Temple Rat

Mei a.k.a. Temple Rat grew up near the vibrant megacity Chengdu in the lush Western China Sichuan Basin. At the age of 9, she began to learn the traditional Chinese Erhu, a genuinely mysterious folk instrument, two-stringed, played with a bow and made from carved wood and snakeskin, sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin or the Chinese two-stringed fiddle.Inspired by her passion for the electronic music scene of Chengdu’s hyped underground, Mei started to fuse traditional Chinese folk music with minimalistic techno tunes: Mei steadily improved her skills to express a unique blend of live Erhu performances with 4×4 electronic beats. She eventually started to perform as Temple Rat from 2015 on culminating in her much-praised performance in Shanghai’s 2019 Boiler Room. Her music is influenced by sparks of the natural and religious environment she grew up in, ancient oriental rhythms as well as by her favourite 90’s ACID elements. In 2017 she released her first EP on ADE China Pavilion Records and from 2019 on Mei collaborates with Tokyo producer Ryogo Yamamori with whom she released her latest album <Spring Dawn> on Kagerou Records. So far her musical career has brought her to cities all over China , Japan, HongKong, Cambodia, Vietnam and major European festivals like the Château Perché Festival (France), the Summer Story Festival (Spain) and the ADE (Netherlands). Mei has recently performed live sets for Carnival Bizarre at KitKat Club Berlin, the Boiler Room Shanghai edition, Block FM Tokyo, HöR Berlin and Red Light Radio Amsterdam. Mei is currently based in Berlin, where she explores new methods of human body – music interactions via innovative gesture sound mapping approaches at Funkhaus Berlin. Her next album is about to be released on Siamese Twins Records next year.