Free The Birds

Formed in 2004, ZIYO consisted of four people from different places with vastly different pasts. Born in Beijing and raised in the U.S., Helen Feng, a life-long musician, came to China to work in Film and Television. She met her guitarist Cui Shi Ming in a guitar shop in Gulou, Beijing, and decided to start a band with him after just one conversation. After recruiting Zhang Qiang (drums), and Zhang Jie (bass), the 4 piece quickly wrote several songs that caught the attention of local venues that started booking them to play weekly, sometimes 5 shows a week – not seldom in playing in front of some light clad girls as their only audience.
Their music always sounded cinematic and caught the attention of the film world. One of the first performances was witnessed by Peter Chan, who later made their rehearsal studio a set for his award winning film Perhaps Love. Later their song “Like Yesterday” becam the title song for the popular cult film Young & Clueless. Lead singer Helen would also be the voice of the theme song for the Blockbuster film The Mummy 3. ZIYO’s music found itself in countless soundtracks.

Quickly rising to the attention of several record companies, ZIYO signed with Warner Music in 2006, releasing their first EP “The Return” on Warner in 2008. Although several songs climbed the pop charts, ZIYO knew that their artistic ambitions were no longer a match for Warner. Just weeks after the release, ZIYO left Warner’s roster to venture out on their own.

Helen’s many roles as the lead singer of Pet Conspiracy, the host and creator of The Rock Show on Hit FM, and a host on CCTV took time away from the band. With a heavy Europe and China touring schedule with Pet Conspiracy, Helen briefly stepped away from ZIYO in the beginning of 2010. That year she earned several awards including Best Female Rock Singer at the Midi Music Awards, and Best Electronica Album with Pet Conspiracy at the Chinese Music Awards.

In the summer of 2010, Helen fell from the stage at one of Pet Conspiracy shows, severing a tendon in her knee and stopping the rapid climb of her career during the peak of Pet Conspiracy’s success. Bed ridden for months, this strangely fortuitous act brought her back writing again with ZIYO and after the original drummer MaoMao left to go on with The Amazing Insurance Salesmen, the band brought on Wubuli one of the most talented hand percussionists in China to reform ZIYO as Free the Birds.

Their new music is ambitious and grand. Modern pop that encompasses the aesthetic of their previous work with Warner, while stretching it further into cinematic territory. Like Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, and the Fleet Foxes, all dancing to the sound of Beijing highway construction. Their ambition is to make music that is a soundtrack for their country a place cynical and square, melancholic and uplifiting at the same time, reaching for spirituality or anything to believe in. As if they all were a flock of birds, freed from their cage but still unable to fly. Sad, but full of hope.

DISCOGRAPHY
The Return (EP) - (Warner Music China 2008)
Like Yesterday (Title Song) - Young & Clueless (2008)

IMPORTANT CONCERTS
Midi Music Awards
Midi Festival (Beijing & Shanghai)
Zebra Festival
Modern Sky Festival
Live In GulangyuFestival
Happy Hill Festival
INMUSIC Festival
Summervalley Festival