Half way through a Spring Scream performance, in the spur of the moment, Swing Wang – the then young and impressionable lead singer of the band RockBang who wanted so much to be like the overseas bands he idolized so much – threw himself off the stage into the dozen audience members below.

Little did he know they would dodge him as if he were a speeding bullet or that Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” could take on such a literal meaning.

“No one caught me!” he exclaims, laughing as he recalls his fall from glory. “I just fell to the ground!”

Although he may have failed at crowd surfing, success hasn’t evaded Wang, a singer, guitarist, musical producer and song-writer, the way that audience did.

It’s been a long journey, one of evolving goals and shifting responsibilities.

Growing up to the sounds of classical music and Japanese pop, Wang quickly became taken with jazz and the Beatles in college.

Wang calls the Beatles “a seed” that opened the door into a grander, crazier musical world.

He gets asked what his favourite Beatles song is a lot but has never given an answer, an achievement he takes some delight in. “It’s the Beatles,” he says. “You can’t just like one of their songs.”

He speaks of the British band affectionately and with the expertise of a dedicated aficionado who has studied his craft, enumerating the qualities that make the quartet the epitome of the word “band”.

Music cannot be distinguished into good or bad, national or international. If it touches the listener and makes a connection in that instant, then that is the best kind of music.

On the most basic level, Wang says a band needs to possess two qualities: Creative power and harmony – understanding that there exists outside yourself band members and an audience with whom you need to make a connection.

The Beatles, he says, had both. The songwriting duo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney produced songs that were both catchy and thought-provocative, and each band member – regardless of talent and skill – provided something indispensable to the band’s being.

“Oh, and some madness within,” he adds, smiling. “I think you need to be at least a little crazy to want to pass your message onto others.”

But Wang says creativity alone is not enough. One must become a professional all-around music ‘person’.

This involves understanding the technical aspects of the job – staying on top of industry trends, being familiar with the latest sound software and learning how to record, mix and help others create their music.

He’s trekked across the globe, from working with Coco Lee in Hong Kong, Rain in South Korea to the outskirts of a rural township, where he witnessed a performance that transformed his vision of music.

“When I was younger, I placed a lot of responsibility on myself. I thought that if John Lennon wrote songs like “Imagine”, then I, too, should write something that would save the world,” he says.

But watching the unknown singer belt out a song in Taiwanese to a crowd of silver-haired grandmas and grandpas sitting in front of a temple, Wang discovered that several audience members had been moved to tears.

That was when it clicked.

“I once felt that the Beatles was the only good music there was. But music cannot be distinguished into good or bad, national or international. If it touches the listener and makes a connection in that instant, then that is the best kind of music.”

His musical goals shifted. Whereas RockBang was about passionately pursuing a dream, his second band Rock’n’Rap is about exploring music without limitations.

You need to be at least a little crazy to want to pass your message onto others.

The sense of responsibility he reneged when he was younger also returned.

“I feel I’ve reached a stage where I have a duty to young musicians in Taiwan. I want to give them guidance, to help them complete their works, extend their musical lifespan and document their short but fascinating musical journey on this earth,” Wang says.

He’s since created his own music label DOWN TOWN MUSIC, which has produced bands such as FunkyBrothers (放客兄弟) and Lie Gramophone (謊言留聲機).

Wang says he now finds delight in the little things. Oftentimes it can be as simple as recording in the studio with an artist.

“The experiences that stay with me aren’t big events or spectacles. It’s the small things, like when we were just beginning, when things were rough,” he says.

And things were definitely rough falling off that stage all those years ago.

So has he finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of crowd surfing now that fans are flocking to see him?

“No,” he says, throwing his head back laughing. “I never jumped again after that.”