Miserable Faith, one of the leading Chinese indie rock bands, is coming to the aid of fellow musicians. The band announced a plan to support indie musicians who have suffered an economic blow because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Artists' Support Project will kick off during their upcoming performances in four cities. The itinerary is Qingdao in Shandong province on April 11, Zhengzhou in Henan province on April 13, Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on April 15 and Guiyang in Guizhou province on April 17.

Aside from the costs, 50 percent of ticket revenues will be paid to the venues and the other 50 percent will be used to support local indie musicians.

"Being an indie musician was very hard in 2020 since touring has been a big part of our lives," says Gao Hu, the leading vocalist and songwriter of the band."The coronavirus pandemic hit, which forced live house venues to shut down and to cancel live performances. It not just dried up the primary source of income for the indie musicians but also affected the whole indie music scene. Indie musicians need help and we have to look out for one another."

Gao adds that the local indie musicians, who will receive support from the project, will be recommended by local live house venues. Asked about the criteria of selecting indie musicians for the project, Gao says that it will be their original materials that matter most.

It is not the first time that Miserable Faith has launched a project to help indie musicians.

In December 2020, the band donated half of the income of their new album, The Crossing, to five groups of indie musicians. It was more than 60,000 yuan ($9,200). The rest of the income was donated to a charity organization focusing on people with depression.

Miserable Faith marked their 20th anniversary in 2019.

From March 2 to 15, 2019, the band toured six cities in Yunnan province. They donated all the income of that tour-more than 250,000 yuan-to local schools to help pay for music classrooms, purchase musical instruments and teaching materials, and train music teachers.

"We want to invite more people to join us and hopefully this project will be running long, so we can share music and find more ways to help," says Gao.

One of the highlights of their upcoming shows will be a performance in Guizhou where they will perform along with a band from the Haiga Elementary School.

In July 2020, a video clip of the students covering a Miserable Faith single, Sing for You, became an online sensation overnight, and was viewed about 60 million times on microblogging platform Sina Weibo.

On July 24, the four band members: Gao, guitarist Song Jie, bassist Zhang Jing and drummer Chi Gongwei, went to the school, which is about 2,900 meters above sea level and halfway up a mountain in Liupanshui, Guizhou province, to meet the students. There they met Gu Ya, who has taught the Chinese language in the school since 2016 and helped the students perform the song.

The band's manager Pan Hao contacted the teacher, who is a big fan of Miserable Faith, and they have stayed in contact since then.

"It was a great experience for all of us. We had lots of beautiful memories together, which made the song special," says Gao.

Last August, the band announced a 24-city tour across the country. This was the first large tour after the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Gao, the band didn't perform live for about eight months and during the hiatus, they spent lots of time creating new material.

"Looking back on our career as a band during the past 21 years, we decided to go back to the cities we've performed frequently in as well as some other places, which are new to us. It is good to be on the road and see the cities getting back to normal after the coronavirus pandemic," says Gao. "It would be a great pleasure to help local indie musicians and bring live music to those cities."

Gao studied at Beijing-based Midi Music School, a contemporary music-training institution, during the early 1990s, where he met the band members and formed the band in 1999. As one of the best-selling rock bands in China, they've toured worldwide and released 10 recordings.