Tang Dynasty
By admin on 2014-12-30

As a warm-up for their fourth record, which is currently under production, legendary Chinese rock band Tang Dynasty (Tangchao) is performing Sunday night at Star Live, Beijing. The concert also sees the release of their latest EP Up and Down (Chen Fu) that includes two new singles. The band's frontman Ding Wu spoke exclusively with the Global Times about the future of the group and the direction of Chinese rock.

"There has never been a glorious peak for the Chinese rock music industry," Ding said, with some dis'may. "China is not an ideal field for rock music to develop."

Despite his dismal outlook, Ding said that things are slightly better than they were in the early 1990s, a time commonly regarded as the golden age for Chinese rock. "At least now rock musicians have more performance opportunities, wider media coverage and better equipment."

He added that rock music has never entered China's mainstream culture. "It's too hard for Chinese to make rock music, with opposition from family and society. We have never felt too much hope over the decades. It is a miracle that we are still pulling through."

In his opinion, a country's rock music industry cannot just rely upon a few rockers and bands without the support from the social environ'ment, especially in terms of ideology.

Tang Dynasty, often credited as being the first heavy metal band in China, rose to fame with their first major album A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty in 1991. In the 19 years that followed, they only released two more albums: Epic in 1998 and Romantic Knight in 2008.

Looking back at Tang Dynasty's jour'ney, Ding said that it is not easy for a rock band to survive for such a long time. He credited their sustainability to the sound inner communication and understanding within the band (except maybe for guitar'ist Lao Wu, who left the group twice) and the band members' growing maturity as well as constant support and encourage'ment from their fans.

"It is moving and confidence building to see the audience aged from 10 years to 60 every time we perform," Ding added.

According to Ding, the band's current goal is to push China's artistic rock to the edge, a music genre that focuses on a complete concept, regardless of popu'lar opinion. In his opinion, the current music market has changed to favor "fast food" music. However, to Tang Dynasty, music is something that should be treated with respect and seriousness.

"Quality is our first priority. The current market's pursuit of speed and quantity is nonsense."

Ding admitted that releasing only three albums in 20 years is considered by many as far too few and too slow. "We like to release less songs but put our hearts into them, rather than making trash music that nobody is going to remember."

With this philosophy in mind, Ding de'clined to reveal when their fourth album will hit the market, just saying that it is "under production and we are not in a hurry to finish it."

He explained that there are always doubts and misgivings as'sociated with making each piece of music, so the band will "take it slow to eliminate regrets to the best possible extent."

He revealed that the fourth album would be a concept album, reflecting the band's recent feelings and thoughts. They are thinking of maybe creat'ing a fictitious character and using interviews with him and his life to connect past to present on the album.

Ding said that the EP Up and Down, to be released during Sunday's Star Live performance, does not represent their coming album, but is simply a small conclusion of the past two years.

Up and Down is not for sale. It is available free of charge for people attending the Star Live perfor'mance and the band's upcoming show in Tianjin scheduled for April 10.

"By doing so, we hope to make people realize music's original intention and funda'mental nature, that is, music should be pure and simple."