This article was published in the "Sanlian Life Weekly" No. 41, 2020, the original title of the "Wild Child: The River is the Song of Life", it is strictly forbidden to reprint privately, and infringement must be investigated
River, for Zhang, is an important word. In retrospect, it may be a coincidence, or it is very likely that it was the subconscious mind. Zhang Said that during the time he lived in Lanzhou, he often stared at the river on the edge of the Yellow River, watching it flow and flowing into the distance, gradually producing an illusion that things on the shore were also moving, and perceiving that the river was about leaving and drifting in many images. "No one can step into the same river." He said.
Journalist/Kason
Photography / Zhang Lei
The Wild Kids Band. Lead singer Zhang Li (front middle), guitar Ma Cedar (right), Bass Dai Shuai (left), Percussion Wu Rui (rear)
Northwest: Yellow River
In Dali, Zhang Qi's home, what opened up my chat with him was the image of the river. The prototype of "Ballad of the Yellow River" is Zhang Qi and Xiao Suo humming and playing together by the West Lake in Hangzhou; "Little Horse Crossing the River" is a song written independently by Xiao Suo before his death; a bar called The River has become the cradle of folk music in the north far from the Yellow River - everything is inseparable from the river, which is like many coincidences and fatalistic existences in life.
In the previous two interviews, Zhang Qi showed shyness and bad speech, which was the same as I expected before the interview, but it seemed that only the topic of "river" could make him feel relaxed, and then let go of his defenses. He habitually soaked a pot of Pu'er — he had quit drinking for many years, and he used to be able to drink a pound of liquor, but now he didn't even drink much beer. His two children had not yet returned from school, and his wife was cooking downstairs, and as she approached the meal, the aroma of the meal wafted in.
The Wild Child Band has disappeared for a long time, and once again entered the public eye, it is this year's "Summer of the Band 2", a cappella song "Yellow River Ballad", which is unique among many bands. The band members put their hands behind their backs and closed their eyes, and several men from the northwest sang lanzhou's locust flowers and good girls like dreams. In a variety show full of joy and laughter, ten seconds after the end of the wild child's "Ballad of the Yellow River", the scene was silent, after a long time, Zhou Xun on the stage was wiping away tears, the audience under the stage reacted and began to applaud, and the people in front of the TV suddenly felt that Lanzhou, where the wild children sang, was also likely to be their own homesickness for a moment. But for the band, the noise and entertainment around them are not directly related to them.
In fact, when recording the adaptation competition, the wild children did not choose the track in the "national style theme" song prepared by the program group, but performed a "bamboo branch word" that they thought was called the national style, of course, they understood very well that breaking the rules would inevitably pay a corresponding price, and finally they ended the variety show with withdrawal. Sitting in front of me, Zhang Qi, the end note of Northwest Mandarin exudes modesty and gentleness, it is rare to see him have a strong resistance to things, but he has not given in the slightest concession to the so-called "national style" popular on the Internet, he believes that those are saliva songs and network divine comedies under the banner of national style, and that "national style" is different from what he understands. Voices of support and insults on the Internet swept in, but as long as there were people who liked "Bamboo Branch Words", Zhang Yu felt that he had done nothing wrong.
Talking back to the river, I can't jump away from the "Ballad of the Yellow River" that the Wild Children Band has performed no less than a hundred times, and listening to this name is as old as the ballad of a distant era. In fact, the song was written in 1995, the sixth year that Zhang Yu went to the Southern City Dance Hall as a band bassist. Which city the 27-year-old Zhang Qi goes to, the 25-year-old Xiao Suo will also follow him. Sozo was also a bass player at the time, and although he didn't work in the same dance hall band, the two often got together after work to drink and practice guitar. Zhang Yu recalled that at that time, you could earn ten thousand yuan a month, and if you live like this all the time, it is actually quite beautiful.
One day, the two improvised on the edge of the West Lake, Zhang Yu had a motive, Xiao Suo continued the next paragraph, playing Zhang Yu had the urge to sing, "Babbling" to complete the improvisational fragment. "At that time, many of the works created, many of the words that were whizzed and whimpered, were sung at that time." He said. When I went home to tidy up, I found that this was a complete repertoire, which was the earliest prototype of "The Ballad of the Yellow River".
It was also the year that a folk band called Wild Children was born, and the team of Zhang And XiaoSuo lasted for two years until their first performance at the Beijing Daxi Club, adding bass, drummers and harmonica. Once at a friend's house, everyone coaxed them to sing their new song, and Zhang Yu found that the cappella without instrument accompaniment was a seemingly primitive but most beautiful chant, and this simple expression laid the foundation for the song, and since then, the singing of this song has never been added to the instrument, until today.
Young people with ideals were keen to talk about their dreams at that time, and the high income made their creative hearts a little foolish, and the two young people combined to concentrate on their dream careers. In 1995, Zhang And Xiao Suo both quit their well-paid jobs, and they decided to return to Lanzhou, and it is not known what they will do when they go back, but looking back years later, it is a seemingly stagnant but important stage. This year, Zhang Li and Xiao Suo really walked the Yellow River on the guitar for more than a month. "Xiao Suo and I have another music friend, and the three of us first hitchhiked to the closest place to the Yellow River and started walking, and when we were tired, we played the piano on the edge of the Yellow River when we rested. We wanted to see what the Yellow River looked like in its lower reaches. ”
Zhang Qi's home in Dali
Following the Yellow River, Zhang Qi and Xiao Suo passed through many villages, one moment in Shanxi, the next in Shaanxi, the more downstream the Yellow River became more and more turbulent, "The Yellow River in our song is gentle, you feel that you can get close to it, and the Yellow River here is a thicker, more natural form of existence." Along the way, they heard many flowers by the Yellow River, and what impressed Zhang Yu the most was the song of an old lady in her sixties and seventies from the first place in the field. I didn't bring recording equipment with me in the '90s, but that sound is always in my memory."
During this period, Zhang Qi's creative state was extremely good, and in the repertoire related to the northwest created during this period, Zhang Qi mentioned a song - "Coming to Xigu City", which was a song that was important to him personally but ignored by the audience. Compared with the empathy of "The Ballad of the Yellow River", it is more like his most vivid memory of a certain stage of his past life.
Xigucheng is Xiao Suo's birthplace, not far from Lanzhou, and although the two young people live in Lanzhou, they often run to Xigucheng during their rest. "From Lanzhou to Xigucheng there is a kind of beckoning stop bus, you stop as soon as you wave, the last paragraph of the song has a large paragraph of Lanzhou dialect completely restored the words shouted out by the conductor at that time, 'Xigu of the West Railway Station is gone, come to the master's head to sit in Ha, get on the car, the one who wears the skirt comes to sit in front of Ha'..." Zhang Yu and I talked about the industrial city that is full of black smoke and can't see the sun clearly, when passing by Sungou Bridge, you will smell the pungent smell of the factory, and after entering the factory area of Xiao Suojia, you will hear the shouting of beer bottles, books, and newspapers. It is not an old man who plays poker in the factory area, but a group of young people who are bored and bored. The city's supper shops sell grilled meat and pasta, and late at night, it's full of drunken people. Zhang Yu traveled through 25 years of memories and once again took me into Xigu City. "The economic development of western China, a lot of young people from all over the country to support the west, Xigucheng is like an immigrant city, culturally more special, here speaks the words of the south of the sea, dressed more fashionable than Lanzhou, some people here to marry and have children to settle down, just like Xiao Suo's parents." Many people may have to return to their hometowns after retirement, which is not a place where everyone feels a sense of belonging. This is the most memorable time for Zhang Qi, playing and singing freely in drunkenness, writing about the confusion and sadness of young people, which is a brief return after many years of wandering. A young man sang: "I look to the north, play the piano and sing the old song, I sit in the old place, I look up at the sky, I walk through the village, I am alone on the road." "Yes, in 1996, Zhang Yu and Xiao Suo decided to go north.
Zhang Just bought a new guitar for his son Qingbari and plans to put new strings on the children before going out on the tour
Beijing: A bar with a river on the wall
After living in the basement near the Chinese Song and Dance Troupe for several years, Zhang wrote "Living Underground". In the fifth year of wandering in Beijing, the performances of the Wild Children Band were still no more and no less, and they could not talk about maintaining their lives, but the days were getting better, and they could finally move out of the ground and look up at the stars in the north. In 2000, in addition to Zhang Yu and Xiao Suo, the wild children's band changed blood, Zhang Weiwei joined the band to play the accordion, Chen Zhipeng played the tambourine, and Li Zhengkai played the bass. That summer, the band recorded their first live CD, In the loft, at the Tibetan Cool Bar in Beijing.
In 2001, there was a gallery in Sanlitun South Street that was being transferred, the rent was not expensive, everyone was better off opening a bar, and the east and west made a sum of money, and this bar, which was later called the "legendary folk position", was born.
"When I first named the bar, I remember that Zhang Weiwei, Guo Long, Chen Zhipeng, and Xiao Suo were all there, and everyone discussed and discussed, and it seemed that they all had special feelings for the river, it was fluid, it was something that was inclusive and vital, so I finally called it 'River' Bar." At that time, the bar was not very particular, and i found a friend who painted a river in front of the stage of less than 20 square meters. None of them had experience in opening a bar, so everyone was a waiter, and when they were too busy to come, some friends who made music took turns to help. In the fixed performance schedule, Wednesday night is the performance of Xiaohe and Wan Xiaoli, Friday night is the wild child band, Saturday is a rock band, and the rest of the time is more flexible. In those years, almost all the folk musicians performed on stage at the River Bar, and Zhou Yunpeng, Zuo Xiaozu, Tongue Band, and Zhang Qianqian were all regulars here. Zhou Yunpeng once said in an interview that in those years, those who did underground bands and did not go on the stage of the river bar were embarrassed to see people. Zhang Yu said to me: "At the beginning, when musicians came to perform, we couldn't afford to pay the performance fee, so we distributed three wine tickets to each person to exchange for beer, and no one left after the official performance, at which time there would be friends who took turns to perform on stage. Often in the middle of the night, the bar is more and more lively, XiaoSuo is hospitable, sometimes drink too much on the "open warehouse and put grain", the next day a inventory, the wine is less than a few boxes, but the account is very little.
By 2002, the River Bar was becoming more and more famous, and it was not only a habitual gathering place for musicians, but also a crowded river bar by many admiring audiences. In addition to musicians, there are also screenwriters, writers, artists, international students... Zhang Yu said that at that time, a bottle of beer sold for 15 yuan in the bar, and many young people could not afford it, so they sat in the supermarket at the door to buy a 5 yuan beer pad to pad their stomachs and then enter the door, they turned a blind eye to it, and even the commissary business at the door of the bar became particularly good. In the bar, a group of young people played music, and there was also a group of young people outside the door playing and singing, and at that time, Xie Tianxiao often played music at the door of the river bar.
During the River Bar period, in addition to Chinese musicians, many foreign musicians who came to China also performed on stage. For a while, an Irish violinist came and played a traditional Irish dance, "the ancient folk songs of all countries in the world are common, after drinking wine and listening to such a small dance music, it is very happy at first, and then you want to cry." One day Xiao Suo told Zhang Qi that he had written a song, and when Zhang Yu heard the smell of Irish little dance music, he had a flash of inspiration and said, This song is called "Pony Crossing the River". Zhang Yu had a picture in his mind, a pony preparing to cross the river, it was probing, circling, jumping. When I asked Zhang, "Is playing "Pony Crossing the River" on the second song of "Summer of the Band 2" a nostalgia for Xiao Suo? He paused for half a moment, "Maybe, it's an unconscious, maybe it's a coincidence."
When Zhang Qi recalled this stage of life, her feelings were very complicated. The river bar is like a young man's Noah's Ark, and the all-night singing and partying let time fly by. "At that time, it was really happy, the young people in the north and south of the world got together, and real life was left behind, leaving only a very spiritual side." Sometimes I want to calm down and do some creation, but I can't do it, and my creation is almost stagnant. Zhang Qi vaguely felt panic, his body and will were constantly overdrawn, and he wanted not to go to the river bar at night, but he felt itchy in his heart, and finally went to dawn. In 2002, Zhang Qi went to Yunnan for the first time to participate in the Lijiang Snow Mountain Music Festival, which was called the "Chinese version of Woodstock", with Cui Jian, Dou Wei and tongue, "that time in Yunnan, it seems to have planted a seed for later life."
In 2003, the "SARS" came suddenly, and due to internal and external factors, the river bar was shut down, and Zhang Yu wanted to leave Beijing and go to Yunnan.
Who knows, this departure has really become a kind of foreshadowing. In 2004, Xiao Suo was diagnosed with cancer, and Zhang Qi returned to Beijing from Yunnan and accompanied him in the hospital until his death. When Xiao Suo left, Zhang Qi did not attend his funeral, he carried Dong Bu La on his back, and completely left Beijing where he had lived for 8 years when the autumn was coming to an end and winter was approaching. The Wild Kids band disbanded.
Yunnan: Apple trees by the river
Seeing the WildBoys in Dali was in the gap between their returns from touring. After a 5-day stay, they are going to start a new round of touring. Compared with the reorganization of the current Wild Kids Band in 2011, there have been some changes, Zhang Weiwei's old friend Zhang Weiwei left the band last year, Guo Long took a long leave of absence to participate in the stage play after participating in "Summer of the Band 2", and the tambourine Kingdom Xu had to take care of the newborn children and did not return to Dali for the time being, so this time only saw Zhang Qi, guitarist Ma Xuesong and percussionist Wu Rui, as well as bassist Dai Shuai, who had just participated in four performances in wild children.
As the band's "big steward of the process", Ma Cedar (Lao Ma) showed me their next trip, which lasted for a month and a half, and traveled all over the country. He laughed and said that he would take a wave before winter came, and then he could return to Dali for the winter.
If we say that taking 2004 as the turning point of wild children, There was a long period of time in the middle when Zhang Qi passed through a very painful stage. To friends who knew him well, Zhang Yu of this period was mysterious, and he would appear like a bard in any city. The performance poster no longer appears as a "wild child", but the musician Zhang You. During this period, he composed many repertoire suitable for one person to perform, standing on the stage with a solemn expression, a dong bu la and a harmonica, which was his companion in the chanting process. Lao Ma said that in Beijing in 2007, he had seen Zhang Tong's performance alone, "At that time, Brother Tong was still inching, and when he read the white paragraph, 'Someone sitting by the river always said, come back, come back, but the north wind whipped on the body and heart, go far, go far!' I was shocked, and suddenly understood his loneliness." The recitation of this "Far Away" is a portrayal of Zhang Yu at that stage, and the emotions that cannot be discharged in life can only be read out on the stage.
I asked Zhang Qi, "Will the wild children now perform the music of the one-man period again?" ”
He said, "No, those songs are too personal, like something to hide in the heart." ”
"What made you end the wanderings of a bard?"
Zhang Told a Story. During the river bar period, Zhang Li wrote a song called "The Apple Tree", and the lyrics were like this: "Last night I dreamed of the apple tree, or by the long river, the children fell asleep, the old people woke up, the moon came out, the girls were drunk, the apple tree of my dream, only you know that I was on the street in a foreign country, and I recalled the past with song." In 2007, Zhang Qi came to Lijiang and met his current wife, when she had a small shop near Shuhe river in Lijiang, where there was an apple tree in front of the rented house, and there was a river at the mouth of the village, and all the scenes happened exactly as foreshadowed by "The Apple Tree". It was another year of the Snow Mountain Music Festival, friends came, Zhou Yunpeng, Wan Xiaoli, Zhang Weiwei, Ma Tiao gathered in Zhang Qi's yard, they joked with him, saying that this is the legendary apple tree.
Zhang Qi stopped traveling and wandering, took root in Yunnan, and after the birth of his daughter Huangdou and son Qingbari, the family moved from Lijiang to Dali. The man who traveled became a father and came ashore from the river where he had lost his friend.
10 years ago in Dali, musicians came to live, it is said that when Zhou Yunpeng walked on the Renmin Road in the ancient city of Dali, he felt that he had returned to his hometown in a trance, so he stopped wandering. Zhang Qi's old friends also moved to Dali to live, Zhang Weiwei came, Guo Long also came, the two of them and Zhang Yu regrouped the Wild Children Band, Zhang Qi let go of his own Dong Bu La, with the old guys standing on the stage with him. In 2013, Ma Cedar joined the band, allowing WildBowl to restore his earlier double guitar vocals.
In 2014, the story of Wu Rui entering the Wild Children Band became a paragraph. At that time, the September Bar, which was also open on Renmin Road, was a gathering point for Dali musicians, and Zhang said that at that time, in addition to the musicians around him who would improvise together, there would be many foreign musicians playing together. That time made him feel like he had returned to the days of the river bar. After the reorganization of the wild children in the September bar rehearsal, Just returned from France Wu Rui looking for music came, Wu Rui decided to join the wild children, so he took root in Dali. In fact, in the era of the river bar, Wu Rui was the drummer of the cloth band, and later he drove to give Xiao Suo the last ride. Zhang Qi told me that he likes the weather in Dali the most, the sunlight of the plateau can penetrate a lot of inner damp things, sunburn people warm, sometimes feel that this place and the northwest is also very similar, the sky is high and far away, white clouds fluttering.
How did Dali become "not fun"? Zhang Tong recalled that after about 2015, the commercialization of Dali became more and more serious, and the government also promulgated a new policy, and foreigners without work permits could not perform on stage, and suddenly there were many fewer interesting people. It turned out that walking on The People's Road, you can see a lot of hippies with stalls, they sell some small things while beating African drums, and later this street is also forbidden to sell stalls. Now Renmin Road, has been reduced to selling all kinds of small goods souvenir shops and Internet celebrity punch card restaurants, you can say that this is Beijing's Nanluoguxiang, you can also say that it is a certain Jiangnan town, anyway, the things sold are similar. The feelings of the old horse are also very strong, and later in the September bar, when there is no formal performance, few people play improvise, but more people drink and draw fists.
Although Dali is a quiet corner, it is undergoing rapid changes like all large cities. The houses in the ancient city are getting more and more expensive, and the chain of singing bars of entrepreneurs is full of lights. Zhang and his friends were forced to move out of the ancient city. Zhang Qi has feelings for Dali, which is his second hometown and the home of his children, and almost all his past creations are traces of the memories of the northwest, but "Don't Take It" is Zhang Qi's creation in Dali, writing that he sees the changes in Dali and worries that all this beauty is about to pass away.
In addition to the band's rehearsal room in the Dali Bed Factory Art District near the ancient city, their respective lives have actually been cut off from the ancient city. Zhang Yu and Lao Ma live in a community close to Cangshan Mountain, Wu Rui lives in a village where there is no outsider, if there is no rehearsal, they will only stay at home, which can be described as "staying in Dali". Wu Rui made a self-made recording studio at home, and if the band had songs to record, they could finish it here. I asked them, "What did Dali bring to your creations and music?" "They all mention that it's so comfortable here, so comfortable that it can destroy a person. I suddenly understood why they were keeping a certain distance from this place, and were actually maintaining some kind of creativity that kept going forward.
Wu Rui mentioned the way they rehearsed, several northwestern men maintained vigilance and self-discipline, starting at 2 p.m., resting for 20 minutes at 4 p.m., and must have rehearsed a song "Ballad of the Yellow River" before the break, and then rehearsed a few songs after the break, and "left work" on time. The day before the band started touring, I visited their rehearsal, which exactly matched Wu Rui's description. Zhang Said: "Maybe the band will have a lot of songs to create in the future, but maybe it is just instrumental music, and the happiness that Dali gave me cannot let me write about suffering as before, nor do I have to make up suffering." In fact, Zhang doesn't want people to associate wild children with labels like "land" when they mention them. "Music is flowing, like a river," he said. When you look at the river in front of you, you think it's still the river, but in fact it's not what you saw in the last second. ”
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