional level. So I’m less into trying to over-analyse music through numbers as personally that is not my way of understanding the world.

In terms of algorithms … I don’t believe it is truly possible to capture and/or represent music in all its diversity and depth through only algorithm and data.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

The way I make music is a direct reflection of how I live my life: there is a lot of exploration, not being confined by processes or expectations, and honest communication.

I think you can get a real feel about an artist by listening to their music and observing how they work. You can learn a lot about an artist and their values through the decisions they make.

By extension, a listener may also learn about themselves through their own reaction to music and/or an artist.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

I think silence highlights the beauty and meaning of sound.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

For me, there is a lot of exploring when I’m writing and performing a piece of music, and this can happen over a short or long period of time. Sometimes it takes me 15 minutes to create a piece that I’m very happy with, and then there are pieces that I’ve been working on for over 3-4 years … which would involve a lot of exploring and questioning.

Through the process I often learn more about myself. Once the piece is created, it is there forever as a snapshot of my life and identity, and in this way it is not so comparable with making a cup of great coffee.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I’d love for technology and/or a model that enables accessibility to all types of music for everyone regardless of an individual’s social-economic status, location, or health conditions, whilst also empowering artists.