Multidisciplinary artist Van Lefan 樂凡 drew upon lessons from counselling school for her second full-length album. As a student, the Vancouver musician learned the value of writing in coming to terms with trauma and grief.
“Writing has become a huge part of how I process experiences through my life, whether it’s poetry or journal entries or letters to myself,” Lefan tells the Toronto Spark over Zoom in advance of her upcoming performance at the Jade Music Fest in Asia.
The Taiwanese-born songwriter has also written letters to people with no intention of sending them.
“The unsent letters—like all of the things that I write—address how I feel or how certain people made me feel as a way of gaining new perspective on the experience,” Lefan notes.
This explains the title of Lefan’s new album, Unsent Letters: To Whom It May Concern. The nine songs navigate the ups and downs of life on this planet. She writes original songs about grief, loss, and anger. Others convey the importance of finding joy, no matter what obstacles lie in the way.
One example is “Beyond the Clouds”, a haunting and otherworldly composition featuring Lefan on flute, Feven Kidane on trumpet, and Elisa Thorn on harp. She cites Lord of the Rings characters Samwise Gamgee, Gandalf, and King Aragorn as the inspiration. Moreover, this track includes musicians JeanSe Le Doujet (electric bass), James Meger (double bass), Daniel Ruiz (drums), and Oceaan Pendharkar (keys), adding layers of texture. Thomas Hoeller produced and mixed the song; he also performed those tasks on Lefan’s debut album, What Holds Us Together?
Listen to “Beyond the Clouds”.
Lefan shares back story of “Beyond the Clouds”
“Beyond the Clouds: opens with the lyrics: “There are certain kinds of heartache nothing can prepare you for / It comes in waves crashing on a jagged shore…” The chorus offers a more upbeat message, noting that beyond the clouds, there are always stars.
Lefan describes “Beyond the Clouds” as a “love letter to anybody who needs a reminder that there is always hope beyond the darkness and evils we face”.
“I wrote it in a very difficult time in my life,” Lefan explains. “I was supporting a partner through a very tragic death in the family. It was a moment of really confronting a lot of my own trauma, but also supporting somebody through a very traumatic experience.”
She is incorporating traditional kung fu in a music video for “Beyond the Clouds”, which is being filmed in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver.
Lefan has never shied away from taking political stands, whether it’s on behalf of old-growth forests and Indigenous rights or in opposition to fascism. In “Olive Tree 橄欖樹”, she covers a song by Taiwanese Amis composer Li Tai-Hsiang, which was adapted from a poem by Echo Chen.
Listen to a portion of Van Lefan’s version of “Olive Tree”.
Musician writes bilingual songs
Lefan plays flute on her Mandarin-English bilingual version of “Olive Tree”. It includes Cindy Kao on violin and Hoeller on guitar.
“I recently learned of the symbolic significance of olive trees to the Palestinian people, their connection to land, family lineage, and how Palestine has some of the oldest olive trees in the world,” Lefan states. “I’ve been singing this song with my mom in the car since I was a child, and it has taken on new meaning, a reminder of how interconnected we are with each other.”
In another track, “Did You See?”, she includes the phrase “Free Falastin”. At anti-war rallies, it’s a popular call for Palestinian liberation and self-determination.
“Don’t look away or remain silent,” Lefan emphasizes. “Your voice, care, and presence matter so much more than you can imagine.”
In recent years, Lefan has written several bilingual songs. “Whispers in the Wind” is one example on Unsent Letters: To Whom It May Concern. Canadian musician Tennyson King appears in the official music video, which was filmed in southern Taiwan.
Watch the video for “Whispers in the Wind”.
Album concludes with “Puppet Strings”
Lefan also performs in Mandarin in an old Taiwanese folk song called “Green Island Serenade”. Her father used to sing this as a bedtime lullaby throughout Lefan’s childhood.
“It’s also the song that his mom sang to him,” she reveals. “So, it’s a song that kind of got passed down in my family. A lot of people in Chinese-speaking countries will know that song.”
The final song on Unsent Letters: To Whom It May Concern is the upbeat “Puppet Strings”. It emerged from a Facebook fight that Lefan had with one of her former English teachers. She wrote “Puppet Strings” as an act of defiance after he called her naïve and compared her to pro-Palestinian student demonstrators at Columbia University.
“I refuse to believe that there is nothing we can do about making the world a better place or nothing we can do to stop these horrible things,” she declares. “Even if we don’t see it in our lifetime, I want to believe that we’re a part of generations of movements that are going towards something. And that something, to me, is a world where everybody can have their needs met and everybody can thrive and be happy. Humans can be in harmony with this planet.”
Watch the video for “Puppet Strings”.
Van Lefan will perform at the free Jade Music Fest In Asia. It runs from April 25 to 28 at Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei. For more information on the festival, visit the website. Learn about Van Lefan on her website and follow her on Instagram @van_lefan.
Learn more about the communities that make up Canada on the Toronto Spark website. Follow Charlie Smith on Bluesky @charliesmithvcr.bsky.social. The Toronto Spark is also on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
