Pentain responded to "being disgusted": having received enough, one should learn to be satisfied

In 2000, next to the elevator of a department store near Wangfujing in Beijing, a smiling doll wearing Little Red Riding Hood and braided hair was lying alone on the ground. Not long after, a young man passing by found it, stood in place and waited for a long time, saw that no one claimed it, and brought it home.

The young man was Pentan, the lead singer of the band Dada, who hung the doll on his bag and carried it everywhere, and his friend said to him: "You can really do it, what do you carry a doll every day for?" "Dada's debut album "Angel" was released, the doll became the cover, and when the MV was filmed, the doll also appeared, but when the MV was finished, the doll was lost." The doll was lost, I was still angry on the set, I was very angry, I was very naïve at that time, like a child. Pengtan said.

Some music fans once lamented that no matter how old Pentan is and what he becomes, when the melody of "I rush and even run" sounds, the teenager under the filter of youth begins to run. The Pentan in my memory will always be a teenager. To some extent, Pengtin is luckier than many of his contemporaries, his facial features are beautiful, with a clean childishness, that is a popular sense of the idol face, although he once disliked this kind of label, and because of the appearance advantage, was automatically classified by the rock circle at that time into the camp of "small idols", not to be seen by peers.

However, even if Pentan fades out of public view, or grows his beard and deliberately dresses himself up, as long as he stands on the stage and sings, he can always quickly tug at people's heartstrings. It is a nostalgic feeling called "youth", a young memory of "South" that can be hummed through a few words such as "rain", "dampness" and "softness".

The name of the Dada band is Pentan, and he thinks that "Dada" is quite loud, simple and easy to remember, "Pick up the spray paint can and moisturize it on the wall, and spray the two big words 'Dada', it feels very handsome". The band finished the album demo (demo) in Wuhan, which was quickly excavated by Warner Records' executives. A few older boys left Wuhan with guitars on their backs and came to Beijing with a paper contract, becoming the first and only rock band in Chinese mainland to sign to one of the world's top five record labels.

At that time, Beijing was in winter, it was very bleak, the band members were unrelated and confused, and the radius of daily activities was nothing more than rented dormitories, record companies and recording studios, they did not know anyone, only dealt with colleagues in the company. The millennium is just around the corner, and Pentain is full of ambition and vision, imagining the next good life: "When we have enough money to record the next album, we will go on a live house tour around the country."

Since 2000, we are going to rush out! "Once released, "Angel" was well received, and in less than a year, sales exceeded 200,000 copies. The Dada band was on fire, and amid the praise, there was no shortage of contempt and doubt, and Pengtan was young and vigorous, riveting enough to prove himself. Three years later, the Dada band released their second album "Golden Age", but when the album came out, it did not cause any splashes.

"I kept holding my breath to prove that we weren't doing what everyone calls superficial pop rock, especially with a second album, but when I saw this situation, I was stunned. At that time, the record industry also had a feeling of defeat, all departments were laying off employees, there were almost no performances, and everyone in the industry was low pressure and quite weak. Not long after, the Dada band announced their disbandment.

A few years later, "South" and Song F were widely spread, and people began to look back and realize the preciousness of the album "Golden Age", at a time when the band Dada had long disbanded. "It's a pity that there is a time lag between it and public awareness, and it is for this reason that we decided to regroup the band and release our third album Hello after more than 20 years!" Pengtan said.

The picture shows the Dada band. This rock band with Pengtan as the lead singer is a generational youth memory. 

"Which side did I hide?"

Although he became famous at a young age, when he recalled the past, Pengtan hardly felt proud of the spring breeze, and even often fell into a dejected mood, "At that time, I always felt that in the face of the public, in the face of public opinion, there was no way to fight back, they were not the real me in their eyes, (I) always doubted whether what I did was meaningful."

At that time, the rock circle advocated roughness and rebellion. Pengtan sighed: "In those days, the rock circle had a chain of contempt, like me, people took a look at it and directly pulled me into another camp." To be honest, I did have a bit of a little star feeling on me at that time, I didn't speak Mandarin well, and the interviews were all in Hong Kong and Taiwan dialect, and the whole person was very awkward, which was really annoying. ”

At that time, Warner Records intended to use Pentan's appearance to package the band as an idol group, but Pengtan always wanted to screw with them, "They always said that I, Xiao Peng, are you learning Pushu?" You have to be positive, sunny, and don't pretend to be there all day long."

The promotional photos arranged by the company for Pentan are naturally how the idol comes, and Pengtan does not want to cooperate: "I especially want to make it dirty, the cover of the second album, I participated in the design, the cover I made is all the kind of big noise, large particles, the face can not be seen clearly, looks dirty, like an underground band." The company directly gave it after reading it, and I couldn't help it, and finally had to give up. ”

The album cover that was rejected was brought home by Pentan and has been treasured ever since. By the time of the 2013 album "Migration", he was still insisting, growing a beard, covering half of his face, and said in an interview with the media: "I want to use the strength of my whole body to say goodbye to silly Baitian." "I seem to have a stage personality, and I always look happy on stage, and when I return to life from the stage, I get tangled again, wondering whether such an image will be too superficial."

Is there so much obscurity and unpleasantness in life that cannot be seen? Do you have to hide this? It seems that I have never been able to live the life of a real star artist, and I rarely look back at my performances on stage and feel embarrassed. "Pentan often fell into self-doubt, which pushed him deeper on the one hand, and made it impossible for him to fully immerse himself in it.

Sometimes standing on the stage, the reaction of different crowds under the stands, some people dancing selflessly, some waving their hands, some people looking down to play with their mobile phones, and some people standing indifferently in the distance, Pentan will have a trace of withdrawal. When creating, Pentan always polished away those too strong emotions and too extreme expressions, and at the same time, he knew very well in his heart that art was largely born in this extreme, or some kind of conceit.

"The self-determination and undoubtedness of the creators is so important, and I really envy and doubt their lack of doubt." There are many posts about rockers on Douban, and when it comes to Pentan, words like "happy", "warm" and "sincere" are often used.

Pengtan was confused by this: "You say, am I too bored, how can a person be completely smooth?" I kept reflecting on which side I hidden. I admire people who have a strong personality and want to present that side of myself. Of course, I also have a dark side, and I am not a person who is lost in the flower world and is happy and unaware, I don't know if everyone feels it in my song? ”

Pengtan likes Wang Xiaobo, and the title of the album "Golden Age" is also derived from Wang Xiaobo's well-known novel. Pentan does not want to be a lazy expressionist, doing endless, hypocritical performances, deliberately avoiding complex emotions.

In fact, in the early songs, Pengtan tried many expressions of rebellion - "Happy Holidays" was once considered a heartless and lungless, extremely happy saliva song, in fact, Pentan added a lot of irony to the song, "You are smiling, integrated with the surrounding scenery, trapped in this naughtiness that no one can control"; By the Golden Age, the mood was even lower, he wrote: "No one cares about the confusion behind this, you say our life, this cruel but great, I don't know what to fear or find it insincere." ”

However, the fact is that the young Pentan, who once had a lot of luxury, wanted to eat, wanted to love, and wanted to become a cloud flickering in the sky in an instant, the rock singer who naively thought that he would always be violent, could not beat himself anything, singing and singing, the band disbanded, and he was lost. After the band disbanded, some continued to make music, while others quit the circle completely.

Pengtin also had the idea of changing careers, and he wanted to be a book courier: "Every time a book delivery arrives at my door and says to me, 'Hello sir, this is the book you bought,' I feel very happy." At that time, there was a newspaper in Beijing looking for a job, called "Hand Hand", I sewed it in the newspaper, saw an advertisement for a courier, and thought that I would no longer have a job, so I would go to deliver the book. "Pentain fell for a few years and eventually failed to give up music.

The following summer, he released his solo album "Teenage Story", in which he sang: "The smell of yesterday has dissipated, quietly covered with a layer of dust, no trace of struggle can be seen, all ambiguous, all strange." After this, Pengtan and Chang Chunxiao fell in love, entered into marriage, and became fathers.

Talking about his daughter, his voice was full of happiness, and he confessed that he was a "daughter slave": "At first, I thought, this can't work, I don't have the majesty of an old father, I am bullied every day, and then I found out that this is the mode of getting along between me and my wife and daughter." Pentan's relationship with his wife is also in a similar state, "The quarrel is not an opponent at all, and when I want to scare her prelude, she has already reached the chorus."

Perhaps because of starting a family, Pentan has become more and more relaxed over the years. He is rarely angry, and he is not in a hurry to retort to the label of disgust: "Maybe I was too smooth before, so I often felt frustrated, and now I no longer use my own standards, demanding that everything be as proper as I imagined, in fact, I have received enough and should learn to be satisfied." ”

Pentan with his wife Ivy Chunxiao.

Who has such a long adolescence?

Pengtan was born in Xuan'en County, Hubei Province, to parents who were both young people from Wuhan, supported Xinjiang when he was young, and then came to Xuan'en, Hubei from Xinjiang, and then transferred back to Wuhan. Pengtan had been crying on the day he grew up to 10 in Xuan'en and moved his family to Wuhan, the truck left in the early morning, and many of his best friends did not have time to say goodbye, he cried and cried, and fell asleep on the rocking car.

"It was a very deep grievance in my childhood memory, children, without the concept of a big city, I felt that Xuan'en was my hometown, and I couldn't understand why I left such a happy place. My parents said that I was very cheerful when I was a child, but as soon as I arrived in Wuhan, I became disobedient and began to rebel. ”

Xuan'en County is located in the southwest border of Hubei Province, with beautiful scenery, a dense network of rivers and many small streams. The happiest thing about Pentan as a child was to go to the stream and drill around in the woods, "there were few materials, there were no toys, I remember my father making me kites, and small wooden pistols, and other than that, running around and playing with nature every day."

Pentan's mother was a literary activist in the corps, often organizing cultural performances when the farm was busy, and his father worked as a film projectionist, pulling the projector to show movies around, as in the movie "One Second". As an adult, Pengtan returned to Xinjiang with his parents, and in the Shihezi Museum, he saw old photos of his father, "My father was sitting on a rickshaw with a movie projector on it, and he looked quite handsome."

Early on, his parents discovered that Pentin could paint quietly in one place and sent him to learn to draw. Following this trajectory, Pengtin would probably become a painter. The transformation occurred when Pengtan was 15 years old, when he was in the second year of junior high school, after the morning school sports day, and at noon on the way home, he walked into a video store and bought a copy of Cui Jian's "Solution", "I took it home and listened to it, the whole person was not good, as if he was hit by something at once, he became very restless, and he felt that I had to find a guitar to play immediately."

Pentan's brother hung a red cotton guitar at home, and Pengtan hurriedly took it down and plucked it a few times, thinking that he must quickly learn to play the guitar. Later, on a telephone pole not far from his home, he found a small advertisement for teaching guitar, so he signed up with his classmates, "I remember that the guitar teacher's surname is Liu, I like to emphasize the basics, I can't hold back, I want to quickly learn that kind of particularly handsome solo, play big distortion, about three basic classes, when I learn to play "Santa Lucia", I ran with my classmates."

Previously, Pengtan occasionally listened to some Hong Kong and Taiwan pop songs, but from that day on, he completely fell into the craze for rock music: "Cui Jian's influence on me is too deep, and this influence is continuous, he will remind me why I started, what position I am in now, what kind of attitude I should use to treat music and life." ”

Pengtan picked up the score of Cui Jian's "A Red Cloth", played it again, and began to try to write songs, at the same time, he began to plan performances non-stop, "In fact, some chords are not played accurately, I can't manage so much, holding a dual-card tape recorder and going to the street to perform, while playing cassettes, playing guitar, passers-by throwing money at us, I told them, don't need money, I am a volunteer cultural performance."

At that time, I was in my second year of secondary school, and I felt that I could do it, and very recklessly began to perform everywhere. Sometimes the scene was chaotic and the equipment was not good, but the audience responded enthusiastically and cheered all the time, and I had a vague feeling that I might be able to create some chaos." In this way, Pengtan sang all the way to Beijing, met many excellent musicians, and experienced a lot of great music scenes, "It's very lucky, the scene like Dou Wei and Brain Turbidity can no longer be reproduced, but at that time in the Live House, I saw it all."

During this period, Pengtan gradually realized his insignificance and realized his own inadequacies, to use the classic line in the movie "A Generation of Grandmasters" to describe this is a process of seeing heaven and earth, seeing all living beings, and seeing himself, "the giant bubble that was once inflated by the huge ego was burst little by little."

In 2018, the Dada band members reunited in Wuhan and they decided to regroup.

It's okay to be a little bit flawed

In the first few years in Beijing, Pengtan did not take care of himself very well and often fell ill. When recording the song "Waiting", he finished recording instrumental music during the day, and when he returned home at night and couldn't sleep, he went to a 24-hour Yonghe soy milk near the work body to write lyrics, wrote until dawn, went home after writing for a while, and went directly into the recording studio to record songs.

Because of the severe cold, Pentan's nasal voice became very heavy, and his voice was different from before, and when he was doing the post-album, the mixer was confused, "Why is this voice?" It's not like you anymore." At one point, Pentin wanted to re-record the song, but later felt that the sound had a different flavor, and eventually chose this version.

Pentan likes this state of affairs, and he often feels that the current music production is too smooth and a little lacking. To some extent, the Dada band is also full of shortcomings and is in a state of unfinished continuation. In 2018, the Dada band members reunited in Wuhan, singing old songs in the rehearsal room, and they decided to regroup.

In 2019, at the Cactus Music Festival, the Dada band took the stage, and Pengtan said to the audience: "Hello everyone, we are the Dada band, we are a band from Wuhan 20 years ago. "On the day of the stage, I was so excited that I was a little out of control and almost couldn't control my emotions. After the band reorganized, we went through the so-called 'honeymoon period' again, and we agreed to make a new album in a completely relaxed and enjoyable state, without putting too much pressure on each other. ”

The four teenagers who were once energetic have long been old and have started families one after another. After the reorganization of the band, one of the most obvious feelings is that the body is no longer "carried", it must be rationally allocated energy, followed by balancing work and family, "If anyone has to pick up the children from school today, then the rehearsal has to end early, we can no longer be as unscrupulous as when we were younger."

A few years ago, Pengtin saw a group of people surfing in Shenzhen Water World in a French documentary, and was so shocked that he immediately decided to draw it. He drafted from the end of 2020, a total of four, painted to the studio demolition, shelved for half a year, and then picked it up again and painted until the summer of 2022, guitarist Wu Tao suddenly proposed to use the fourth painting as the cover of Hello!.

Pentan stopped writing and said, "This is equivalent to giving me a step, no need to draw anymore, in fact, the first three pictures have been painted, only the fourth picture is not finished." I always feel that the kind of particularly perfect work, easy to get tired after a long time, unfinished state, and a little improvisation, quite rare. On the album cover, a dense crowd crowds into a pool, waiting for the next artificial wave to hit.

"I thought everyone was very similar, I could draw six or eight people a day, but when I really started drawing, I found that everyone was jagged and polymorphic, and I couldn't use an assembly line to replicate the next character's demeanor," Pentan said. In such a crowded, noisy, and homogeneous state, everyone can still present a different face, and the feelings are different.

I think this image is very good, and it can even form some kind of intertextuality with real life. Pentan considers himself a kind person, but sometimes the untimely kindness often makes him feel weak, and he often reminds himself to be brave: "I rarely speak amazingly, and often blur two extreme emotions in a middle ground, which may have something to do with my personality." ”

On the new album The World of Flowers, Pengtin writes: "A painting, a song, a boring person; All day, one thing, a person with low self-esteem. However, for these, Pengtan has long ceased to force it, he said: "At this age, I have realized that many things are beyond the scope of my ability, and I know that my life has already entered a particularly standardized normal life, but even this state is very rare and takes a lot of effort."

I don't have much ambition or luxury, if I have to say anything, I hope I can be braver, don't care too much about other people's eyes, don't mind conflicts with the outside world, I always feel that if I can do this, it seems that I can still have some possibilities. ”

On the day of the release of the new album Hello!, a music fan friend took the lead in getting the physical album, and in the band's WeChat group, sent an unboxing live broadcast - tearing the outer packaging of the album little by little, taking out the record, rubbing it repeatedly, and saying to himself: "Look, this is Dada's new album, how beautiful the silver cover is." Huh, how is this little duck upside down? So cute. ”

Pentan, who was on the other end of the video, had already burst into tears: "In fact, when the album was made, I had already watched it more than a thousand times, but when I saw fans doing such videos, I still felt very excited, my nose began to sour, and I cried in a panic, hey, I'm a big old man, always cry when I cry." ”