Queen Sea Big Shark
Photos: Courtesy of the band and the venues
Enthusiasm and fun characterize the four members of Queen Sea Big Shark, a rock band formed in Beijing in 2004, as well as their music, with its infectious dance rhythms and upbeat melodies.
Fu Han is the founder, lyricist, composer and lead vocalist of the band. A big fan of The Beatles, she wants to enlarge the capacity for imagination in music and present vibrant and interesting sounds.
Cao Pu, guitarist and arranger, takes American multi-instrumentalist John Zorn as his idol, while Wang Jinghan on bass has a deep love for New Wave music and is also an expert on synthesizer. Drummer Xiao Wu also serves as producer and loves to make futuristic music with a retro ambience through modern technologies.
The band has earned a place in the Chinese rock pantheon through its regular nationwide tours and appearances with big names such as Cui Jian, who is known as the "godfather of Chinese rock music," at several concerts to mark the 20th anniversary of Chinese rock music in 2006.
On Sunday night the band will take to the stage at Qianshuiwan Culture Center, with songs from their latest album Beijing Surfers' Adventure featuring heavily in their set list. The Global Times talked to Fu Han in the run-up to the gig.
GT: How did Queen Sea Big Shark establish such a fun and playful sound?
FH: In the beginning, we didn't think too much about style and we just wanted to play something that other musicians around us didn't play. At that time, there were many metal bands and punk bands in Beijing, and I didn't want to do music that was restricted to a specific form. Then I came across an American band called Le Tigre, one member of whom was from Bikini Kill. Their music infused interesting lo-fi sounds through synthesizers, and turned out to be punk and at the same time vibrant and chic. I realized that music can be played across borders, so I decided to make music that is flexible among different styles, interesting and fun.
GT: What was the inspiration behind Beijing Surfers' Adventure?
FH: Beijing Surfers' Adventure came from a concert in 2013, and it demonstrates the status of our band at the present and also in the future: we shall have a wild spirit even though we can't often go on wild journeys. Having free minds, we can be wild people in the urban environment. The whole album is about an adventure. You could also call it "Queen Sea Surfers' Adventure!"
GT: What kinds of sounds did you experiment with on the album?
FH: Ten of the 11 songs on the album are Chinese. This is a great change for us, because we have been wanting to do more interesting songs in Chinese. Meanwhile, besides the rich music styles we've tried such as electronic dance music, we used more instruments in recording, such as piano, trumpet, brass, saxophone, sitar and tabla. On three of the songs we collaborated with hip-hop electronic producer Soulspeak.
GT: What's your musical ambition?
FH: To make fresh music that other people have never played before or that they never even thought of.
Date: Sunday, 8 pm
Venue: Qianshuiwan Culture Center
浅水湾文化艺术中心
Address: 179 Yichang Road 宜昌路179号
Tickets: 180 yuan ($28.19) to 260 yuan
Call 6266-1110 for details
Yishi
Chinese folk band Yishi was founded in 2010 in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, by former vet You Miao and teacher Lin Quanhong. "Yishi" is the combination of the Chinese words "shouyi" (vet) and "jiaoshi" (teacher).
You was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, and the two chose to use Yibin dialect to sing about their life experiences. The band features a seven-people lineup, including members from not only Sichuan and Guangdong, but also Northeast China, Chongqing and Hong Kong.
Their songs can be categorized as folk songs, though they touch upon other music styles such as reggae, blues, jazz, traditional Chinese opera and the labor songs of boatmen. Their debut album Shen Guai Ci Dian (literally, Dictionary of Strange Things) was released in 2014 and introduced a world of fantasy through the recollection of childhood memories and observations about Chinese contemporary society.
The band has been twice nominated for best dialect songs at the Chinese Music Awards.
To commemorate the fifth anniversary of their founding, the band has embarked on a national tour of 11 cities, and will visit Shanghai on September 12.
Date: September 12, 9 pm
Venue: On Stage
Address: Room 101, Bldg A2, 570 Huaihai Road West
淮海西路570号A2幢101室
Tickets: 80 yuan for presale and 100 yuan at door
Call 6212-6991 for details
Medusa's Child
Formed in 1999 by D.C. Crow, German metal band Medusa's Child has impressed fans across the world with their passionate live shows.
After the band released its full-length album Awake, they toured music venues in Germany and featured on radio and in TV shows. Last year, to commemorate its 15th anniversary, the band released its fourth album, Empty Sky, which was called "a fine example" of the genre of melodic power metal by metal-archives.com.
This fall, the band will come to China and Japan to perform songs from their 15-year career, with Yuyintang hosting the Shanghai stop of their tour on September 11.
Date: September 11, 9 pm
Venue: Yuyintang
Address: 851 Kaixuan Road 凯旋路851号
Tickets: 50 yuan for presale and 60 yuan at door
Call 5237-8662 for details
