Singer Old Wolf. Infographic
More than 20 years ago, Old Wolf and Gao Xiaosong became well-known representatives of campus folk singers with "You at the Same Table". Infographic
Rule of Law Weekend Contributing Writer Bill Dog
Singer Wolf recently appeared in the public eye, or in 2016 participated in a "I Am a Singer" variety show, more often than not he appeared only during live performances. For many people, the old wolf is the companion of youth, and campus songs such as "You at the Same Table" and "Who's the Brother on the Bunk" can be said to be the earliest existence that brought folk songs to the peak status.
After that, the old wolf fell into a longer silence, or deliberately chose to keep a low profile. Many people don't know that the old wolf's real name is Wang Yang, that is, the most prosaic Wang Yang who shouts in the crowd and seven or eight people turn back.
His good friend Gao Xiaosong once said that thanks to the old wolf among our gang, we remember where we came from, because he has not changed.
Musical ideals defeated by mediocre life
Rule of Law Weekend: Previously, many of your fans or listeners thought that your appearance on "I Am a Singer" meant that you intended to go out again?
Old Wolf: No, I always rejected "I Am a Singer" at the beginning. In fact, their director and team are very serious and dedicated, they talked to me very early, I thought about it for half a day or refused, I am still not very good at handling a lot of scenes, I feel troublesome.
Later, my friend Song Ke was also the planner of this show, and he proposed to me to become a "supplementary singer", and there were few supplementary singers. This is a matter of fame and profit, I instigated, went, or did not hold in front of fame and fortune.
Rule of Law Weekend: In addition to "I Am a Singer", you also sang the theme song for the two movies "Hide and Seek" and "Donkey Got Water", does it mean that you have a new state in the past two years?
Old Wolf: No, Singing "Donkey Got Water" is because I have known the friend who wrote the song for a long time, he said that there is a song here for you to sing, I took it and listened to it and thought it was OK, so I agreed; "Hide and Seek" is also because of the relationship between friends, just like this, these two songs are together, I really don't have any ideas like a return, I don't have a company until now, and I don't have an agent or anything.
Rule of Law Weekend: Do You Have Musical Ideals? What I mean by "musical ideals" is to write a good song like that.
Old Wolf: There used to be, now there is none. I had thought about writing before, how to say it, as far as my personality is concerned, it is too easy to be defeated by this mediocre life.
Rule of Law Weekend: What character do you think you have?
Old Wolf: Good and bad. I think that creating is a particularly painful process, you have to give up a lot of normal life and attention to others, you have to live a special self, I am not easy to do.
If you look at Park Shu's lyrics, each sentence is carefully considered, including his living conditions, which is not something that ordinary people can do.
For example, when I wanted to write something before, there were Yang Kui, Tang Danian, Zhang Chi, Shi Kang and other people around me, people are so powerful, I look at what I write. Writing songs is also, Gao Xiaosong, Yu Dong, they are all handy... So I think it's good for me to be a happy person, and I'm especially satisfied.
Rule of Law Weekend: How Do You Sing To Overcome Shame on Stage?
Old Wolf: When I used to sing the accompaniment tape, it was actually very uncomfortable, and the hand didn't know where to put it, and there was no movement, but I felt a little movement. Now that there is a band, I feel that there are a bunch of people who are humiliated with you, and I feel much better, and I am relaxed, in addition to interacting with the audience, I can also interact with the musicians.
Rule of Law Weekend: If you didn't have people like Gao Xiaosong and Yu Dong around you, would you try to create your own?
Old Wolf: Probably not, it's hard to predict, if I hadn't been in that environment back then, I guess I might have been a little engineer or something. At that time, my major was science, and in that era, I generally studied what major in college, what work I would do in the future, and many of them were arranged by my parents, and it seemed that I was unable to fight...
I don't have any rebellious thoughts myself. At that time, I was a young man of literature and art, who loved literature and art, and I didn't think about what I would do in the future. In my life, I have always met very interesting people, mixing with Huang Liaoyuan in middle school, Shi Kang in college, and later singing with Gao Xiaosong, and I always have this kind of person around me.
Rule of Law Weekend: Do You Write?
Old Wolf: Don't write.
Rule of Law Weekend: Why Not Write?
Old Wolf: Afraid of losing people, there is nothing to write, or there is no habit of writing.
Rule of Law Weekend: Also read books, just don't write?
Old Wolf: Right. When I was in middle school, I was influenced by my friends, got a literary club, wrote some sour poems, and then never wrote again.
I once opened a column in the "Beijing News", every week when it was time to hand over the manuscript, I scratched my ears and scratched my cheeks, which was particularly painful, and finally I put together seven or eight articles, and I really couldn't write it, so I gave up.
Rule of Law Weekend: What did you write about for the Beijing News before?
Old Wolf: Just write about my going out, doing our business often has the opportunity to go around, in fact, things are quite fun, but it is not good to write.
Is constantly enlarged into a symbol
Rule of Law Weekend: Talking to you, I found that you are different from the image in my heart. In everyone's mind, you should be shy, innocent, gentle, Sven...
Old Wolf: Not really. Before there was a marketing number that passed on an article, claiming that I wrote my own love story, the kind of pure love. I quickly sent a microblog myself saying don't listen to their nonsense.
I don't want to play the "love role model" myself, I think it's too hypocritical.
Rule of Law Weekend: The public may need such an image, and you have always been in love and in a relatively stable marital situation in the entertainment industry.
Old Wolf: Yes, coupled with the song "You at the Same Table", it is reminiscent of the purest love of the campus era, and then it is constantly amplified and becomes a symbol.
Rule of Law Weekend: Back to your songs, you originally gave the impression of a "school folk" singer, which has always been the label. I personally feel that maybe because in China, the campus folk singers have not yet surpassed your group, and may never surpass. In fact, you have produced three albums in more than 20 years?
Old Wolf: Yes, three or four. If it is according to normal logic, the fire will not be able to burn, it will definitely be folded.
Rule of Law Weekend: Are you deliberate?
Old Wolf: No, a little while ago my friend told me that you are so strange, your songs are so few, but you have been, and it is very good, and those who are your contemporaries have produced so many works, and now there is no sound... I don't know what's going on, it's just fate.
Because Gao Xiaosong and Yu Dong were some of the top creators of that year, they wrote the most top works, and then they fell on me, I feel particularly lucky, really, especially lucky.
Rule of Law Weekend: The mid-1990s was really a golden age for Chinese pop, including rock 'n' roll, and is it not as good as it used to be?
Old Wolf: No, that era also drowned a lot of good songs, in fact, there are many good works now, and many good works can be heard on the Internet. This kind of "drowned" work, if it appears on a stage like "I Am a Singer", may suddenly become a popular song and be amplified.
Now there are more good songs, because there are all kinds of people who are making music.
Rule of Law Weekend: One writer said that of all art forms, music is the last to die, and it may be the only art form that dies with humanity. I don't think you're pessimistic, you're even hopeful about music. What was your judgment or feeling?
Old Wolf: Yes, first of all, I think pop music developed much later than literature, basically it was just starting out, and I feel that after our time, this wave of young people who grew up, they are in the age of creative climax, and now a lot of creators have seen hope.
Now as long as you have a certain degree of expressiveness and uniqueness, you can catch the opportunity to come out, so now more and more people are involved in the creation and expression, and the appearance of music now is actually particularly interesting.
Of course, the chance to really enter the mainstream is still the same as before, relying on luck. And now the so-called mainstream is not as cattle as it used to be, and now it's an era of clicks, and I may listen to whatever I want while I work, listen to folk songs for half an hour, listen to electronic music for a while, and listen to rock and roll for a while.
But it wasn't like that before, and I remember listening to Sting, listening to Paul Simon, listening to my favorite Pink Floyd, an album that could be listened to for a year, back and forth, and the whole album was a work, not a song. It's a golden age, and only two or three songs on an album may be remembered and everything else ignored.
Rule of Law Weekend: More and more people are involved, only a very small number are famous, and most of them are still "dead". Luck can only take care of a few people, right?
Old Wolf: But now everyone's mentality is also slowly changing, it is not so important to come out, it may be related to the development of the media in this era, as long as you sing, you will be heard, even if it is only a few people. Including many musicians I know, they don't care about fame and fortune, and music has become a way of life for him.
When I was in the United States, I went to eat at a fancy restaurant with a jazz band in the restaurant, and it played really well. There's a little basket in front of the venue with a CD they've made themselves, and if you leave feeling good, put ten dollars in the basket and take a CD back. When I say sticks, I mean the state of their performance, special enjoyment, special commitment, as long as they can go to the restaurant with a few friends every day to play and earn some food and drink, this is enough, just enjoy this lifestyle. Now China is slowly shifting in this direction as well.
Those things that are related to life and death
Rule of Law Weekend: I've asked a lot of people this question, do you still talk about love? What do you think love is? You and your wife have known each other since middle school, and you have been thinking about love for so many years now?
Old Wolf: I think love, sometimes it can be a kind of narcissism, that is, you reflect an image of yourself in the other person's reaction, and you feel particularly comfortable. But I can't guarantee that that time is very long, because as I get older, all kinds of illusions are particularly easy to be broken, like habits of life or something, and the most romantic things disappear faster and faster...
I am also thinking, love is when you are attracted to her, she is a shining image, as if the body is electrified, just like in "The Godfather" wrote, as if you were struck by lightning, that is love, you are deeply moved by that image.
You see Luo Dayou's "Shining Days" and Jiang Wen's "Sunny Days", all because of the existence of that person, your life suddenly brightened.
Rule of Law Weekend: Love is different now than it used to be, do you feel faster and easier?
Old Wolf: That's because they are in this era, unlike when we were, when we wrote a letter to the girl, put it in the mailbox, and waited for three or four days for the letter to reach the girl's hand, she still had to think about it for two or three days, maybe to reply to you, maybe not to reply, it was a very long waiting process, and the emotions were always burning back and forth.
Rule of Law Weekend: After talking about love that fills life with light, let's talk about death, have you ever been troubled by the "death"?
Old Wolf: No, I didn't think about it before. I'm a Sagittarius, and I don't think I'm so scared by nature, because sometimes I want to try all kinds of extreme experiences, such as bungee jumping, mountaineering, and so on. I like the feeling of being away from the hustle and bustle, because in Beijing, in the big city, life is too close, all the time not to be disturbed, just let yourself slow down a little.
That is to say, friends will sometimes sit together and talk about it over the years, after all, people have reached this age, and everyone has some experience. I can't talk about a lot of fear, at least the current mentality is to go with the flow.
Rule of Law Weekend: It seems that you have less confusion in this regard?
Old Wolf: How to say it, I think it may be that my pursuit of the spiritual world is not particularly much, I probably want to live in this way, and live myself as a small story. Sometimes you can experience a lot of interesting things and people in this mixed world, and even feel wonderful and legendary. For a while I wanted to write a movie, "Guess the Train" kind. Maybe like Tang Danian, they want their spiritual world to be quieter, they are willing to pursue the truth, and I just want to spend my life in this muddy world...
Editor-in-Charge: Gao Hengtao