Continuing with the recent spate of long interviews that are also interesting, Rock In China's blog brings you Xiao Zhong from Pairs.
Pairs are a lofi duo and they are ace. Let's do some links first:
Their Douban page has both albums, DL enabled and all for free.
And, before I talk about it, here is the full interview. It's in English and it's worth a read.
I found the chat towards the end about over-exposure, backlashes and publicity very interesting. Most telling was that RIC is essentially Beijing scene grounded and that the quote they provided mentions Carsick Cars too. This was a big thing a couple of years back, a backlash against Maybe Mars for getting plaudits. In fact, RIC ran a post/discussion that was basically a campaign to that effect.
Start here and follow the links to a series of anti-Maybe Mars manifestos by RIC staff! Blimey.
As Xiao Zhong covers, those plaudits are simply a matter of sending out a few human language sounding mails to people who honestly want to know about the bands. Then if the bands are active and interesting enough, it will go on from there.
Sleazy PR mails, sabotaging your rivals, cliques and skimming from bands by using different bookers won't get you plaudits. And if your best move is to start your own awards and give yourself all the prizes then things are not going to change anytime soon. It's just different ways of thinking. The same splits are in scenes the world over. Shanghai too, by the way.
