Hitting the right notes

Young fans are being motivated and inspired by the lifestyle and songs of a part-time band. Xing Wen reports.

At a "live house" event packed with young music fans, the Beijing indie band Sir Deer performs a song as the audience sings and claps along.

The band's meet-and-greet show is to announce its 2018 roadshow across the nation.

Meanwhile, the band started its tour in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, on March 17, and will perform in Hangzhou and Nanjing on March 24 and 25.

The tour is scheduled to cover a dozen cities including Xiamen, Chengdu and Shanghai this year, during which 10 new songs will be released.

Over the past two years, Dong Libing, 31, who plays the keyboard in the band, has got used to being busy nearly around the clock - by day, she's a landscape designer, drawing plans for an institute of architecture design, while at nights, she plays music.

None of the band's six members, who were all born in the 1980s, plays music full time.

They work in Beijing - one as a manager of a startup, one in financial planning, one as an engineer and three as designers in State-owned institutes.

But, after work, they pick up a microphone, guitar, and bass ... and together they drown themselves in sound at least twice a week.