Finding His Voice:

Starting with CA$600

In 2005, at 22 years of age, Henley came to Taiwan at the suggestion of a friend. He had just graduated from a college of journalism, and arrived with only CA$600 (roughly NT$16,000 at the time).

At first he took a job teaching English to children in Changhua County, but soon realized he wasn’t suited to pedagogy. In search of an alternative, he took a night bus north for an interview, spending the early hours of the morning outside of Taipei Main Station. He even shared heavy metal music over his headphones and a 7-Eleven breakfast with a homeless person. In the end he was hired as an editor at an English-language magazine, and began to gradually find his feet in Taiwan.

Left:Henley is currently lead singer of the band Dharma. During shows band members wear Buddhist ceremonial attire and decorate their faces with fake blood to powerfully express in visual form their unique combination of Buddhist doctrine and death metal music. (courtesy of Dharma)

Right:On stage Henley cuts a wild figure, singing with a hoarse and strident voice and roaring explosively. His style has won him countless fans. (courtesy of Dharma)

Works released by the band Dharma (from right): Their first release, an EP called Bhaisajyaguru; the album Treasury of the True Dharma Eye; and the album Three Thousand Realms in a Single Thought Moment, which was nominated for best rock album at the 2023 Golden Indie Music Awards, where Dharma also was nominated as best band. (courtesy of Dharma)

Screams from the stage

Music is an important outlet in Henley’s life. Introverted as a child, he was bullied and lacked self-esteem, and never dared hope to perform on stage. But in 2006, after making the acquaintance of local musicians at the Formoz Festival, he was invited to try out for a band, and became the lead singer of the heavy metal group Revilement. The next year he made his performance debut at Taipei’s landmark music venue The Wall. Before going on stage, he was so nervous that he threw up, but once he stepped in front of the lights and felt that massive wall of sound, the screams of the hundreds of people in the audience were like an embrace.

“I had moved far away from home, and nobody here knew anything about my past,” says Henley. Performing was “like everything I ever dreamed of converging in a single moment.” He experienced a short-lived but intense feeling of belonging: “This was home. Though I had never been on stage before, it seemed like I had known about it all along.”

Henley talks with Jack Tung in the rehearsal space as they make preparations for a performance at the end of November and a new album.

Dharma often rehearses and performs at Jack’s Studio, operated by the band’s regular drummer Jack Tung (right). Tung and Henley have been musical partners and “chosen family” for nearly 20 years.

Heavy metal and Buddhist doctrine

Afterwards, Henley founded the blog Taipei Metal and paid out of his own pocket to invite foreign bands to come to Taiwan. Over the years he has seen the audiences of yesteryear take a back seat to younger generations. Meanwhile, the friends with whom he has played music for nearly 20 years have become his chosen family.

In 2019 Henley joined the band Dharma (meaning “Buddhist doctrine”), which has combined Buddhist sutras with death metal. In order to understand the words from the sutras that he began singing, he studied Buddhist doctrine with a Dharma master and formally converted to the religion. “If I didn’t know anything about these things, I wouldn’t sing about them on stage. I would feel like a fraud. I wanted to be authentic.”

Having left behind drinking and the partying lifestyle, he is now living a regular, peaceful life. During the day he writes and spends time with his wife and their two cats. When he gets on stage, he roars with as much energy as ever. For him, both raucous heavy metal and pacific Buddhism are sanctuaries where his soul can find refuge.

One of Dharma’s members is an actual Buddhist nun: Venerable Miao Ben. She leads the chanting of Buddhist sutras at each show’s opening and during the performance.（courtesy of Dharma）

From journalist to novelist

Besides performing music, Henley also writes about Taiwan. His first novel, Sons of the Republic, published in 2014, starts with a mysterious corpse floating in the sea off Kinmen Island and combines crime, ­politics, and cross-strait relations. His 2017 novel Bu San Bu Si: A Taiwan Punk Tale incorporates his experiences in the Taipei punk music scene. And 2020’s Migrante relates the situation of migrant workers from Southeast Asia working on Taiwanese fishing vessels.

This last has drawn particular attention. In 2015, a group of migrant fishing boat crew came to Henley with stories of economic and physical mistreatment in Taiwan. He not only wrote a novel about them, he has donated the royalties from Migrante to foreign workers’ groups and dedicated the book to the fishermen killed in the collapse of the Nanfang’ao Bridge in 2019.

Left:Henley’s novel Bu San Bu Si: A Taiwan Punk Tale, set against the background of Taipei’s underground music scene, depicts the back-and-forth struggles of musicians caught between the mainstream and their subculture.

Right:Another of Henley’s novels, Migrante, faithfully tells the story of the hardships of foreign migrant crew members on Taiwanese distant-water fishing vessels; the Chinese edition (right) came out in 2022.(courtesy of Joe Henley)

Henley currently lives in a community at the foot of Xiangshan (Elephant Mountain) in Taipei. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he and his wife helped about 50 stray cats to find new homes, thereby getting to know their neighbors better. He loves the area’s rough-around-the-edges feel and the residents’ directness and kindness. A novel of Henley’s that will be published next year is set against the backdrop of this corner of Taipei.

Warmth and kindness

For Henley, the most charming thing about Taiwan is not only its convenient lifestyle, but even more the warmth and friendliness of its people. He lives in an old community in Taipei built against the foot of a mountain. During the day, neighbors sit around the general store drinking alcohol and chatting, sometimes getting in political arguments that get them red in the face. In the evenings, people come out early to wait for the garbage truck and to catch up with each other’s lives.

“I don’t think you will see anything like this in New York or Paris.” This kind of vibrant and unrestrained lifestyle is what makes Taiwan unique.

Henley says: “I have so many reasons to love this land.” Because he cares about Taiwan, he not only writes about its positive aspects, he also touches on society’s dark side and struggles, hoping this land can continue to advance in a better direction. Taiwan has allowed him to find his own inner rebelliousness and sense of belonging, and he hopes through his work to enable more people to get to know and love Taiwan.