Taiwanese artists HengJones, Our Shame to perform in Manila

TWO ARTISTS from Taiwan, HengJones and Our Shame, will be coming to the Philippines to join the fourth edition of the music festival All Of The Noise.

The event is slated for April 17 to 19 at two venues: Sari-Sari in Makati City and 123 Block in Mandaluyong City.

HengJones is an acclaimed hip-hop artist of Pangcah ethnicity, which is an indigenous group in Taiwan. Hailing from the city of Hualien, he’s known for trilingual rap that blends Pangcah, Mandarin, and English to tell stories of resilience.

Meanwhile, rising indie pop duo Our Shame has been gaining attention for their blend of acoustic folk and electronic music genres. They’re composed of singer-songwriter Estelle Huang and percussionist Isan Cheng.

Ahead of their performances in Manila, the artists spoke to Philippine press in a virtual roundtable interview on April 7.

“We’re very excited to be performing in the Philippines for the first time. We’ve always been very interested in the sonic activity of Filipinos,” said Ms. Huang of Our Shame.

“This is our fifth time performing overseas and the third in an Asian country. We’re thrilled to be in Manila. I’ve been to Boracay a few years ago and I saw local people just chilling and enjoying music, which tells me that the music aura is everywhere,” she added.

For HengJones, who was unable to join the press conference, it will be his third time to perform overseas. His manager, Hanako Purapuran, conveyed her excitement for the cultural exchange.

“Our language and other Southeast Asian languages are similar, so he is very excited to see how our cultures are similar,” she said.

As for potential collaborations with Filipino artists, both representatives of Our Shame and HengJones shared that they’re fans of certain types of music.

“I host indigenous parties in Taiwan and, in our community, we all love DJ Love’s songs. A lot of construction workers play budots a lot,” said Ms. Purapuran. “I really want to meet DJ Love!”

While Our Shame has already performed for Sonik Philippines online in 2020, meeting Filipino musicians face-to-face will surely be different, the duo said.

“We were very impressed by a Filipino singer called Jason Dhakal. His music introduced us to the sonic scene in the Philippines,” Ms. Huang explained. “We would definitely love to meet One Click Straight, a very talented band, and possibly have a little collaboration. We also met PLAYERTWO, a fantastic alternative R&B group, in Bangkok this January.”

All Of The Noise 2026 is set to have local and international artists over the three-day run. It is organized by The Rest Is Noise, a music curation and events production outfit.

Ms. Purapuran expressed the importance of joining such events, especially for indigenous artists.

“A lot of our indigenous artists in Taiwan don’t have companies or are not signed to labels, and they need to know the industry secrets. This is why I asked HengJones to join festivals,” she said. “It’s important for artists to know the industry side alongside their creative work.”

For Our Shame percussionist Ms. Cheng, festivals are a great way to showcase the musical diversity of a country and of an entire region.

“Taiwan is a very blended country, so identifying who I am and what is Taiwan is a very important question for all of us to face,” she explained. “I think Our Shame’s music is similar. We are blending different things; we try different sounds.”

“This is similar to seeking an answer to the question, ‘who am I?’”

Our Shame will be performing on April 17 at Sari-Sari Bar in Makati City while HengJones will be performing on April 18 at 123 Block in Mandaluyong City.

Tickets, ranging in price from P400 to 700 for single-day access and costing P999 for the three-day pass, are available via allofthenoise2026.helix.pay.ph. — Brontë H. Lacsamana