Glow Curve 发光曲线

Glow Curve talks to Loreli about dirty Beijing and utilizing fragments to construct song lyrics at Live Beijing Music's Winter Pitch Music Fest way back in January at DDC.

Posted April 28, 2016

Bilingual Transcript of Interview:

 Amy: OK, can you introduce yourselves?

Xue Ran: I’m Xue Ran, the guitar player of Glow Curve

Yu Mo: I’m drummer Yu Mo.

Wang Zhenni: I’m bass, Wang Zhenni.

*guitar player Xing Jianbo (邢江波) was not present during this interview.

Amy:你们自我介绍一下吧。

薛染: 我是薛染，发光曲线的吉他手。

雨墨：鼓手雨墨

王甄妮：贝斯，王甄妮

*吉他手邢江波没有参加此次采访

Amy: How long have you been around?

Glow Curve: 4 years.

Amy: 你们做这个乐队有多久了？

发光曲线：四年了

Amy: How did you meet each other?

Glow Curve: I first met our guitar player Bobo. Zhenni is my wife; she joined the band because we initially didn’t have a bass player. We all live in Tongzhou.

Amy: 你们怎么认识的？

发光曲线：我先认识的吉他手波波，然后甄妮是我老婆。我们没有贝斯手，她就来了。我们都住在通州。

Amy: What are your influences? Your music is very unique.

Glow Curve: We’re influenced by lots of things, not just limited to music but movies and everything that goes on around us. Even hearing a pop song on the street can affect us. Humans are heavily influenced by their environment. Music wise, we like Radiohead, The Turtles, Nirvana… a lot of stuff.

Amy: 你们的音乐影响来自哪里？平时听什么音乐？你们的音乐很特别。

发光曲线: 受太多的影响了。也不只是音乐，包括电影啊身边发生的一切都会造成影响。偶然间在街上听到一个流行歌可能也会影响我。人是环境动物，都会受影响。音乐方面的话我们喜欢Radiohead, Turtles, Nirvana… 太多了。

Amy: What kind of lyrics do you write? What’s the subject of your lyrics?

Glow Curve: Our lyrics are like fragmented poetry, vignettes or snapshots of moments. We utilize the countless fragments to construct our language. This is rare, even in Chinese poetry. That’s the gist. This type of writing uses a lot of imagery and and symbolization. Our lyrics invite you to generate images in your brain, but it doesn’t do more than that. That is what we offer: a visceral experience. It doesn’t necessarily tell you anything.. . the stories have to come from yourself and your experiences.

Amy:你们的歌词是什么类型的？你们的歌词的对象或主题是什么？

发光曲线：歌词是碎片化的诗，片段。我们运用无数的碎片的语言。在中文，包括诗里面很少有这样的东西。以此类推吧。这是意象化的东西。我们的歌词让你能够看到后在脑海里产生一些画面，这个就是我们给你的东西。但不一定会告诉你任何事情，这些事情需要你自己去体验。

Amy: Is your audience mostly Chinese or foreigners?

Glow Curve: Both. There are a lot of foreigners who listen to our music.

Amy: 你们的听众大部分是中国人嘛？还是外国人？

发光曲线：都有。也有特别多的外国人。

Amy: You’re under the Mondernsky record label now? How do you like being on the record label?

Glow Curve: Yep. The label doesn’t get in the way, especially when it comes to music. We have the freedom to write and record whatever we want, including our ideas, exhibitions we’d like to do, etc. They’re supportive. The only catch is we have to attend certain events, like music festivals… you have to be there.

Amy:你们现在是签在摩登天空这儿，你们喜欢和唱片公司合作吗？

发光曲线： 是的。公司不会管。特别是音乐，音乐是我们自由创作的。我们想做什么样的音乐，包括我们想做的事情，展览，他们都会支持。唯一的约束就是一些演出，比如音乐节，你必须去演。

Amy: How do you find the music scene in China and in Beijing? And Why?

Glow Curve: Very chaotic. Everything’s dirty. We came to Beijing with expectations and hope and all that… but when we actually got here we found that a lot of things were different from our imaginations. There are good times and bad times, there’s everything. It has a certain grim and callous aspect to it. It’s a ruthless place. This is a normal phenomenon. In Chinese philosophy, yin cannot exist without yang. You have to actively face this reality. We’ve done this vigorously. To live here, you gotta be a little humorous about the paradox.

Amy:你觉得北京，或者中国的音乐环境怎么样？

发光曲线：乱七八糟。 所有的东西都脏。我们最早来到北京就是充满了向往，带着希望或者什么的。但你来到之后发生的东西和你想象中是不一样的。当然有开心的也有不开心的，什么东西都有。它有很多冷的一面。它是冷酷的地方。这是很正常的现象。在中国哲学里有阳面也有阴面。你要积极去面对这个事实。我们都是积极的人。但是你要在这儿生活你得有一些幽默感，逆向思维也好悖论也好。

Amy: Do you find that the scene here collaborative or lonely?

Glow Curve: Both. The process of realizing an idea is very lonesome, especially conceptual idea about music. But for external events like putting on shows and that, friends are always there to help, because most of the time that’s the only thing they can do. If you want to explore a new concept or idea, your friends may or may not give you some inspiration. Other than that, we get a lot of external help. You choose your friends.

Amy:你觉得这的音乐氛围促进合作吗？还是有些孤山一脚？

发光曲线：都有都有。我觉得在音乐理念或者概念上，从有想法到去实施的过程中你是很孤独的。但是当然外在的东西，要是想演出，总有朋友会愿意帮助你，他们只能帮助你这些。你如果想探索新的东西，朋友也可能能给你一些灵感，也可能没有。其他的话，外在的帮助太多了，出门儿靠朋友。