Melodies come to 17-year-old Dane Sung wherever he goes—inspiration has struck him in the middle of a math exam. He hums ideas into the voice memos on his phone, a growing repository he can come back to once he reunites with his guitar. Other times, a chord progression piques his interest, and he plays it over and over as stories start to form in his mind. He parks himself at his home computer, letting his ears take him to synths, keyboards, or his trusty six-string to craft lyrics as he goes along.
Sung’s journey has also been marked by setbacks—a knee injury and a bone tumor—that strengthened his passion for music and kindled a desire to give back to the hospital that helped him. Along with other young Vancouver artists, Sung will take over Kitsilano’s Hollywood Theatre on August 20, where he’s organized a benefit concert to raise vital funds for BC Children’s Hospital.
Sung didn’t always see himself pursuing music. Born and raised in Vancouver, he ran the athletic gamut, playing rugby, tennis, and dabbling in martial arts with little interest in the guitar and piano lessons his parents urged him to take. It wasn’t until his first knee injury in sophomore year of high school when Sung saw music in a different light. With surgery recovery, casts, and limited mobility disrupting his day-to-day, learning heavy metal riffs and Elton John’s greatest hits helped him cultivate a sense of normalcy. A year later, Sung discovered he needed extensive surgeries on his hand from a benign bone tumor. Most recently, after multiple wrist factures, his team at BC Children’s Hospital, including orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Jeff Pike, provided him with immediate care—surgery within a week of his diagnosis. These experiences shifted his priorities.
“It’s been five surgeries between Grade 10 and 11—I could technically start conditioning myself to get back into sports,” Sung says, “but music has made me reassess how I feel.” The more Sung learned from music, the more he found his voice, and the less he wanted to return to athletics, shifting his focus to writing acoustic anthems inspired by John Mayer’s crooning and guitar-heavy compositions.
His medical setbacks also inspired his desire to give back. For his benefit concert, he has recruited local talent such as Nirvana Bandi, Angel Zhao, Prince Cabangon, and singer-songwriter ZADA, all of whom he’s bonded with through the local music scene, school arts events, and even a production of The Wizard of Oz where Sung played the Tin Man.
“What I’m looking forward to the most is being able to put the struggle I’ve experienced over the last couple of years and bring everyone together—teachers, parents, friends, college counsellors—to watch something special us artists put together for that night.”
With graduation on the horizon, Sung hopes the benefit concert will raise enough money for other children to receive the level of care he received. He also hopes to keep music in his life as long as possible, be it through performing, producing, or going to university for a business in music degree. “I would tell my younger self to keep his chin up,” he muses, “I think wherever there’s struggle, there’s also opportunity and everything seems to have a purpose behind it.”
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