WADE DAO (若衡) explores contemporary multiculturalism and seeks to document the complex truth of diasporic life through the mediums of music, writing, movement, film and performance.

While in New York to study dance and poetry, Wade began busking in city parks and entering in local breaking competitions. At the same time, he started making beats and immersed himself in the rapidly shifting sounds of rap and production. Periodically, he would travel home to be with his family in Taiwan, where he also began to perform live and cultivate exchange with Taipei’s music community.

Today, WADE DAO lives in Taipei, Taiwan, where he has emerged as an integral player in shaping the landscape of underground culture in the city. His countless roles reflect the once fragmented pieces of his background: a muse and collaborator to the island's premier names in hip-hop, an events organizer and member of multiple music collectives, a writer, emcee and dancer. In Taipei, Wade's presence appears both omnipresent and transient, and it’s as likely to find his footprint on this week’s trending songs as it is in a basement cypher.

A Wild Dance of Flame is WADE DAO’s first musical release, produced in collaboration with childhood friend and long-time teammate rgry. Written and recorded in the city-forest of his hometown in Taipei, the 5-track debut documents Wade’s field research on immigration and emigration, departure and return. Wade alchemizes his stripped-down production with a collage of hookless lyrics that weave love letters, origin mythos, travelogues, and rap tapes together.

On the song “RING OF FIRE”, he opens: “Wade a descendant, nothing open-ended, motion sensor / the folklore and I arrive, that’s the codependence”. Expanding on the line, Wade explains how it extends from the project’s title, which was inspired by architect Louis Kahn: “These are all bridges, architectural configurations. They’re built for the purpose of mobility, which invites freedom,” he says. “So much of what I know to be home is inherently a combination of fragments, scattered across history–it’s important to have these bridges, even though where they lead may be abstract or hypothetical.”

With A Wild Dance of Flame, WADE DAO invites us to cross this bridge, traversing the structure to a place that feels both ancient and neonatal, home and away.