With ample amount of fuzz and sultry tales of women out for blood, Basement Queen, the bass and drum duo out of Beijing, relish the tropes of hard rock on their debut Her Revenge. Calling to mind more modern acts in the hard rock revival scene such as Muse and of course, Queens of the Stone Age, the duo, made up of Gu on bass/vocals and Wang Wei on drums,  seem to be having a hell of a good time, adding layer upon layer of fuzz as they bask in their psych-laced twist on stoner and hard rock. Fun, sexy and oozing with a rugged attitude all too rare these days in rock and roll, the band will be swinging through Shanghai this Saturday, March 16th at Harley’s Back Room as part of the latest 8 Hour Rock n’ Roll Club. 

liveCNmusic: Your affinity for hard rock, blues and stoner music goes deep – who are some of your musical heroes? What were you raised on? Can you pinpoint the moment where your life changed musically – a song or moment where your mind was blown and changed forver?

GU:：Like every born-in-the-90s kid in China i grew up listening to Jay Chou & other 2000s mandarin pop. Over the years I have shockingly found many times what a strong influence these C-Pop is to my own writing – especially to the nuances of melody.

But there have been a few turning points that are still so vividly engraved in my memory:

When I was in elementary school I was a nerdy kid who reads newspaper dinner time everyday. One day I saw this full page picture of a pale but gorgeous white guy with the title: Scandals of Michael Jackson, King of Pop. I found out about his actual ethnicity much later after I fell in love with the music. That’s when I started to listen to western music.

I gradually turned to more rock consumption as a teenager, just trying to be a bit different from the mainstream of Eminem-mania in my high school (although i was able to sing most of songs word by word – that really helped my English). From The Beatles, Bon Jovi, Queens, then Guns n’ Roses. I decided to pick up an instrument after listening to Appetite for Destruction on loop for a whole year.

Years later when I was struggling to do a hard rock band without sounding too outdated. My day job required me to help with a fan event on a boat on Huangpu river. I was asked to “play some music and test the speaker”. So I played the album on top of my Spotify home page. That was Villains by Queens of The Stone Age. 30 seconds later I was asked again to “play something else listenable”. But that 30 seconds ended my struggle. I’ve found the sound that hits me hard enough to throw away my les paul guitar and re-learn rock & roll.

liveCNmusic: It took me a while to realize it was just two of you in the band – mainly cause of how full-bodied your sound is. Was being a two-piece always the plan or did it just turn out that way? What kind of freedom does being a two-piece band give you on and off the stage? What are the drawbacks?

GU：Thanks so much for the kind words. There wasn’t a choice back then but I think it comes naturally.

My original idea was to form a 5-piece GNR style 80s hard rock band with me being the rhythm guitarist. It’s easy to find lead guitar, because apparently everyone wants to be Slash. But it’s very difficult to find bass and vocal. 

We had to find a way to practice. While looking for temporary solutions I discovered Royal Blood. At first I wasn’t so crazy about the music, but I was real interested in the gears & how I can use this idea to solve the practice problem, so I started shopping.

While I digged deeper into the history of such set up, I found out that there are actually quite a few 2 piece bands out there, and the research eventually led to me the world of stoner music. Gradually the music started to be influenced by the gears – connecting one string instrument to both low & high end really left no space for big solos. There seemed to be no reason for anything else but the drums. 

Regarding the pros & cons of being a 2 piece, I think at this very moment there aren’t much pros…actually I imagined that we could be a plug in & play, full of raw energy band. But in reality I’m writing like an orchestra but performing with only 2 guys. The complicity and sheer weight of our rig is overwhelming for the travel party. 

But nonetheless I’ve got no intention to add more people, as much as many people suggest me to. I am a loyal worshiper of limitation – freedom is expressed to its extreme when dancing in fetters. 

liveCNmusic: I think too often bands are too tepid or scared to lean into the sleaze and sexiness of this kind of rock and roll. Do you find your self as confident or forward as you come across in your music? What is it about the music you make that’s so irresistible?

GU：Going through my music influences I think one can easily tell that rock music to me is about sexiness and other excessive Hedonism. I simple thought that rock & roll, as the derivative version of blues, should be themed around sex. The whole punk or post punk movement never influenced me. I can only write what I like.

But writing in seriousness surely has its own beauty. As a matter of fact I love 万能青年旅店 to death. After China’s era of poets met its sudden death, people who have something to say retreated to the music scene as a hideout. There aren’t many other forms of expression that are indulged with such freedom.  

It’s only that personally I’ve got nothing to say. I’ve spent my life thus far mostly in Beijing/Shanghai. I’d be a total phony if I’m talking about how life is hard. Also I’m quite literal in my life already, to the extent that the most suitable job for me is probably cult leader. So for the musical part of my life, I simply want to play the kind of music that used to throw me a micro party in my brain, and try my best to provide the same experience to my audience.

While saying nothing sophisticated has become the thing I want to say, I refrain from any unnecessary explanation, including translating or even displaying the lyrics. So most people don’t know what I am talking about.

liveCNmusic:：Speaking of the meaty sound you’ve obtained on your debut – what was the recording process like? What’s the secret to capturing and retaining that perfect fuzz on record? 

GU：Thanks so much! I will try my best not to be too geeky about it:

First of all as a two piece the recording process was absolute hell. Drums were usually done one day per track. Then I proceeded to record the rest 40-60 parts in a song… 

Through the process we have the idea that one sound texture can be used for one song only. That came from the limitations we have: there is only one string instrument and we have to work harder on production so people won’t fall asleep after 2 tracks. I think we have successfully increased it an average of 3-4 tracks before falling asleep.

There were times when we were not happy with the sound and we’ve forced it through for a while, we eventually couldn’t live with the compromise. Then we had to delete couple weeks of work and do over. That was during covid so it took us 1.5 years to finish the recording session….

Shout out to our recording & mixing engineer Li Xuan @ Green Village studio. This guy is one of the rare engineers in China who knows what this kind of music should sound like. And he was patient enough to let us 2 rookies record till we are satisfied.

liveCNmusic: Her Revenge is very much themed around women – often taking the role as a harbinger of doom – bringing its protagonists (or antagonist depending on where you stand) to ruins in one form or another. How much does this trope spill into your real lives?

GU：I’m trying not to elaborate on any literal elements for 2 reasons: 

1. Not saying anything sophisticated as I mentioned above. 

2. My wife gives me hard time every time she hears about those stories behind.

But anyone is free to interpret as they please. It can be a feminism thing if you want ,or male chauvinism. 

One thing I can say is that all the lyrics are based on 10% real life experience + 90% imagination. So when I revealed some of the original idea to my bandmates they had a good laugh.

liveCNmusic: How’s the scene in Beijing doing these days? Any notable changes? What are your go-to spots for inebriation or a wild night on the town? Some other notable bands in the stoner/hard rock/garage world we should keep an eye on – I know Sloom Weep usually has a pretty good ear for this world?

GU: I don’t think I have ever been in the scene…I stay at home all the time and if I need I would just go to a pub & drink by myself.

As for other bands…

In terms of like-minded bands, in Beijing I think Ooz Zoo is pretty dope. They are a guitar & drums duo playing hard ass stoner rock music. Much crazier & rawer than us. 

Vanishing Queen is our besties in Shanghai, they have a more indie twist to it and the aesthetics speaks for itself.

Another non-stoner related band we all like is 迷心. They are doing some very good quality music & I was blown away when I first shared the stage with them.

I would also like to shamelessly promote our alter ego Desert Boogie Dorama (aka D.B.D). D.B.D is formed by me and Wake of Ramblin’ Roze during our depression during Covid. It’s us 2  plus Wake on the guitar. We really free ourselves in D.B.D and made some under-the-influence music.

liveCNmusic: Will this be your first time outside of Beijing? Are you excited to come to Shanghai? Any plans for a tour in the future?

GU: I’m actually Shanghainese. Went to Beijing for college and settled there.

I always have mixed feeling about Shanghai because I don’t think I fit in there. It’s been 10 years since I left and every time I’m back, the metro and many other things have changed. 

But as much as I’m alienated from my hometown, I’ve came to realise that all the key moments of my musical life in the first question happen to have happened in Shanghai. 

Hopefully I can meet some local friends from this coming trip! 

We will be starting out first ever tour in April this year. But unfortunately our budget can’t afford a stop in Shanghai. So if you can’t come to the tour, be sure to catch us this time!

The post Interview: Basement Queen first appeared on .

Hailing from the cultural pressure cooker that is Beijing – nugget records has acted as a lighting rod for the capital’s lively subcultures and indie scene – merging the DIY ethos of underground music with the fuzzy, immersive lo-fi sounds that have been enriching the scene across China. But all good things must come to an end – and nugget records, and its co-founder Dave Carey – whose extensive credits include playing with bands like Nocturnes, lost memory machine, and gilded forest, will be setting sail for Europe next month. But not without one last bash – with the band descending upon NEO Bar in Shanghai on Friday, February 23rd, with a vengeance alongside their bestest friends and fellow Beijing rockers Sphinx of Third Party第三方狮身人面像, and Shanghai’s own Waidiren外地人, returning after a long winter hibernation. I chatted with Dave about his musical adventures here in China over the past decade.

liveCNmusic: So how are you feeling these days? With the exit date getting closer and closer, do you find yourself getting nostalgic, reflective, jaded, surly or sentimental?

Dave：All of the above, to some extent! After being here so long, the idea of it not being home anymore was kind of hard to comprehend, but as the last day looms closer and closer it’s starting to feel real. I remember the ease at which I moved here 9 years ago, it’s definitely a scarier prospect to undertake such a large move with a few more years behind you and a more than a few grey hairs to hide.

liveCNmusic: For those unfamiliar with you – give readers the cliff notes on Dave Carey and his Odyssey here in China?

Dave：Irascible Irishman finds out they also have potatoes in Beijing and decides to emigrate, falls in love with the music scene almost immediately, in no small part thanks to Live China Music (or Live Beijing Music, as it was back in those halcyon days). I started a band called Nocturnes, had some small measure of musical success in the following years, and decided to piss away all my earnings on a cassette tape label and cultural space called nugget.

liveCNmusic: It’s been nine years since we first connected via Facebook – when the band was Palaces…the first of many projects you would become invested in here in China. What were your early experiences like navigating the music scene here in China?

Dave：Wow, I can’t believe you remember that band! So I arrived in 2015, and those days we were just spoiled for choice with venues. DDC opened around the time I arrived, Yugong Yishan was in full swing, the yin-yang alcohol gut punch of Temple and Dada lulled unsuspecting adventurers in for a quick death, and School Bar was the sort of place you could message on a Monday for a show that Friday night. The thing I remember most of all was that feeling of community and acceptance. I was nervous for our first show in School, I had heard some crazy stories, but after our objectively atrocious performance (I didn’t even own a sound card back then), Liu Fei and Liu Hao took me to the bar and we knocked back Jameson for hours while they gave me compliments and advice. I remember the rapt attention that audiences would give my band, and other similarly awful bands (we’re all awful when we first start out after all), attention and support that gave us all the confidence to grow and improve. It really felt like there was a strong local scene of people looking out for each other and trying to do interesting things. It felt like anything could happen.

liveCNmusic:：What was the first big break or moment you felt like you apart of something?

Dave: We had 100 people come to the first Nocturnes’ EP release in School Bar, then less than a year later we had 250 people come to our album launch in Yue Space (where we played with the fantastic Last Goodbye and SNSOS). There was a clear progression, a clear growth that felt exciting, propelled us to keep pushing ourselves to do more. But I think the thing that shocked me the most was when we played in Guangzhou for the first time, in a now-defunct venue called T-Union. During the show I could hear voices from the audience, and I thought for a moment they were just being rude and talking, that they didn’t care very much for us. Suddenly it clicked that they were singing along, people knew the words to our songs, that our songs were important to them. That was a really big moment for our band, to see that we were having an impact, moving people.

liveCNmusic: Nocturnes found an audience pretty quickly in Beijing? What was it about the music that resonated with audiences?

Dave: I think there’s a positive and negative answer. The positive being that I tried from the beginning to make our sound unique and different, we purposefully avoided a drummer until our last album, for example. So it may have been something fresh to people at that point. But there’s also the novelty of a foreign-Chinese duo making music together that may have stuck out to people too.

liveCNmusic: Let’s get into the nitty gritty of nugget records – cause in many ways this is a farewell tour for label? What was the idea or overarching philosophy behind nugget in the beginning? How did it morph over time?

Dave: Nocturnes did a Europe tour where we met a lot of really amazing people doing art just for art’s sake. I realised that we had become a bit commercialised after years of living in China, that everything was about the rat race of making money. We started a cassette tape label supporting local bands to be the exact opposite of that. A grassroots label with no money, but a group of friends willing to come together to create artwork, mix and master everything, shoot videos, organise shows. Overtime it morphed into something a little more professional, because we opened our own space, and the costs increased hugely, but that DIY ethos still persisted, we put everything we made back into the label, never taking a salary in the 4 years we did it, and putting out some really really amazing music in the process.

liveCNmusic: What were some of the highlights of running nugget records? What were some of the obstacles you came across? Any words of wisdom to young kids thinking of starting their own DIY label?

Dave：As a label, definitely the charity tape we did at the start of the pandemic. We sold 650 tapes in less than 15 minutes, raising 27,000rmb for an animal charity that was saving pets who were locked in their homes, their owners stuck outside of the city and unable to return. At the time we were stuck in our own homes in Beijing, feeling useless, and to be able to use indie music to do something so good was really important for us, and the 26 bands who took part too.

Making tapes was another highlight, figuring out the correct processes to do so at the start, refining them, turning those nebulous digital files into a ‘product’ that you could hold in your hands, it was really special when we succeeded with that at first, and continued to be special through the years as we undertook different creative projects for each release.

liveCNmusic: Nugget cafe became a home for a wide berth of cultural eccentricities and creatives. Did you know going into that sort of business it would be an uphill battle in Beijing? What were some of your proudest moments there? What were some of the head-scratching absurdities you came across in terms of regulations, violations and general red tape buffoonery?

Dave：Hmm, I think we went into it naively, full of unrealistic dreams and aspirations, which I think is probably the right thing to do if you’re opening a business in China. It’s going to be insanely difficult, challenging, frustrating, and more. And you need to have that sort of daydreamer manic-pixie-dream-girl-Zooey-Deschanel-over-positive attitude to get through it all. It is near impossible for foreigners to be involved in cultural spaces in the current environment here, you get treated with fear and suspicion and resentment, by the ‘man’. But, on the flip side, your Chinese peers will be so supportive of you, and appreciative that people are coming here from another country to invest their time, money and energy into trying to foster a thriving local art scene. In that sense you feel very accepted and loved, and it makes it all worthwhile. I have no regrets and would do it again in a heartbeat, it’s been the most meaningful thing in my entire life.

Our proudest moments would probably include our yearly Cassette Store Day events, where we put on whole weekends of shows (even blowing our budget to get West by West in from Xi’an one year), Nugchella – the music festival we ran for the last two years, first online and then for our final week before the physical store closed, and lastly probably the drag shows we did with Betty D and Velvet. I remember one sold out drag show that had gotten a little rowdy, and a grumpy old police officer had shown up to lay down the law. Our bouncer ran inside to tell us he was on his way down the street and I had to turn around and tell Betty D, who had just changed into a dress featuring two AK-47s strapped to her nipples, to get the fuck back inside the studio and stay there until this was all over.

The officer told everyone to go home, and then left. After about 20 minutes, maybe 25 of the attendees returned to our shop, and we had Betty and Velvet finish their performances, with the volume down. There were tears everywhere, and I think we all realised how important it was to facilitate such amazing art inches under the leather boot of the polizei.

liveCNmusic: Speaking of which – being an expat in the music industry, particularly on stage. You must of dealt with catatonic levels of bullshit. Let it rip……do you think it’s gotten better over your time here? Or did you sense a ceiling above your head every step of the way?

Dave：Hahaha, unfortunately it’s gotten a lot worse in the past few years. I think up to 2018 I never felt a ceiling, we were given the support and space to grow naturally, as more and more fans discovered our band’s music. In the last few years there’s been a lot of… protectionism is a kind way to put it, which stops foreigners from getting past a certain level. The worst thing I experienced, and this happened more than once, was being told the singer and drummer (who were Chinese) could perform on stage but, as I was a foreigner, I would need to stand behind the stage to play guitar, where no one could see me. I complained that this was beyond racist, and the olive branch that was extended to me was being told I could wear a full face mask, so that my foreignness would not be apparent to the audience.

The creation of this new environment is a horrific misstep that I hope the country will someday soon realise it has made. Maybe it already has, with the new visa agreements that have been peppering the news recently. Culture does not, and has not ever, existed in a vacuum. It gets passed around, shared between different peoples, each offering their own addition to our shared cannon of art, music, language, cuisine, expression. To artificially stifle that denies us an important way to communicate across borders and languages and come together as a global family.

liveCNmusic: Speaking of being privy to the ever-shifting dynamics in the music industry, do you feel much changed over the past decade as a whole? What do you reckon comes next? Are you at all hopeful or do you think China will forever be stuck in a musical bubble of its own making?

Dave：I want to be positive, I see the massive impacts Korean and Japanese musicians are having on the world stage, a wave of Asian representation in Hollywood, not just tokenised representation but amazing art coming from voices who have insightful, impactful things to say. Sunkissed indie from Taiwan and Thailand has been picked up by European and American musos (you know I love Phum Viphurit, as an example).

In the midst of that, here sticks out like a sore thumb. I think, or at least hope, that efforts will definitely be made to change that in the next few years, to allow some of the amazing bands that exist here to spread to wider audiences.

We live in a time of upheaval and uncertainty, I don’t know if anyone could predict where the world will be in 5 years’ time. We’ll just have to wait and see!

liveCNmusic: What’s the future for nugget records? (*and more specifically your super duper tape duplicator)

Dave：I’ll be moving to Berlin, where nugget will morph (to steal a word from you) into an online tape store, continuing to champion Chinese indie music and hopefully serve as a cultural bridge there. The super duper (and super fecking heavy, 28kg…) tape duplicator is already packed to make its way there with me. We’ll also continue to use the platform we have in China on WeChat, Weibo, etc, to make our voice heard, whether that’s to promote a new promising artist or just take potshots at those we want to be snarky about, only time will tell.

liveCNmusic: Let’s talk a bit about the tour and gilded forest. How did gilded forest come together? What itch did this project in particular scratch for you? Introduce your other members?

Dave：gilded forest came together strongly against my will, which I think is why it’s worked out so well! Queyue, our singer, originally was meant to come record in the nugget studio with her band, but they broke up days before they were due to come in for the session. We decided that she would continue to record the songs, so as not to waste the time we set aside, and I would add some production, but not play in the band as I already had two projects of my own. The plan was for her to find others to recreate the EP’s sound after.

But, we just got along so damn well that she suckered me into it, and here we are two years later getting ready to move to Europe to continue the band there. I’m loathe to admit my mistakes sometimes, but I’m so glad I was proven wrong about being in gilded forest. Queyue is an amazing lyricist, musician and performer, I’m honoured to be in a band with her. We found Patrick later on, after our first drummer left. The job description was for a beast of a percussionist who could go toe-to-toe with my nascent alcoholism and he knocks it out of the park on both accounts.

I’ve loved every project I’ve been in, and deeply loved the people I’ve done them with too, but this is the sort of band where we’re just really good friends, that hang out outside of our musical endeavours too. I think we put on a really fucking good live show as well, so come along and check it out!

liveCNmusic: Where will you be performing on this farewell tour? And please give us a little introduction to Sphinx who’ll be joining this Friday? Any other surprises in store for audiences?

Dave：Shanghai and Qingdao first, at NEO and Downtown respectively. It’s the first time gilded forest will be playing in those two cities, so we’re really psyched for that. And Beijing last, in a new venue called Museum out in 798, that our friend Melvin (from the band Royal as Purple) is opening.

Sphinx of Third Party are the band that we’ve played alongside most in the last year or so. Their guitarist Wei Peng was the sound engineer for nugget for a time, which is how we met. We toured in the south of China, played in Tianjin together, and did a few shows in Beijing as well. They’re really lovely, hardworking people who, like us, care about having their own signature sound. They’re pretty new on the scene and it’s been a privilege to watch their growth first-hand, as they’ve become a really impressive live act. For the tour, we’ll each be performing a cover of one of the other band’s songs. They’ll be playing our international smash hit, “不眠”, and we’re tackling their Magnum Opus “Sleep in Tokyo”.

We’re also really excited to play with Waidiren in Shanghai! We met the singer, Will, in Chiang Mai during our January tour of South East Asia. And we’ll be playing with a band in Qingdao called Glass Eye, also very much looking forward to that.

liveCNmusic: Parting words for China? Words of wisdom? Glaring omissions? Farewell haiku?

Dave：I owe the people I’ve met here so much, they are amazing, all the more so for the challenges they face in their lives here. Despite all the challenges, I emerge from my 9 years here the better as a result of their acceptance, support, love and friendship. I have endless love for China and I’ll be back before you know it, even if it’s just to stock up on Jingjiu.

The post Interview: Dave Carey (nugget records) first appeared on .

As the leaves turn to saffron, crimson, and russet and fall to the ground, eventually fading away back into the soil, Live China Music burrows into the underbelly of Shanghai’s music scene with a bountiful offering of bold new sounds that’ll ignite your senses and lead you into happily into the abyss. Psychedelic, experimental, improvisational, kinetic and sprawling soundscapes that will faze you and leave you in a daze – enter Autumn Faze this Thursday, Octobe 14th. . Leading the way are one of Khunathi – a full-blooded psychedelic rock band that throws a bit of everything into the blender – fake Buddhist scriptures, masquerade masks, and some truly audacious grooves – whilst injecting a lean, crisp psych blues sound into their music, captured with meticulous yet riotous glee by the quartet.

Q: Introduce yourself? How did you all end up together? Are all its members based in Shanghai?

A: We all met when we were in college, and we used to play a band in school. After graduating, we separated for a few years and reunited again. We are currently in Shanghai.

Q: What kind of musical backgrounds do each of you come from? Did you all know what you wanted to accomplish musically?

A: All guitar and bass players started out as wild punk musicians. Later, they made up came from jazz foundations. YeRen learned the shakuhachi (traditional Japanese bamboo flute) and gagaku (ancient court music of Japan) in Japan. Have a preference for various national musical instruments. The drummer used to be into funk. We didn’t have clear expectations when we formed it, and wanted to try different things. 

Q: Speaking of which – what does a typical rehearsal look like? Is there a lot of adjusting done in the rehearsal room – going back and finding what works in a song and what doesn’t. Or is it imore mportant to keep the process as pure as possible? 

A: All the songs come from improvisations in the rehearsal room. Sometimes a story or atmosphere is determined first. ‘Great Tang Records on the Western Regions’ was a great source for foreign stories. Many song titles also come from this. Sometimes we don’t discuss the jam directly. The whole process of improvisation will be recorded. We see ourselves as an automatic music generator for sampling, a neural network algorithm in training to discover a specific sound combination. When listening back, it is like mining, intercepting some fragments for processing and combining. In fact, this process often fails, because some subtle things are difficult to reproduce. So we simply started a podcast (Khunathi 生鲜计划 which can be found on NetEase Cloud and Cosmos) to release these one-shot recordings.

Q: While there are elements of improvisation in your music, I’ve noticed more and more structure and a clear through-line within your music – is your set constantly evolving or do you look to the theme of the show or what bands you’re performing with to guide you?

A: Each song has its own life cycle. We have plenty of motivations for development. We tried some new semi-finished products on stage every time we performed last year. Some motives can survive the chaos and continue to evolve. Some songs may perish early on because of insufficient potential or too many conflicts. Every song is evoling. Recently we recorded a batch of songs. A lot of changes have been made to the arrangement, and some ambiguities have also been settled. It will be more refined and structured than before. But at the same time it also lost some risky incentives. Recently, we are obsessed with modular synthesizers and max8. In the next stage, we may try another kind of music production thought.

Q: You bring a lot into your live sets – Buddhist scriptures, masquerade masks – what’s the overarching philosophy to the band — either to the way you approach music or what you hope to convey with your music?

A: I hope our music is a trip, taking you away from here and going elsewhere. There is another reality that is slightly different from the space we are in. Music is used as a kind of evidence of relics.

Q: Psychedelic music has seen a bit of a resurgence in China over the past couple of years – what is it about the genre that’s so alluring? 

A: Psychedelic music offers another possibility of reality.

当树叶开始变红，落在地上，最终消逝在土壤中时，Live China Music 深入上海独立音乐腹地，带来大量的大胆新声，点燃你的感官，引领你愉快地进入深渊。那些迷幻的、实验的、即兴的、动感的和蔓延的声音景观，将会让你困惑，让你陷入迷茫。打头的是 Khunathi —— 一支血气方刚的迷幻摇滚乐队，他们把所有的材料扔进搅拌机中：伪造的佛经、化装面具和那真正大胆的节奏。同时在他们的音乐中注入了清脆的迷幻布鲁斯之声，由四人组成的乐队将会带来严谨细致，纵情宣泄的欢乐。

Q: 首先介绍一下你们自己？你们是如何聚到一起的的？成员都在上海吗？

A: 我们都是在大学期间认识的，以前在学校里也玩过乐队。本科毕业后我们分隔了几年又重聚在一起。目前我们都在上海。

Q: 每个成员的音乐背景是什么样的？你们都知道自己想在音乐上所达到的目标吗？

A: 吉他贝斯都是野路子朋克乐手出身。后来各自补了一些爵士基础。野人在日本学过尺八和雅乐。对各种民族乐器有所偏爱。鼓手以前是搞放克的。我们在组建的时候没有明确的期待，想尝试一些不同的可能。

Q:说到这里，对于你们来说，一次典型的排练是什么样的？在排练室里是否要做很多调整工作——回头检查，找出歌曲中哪些地方可行，哪些地方不可行。还是说是尽可能保持过程的纯粹性更重要？

A: 所有的歌都是来自于排练房中即兴。有时会先确定一个故事或者氛围。大唐西域记曾是一个异域故事发动机。很多歌名也来源于此。有时也不商量直接jam。即兴过程会全程录音。我们把自己看作一个可供采样的自动音乐生成器，一个训练中的神经网络算法，用来发掘一种特定的声音组合。回听的时候像采矿，截取一些片段进行加工和组合。其实这个过程经常失败，因为有一些微妙的东西很难复现。所以我们索性开了一个播客（丘瑙底河生鲜计划，在网易云和小宇宙可以找到），专门发布这些一次成型的录音。

Q: 虽然你们音乐中有即兴的成分，但我注意到其中能找到有越来越多的结构和清晰的脉络，你们的曲子是不断发展的，还是根据演出的主题或与你一起演出的乐队有一个方向？

A: 每首歌自己的生命周期。我们有大量动机可供开发。去年我们每次演出都会在台上尝试一些新的半成品。有的动机能够从混沌中活下来并不断演进。有的歌可能因为潜力不足或者包含了太多冲突而早夭。每首歌都在途中。最近我们录音了一批歌。编曲上做了大量改动，一些模糊的地方也沉淀了下来。会比以前更加精致、更加结构化。不过同时也失去了一些风险的刺激。最近我们迷上模块合成器和max8，下一阶段可能会尝试另外一种音乐制作逻辑。

Q: 你们在现场带来了很多东西：佛经、化妆舞会的面具….乐队的总体理念是什么?你们对待音乐的方式也好，你们希望用音乐传达的东西也好？

A: 希望我们的音乐是一次旅行，把你带离此地去往别处。一个于我们所处空间略有不同的另一种现实是存在的。音乐作为一种遗存的证据。

Q: 在过去的几年里，迷幻音乐在中国有了一定的回潮，这类音乐有什么独特的魅力呢？

A:  迷幻音乐提供了另一种现实的可能性。Click below to buy tickets!

Translation: Xiao Liu/Fanmu

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This Thursday, July 29th at Yuyintang, LiveChinaMusic revisits that adolescent exuberance and youthful vitality with a rocking evening of earnest melodies and distorted fervor courtesy of a trio of bands all too familiar with plodding through the dog days of summer. The night will also see the youthful Me & My Sandcastle, performing for the last time this year before its frontman, Xiao Liu, ventures across the ocean to continue his studies.  Capturing a sound that’s unassuming, loose, delicate and lite as a feather – a cross between a more sincere Mac Demarco and a slow tempo city pop band, there’s an earnestness to the bands indifferent swagger and melodic charm. I chatted with the frontman and founder Xiao Liu about the age, Canada, forming a band, and how the younger generation is pushing the music scene in new directions.

Q: What was the catalyst for Me & My Sandcastle?

A: The catalyst for this project is basically all the demo recordings in my phone, and some loneliness, laziness and boring elements of my life. I felt that everyone around me is growing up as sophisticated adults but I am still very childish.

Q: There’s an innocence to your music that feels natural above all else – both in its simplistic poetic poise and it’s heart on its sleeve sentimentality. Heck even the title seems to refer to a time deep in the past. Do you reckon that age effects how people write?

A: Yes. I think I am an innocent person and I’m very energetic. I love the people around me and I love memories around me. The simple lyrics are composed within 5-10 minutes. I just hum along the backing tracks a feel time and sing them out without the interruption of my brain. They are sentimental to some extent and I think it’s because everyone have lonely feelings and frustrations. This type of sadness is a typical youth or children thing. I just want to express that common feeling. Age definitely affect how people write because in my view age equals to experience and understanding of the world around one. I think I’m not experienced enough to write meaningful and punchy lyrics.

Q: There’s a very clear aesthetic to your music – what influenced you both musically and lyrically? What sort of rhythm do you seek in your music?

A: I think many lo-fi bedroom music and oldies affect my music. Mac Demarco, Good morning from Australia, Mellow fellow, Boys age and many other young fellows. I love the music that has a special sense of memory attached to it. Roughness and honesty is rare in todays world I think. People love decorations and delicate stuff but I hate them. I love human feelings and realness in one’s music as if he or she is a weird person living next door. I can’t play complicate drum stuff so I try to keep the rhythm simple. But in new songs I want to make my work a little maturer.

Q: You’ve been studying in Canada for how long now? What subject? What kind of atmosphere is it over there?

A: I’ve been studying in Canada for two years plus a year in China because my university shut down due to pandemic. I’m studying language and literature but I feel kinda bored. Musical atmosphere is awesome in Canada and lots of the people I know plays some kind of instruments and love listening to all kinds of music. I think many people show strong musical talents because I saw many shredders and drum machines. Lots of great bands and projects are from Canada, like Demarco, Men I trust, Peach Pit, Homeshake and Alvvays. So there are also many festivals.

Q: What were the challenges of taking a bedroom project and expanding it into a band?

A: There are tons of challenges. Although I’ve never thought of recording with my band mates, I have to try to keep the live vibe identical or at least similar with my recordings. My band mates are from Shanghai and other cities nearby so there are limited times for us to rehearsal. But I love all of them and I think all of them like my works and that’s all I wish.

Q: You hooked up with Future Phonograph last year. How did the bond form? 

A: Not long time ago I listened to an EP of A Crush on River in Xiami. That is published by DingDingMao and then I know the label. Then I contacted Jia through Weibo and realized many good stuff I also listened to and loved on Xiami is from DDM. I love the DIYness of the creative young fellows in DDM so I ask Jia can I join them. She loves my music too to my surprise and then she really wants to publish my EP and make some cassette for me. I really appreciate her help and the support from DDM. Through DDM I know lots of lovely boys and girls, and DDM help me did four shows in four cities.

Q: What’s next for the Me & My Sandcastle?

A: The next thing for M&Ms is a brand new album. The style of this album is what I called “lo-fi twee soul pop.” I also tried to write lyrics in Chinese but I don’t know if people like it or not.

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While math rock has always had a home here in China, over the past couple years it has found a wider audience, building a network of bands across the country, with more and more bands finding solace in the knotty rhythms, innovative arrangements and stimulating sounds. One of the band’s to have put their distinctive touch on the genre are Da Seven. The instrumental rock outfit bring an underground lounge room jazz approach to math rock – turning what could have easily been mellow jams sessions into elaborate off-kilter arrangements chock full of offbeat time signatures and robust musicality that’ll have your head spinning. I shot the band some questions before their performance next Saturday, January 23rd at Yuyintang.

Q: While math rock may be the bedrock of Da Seven, there’s a jazz intricacy to your music that feels genuine and built-in? What musical backgrounds did you all come from?

A: In terms of our current members and from the perspective of university, everyone except for our drummer, came from music school. From a professional working perspective, everyone, except for our keyboardist, all work piano store jobs.

Q: What drew you to math rock in the first place? Who are some of your math rock idols?

A: It may be that I always have a high degree of curiosity about many artistic things, so the music that ‘surprises’ is more likely to arouse my love. If I’m able to guess what happens next in a song, I’ll often find It dull.

Our band – we’re fans of toe, and also like Elephant Gym, LITE, and Mouse On The Keys.

Q: What mood or imagery do you believe your music conjures? What is the vibe of Da Seven?

A: I think that creative ideas are so important. For example, the combinations of unique musical phrases, odd time signatures, or super-fast tapping on the fretboard can all lead to something interesting. Music should be abstract, and if there is too much stress on one thing, it can limit self-development. Just like Bach’s music, it’s not so much a lyric as it is a recombination and arrangement of music – although now I gradually pay more attention to the transmission of emotions, but often I’ll try to restrain these emotions.

Q: I love the new release 9 Teen – what was the process of putting that together? Do the pieces come together naturally or do certain pieces take much longer to find their proper place?

A: ‘Hi 19’ is a combination of an instrumental part and a vocal part, which later turned out to be in the same key. The combination of the two complements each other. In one way, the music is quite complex in terms of instrumentation. But in another way, the emotional pull of the vocals doesn’t allow the song to be fully ‘math rock’  either in theory.

Q: You’ve recently have begun organizing math rock shows under the name Half-Rational 半理性呈现 – what was the idea behind that? How does organizing and promotion differ from being in the rehearsal room?

A: Half-Rational (this is sometimes called mixed bills) gigs have been going on for many years. Whether it is the current “Mathematics Class” or the previous “Math Rock Meets Post Rock”, the purpose is undoubtedly to bring bands of similar styles together and provide a platform for audience members to enjoy music that suits their tastes. 

Of course, organizing a performance can be tiring. You need to set up and arrange many things as well as be there for the entire show. There are always unexpected situations that can occur, such as a band not being able to show up, a drummer suddenly not being able to come, or even low ticket sales. But when musicians tell me that the show’s atmosphere was quite good and enjoyable, it is usually because the fans who came to watch were ‘people who understand this kind of music’. This makes me happy.

Q: One of the wonderful things about math rock here in China (and beyond) is the tight-knit fanbase it attracts – what makes the math rock community special? What are some of the best interactions you’ve had with math rock fans over the years (this could also apply to you being a fan as well)? Do you feel the scene is getting bigger?

A: Because the math rock scene is really small, first you need to listen to a lot more conventional music and from there start to try new types; secondly, if you can have some music theory, it’s easier to understand and more fun. It’s really similar to jazz.

I think as a Shanghai music fan, the happiest thing is that you can see almost any number rock band you want to see, whether it is toe, LITE, Elephant Gym, American Football, Chon, etc. – almost all of them have been here. In China, some even come regularly every year. Therefore, I think there are more and more music fans, as well as the frequency of the word “math rock” popping up.

Q: What’s next for Da Seven and Half-Rational?

A: The next step for the seventh year is to release a new full-time album. This is a big challenge for us and requires a lot of accumulation. I even doubt whether we can complete it; If there is no problem with the epidemic this year, we want to take ‘math classes’ to more places!

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