Cui Jian. Photography / Song Xiaohui
Conversation with Cui Jian:
If fashion is manipulated,
I'm still obsolete as well
Reporter/Kui Yanzhang
Published in China News Weekly on September 13, 2021
Cui Jian is sixty years old this year, and his sideburns and stubble are frosted. He is still active in the performance, and some people suggest that he can only sing three or four songs every time he goes on stage, but he often sings for two hours, he does not feel tired, and even feels that this way is beneficial to his health, "You do what you really like, I even think it helps your organs to recover."
He never gave up on the critiques of social reality in his songs. No matter which drama of the times is sung, he is like a hard nail, always firmly nailed there. After the release of the new album "Flying Dog", many fans said that the most critical Cui Jian was back. However, these newly created songs are no longer able to set off a wave of resonance like the tsunami of the eighties and nineties. More than 30 years later, he has not changed, but the era and atmosphere on which he became famous have long gone.
On Sept. 2, at an open-air café in Beijing's Chaoyang district, Cui Jian told China NewsWeek about his 60-year-old, his new album Flying Dog, and how he faced a time that was very different from when he became famous.
Cover of the album Flying Dogs. Photo/Courtesy of respondents
"Retirement,
Not in my schedule."
China News Weekly: How did you spend your 60th birthday this year?
Cui Jian: Someone sends a cake, you can't do it, so are the candles, if someone sends it, you have to blow it.
China News Weekly: Have you never thought about retiring?
Cui Jian: Retirement does not exist in my schedule. I think the so-called middle-aged men actually have to work. As long as you work, you're acknowledging that you're still middle-aged. You do something you really enjoy, and I even feel like it helps your organs to recover.
I'm in better form than I've been on at any time now, and I know how to adjust my voice on stage, how to adjust my breath, how to do general movements. Some people say, Old Cui, you can sing 3 songs and 4 songs alone, why do you sing for two hours? He just didn't know that when I was really tired of singing, I was singing the 3rd and 4th songs, and when I finished singing the 4th and 5th songs, I began to relax. The more relaxed you are, the more you are willing to move. The more you move, the more relaxed you are, and then give the impression that he can really make trouble, really can build.
I am surrounded by post-90s children, and they can't survive me. When they were tired, I watched them rest first, and I was still working. Of course, they can't sleep with me when they're lazy.
China News Weekly: Among the cooperation of the new album, there are particularly old friends, like Liu Yuan, what is it like to have a partner who has worked with for so many years?
Cui Jian: I think it's also because they have trust in me, we work together, we can create good things, and [they] know how serious I am.
I also have a lot of good friends who don't like my music, and I'm happy about it. Because if I live with fans, I think there must be a distance, and some people who don't like my music and then accept me show that my people are still quite interesting.
China News Weekly: Idols or singers will be shaped by fans and bound by fans' views, do you have this confusion?
Cui Jian: Lennon doesn't have a saying that we are like the flagpole of a boat floating on the sea that does not know where to go. When Rock 'n' Roll in the West was at its hottest, he didn't know where he was going. Everyone said you should be like this, and everyone pushed up, promoting him to become like this.
I've been through this stuff before and I've been rejecting it. From the second album, I have begun to challenge this (bundling). "Rock on the New Long March" is pop rock, and "Solution" is punk rock. Although now it seems that people still like to listen to pop rock, not to punk. At that time, the performance style we insisted on actually made many people feel that it was a betrayal. By "Eggs Under the Red Flag" it was even more fierce, jazz punk, and the fourth "Powerless Power" began to have rap. I'm not willing to copy the path of pop rock, not that pop rock is bad, but I don't want to copy it. Every work is a life, and it will lead you to face the market, not your destiny.
"This critical side of rock 'n' roll,
I never stopped."
China News Weekly: Why is the new album named "Flying Dog"?
Cui Jian: At that time, the three songs of "Flying Dog", "Continue" and "B Side of Time" were all considered, and I asked for the opinions of my friends. A few friends directly said that you don't have to think about it, that is, "Flying Dogs". "Flying Dog" is bright and loud, "Continue" is too heavy, and "The B Side of Time" makes people have to think about it.
China News Weekly: I heard that the album "Flying Dogs" was created a year or two ago. Was there any opportunity at that time?
Cui Jian: I used to write something as an accumulation, but now I am concentrating on a batch of works. When I finished those songs, I thought it would come out in a year, but I ended up proofreading for a year or two. We did a lot of experiments to achieve the final satisfactory results.
China News Weekly: The most retweeted in my circle of friends is "Continue". Is the song's creative process and the thinking behind it, would you like to talk about it?
Cui Jian: There may be some emotions in it, and everyone can understand it as soon as they listen to it. When music has a motive, a harmony, a melody, he has become a life, you are communicating with him. How to go down, how to grind how to fill in the words, how to name, he took away.
China News Weekly: On this album, many people will think of some of your songs from the early years and feel more critical.
Cui Jian: I've also heard that statement, and I think it's a little unfair to [the last album] "Light Frozen". "Light Freeze" comes up and plays a big one for you, "The outside of the light is a stiff shell, it makes the air like a prison" How can you not understand?
China News Weekly: Have you ever been an obstacle to production with money?
Cui Jian: I have always had performances, and I have been able to be self-sufficient through music, and I can afford to hire staff and buy a lot of equipment. I didn't buy the extravagant kind either. The rent of large companies is millions, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and my studio is my own house, and there is no pressure.
Our biggest pressure is to disturb the people, so we do a very good job of sound insulation. We work from midnight to morning, and we can blow the trumpet in the middle of the night, and we can blow it casually without a weak sound apparatus, and we can blow it loudly. I can do anything but not play drums, and I think it's a happy, beautiful way of life.
This kind of work may be a kind of health in itself, because it is particularly gratifying. In fact, the only pressure is the pressure on yourself, that is, the old dissatisfaction in the creation: how it sounds awkward, how wrong, then go to study, and then listen to other people's albums, after finding a way to solve the problem, suddenly cheerful, very happy. But the next day, it was possible that it would all be wrong again. This process is one foot deep and one foot shallow, so it takes a long time.
China News Weekly: Do you care more about music or lyrics now?
Cui Jian: Music, hearing must be a priority. It is really not literature or writing. The aural priority is unshakable in rock music and the entire range of pop music. In fact, the lyrics can be completely composed by others, I feel that other people's composition is not an independent style, it is more awkward, I can do it myself.
I think about my Rock on the New Long March, which is also a lot of (musical) experimentation. In 1988, those people at the Travel Audiovisual Publishing House believed in me and knew my style, occupied their studio for 100 days, and now think it is quite luxurious. I was able to experiment in the studio and try out all the possibilities.
China News Weekly: But when critics interpret your songs, they often start from the ideological aspect of the lyrics.
Cui Jian: I used to think so. I feel that the lyrics represent a kind of rational creation, a cohesive thing, an atmosphere and a message. Some friends only talk to me about music, not lyrics. People like our band are basically like that. They even hate the old talk lyrics. Another group of friends just didn't talk to me about music, they just talked about lyrics.
If you want to say the lyrics, I later, such as in "Light Frozen", I feel that there is a meaning to record the development of my mentality, and I often reflect on these lyrics. But in the end, the reason why people don't accept it, I think it's because they don't hear it in the same context as ours, and I think there are a lot of things they may not feel, but it's not a problem for the audience.
China News Weekly: When you wrote these lyrics, did you intuitively come out and write them, or did you say that it was a rational act?
Cui Jian: Rational, all aspects must be thought of. I write lyrics more slowly. Some of the lyrics will be revised until the end, and even after the singing, they will be changed again when they are re-recorded. I'm not the kind of poet who writes in one fell swoop and writes in one stroke. Sometimes there are momentary inspirations, and later it turns out that it is useless. Just remember a feeling, but don't use it.
China News Weekly: I heard that the next album has already begun to prepare?
Cui Jian: Yes, I have already started writing songs. I can't say when I'm going to do it. I have a lot of motivation to make the next album now, because we find a lot of dissatisfaction, and we find a lot of regrets in this album.
"If fashion is manipulated,
I'm still obsolete as well! ”
China News Weekly: You used songs to criticize real society in the 80s or 90s, and it could make a huge noise, but now it seems that it is difficult to be as big as it was then.
Cui Jian: If you want to talk about the sound waves, don't talk about the works. Sound waves are not made by one person, sound waves are a relationship of social interaction.
China News Weekly: Now many post-60s and post-70s, I am very excited to hear that you have released an album. Relatively young people may not be so interested. Does this make you feel uncomfortable?
Cui Jian: I think it's normal, we didn't listen to some good music when we were younger. After we matured, we even began to listen to a lot of good classical music until now, and we realized the special value of classical music. I think young people don't like to listen to this kind of music, they like to listen to some visually first, interactive information, hormonal music. They like to look handsome, and there's nothing wrong with this thing. I think that at some point, he must have aesthetic fatigue, and at that time he may be looking for valuable music.
My standard for making music is that I don't ask others to listen to it right away, I don't ask for a timely reaction in the moment, it doesn't matter. I myself often listen to my own music, and I have filtered out the so-called good music. We see what is called good smelling as a greasy thing. Sounds good, when I listen to it a second time, I don't want to listen to it again, those things may be flattering to the market, I will take it down.
China News Weekly: In 2019, music critic Li Wan published an article in Reading magazine called "The "Times Singers" No Longer Own the Times", which said that in the past five years, there has been no kind of era songs that can be widely disseminated and accurately depict the times.
Cui Jian: To put it bluntly, a group of collective industry frauds have been living in this market for a long time. They became stars, and I applauded them, but it had nothing to do with music. It has nothing to do with the most primitive, beautiful musical impulses. The music market has a lot of commercial practices, all of which have nothing to do with music, and only a few tenths of a percent of the leftovers are given to musicians. The rest are all big productions, comprador teams, comprador producers, and even start buying click-through rates, and so on.
If fashion is manipulated, I'm still obsolete!
China News Weekly: Have you thought about making some changes based on the musical tastes of young people?
Cui Jian: I will not change. But I'll dive in and talk to them. Last night I was talking to a 19-year-old and I suddenly realized that a lot of the music they listened to was something I hadn't heard, it was all Western. I think it's particularly interesting. I asked for the name of the music, wrote it down, and listened to it while driving home. Young people listen to more music than our generation listens to, very diverse.
I don't think it's necessary to divide the ages so clearly, good music is good music. If you always divide the market by age, there is a big misunderstanding. First of all, the market seems to belong to young people, but the market belongs to a mode of operation, who meets this marketing model, who can occupy the market, the market does not really represent age.
China News Weekly: "Summer of the Band" Have you watched? I think the program team must have found you and made you a judge.
Cui Jian: I have followed this show online. After participating in "China Star", I knew that I couldn't play in the music variety show. All the live viewers know what I'm doing, only the TV audience doesn't know what I'm doing.
China News Weekly: What is your current intake of information from the outside world?
Cui Jian: I actually communicate with people less than I think about it myself, and I have a lot of Internet access. I think the Internet is a platform for you to get equal information, but I still feel that the Internet is still a lot of restrictions, and big data is fed according to your interests, and sometimes it is one-sided. I've had this argument with a lot of my friends, and they admit that they may have been fed themselves.
China News Weekly: You are actually more comfortable with new media and are more welcome to new distribution methods. What is your attitude toward new media such as Douyin and Weibo?
Cui Jian: I don't reject them, others have sent them to me, I have my own accounts, but I don't often go on them, because I think a lot of things are not interested in. Many friends also advised me that you should use this space to do some publicity, and I don't think these things should be considered by me. If I think about it personally, I'll find that when I take care of this, it will keep draining your time, so I won't touch it.
(Intern Luxi Yang also contributed to this article)