Bassist Mei Er enjoys his duality-- — banging on a keyboard computer by day, thumping bass strings by night. Photos provided to Shanghai Star

He is an editor by day but on certain nights, he breaks out on stage, much to the delight of his growing number of fans. Wu Ni finds out more about his startling transformations.

Bassist Mei Er lives a double life. He is an editor working with a television station and a father to a seven-year-old boy. On certain nights, however, he becomes a rock star on stage playing to a whooping and cheering crowd of fans loyal to his distinctive music, all delivered in the lyrical Shanghai dialect.

"Music is my real passion, but it cannot support my family. My regular job may not be exciting, but I need the salary." The 37-year-old man is both practical, and very frank.

He has never considered a full-time career in music, although Top Floor Circus (TFC), the band Mei and his two buddies created in 2001, has grown from an obscure band playing in local bars to arguably one of the most popular groups in the city.

By the way, Lu Chen, his closest partner and lead singer of the band, works with the customs authorities, and is also a civil servant.

Mei has been fascinated with rock music since high school, when rock stars like Cui Jian and Dou Wei, as well as hard metal band Tang Dynasty were changing the face of the music scene in China in the early 1990s.

While still at the University of Shanghai, he set up a band named SEVEN with Lu Chen, named after the much-admired Hollywood blockbuster film by director David Fincher.

Mei became the bassist in the band, and learned from scratch, devoid of any prior knowledge of how to go about being a bandleader.

The band did not continue after they graduated and Mei went on to several jobs, including working as a graphic designer and shooting advertisements.