Tonight, rock singer Zhang Chuxin's album "Part" was held at the Beijing Jiuxiao Club, where he not only sang some of the songs from the new album "Part", but also let many viewers relive the classic works created by him that year, such as "Lonely People Are the Most Shameful", "Ants and Ants", "Bright Avenue", etc.
In 1994, after the "Chinese Rock and Roll Forces" concert in Hung Hom, Hong Kong, he was known as the "Three Masters of Magic Rock" with Dou Wei and He Yong, and this title and that era were regarded by later rock fans as the golden age of Chinese rock.
However, after 2000, Zhang Chu gradually disappeared from the public eye and entered a semi-reclusive state. In more than ten years, Zhang Chu has signed three companies and published an EP record "Pearls Not on the Rope", and in May 2018, Zhang Chu's contract with Street Sound expired, and he chose to cooperate with manager Zhang Qin again and signed a contract to become a musician under the bow chief three people. Although he has long since faded from the aura of his youth, his every move has been the focus of public attention until now.
Beijing News reporter Guo Yanbing photographed
On December 30, 2018, Zhang Chu once again released his ten complete studio versions of the album "Part", and recently released a vinyl version of the album. At the same time, Zhang Chu was also invited to compose the theme song "Feather" for the drama "Pillow Man" produced by gulou West Theater, and the drama "Pillow Man" will be staged again on September 18-21 at the Shanghai Majestic Theater after the premiere of the Poly Theater in Beijing in August, which is also Zhang Chu's performance for meng Jinghui, who was still a student at that time, for the stage work for the first time in thirty years, and he has returned to the public view with high frequency this year.
In an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News, Zhang Chu described his current state as "simple", and as for the past, he said, "I never look back."
1. Fade out: The original music of that era had a single understanding
The interview was not in a separate space, and Zhang Chu chose to sit with the reporter in the public café of the Drum Tower West Theater. It was the afternoon when the theater "Very Suspenseful" was performing, and although there were constantly young people passing by Zhang Chu, these young people who rushed in, even if they looked at him in the same eye, had a hard time associating the man in front of them with Chinese rock. Now that 25 years have passed since the concert in Hung Hom, Zhang Chu in front of him has dark skin, a thin face, and a voice that speaks like he was slightly hoarse.
Over the years, Zhang Chu's interview keywords have been inseparable from "Hung Hom" and "Magic Rock Three Jie", asking him if he was confused, he said that he was already relieved. Zhang Chu said that he is a person who never likes to look back, and this time he can be paid attention to nothing more than an album and wrote a theme song for the play: "I may miss the period in the 90s of the last century, when in addition to our love of culture, we still want to realize some self-worth." ”
After the Hung Hom concert that year, a few young people returned to the mainland to do a big job, but found that the sound equipment in most areas did not meet the basic requirements of a rock performance. In the view of Zhang Chu, who was popular at that time but was unwilling to compromise with the "accompaniment belt", the performance market seemed to be booming, but he really got few performance opportunities: "At that time, the domestic copyright system, the music-related regulatory system was not yet perfect, and the original original music had not formed an independent system, a single understanding of rock music, and a public opinion. In Zhang Chu's view, the only remaining charm of that era is that the idea has been released.
Zhang Chupo came out with old photos from his youth. The picture comes from his personal Weibo
2. Leave: Want to live a "work" life
From the Hung Hom concert to the release of Zhang Chu's third solo album "The Factory That Built the Airplane" in 1998, in the eyes of many people, it was the golden period of the development of Chinese rock music, and it was also the period when Zhang Chu attracted much attention, but at that time he had different thinking, and then chose to "leave": "At that time, there were more and more ideas, and I felt that there was a gap between the many high standards that grew in my heart and the development of music in the whole society, and I could not accept the reality, so I had to leave." Coupled with the increasing commercialization of the music market in that period, the overall emphasis on popular music, Beijing Record Company is mainly promoting idol singers, original music is gradually in the downturn, at this time rock music is no longer the mainstream culture that the public is willing to accept in the early 90s, has gradually been marginalized and other reasons, all of which accelerated the pace of Zhang Chu's decision to leave.
Following his own ideas, Zhang Chu said, as long as he no longer lived the days of daily rehearsals and performances. "I've been tied up in the music circle for so long that I'm so curious about the outside world that I don't understand how other people live." Looking back on that time, Zhang Chu spent most of his time studying computers, hanging out with friends, working as a repairman, and living a life where he could commute to work, mainly trying to make himself suffer and find a balance between individuals and society. Zhang Chu, who returned to Xi'an, rented a room for the staff of the Xi'an Tourism Bureau alone, and for the first four years, he did not create or express anything.
3. Turn around: Chores during the uncompany-free period are the biggest challenges
During the conversation, Zhang Chu gushed about all the questions about music, travel, reading, etc., and when he mentioned his past experiences, he often responded with "I no longer want to think" or "it has nothing to do with me".
Tourism is the thing that Zhang Chu shared with the public the most during the "semi-retreat" period. The picture comes from his personal Weibo
In 2004, Zhang Chu signed a new record label to "return", but he did not quite agree that it was a "comeback", "it is not important to come back, the important thing is that he still wants to continue to create works." Come back and do your job. Zhang Chu first chose the seaside city of Qingdao to settle down, and decided to return to Beijing after not all smooth sailing, although signed a new record company, but after a period of time, the two sides once because of the termination of the contract, and finally broke up unhappily. Through that "termination door", Zhang Chu admitted that he learned to protect himself with the law, and even more challenged himself: "Without a record company, for a long time I had to deal with various problems in work and life by myself, and I was exercising my will everywhere." Since then, I've forced myself to improve a little more every day, which is always a good standard of progress. When this standard continues to this day, I can see many things more clearly, which is a happy thing. ”
Zhang Chu, who has been creating his own music as an original musician for many years, after launching the EP "Clear" in 2014, has become more and more aware that music can not complete all the work by one person, and it is impossible for music development to be separated from the record system by professional mixers. After experiencing early contract disputes, Zhang Chu, who insisted on not signing to any record company for many years, began to face a new choice at this time.
4. Restart: Sing 14 cities in half a year
In 2016, a national tour called "Tiny Meeting" kicked off, from Xi'an in May 2016 to Beijing in November of that year, Zhang Chu sang in 14 cities in half a year, the performance volume is a theater, concert hall level thousands of venues, "the tour is a more professional and capable embodiment, singing for two hours, not only have physical strength, technology, but also consider whether you can pass more things to the audience, and the connection with the surrounding environment, in short, compared with the performances you did in the past, This is the first time everything has been thought through so thoroughly. ”
In 2016, Zhang Chu's "Tiny Meeting" National Theater Tour Beijing.
Also in that year, Zhang Chu released the EP album Pearls Not on the Rope. Today's Zhang Chu talks about the original music environment, he admits that compared with the 90s of the last century, there has been progress, but the overall environment has changed compared with when he did the tour two years ago, in the current era of watching traffic, it will be very difficult to do a similar tour, and he also feels sorry for this.
5. Boundaries: There is no need to convey loneliness and sadness anymore
As the former Weibo controller, before 2016, Zhang Chu had put his life trivia during that time and his feelings after each performance in full swing into the open space, even if there were different evaluations after the release of the new album at that time, he still forwarded it frankly to Weibo, some fans questioned his wrong shooting, out of tune, he would also respond on Weibo" "I sing some broken sentences is funk's way, is my favorite feature." I find funk interesting."
In the face of all kinds of different voices, Zhang Chu's self-consistent logic is: "Or 'herd mentality', they seem to love a thing, but in fact, they are quite blind." In terms of artistic creation, Zhang Chu believes that there should be a boundary, which is a trait that artists need to have, and only with boundaries can they determine the scale of self. When it comes to his own boundaries, Zhang Chu feels: "When I really find the boundaries, I may not preach like before, and I can make myself more free and more restrained in creation." ”
Zhang Chu admits that now his mentality is more positive than in the past, and since he has now found the location of his own problems, there is no need to pass on loneliness and sadness.
Fresh Q&A
Beijing News: Out of a new album, creating a theme song for "Pillow Man", I was busy again.
Zhang Chu: I can't simply say that I was busy, the new record came out, I combed myself again, and I felt a lot more awake.
Beijing News: What do you mean by sobriety?
Zhang Chu: When I was young, I liked the pioneer things, but people still need to precipitate the most in the end, and now they like to precipitate their own thoughts more and more, so that they can become a sense of boundaries. When people have boundaries, they will be strong at once, no longer vulnerable, but clearer. When the whole person becomes clear, there will be no more people in the clouds, or blindly pursuing things that are useless.
Cover of the new album "Part of it".
Beijing News: In addition to music creation, you have spent most of these years traveling?
Zhang Chu: Right. When you leave the city, walk into the tropical rainforest, land on the island, and do your best to get close to nature, the information in nature is completely different from the information of human industrial civilization, and the more contact with this information, you will reorganize your own civilization and self-life. A scientist once said that in addition to the DNA inheritance of parents, part of human evolution is whether the next generation has received new resource information. If there is, humanity will progress, and if it only inherits the DNA of its parents, humans will stop moving forward.
Beijing News: What kind of countries do you often go to?
Zhang Chu: I still like The Nordic countries like Norway, followed by Thailand, which makes people very relaxed, Japan has its own system, Italy has a rich cultural heritage, and people are more natural and low-key.
Beijing News: You once wrote on Weibo that your wish is to go to Oslo to become a king crab seller?
Zhang Chu: Yes, Oslo is the largest tourist city in Northern Europe, there is a special crab farm, tourists can buy seafood can also be processed on the spot, it looks a bit like a canteen, where the sea breeze to sell king crab should be enjoyed. The reason I said that at that time was because I knew that many musicians, including In Europe and the United States, they liked to go to Northern Europe to settle down and wake themselves up.
Beijing News: Does the arrival of the new media era have a positive impact on original music?
Zhang Chu: Now the most widely disseminated things are the easiest things, it is impossible to spread a very profound work like we used to, you can see if you look at Douyin.
Beijing News: Do you think this is a big problem?
Zhang Chu: I feel more and more that the cultural atmosphere now needs to be precipitated, everyone is doing everything in a swarm, it seems to be talking very seriously, but the next day it is not talking, and instead talk about other things. The east hammer, the west hammer chaos, the boundary system is not clear, I hope I am not such a person.
Beijing News: This summer, the band seems to have become a focus of attention again, what do you think about this?
Zhang Chu: I have heard that I don't want to go too deep into these things, because I have my own work to do, but any dissemination is feasible in China, allowing others to spread it.
Beijing News: After 30 years, I will compose the theme song for the stage play, can you share the next scene for us?
Zhang Chu: At the beginning of April this year, I was invited by the Gulou West Theater to compose the theme song for the drama "Pillow Man", which was changed to a large theater version. The inspiration for "Feathers" is because the title of the play "Pillow Man" is very distinctive, plus I usually sleep with feather pillows. Another particularly big inspiration is that the pillow is essentially a very empty thing, it carries dreams and the subconscious, so the name "feather" is also to make art and thought very closely linked.
Compared with the film and television soundtrack, the dramatic tension and sense of space of the stage play score are wider, and the music can be exaggerated and amplified at will, which is different from the effect produced by the mixing of ordinary songs. This "Feather" was also included in the "Force Project 2019" July compilation "Reborn Boy".
Beijing News reporter Liu Zhen
Edited by Tian Kaini Proofreader Zhao Lin