News from Zhang Si’an

Hi Everyone,

A few things this time.

1) A new blog entry on Music Dish China http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12987

2) A Music video contest for bands in China http://china.musicdish.com/musicdishtv/ 视频音乐大赛

3) A video on youtube for my latest live recording http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTOKiJXfhho

New blog entry:

Wuhan Daze, Shanghai Blaze – AIS & “La Fete de la Musique”
Her boyfriend took her back, but every time JS would get close to the front of the stage, she would grab his leg and try to jump back onstage

written by Maikel Liem and Zhang Si’an

By Zhang Si’an (aka Jean-Sébastien Héry)
(more articles from this author)
2011-08-21

Comment | Email | Print | RSS

There we were, 3 guys on a plane setting sail for Wuhan. Upon arrival, we met what the weatherman had already grimly predicted: rain and more rain. But we didn’t want that to dampen our spirits; and it didn’t until it was time for us to go to the venue for the sound check.

Already because of the weather, the venue was changed from outdoors to indoors. So that night we were to play in Wuhan’s biggest live venue, the Vox Livehouse.

For those of you who are familiar with Beijing venues, it’s a kind of mix between Mao livehouse (with it’s gritty rock atmosphere) and D22 (with its 2 floors and grotty, graffiti covered bathrooms).

But as you might have guessed, the biggest problem was getting there: it took us nearly 2 hours to get a cab since all streets were flooded. We did finally manage to get there even though our cab broke down. When we started our show at 9pm, we were ready to rock. The crowd was pretty rowdy and occasionally some beer was thrown (luckily not at us). That night was hip-hop night, so our repertoire was not supposed to fit in, but it did!

People were excited to see us play, and at one point, a girl jumped on to the stage and started to try kissing with JS (Zhang Si’an) amongst other things. Her boyfriend took her back, but every time JS would get close to the front of the stage, she would grab his leg erotically and try to jump back onstage.

“Babies,” “In the Park,” “Escape,” and all the other songs were met with great enthusiasm, while “This Day” mellowed the predominantly hip-hop audience out. After the show, we didn’t have too much time to stick around as we had to find a “boat” back to our hotel in order to get ready for our morning flight to Shanghai for our second show.

We didn’t find a boat, but we did manage to find a taxi that broke down after 15 minutes – 2nd one in one day! It was all right though as we got back to our hotel and caught some zzz’s before boarding our plane.

In Shanghai, we were greeted with considerably less rain and Gabriel from the French Consulate in Shanghai. He took us to a nice old western style hotel that once provided accommodation to the likes of Albert Einstein and Zhou Enlai. Zhang Si’an used the opportunity to play some Zhongruan to mesmerize the guests in the lobby.

After practicing a bit and getting our instruments tuned up, we headed to the venue located in the city center of Shanghai’s “Xintiandi.” Only this time, it wasn’t in any rock livehouse, but in the lower level of a fancy shopping mall. It felt kind of a strange having to play there on a stage erected between all kinds of (French) luxury goods and watching passing shoppers watch the bands with mild interest. There were, however, seats arranged and there were plenty of people on them.

Still, we knew famous French folk singer Joyce Jonathan had played on that same stage the day before while 80’s French Pop music superstar Jil Caplan was going to play just before JS’ solo performance.

JS started with a solo set of his own music in Chinese including songs from his new project where he mixes elctro and folk music doing loops. He really got the audience into it, also playing on the Chinese instruments Zhongruan, and even getting the Chinese audience to sing in Chinese and clap their hands with him.

After opening the set with our usual song “Intro”, the crowd went wild and it felt like our songs had never met with such enthusiasm. We finished the show with our cover “Caravan” and wrapped it up with our version of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” which certainly left the audience on a joyous note. Especially, when we started playing with our guitars on the ground, and our drummer Mao Mao started to beat that drum and did an amazing drum solo, like there was no tomorrow!

After the show we headed to our next gig at Mao livehouse in Shanghai. We’ve played in the Beijing one many times, but were curious to see what it’s about here. Mao live house Shanghai didn’t disappoint! It was huge compared to its little brother in Beijing, with excellent sound and 2 floors. Quite a few bands had already played before us, so the audience was pretty warmed up. It’s easy to impress a crowd in Beijing as we are used to playing there. But this was new territory and we had to play out of our comfort zone. We had to wait before getting on stage as other bands were playing before us. We couldn’t wait to perform as we were tired after two days of playing and traveling. Maikel took out his cigars out and we started smoking to celebrate.

I think we were so annoyed of having to wait so long that it put us in one of those moods where we urgently needed to play and scream our hearts out. As soon as we got on stage and strummed the first chords of music the crowd got wild, and I could see people were thirsty for more and we played our hearts out.

All in all, this small tour was a great opportunity to meet people and make new fans in southern China. To all you nan fangers (Southerners) over there: AIS salutes you!

The AIS and Zhang Si’an would also like to thank all the people and the “Fête de la musique” in Wuhan and Shanghai who made it possible – we hope to be back there again very soon!

A Music video contest for bands in China

http://china.musicdish.com/musicdishtv/

Chinese Media Portals and Singapore Festival Support MusicDish*China MV Competition
Online video portals Sohu Music and Niurenku are joined by music platform Indie China and indie music festival in Singapore

By Lin Xu
(more articles from this author)
2011-08-21

Comment | Email | Print | RSS

“独立小炒”与众多网络媒体共同打造首届视频音乐大赛

由来自美国纽约的“独立小炒”（MusicDish＊China)音乐公司举办的第一届“独立小炒”（MusicDish＊China）音乐视频大赛，自开赛以来受到了国内独立乐队、独立乐迷广泛的参与与关注。与此同时，这次比赛也得到了众多主流网络媒体如搜狐音乐、牛人库、独立音地等的大力支持。

“搜狐音乐”将为获奖视频在“搜狐音乐”频道进行推广。“牛人库”将为此次比赛的冠军乐队制作一段4－7分钟的迷你纪录片。同时，这段迷你纪录片也会通过“牛人库”自有平台和传播网络播放，把这支乐队介绍给全世界。在国内独立音乐界颇具地位的网络平台“独立音地”（indiechina.com）也参与到本届音乐视频大赛。参赛乐队也将有机会通过“独立音地”展示自己的音乐。除此之外，参赛乐队的作品将有机会在即将发布的新加坡音乐节与Vincent Moon 的Blogotheque/Takeaway Show一起展映。这些合作伙伴的给力支持，让第一届“独立小炒”音乐视频大赛增色不少。

作为主办方的“独立小炒”（MusicDish＊China）音乐公司以及旗下的音乐电视网络MusicDish TV更是倾力打造这次比赛。公司创始人Eric de Fontenay反复强调：“我们欢迎所有原创的独立音乐视频参与比赛。这次视频大赛的目的就是为中国内地、港澳台、新加坡众多的独立乐队提供把自己真实的面貌、声音、作品展示的舞台。”获奖乐队将由“独立小炒”（MusicDish＊China）音乐公司为其打造国际化的曲评与报道，高强度高密度的海外市场宣传，MusicDishTV的视频巡展。除此之外，“独立小炒”（MusicDish＊China）会通过：YouTube, Facebook, DailyMotion, Vimeo, Mevio, Current, WildScreenTV, MySpace, blip.tv, MetaCafe, Viddler, Megavideo和Muzu等这些西方主流社交网络，推广获奖乐队的音乐视频。

“独立小炒”（MusicDish＊China)真诚希望能通过这次大赛建立中国内地、香港、澳门、台湾以及新加坡的独立乐队与西方独立乐队、独立音乐乐迷交流的平台，为亚洲独立音乐提供走向世界舞台的机会。

想了解更多“独立小炒”（MusicDish＊China）视频大赛的相关信息或参加比赛，请访问大赛的主页：http://china.musicdish.com/musicdishtv/ 。

A video on youtube for my latest live recording “Live at the Library”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTOKiJXfhho