Lu was born on 23 June 1982, in Pingtung City, Taiwan.[1] His father Lu Yong-hui was a lawyer and a member of the Pingtung Mediation Committee.[2] He learnt to play the piano and violin at a young age.[3] He considered himself deviant and rebellious during his school years and joined the rock music club.[1] Inspired by Thom Yorke's album The Eraser, he began writing music.[3] Due to his aptitude for mathematics in high school, he decided to study applied mathematics at I-Shou University after graduation. During his university years, he formed a band with his friends and devoted most of his time to music.[1][4] After obtaining a Bachelor of Science, he fulfilled his mandatory military service and worked as a math tutor at a cram school.[1][5] However, he did not enjoy his job and longed to pursue a career in music.[1]Jenny Lu, his elder sister and a film director based in London, encouraged him to write music for films.[1] He subsequently moved to the United Kingdom and enrolled at Kingston University to study film score composing, based on the recommendation of his sister and parents.[1] He graduated with a Master of Music in Composing for Film and Television.[1][3]
Career
After graduation, Lu returned to Taiwan in 2010.[6] He faced difficulties in finding job opportunities as a film composer and shifted his focus to writing music for pop singers instead,[3] including Peggy Hsu's "A Letter to Mr. Tim Burton", which earned him a nomination for Best Instrumental Composer in the 27th Golden Melody Awards.[7] He had also formed a band called Empty Space On a Chessboard,[4] and won the Golden Indie Music Awards [zh] twice with albums Quarrel and innerSpacel he wrote for the band.[8]
In 2016, he received his first film composing role in his sister's drama film The Receptionist.[1] The following year, he composed for the mystery thriller film Xiao Mei [zh], earning nominations for Best Original Film Song and Best Original Film Score at the 55th Golden Horse Awards.[3] In 2019, Lu composed for John Hsu's horror film Detention, showcasing his unique style of absurd vibes, and received widespread acclaim for his work.[5] He won Best Original Film Song at the 56th Golden Horse Awards and received nominations for Best Original Film Score and Best Music at both the aforementioned Golden Horse Awards and the 2020 Taipei Film Awards.[9][10] He also became a frequent collaborator of Hsu.[3] In 2020, he composed for the drama film The Silent Forest and the romantic comedy film A Leg. For The Silent Forest, he employed low-key and environmental noises in the film score, removing loud background music to better suit the movie's atmosphere.[6] In A Leg, he used bass, double bass, and xylophone to create a sense of absurdity.[11] The former earned him a nomination for Best Original Film Score at the 57th Golden Horse Awards and he won Best Music at the 2021 Taipei Film Awards with the latter.[12][13]
Lu is married and had a daughter during the production of Detention.[20]
In 2019, Lu voiced support for the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests on the 56th Golden Horse Awards ceremony and dedicated his award to the Hong Kongese protestors.[21][22] He also made a public appeal for people to vote against the four propositions in the 2021 Taiwanese referendum.[23][24]