Listen: Lonely Leary

-Dan Rothwell

In the last few years, Lonely Leary have progressed from three graduates dabbling with punk covers in Jinan, to a Post-Punk authority in Beijing.

Their influences are clear, with echoes of 1980s Industrial England reimagined through the ears of musicians living in the modern day urban landscape of this city; driven by machine-like percussive precision, scathing guitar lines juxtaposed against pounding bass-lines creating a semi-disconcerting harmonious dissonance...of sorts.

As their sound has progressed through extensive gigging their confidence has grown. The band's live shows have you furiously tapping your feet, nodding your head, and often fumbling for earplugs from the start.

最近几年里，Lonely Leary逐渐从三个在济南瞎玩玩儿Punk的毕业生进化为了北京Post-punk领军人物。

他们音乐上的影响很明显 - 仿佛80年代的英国通过穿梭于现代城市中的音乐人们的脑海重新展现。几乎机械化的敲击，猛烈的吉他线条与贝斯强烈的碰撞中产生一种。。似乎令人困扰而同时无比和谐的感觉。

他们的音色通过大量的现场演出慢慢成熟，就像他们作为一个乐队的自信一样。Lonely Leary的现场能量会让你从头到脚无法自拔的动起来 

Due to their recent successes, including signing to Beijing-based label Maybe Mars, LoReLi (along with Dan Lenk, guitarist of Comp Collider, bassist of The Death Narcissist on interview duty) took the opportunity to catch up with the guys before a show at newly opened Yue Space to discuss their humble beginnings, influences, and reactions to their upcoming Eagulls supporting slot.

You can catch Lonely Leary at MaoLivehouse, supporting Eagulls this Thursday, 24th November, as part of the Split Works 10th anniversary tour, or alternatively, an exclusive acoustic performance alongside Cloud Choir and The Dice! at fRUITYSPACE the following day, Friday 25th.

Lonely Leary最近的成就之一包括与北京厂牌兵马司签约。LoReLi的好朋友Dan Lenk (Comp Collider 吉他手，死循环Death Narcissist贝斯手）特地在Lonely Leary乐空间演出之前坐下来和他们聊聊乐队的初始，影响，和对即将作为Eagulls的嘉宾在Mao Livehouse的演出的想法。

Lonely Leary 会在 11/24 周四 作为Eagulls 的嘉宾在MaoLivehouse 演出。本次演出为Split Works 十周年生日派对巡演。如果你错了这次，别忘了11/26还会在 fRUITYSPACE 与 Cloud Choir 和 The Dice! 一同演出。 

Posted November 23, 2016

Bass & Vocals: 邱驰 (Qiu Chi)

Guitar: 宋昂 (Song Ang)

Drums: 李保宁 (Li Baoning) 

Interview Transcript:

Lonely Leary: 我是吉他手宋昂， 你好我是贝斯手与主唱邱驰，我是鼓手李保宁。我们是 Lonely Leary

李保宁: 刚开始其实是我和宋昂先认识的。那时候只有我们俩，也不知道玩什么，都是刚开始学的，瞎搞。后来邱驰快毕业了，他俩是同学 ，最后我们三就混倒了一起。我们都在一个大学城里。周围全是山，围着几个大学，全是大学生，只不过都是一些二三流的大学和无聊的一些人。

李保宁: In the early days it was just 宋昂 and me. It was just the two of us, unsure about what sort of music to dabble in and only just learning to play, we were essentially just fucking around. Later on, I met 邱驰 when he was about to graduate, and the three us wound up together. We lived in a university town together. It’s surrounded by mountains and has several schools, and the majority of the people who live there are university students... however they’re all pretty much second or third-rate institutions filled with boring people.

邱驰: 刚上大学开始学习吉他，当时也没有特别想组乐队 – 觉得会弹吉他就不错了。但是快毕业的时候我觉得好像不足乐队就有点欠缺，好像不是很完整。但是就是我就找谁会弹吉他，然后就找到了宋昂。我问他要不要组乐队，正好他是一个鼓手，我们就像那试一下吧。一开始我也想弹吉他，可是后来发现贝斯手根本找不到，我就买了把贝斯开始弹贝斯。

邱驰: I learned guitar in college. Back then I didn’t even think about starting a band – being able to play the guitar was enough, however this mindset changed when I was close to graduating. I felt like not starting a band would leave me incomplete - as if something would be missing. So, I started to look for someone who knew how to play guitar, and found 宋昂. I asked if he wanted to start a band with me. He happened to be a drummer, so we thought we’d give it a try. I wanted to play guitar originally, but then after realizing it was impossible to find a bassist, I bought a bass and started learning.

李保宁: 北京的音乐环境算是多种多样吧， 什么都有。听到和看到的都更多，能找到更多喜欢的。在山东的话，反正至少是济南的乐队大部分都是一批民谣，一批重金属。很少能找到自己喜欢的。到了北京之后，去了XP去了School，能看到很多喜欢的乐队。 然后自己慢慢也开始确定了要玩那种风格的音乐。慢慢就到了现在了。

李保宁: Beijing’s music scene is very diverse. There’s more in terms of what you can see and hear, so you have a better chance of finding stuff you like. In Shandong, or at least in Jinan, most of the bands are either folk or heavy metal; it’s much harder to find music you enjoy. After we came to Beijing, we went to XP and School Bar where we could find a lot of music that’s more up our alley. That’s how we gradually came to decide on what kind of music we wanted to play, and now we’re here.

邱驰: Punk简单，有Joyside，有刺猬，深圳 Ramones，还有 Snapline，地下婴儿，大部分都是中国乐队。后来我想到了其实Joy Division也很简单，我们要不要排一下Joy Division，就排了一两首。排完之后我们就没有排过很多punk的歌，就变成post-punk了。

邱驰: Punk is simple. We found Joyside, 刺猬, Ramones, Snapline, 地下婴儿, mostly Chinese bands. Later I thought, “Joy Division would also be pretty easy, maybe we should try it out...”, so we did one or two songs. After that we stopped playing a lot of punk songs and became post-punk.

...

李保宁: 我们最初的愿望就是能去一次XP的二楼，Michael那个办公室。3年之前我们在XP演出的时候，Michael可能对我们有些关注然后叫我们去了二楼。当时我们都很兴奋。没想到几年之后签了兵马司。挺高兴的，对。

李保宁: Initially, our biggest dream was to reach the second floor of XP, where Michael’s office is. We did a gig at XP three years ago and Michael called us up to the second floor! Perhaps it was because he had some knowledge of us, we were so excited. Now we’re signed to them... I’m pretty happy, yeah.

DL:你们最近跟兵马司签了。你们为什么找他们呢？你们有什么期望？

邱驰: 邱驰: 我很早以前就特别喜欢这个厂牌。当时上高中，他们刚成立的时候，很多我喜欢和知道的乐队都在他们那儿。后来上了大学后他们在北京特别活跃。那应该是他们最好的时期吧我觉得。当时也不敢想以后能够和他们签约或怎样。这只算是一个情怀。如果能签约的话，似乎没比他们更合适的了。

DL: You recently signed with Maybe Mars. Why them? What are your hopes and goals?

邱驰: I’ve been following the label for a long time. I was in high school when they first formed, and a lot of the bands I liked and knew were with them. They were very active when I was in college as well, that was probably their best period. I never even thought about signing with them or whatever! It’s always been about just passion for me. If we were ever to sign, there’s no label more suitable than them.

宋昂: Sonic Youth 是我一直喜欢的乐队，一直在听。还有Eagulls也一直在听，它里面有一些值得学习的东西。再就是一些90年代的美国的乐队。 像 Big Black, Spacemen 3，还有Silent, 也是一个比较老的乐队，但是最近才发现，在听。还有 Suicide， 对。

宋昂: I’ve always liked Sonic Youth, and have been listening to them for a while. Eagulls as well. I can get a lot out of their music. There are some 90s American bands that I like too. They’re not too mainstream, like Big Black, Spacemen 3, and Silent, they’re pretty old but I discovered them recently. Oh and Suicide, yeah.

邱驰: 这两天听得比较多的有Eagulls，Savages, 还有Birthday Party最近听的还挺多的。还有其他的就是感觉就是音乐上影响比较大的. Mazes! 中国的比如说SMZB，死循环Death Narcissist.

宋昂: I’ve been listening to a lot of Eagulls, Savages, and Birthday Party. Other than that it’s stuff that have had big influences on music. Mazes! So for China that’d be SMZB, 死循环，and Death Narcissist.

...

邱驰: 我当时看微博上SplitWorks发了一条微博分享一首Eagulls的歌儿，我就想是不是Eagulls会来中国演出呢？过几天说真来了，还邀请我们一块去演，才知道这个消息。当时特别意外，因为这一年我们听Eagulls听得特别多， 现在比较新的Post-Punk中算是最喜欢的之一。所以说很意外， 因为我们在他们的音乐里学到了很多东西，也看了他们很多的演出视频。能跟他们一块演，反正我是特别激动。我感觉应该是我现在所有能一块演的乐队中最让我感到激动的一场。

邱驰: When I saw SplitWorks share an Eagulls song on Weibo I thought that they might be coming to China. A couple of days later I heard it was true, and that they wanted to invite us to play with them. I was really surprised, particularly because we’ve been listening to them a lot this year. They’re one of our favourite emerging post-punk acts. We’ve learned a lot from their music and have seen a bunch of their live gigs on video. Being able to play with them is really exciting, at least for me. I think this is the band, out of all the possibilities, that I’m most thrilled to play with.

宋昂: 就是一开始我收到邀请表演的短信，我以为就是一场普通的演出。然后他跟我说Eagulls要来中国巡演，你们要不要当嘉宾。我挺意外的，感觉这个乐队突然就来中国演出了，还叫我们一块儿，所以特别高兴，特别痛快的就答应了。我一开始听这个乐队的时候就觉得他们如果来中国演一场会很好，然后这次真的就来了。

宋昂: I got a text inviting us to play with a band and I thought it was just a regular show. Then he told me Eagulls were coming to China and that we could be their guest. It caught me by surprise – the fact that this band is suddenly coming to China and wants us around. I was really excited about that and said yes right away. I had thought that they should come do a gig in China when I first heard their music, and now they’re really coming!