In the summer of 2012, when Cheng Bi was about to graduate from Peking University with a master's degree, she signed up for Peking University's "Top Ten Singers Competition", and on stage, she played a classical guitar and sang a small poem she had written before, "Cut the Window together on a sunny day", recalling the warm fragments of her childhood and her grandmother. Wang Tianju, who started a business in the music field after returning from Columbia University, happened to be offstage, and he was deeply moved by Cheng Bi's voice, and then issued an invitation to Cheng Bi to record songs.
"I already had some demos at the time, and I thought I should give myself a graduation souvenir gift when I graduated, because I hadn't decided to make music at that time." Recalling the experience of producing the first album "Cutting the Window together on a sunny day" in 2012, Cheng Bi still feels a little incredible, met the first nobleman, and made the first first first-class album. Although I only paid for 300 albums, from the beginning I thought how difficult it was to make an album, now I have an idea, I know what to do, who to find, how to move forward, it is like a dream.
Cheng Bi's song is quiet, clear, hurtful and not bitter, and carries a faint pleasure of understanding life. She combined poetry and song perfectly, and because of her daily and natural dress, she was named "Mori Female Folk Singer." "Interestingly, Cheng Bi's side resembles Wang Fei in Wang Jingwen's time. She has a pair of crystal clear eyes, a smile, a clean and pure breath, three thousand hairs are often braided behind her, wearing daily house clothes, exuding a brilliance that is completely different from Thatu Faye Wong.
Very late self-awakening
Cheng Bi is a Shandong girl, her father is a lawyer, her mother is a housewife, and her grandmother is a "literary and artistic young woman". When Cheng Bi was born, her mother was 40 years old, an advanced maternal age, and there were two older brothers on top, and there was no time to take care of her, cheng Bi was sent to her grandmother's house in the countryside when she was four years old, and lived with her until junior high school.
"My grandmother was a highly educated kind of Republican woman, a big girl. However, because of historical reasons, I went to the countryside and there was no room for my talents to be displayed. Grandma would keep a diary and write down her feelings about life, and all my artistic enlightenment came from her. ”
Cheng Bi recalled that her grandmother's father was a senior officer in Zhang Xueliang's army, and Cheng Bi's grandfather was a high-caliber student who graduated from Peking University's law major, and his grandparents continued to move throughout their lives, and then settled down in a small town in Binzhou, Shandong Province, where farmland was nearby. In fact, the interval between Cheng Bi and Grandma is the life experience of two generations, and Grandma's life attitude of twists and turns but still open-mindedness has also deeply affected her.
In "HometownSickness", Cheng Bi sang about his hometown, not sad or heavy, with a brisk but never go back to the thoughts: "When I was a child, I often looked at the sky, looked at the stars and blinked my eyes, and in the blink of an eye, time quietly walked, and I couldn't go back to that time. In "Alone on the Road", Cheng Bi sang: "When I heard you say that you loved me, I decided to take all the tomorrow with me and move forward with you." And if, later, you no longer love me, then I will have to repack and continue on the road alone. ”
Although Cheng Bi has loved singing since she was a child, the family does not think that she has any musical talent, and Cheng Bi's father feels that she can sing the high pitch of "Eighteen Bends of mountain road" to be called talented. Until 2009, Cheng Bi came to Peking University to study for a master's degree in Oriental languages, and in 2010, he went to Japan for a first-time internship, met a classical guitar at a family gathering, and was hit by it in an instant. The first thing Cheng Bi did after returning to China was to join the Peking University Guitar Association, she recalled that it was a very late self-awakening, and suddenly, Cheng Bi knew what kind of music she wanted to express and what song she was suitable for singing.
Later, when Cheng Bi sang Japanese poet Toshitaro Tanigawa and Japanese folk songs, she liked to use a Hawaiian four-stringed instrument, ukulele, which was her favorite, and even when she went to Hunan Satellite TV's "Everyday Upward" program, she did not forget to introduce her ukulele and classical guitar.
After completing her master's degree, Cheng Bi did not think of making a living in music, she hoped to live overseas for a while, broaden her horizons, after graduation, Cheng Bi joined a Japanese securities company as she wished, and after a short stay in the financial industry for 7 months, she joined the design research institute of design master Kenya Hara (Artistic Director of MUJI).
Life in Tokyo had a great influence on Cheng Bi's creations, and many of Cheng Bi's artist friends met in Tokyo, such as the famous poets Tahara, Kitajima, nishikawa and Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanigawa who lived in Japan. Cheng Bi and her friends would drive on weekends, bringing musical instruments and cameras to the mountains to sing, take pictures and draw, which is a very pure artistic environment, and it was in Japan that Cheng Bi's second album "Poetry Meets Song" and the third album "I want to waste time with you" have several original songs. "Four Seasons" and "The Night of the Plum Rain and Spring Equinox" can only be written in such a pure natural environment. If she lived in the hurried rhythm of Beijing, Cheng Bi might not be able to write about the "sense of wind and object" in her music.
Yuan Yanya's concentration and diligence also affected Cheng Bi's attitude to music, Cheng Bi recalled: "Yuan Yanya chatted with customers, customers said what they needed, he immediately drew a manuscript, 24 hours are immersed in it, this concentration and diligence of work ordinary people can not do, I sent him an email at four o'clock in the middle of the night, he can reply immediately." I am now making music, one is to treat music with professionalism, like he is diligent to do music; the second is to have a broad pattern, not to focus on music, to do more cultural things. ”
On her second album, Poetry Meets Song, Hara wrote a comment to Cheng Bi: "Cheng Bi's music I have heard countless times when I was working, and whenever those melodies always haunt my mind. Even if I don't understand the semantics of Chinese, through her tone and quality, the delicate breath processing that follows the feeling, I feel what young women in China are feeling today, what life they want to chase. At a time of great change, young sensibility absorbs these changes as nutrients and thrives. A young girl from Beijing stood in the courtyard staring at the sky, and I was watching the same sky. ”
"All my life is halfway abandoned, but my whole life is full of hope"
Cheng Bi likes to read poetry, but also likes to write her own poems, and the small poems she writes almost all come from her inner feelings about the fragments of life, like talking to herself. Cheng Bi said to China Music Finance: "The me you see is that after seeing many different landscapes, I found that the most beautiful scenery is actually the weekday scenery; after understanding the impermanence of life and the farewell, I cherish every minute of encounter with the mood of one period and one meeting." So, you feel gentle and happy, but it's actually me fighting this powerful world in my own way. ”
Sometimes, interesting conversations between Cheng Bi and friends will also be recorded, such as: "If you are at ease, you are not in love, your heart is pulled and uneasy, and you always feel that you have nothing to do." It's this feeling of inner turmoil, you know, what a great thing it is. Young man, it is really enviable, where did this feeling of inner trembling go? ”
Cheng Bi's master's degree is the oriental traditional aesthetics of Japanese culture, she can choose to continue to study for a doctorate, but did not become a researcher but devoted to society, Cheng Bi is hoping that she can "enter the world" to experience the various feelings that life brings. In the second album "Poetry Meets Song", in addition to his original 4 songs, the other 5 songs are from Kitajima's "Everything", Nishikawa's "Night Bird", Tahara's "DeadWood", Tanigawa Shuntaro's "The Death of Spring" and Turkish poet Tarangi's "Train", and the name of the album "Poetry Meets Song" is named after the poet Kitajima.
Cheng Bi and Kitajima met by the Japanese poet Tahara introduced, at that time in Tokyo, Japan, Josai International University, Kitajima to do a speech, Tahara asked Cheng Bi to go over and listen, she sang a song to Kitajima on the spot after composing the melody, Kitajima was moved at that time. The poem "Everything" is a work written by Kitajima after the death of his sister, with deep emotion, and there is a sentence in it that "all deaths have lengthy echoes", and later Cheng Bi deleted this "heavy" sentence when included in the song. Cheng Bi's poet friend Nishikawa also has a story, after he got the album, on the way home to listen to "Everything", at a certain moment, he was poked in the softest place in his heart, he later recalled that it is difficult to be moved by anything at this age, but at that time he listened to the song sung by Cheng Bi and burst into tears.
Compared with the previous album "Poetry Meets Song", Cheng Bi's new album "I Want to Waste Time with You" launched in March 2015 is more vivid, and the new album includes a poetry collection "Poems for Children" edited by Kitajima, and a poem in this poetry collection, "A Bunch", is sung by Cheng Bi on the melody, which is a response to the previous album "Poetry Meets Song".
"A Bunch of Flowers" is the freshest one, he does not indicate whether this is a beam of light, a bouquet of flowers or something else, 'You are the bay, is the sail', 'You are breathing, is the head of the bed', 'You are the screen, is the fog' to the back 'You are the chasm, is the pond swamp', in fact, he said that the initial encounter of love is as sweet as childhood, to the back slowly some estrangement, and then to the end, the two people have been strange, very sad process. Cheng Bi said with a smile that Kitajima uses very abstract imagery to express the beauty of sadness, but there is no sharp content in this poem, but it is very relaxed and bright.
In addition, Cheng Bi's new album also includes the poet Zhang Dinghao's poem "I Love All Incomplete Things", Cheng Bi has not yet met him, and the two sides are in contact on WeChat. After Cheng Bi gave him a sample of the song, Zhang Dinghao said: "This is the best gift for the New Year." ”
Cheng Bi said: "The poem "I love all things that are not complete" is also the kind of expression of life in a very ordinary sentence, that sentence 'life is halfway abandoned, but all life is full of hope' touched me, such as love, we passively ended a love, we feel that life is halfway abandoned, but we will also look forward to the next person to appear, all our lives are full of hope. Not only love, but everything in life is like this! ”
Collaboration with Moxizi poetry "Programmed Music"
"I want to waste time with you" is a collaboration between Cheng Bi and Yi singer Mo Xizishi, please come to Moxi Zishi, on the one hand, because Shrimp Mi's "Light Seeking Project" sponsored Cheng Bi's new album, Shrimp Mi can help provide a producer, ask Cheng Bi who he hopes to cooperate with; on the other hand, because Cheng Bi has listened to Mo Xizi's album "Wilderness", this album has the wilderness and terraces of his hometown, the mountains, forests, moons and seas in the years, and the album "I want to waste time with you" also has many "four seasons" and " Plant sense", need to understand nature and land musicians, Cheng Bi feels that can make music so simple and atmospheric, it is not Moxizi poetry.
"The instruments of the Moshizi Poetry Society are so rich that he can play with the instruments we have never seen, and his innate sense of relevance to the instruments makes me feel that he is a real musician!" Cheng Bi commented on Moxizi's poems. Cheng Bi is known as "Sen Nu" and Mo Xi Zi Shi is called "Sen Nan". What makes Cheng Bi most admirable is that although Mo Xizishi served as the producer of the new album, there is no strong "Mo's" taste, the style of this album is still Cheng Bi, and the "power" of MoxiZi's poetry is hidden in the music, allowing fans to slowly taste it.
The title song of the new album, "I Want to Waste Time with You", comes from Chongqing poet Li Yuansheng, who read more than 100,000 as soon as it was published on a public platform related to poetry. Cheng Bi read this poem in the circle of friends at that time, immediately fell in love with it, and decided to sing the poem out. Cheng Bi communicated with Li Yuansheng on WeChat through a friend's introduction to compose music for the poem, and Li Yuansheng had listened to Cheng Bi's album "Poetry Meets Song" before, and he listened to Cheng Bi's thoughts and said: "I am very relieved that you come to sing, I will hand it over to you, especially good!" ”
Cheng Bi interprets the poem to us: "We are all in such a hurry, every day for a living, for everything, but as long as that person appears, you just want to waste time with him." The inner sense of chasing ideals is very strong, but the expression of poetry is very euphemistic. It says 'short silence, long meaninglessness', 'I have wasted the world, it passes through me— tired, as if never loved', which is actually a very deep feeling. ”
The whole song "I want to waste time with you" is 8 minutes and 30 seconds, breaking the usual length of a song, but it seems that I have listened to it unconsciously, and I will not feel lengthy. Recently, the MV produced by Shrimp Mi Music for this song in Dali has also been launched, the sparkling sea, Holding the guitar and singing softly, Cheng Bi, has touched the hearts of many music fans, and some fans have forwarded it on Weibo and asked themselves: "Who will accompany me to spend time in vain?" ”
On May 20th, Cheng Bi will start the first tour at Guangzhou Central Railway Station, and then tour to Chengdu, Changsha, Shanghai and Beijing respectively, the selected venue is not very large, the scale of 500-800 people, the sponsor is the literary and artistic Internet radio Lychee FM.
"I made the album in the spring, and I took the album somewhere in late spring and early summer to meet people who liked my songs. By September and October, all winter, I started making music again, and then published it in the spring. ”
Although Cheng Bi will be willing to communicate more emotions, thoughts and sensibilities with people, she also bluntly said that she does not want to be labeled as "little fresh", she is willing to show more culturally atmospheric content. At the moment, Cheng Bi is in love, she hopes that the relationship will go smoothly and steadily, and now she has musical inspiration every day, and the next album has all the content. Cheng Bi said that he was not in a hurry for the future at all, one album a year, so he did it year after year!