Author: Tang Yingfeng
My second brother's room at work is always stuffy. If you suddenly open the door, it will be filled with smoke, and countless crumpled cigarette butts will be lying twisted in a randomly placed ashtray, reminding me of the aftermath of the Normandy landing, with corpses scattered everywhere. There is always a pot of tea that has already been diluted to almost no color next to my second brother, and fish tanks, calligraphy and paintings, and talismans obtained from temples make up my second brother's work environment. My second brother was born in 1989, only two years older than me, but he looks like an old man.
I can't remember when my second brother first told me about wanting to form his own band.
"They all sing well, but it doesn't feel right, none of it feels quite right." During this time, my second brother and I looked for several potential partners who could become collaborators, but the singers' state and understanding of the work always differed slightly from our expectations. My second brother sat on the sofa, holding a cigarette with a filter tip, his facial features scrunched up. When he is worried, his head becomes oily and shiny.
My second brother has been engaged in music arrangement for nearly ten years. He has produced three albums for the band "Ku Yu Si", served as the music director for "Evil Liang Huan Xiu", and participated in some other projects. In the meantime, he constantly had scattered work. "We have to make a living, so we can only work." My second brother always says this when he is overwhelmed with work, struggling to keep his eyes open. But every musician wants to have their own works.
One day, I went to my second brother's house. The TV in the living room was playing "Bright Sword". My second brother was arranging music in his workspace. I asked, "Why are you watching TV?" My second brother said, "It's too quiet at home, I need some sound." He bought a house last year and has been busy with renovations. His father also fell ill, and money was needed everywhere. My second brother was down-to-earth, so he immersed himself in the world and didn't have many frivolous thoughts. Therefore, he has the greatest financial pressure among our group of friends. He sold the electric piano he bought last year to pay for his father's medical treatment. When the workers came to pick it up, he had a smile on his face, but he whispered to me, "This is just a temporary solution. I'll buy it back when the pressure is less."
"Take it slow, take it slow," I said.
The first time I met Taozi was when we were all eating skewers together. She was wearing casual sportswear, her hair a bit messy, and her face was rosy. She said to me, "Hey, I know you. I heard from a friend that you write lyrics really well. I have two songs here. Can you help me try to write lyrics for them?" The steam from the hot pot filled the center of the table, and I felt a bit awkward, not knowing how to respond. Seeing the situation, our friend quickly changed the subject. After dinner, Taozi recommended a restaurant in Tongzhou where we could eat rabbit meat and said, "Let's go next time."
After that, I continued to be busy with my own album and Fu Yi's album. My second brother also worked on our albums during his free time from other projects, as well as working on his own unnamed band. My second brother sat in front of the computer all day, as usual. When he was tired, he would make a pot of tea and lie down among the equipment. He looked like a programmer. If one day my second brother secretly built a rocket in his room, I probably wouldn't be too surprised.
The first time I heard the unfinished version of "Falling" was at the end of last year. It was an English song written by Taozi herself, a very authentic British love song, and it sounded great. My second brother was very excited. I asked, "Who is singing?" My second brother said, "Taozi." I didn't react for a moment and asked, "When do you plan to release it?" My second brother said, "Whenever, waiting for the cover."
It really was whenever.
One day, my second brother unexpectedly posted a link to a song in the group chat and said, "The song is released." There was no plan and no notification to the platforms. "Last Night's Party," the band composed of my second brother's music arrangements and Taozi's vocals, made their debut with their first work quietly and unexpectedly.
My second brother seemed a bit disappointed with the result of less than a hundred comments on the first day. He felt anxious about the future of this newly formed band. I comforted my second brother and said, "It's like this, take it slow and accumulate content." My second brother said, "Why is it that your songs get over 999+ comments shortly after they are released?" I said, "Because of the previous fan base and the music genre, it's the trend now. But the data doesn't represent the music itself."
My second brother probably didn't understand that the success of a work is not just about the quality of the music. Completing the music is just the first step. My second brother didn't know that he did the first step very well, in a sense, better than all of us. This is what I like about his creativity.
I asked my second brother, what genre do you plan to make the next songs? My second brother said, "Bro, I haven't figured it out yet." I said, "Let's think about it together. I'll write the lyrics for the next songs." I thought saying this would ease some of my second brother's worries, but he became even more anxious. He said, "I have thought about it, but what if the band doesn't take off? How do we handle that?" I said, "It's okay, we're creating something. Let's agree on a proportion for profit and loss. I don't consider it a loss to put energy into writing a few lyrics. Don't burden yourself." My second brother always directly addresses any potential conflicts, without beating around the bush. It's comfortable to work with him.
Naturalism, classical science fiction, and the fascination with cult films are a few themes I wanted to write about a long time ago, but they couldn't be touched upon in the previous albums' positioning. The retro style of "Last Night's Party" is a great medium for these themes, with a grand and ever-changing atmosphere.
Interestingly, now the completed songs "Whale Fall," "Curvature Flight," and "Warm Radiance" are all based on discarded drafts from before, which were modified and improved.
"These lyrics lack something." This was the unanimous comment from the musicians who rejected these songs before. Their so-called "something" refers to popular catchy phrases that everyone likes, subjective "objective catchphrases." During the years when everyone was enthusiastic about discussing what is independent and what is popular, these "somethings" were equally important. They could almost be used to measure whether a creator is mature in their creative ideas.
I think as long as the concept of an album still exists and we want to make albums, we should continue to adhere to the concept of creating works that fit the album.
I have only two words to describe the creative direction of "Last Night's Party" during this period: romantic - a sentimental romance that reveres nature, a rational romance that imagines the vastness of the universe, and a romanticism born from the collision of popular culture and subculture. The songs are like different types of roses, combining elements of metal, ocean waves, retro vibes, and a sense of freedom, creating a bouquet with this "romantic" setting to construct a psychedelic party that transcends time and space.
If I put the nostalgia for the world and the poetic sentiment in the previous albums and distributed them to Chen Hongyu, Liu Haolin, and Fu Yi, then what I give to "Last Night's Party" is my long-held romantic sentiment - about colorful time and space, about the deep sea and starry sky, about classical waves, and also about the small fascination with cult films.
The singles are being released one by one. In the current environment where a single hit song can establish a foothold, the attention for "Last Night's Party" has only sporadically increased. In the past six months, it has not caused any visible waves. But we know that there is a small group of people who have started paying attention to this band without a recognizable genre. This is probably our most lukewarm rebellion.
Just like when I was writing "Whale Fall," I said, "Second brother, imagine a scene of a huge dead tiger whale slowly sinking in the deep sea, with flashes of fish swimming around it. The ocean currents stirred up by the tides are the low notes of the cello, and the flickering lights on the fish are the clear sounds of the piano." I described it like this.
Just like "Warm Radiance" was originally a Bossa Nova style song that I wrote lyrics for someone else, but the collaboration was put on hold and the lyrics were abandoned. My second brother studied jazz since elementary school, but he doesn't like watching movies. Taozi used to sing jazz in her performances. I said, "Let's make a Chinese jazz song together." Writing jazz in Chinese is the most difficult to make it sound good. Luckily, I have a song that I think is very suitable. This set of lyrics is actually a word game, and I managed to insert references to 21 foreign classic romance films that I personally love. I told my second brother about it, and he said, "I haven't watched any of those movies, but I understand jazz." I played "As Time Goes By" from "Casablanca" for my second brother, and he said, "I think I understand the feeling you're talking about." After the lyrics were laid out, it turned out that my second brother truly understood.
Creation is wonderful, just like that. We talk about achieving certain data, playing some clever tricks to make compromises, but once we enter the creative state, all these considerations are thrown out the window. I think the most important thing between creative partners is not to wear each other down and to still have expectations for the work. Perhaps this is the state we should maintain at the moment.
Naturalism, classical science fiction, and the fascination with cult films are a few themes I wanted to write about a long time ago, but they couldn't be touched upon in the previous albums' positioning. The retro style of "Last Night's Party" is a great medium for these themes, with a grand and ever-changing atmosphere.
Interestingly, now the completed songs "Whale Fall," "Curvature Flight," and "Warm Radiance" are all based on discarded drafts from before, which were modified and improved.
"These lyrics lack something." This was the unanimous comment from the musicians who rejected these songs before. Their so-called "something" refers to popular catchy phrases that everyone likes, subjective "objective catchphrases." During the years when everyone was enthusiastic about discussing what is independent and what is popular, these "somethings" were equally important. They could almost be used to measure whether a creator is mature in their creative ideas.
I think as long as the concept of an album still exists and we want to make albums, we should continue to adhere to the concept of creating works that fit the album.
I have only two words to describe the creative direction of "Last Night's Party" during this period: romantic - a sentimental romance that reveres nature, a rational romance that imagines the vastness of the universe, and a romanticism born from the collision of popular culture and subculture. The songs are like different types of roses, combining elements of metal, ocean waves, retro vibes, and a sense of freedom, creating a bouquet with this "romantic" setting to construct a psychedelic party that transcends time and space.
If I put the nostalgia for the world and the poetic sentiment in the previous albums and distributed them to Chen Hongyu, Liu Haolin, and Fu Yi, then what I give to "Last Night's Party" is my long-held romantic sentiment - about colorful time and space, about the deep sea and starry sky, about classical waves, and also about the small fascination with cult films.
The singles are being released one by one. In the current environment where a single hit song can establish a foothold, the attention for "Last Night's Party" has only sporadically increased. In the past six months, it has not caused any visible waves. But we know that there is a small group of people who have started paying attention to this band without a recognizable genre. This is probably our most lukewarm rebellion.
Just like when I was writing "Whale Fall," I said, "Second brother, imagine a scene of a huge dead tiger whale slowly sinking in the deep sea, with flashes of fish swimming around it. The ocean currents stirred up by the tides are the low notes of the cello, and the flickering lights on the fish are the clear sounds of the piano." I described it like this.
Just like "Warm Radiance" was originally a Bossa Nova style song that I wrote lyrics for someone else, but the collaboration was put on hold and the lyrics were abandoned. My second brother studied jazz since elementary school, but he doesn't like watching movies. Taozi used to sing jazz in her performances. I said, "Let's make a Chinese jazz song together." Writing jazz in Chinese is the most difficult to make it sound good. Luckily, I have a song that I think is very suitable. This set of lyrics is actually a word game, and I managed to insert references to 21 foreign classic romance films that I personally love. I told my second brother about it, and he said, "I haven't watched any of those movies, but I understand jazz." I played "As Time Goes By" from "Casablanca" for my second brother, and he said, "I think I understand the feeling you're talking about." After the lyrics were laid out, it turned out that my second brother truly understood.
Creation is wonderful, just like that. We talk about achieving certain data, playing some clever tricks to make compromises, but once we enter the creative state, all these considerations are thrown out the window. I think the most important thing between creative partners is not to wear each other down and to still have expectations for the work. Perhaps this is the state we should maintain at the moment.
Three months later, the post-production of "Last Night's Party's" fifth single "Strange Tales" was completed. On that day, I went to my second brother's house. The TV in the living room had switched to "I Love My Family." Looking out of the window in his workspace, some of the green plants in the neighborhood had turned yellow, with a noticeable autumn weariness. He pointed to a newly purchased synthesizer and said, "This is the cool thing I bought, I'll let you try it later. It's fucking awesome." He couldn't hide his excitement.
Author: Tang Yingfeng