Name: Li Daiguo
Nationality: Chinese-Taiwanese-American
Occupation: Composer, improviser, multi-instrumentalist
Current release: Li Daiguo teams up with Liang YiYuan for Sonic Talismans, out via Full Spectrum on September 6th 2024.

If you enjoyed this Li Daiguo interview and would like to know more about his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram.

For a deeper dive into his thoughts, visit our earlier 15 Questions interview with Li Daiguo.



Do you feel that your music or your work as an artist needs to have a societal purpose or a responsibility to anyone but yourself?

Needs to have a societal purpose or responsibility for ...? For me to make money? Obviously not. For me to feel good or ethically sound? Maybe not. Purpose is an idea I think that is not so simple …

I think when something exists, especially a commodity, if it is bought, or consumed … that is, when it is used, then that is a kind of purpose, no? So if my work is heard, then I guess it is used. Which means it has a purpose I guess, even if it's one I can't quantify, or one I can't claim did something I should be proud of - like cured cancer or cured one person's depression.

I guess what's behind this question is that a lot of music and art are maybe not created for the betterment of everyone, or their creations are not resulting in people's betterment, and so that makes it seem like it's all just very narcissistic and egotistical on the part of each artist who is devoting themselves to their work. In which case all this shit on bandcamp and spotify and everyone trying to “make it” is really just showing us everyone is at heart just a bitch trying to get more followers or more money or respect or something else to make their lives more economically easy or make themselves feel less useless and depressed, and there's soooo much of it.

And we even use being green or being woke or socially conscious or spiritual and positive as selling points to get more bitch ass followers! My music is so spiritual it's feeding the birds and protecting the bees and my next album is gonna stop the war in Gaza and the famine in Sudan. And it could even stop Trump! Yeah, I feel that.

I mean, I see that phenomenon and I agree it's a symptom of one of the world's illnesses currently. I have been very lucky in my humble career and that has allowed me to try to keep a certain amount of health and purity in my life as a whole. So I guess I would say I admit I am an animal in the forest putting my survival and my children's survival first.

I try not to be mean or exploitative, I strive for compassion, I strive for sincerity, I don't want to be greedy or negligent or aloof to the world. When I see things like the hypnotizing powers of a sunrise or a massive storm or waterfall or even human phenomena that overwhelm my being and fill me with the sense that I am witnessing a deep albeit inexplicable truth, I hold tightly to those feelings and keep them in my memory.

And when I make my sounds I always remember that the sounds I make should take me to that sense of experiencing that truth, even if not to the same degree of intensity. I think that is my way of staying sincere on this note. The vibration in me when I see that truth is what I experience, and it is the basis for my testament. When I pass on a vibration that echoes that deep truth, something/someone else will receive/experience it.

So I guess that's as close as I can come to having a purpose, or it's how I'm ignoring the need for one.