| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Interview with GAS: A Western band that sings in Chinese
In today’s interview, we talk to GAS, a band from Barcelona that just released this month Everlasting Freshman, their first studio EP with six original songs sung in Chinese.
In 2012, GAS posted a YouTube video of the first rehearsals of the single 永远的初学者 (Eternal newcomer), making them the first Spanish band to sing in Mandarin. The video was a success, with almost 50,000 views and more than 600 comments from people all around the world.
Singing in Chinese
First of all, thank you for accepting this interview. We wanted to talk to you for a while. A mandatory question: how and why did a band from Barcelona decide to sing in Mandarin?
The idea of making music in Chinese came up almost as a joke. One day a friend of the band came to our place and suggested it. At first, it seemed like a ridiculous idea, but then we translated some of the lyrics we had in Spanish and the truth is that we liked how the Chinese sounded with our music and most of all, after seeing the good reception that our first YouTube video had, we decided to keep on singing in Chinese and see what the future had in store for us.
I have always thought that some languages are better than others for making music. To me, Mandarin Chinese seems like quite a melodious language, and because of that, is a good option for many musical styles. Do you agree?
We completely agree with you. We also think that Chinese is a very melodious language, maybe because of the tones. We think that it’s a good option both for singing slow and moderately fast songs, like the pop rock songs we write. However, we can’t say anything about other musical styles sung in Chinese, because up until now, we have only listened to rock and pop in Chinese, and we like how it sounds.
In the majority of places, the Chinese community isn’t accustomed to going beyond its own circles. I imagine that one of your goals is to reach the large Chinese community in your city. Do Chinese people go to your concerts? Have you received feedback from the Chinese community?
What you say is true; we have the impression that the Chinese people that live in Barcelona are very focused on their work and don’t spend much time on leisure activities and enjoying music or other arts. Maybe their social circle is also somewhat closed compared to the Chinatowns of large cities around the world, such as London or New York, where many Chinese cultural events are organized. In Barcelona, it’s hard to find these types of activities at the moment.
Musical panorama in China
Currently, I would call the predominant musical style in China “cheesy pop.” Even though other bands that play other types of music are appearing, it’s quite hard to find them. Do you know any bands that you would recommend?
We agree with you completely about the label “cheesy pop,”
Source: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/interview-with-gas-a-western-band-that-sings-in-chinese/
