We recently caught up with Taiwanese musician Chiu Pi to talk about SPLENDOR, his new full-length album (which he proudly proclaims to be even better than his previous album, Zang Zang). The album has been generating a lot of chatter in China, so we were keen to chat with Chiu Pi to learn more about his creative approach and how recent lifestyle choices have shaped the album.
“《大放》是比《正正》还要更正的一个作品。”邱比也在这张新作里表现出不同以往的乐观开朗，网络上对这张专辑的介绍已经很多，但我还是以新专辑为由选择更私密地跟邱比聊天30分钟。我们的话题在严肃的音乐创作主题跟一个年轻人应有的愉悦生活之间进进出出，就像《大放》说的故事一样，拥有充满各种微妙细节的高尚。
Listen to two of our favorite tracks from his new album below:
先来听一下这张专辑中的两首音乐:
On each track of the new album, Chiu assumes the role of four different characters. The characters – which represent personality, logic, emotion, and physicality – are all based on the concepts from the field of psychology, a discipline that he’s been endlessly infatuated with. Chiu is ecstatic about how the album turned out, considering that the concept is something he hasn’t seen done before. But the experimental aspects of SPLENDOR don’t end there; rather than following a conventional songwriting process, his loops and samples were meticulously worked and re-worked based on individual words in the lyrics. This method is meant to emphasize the underlying meanings of his deliberate word choices. As the cherry on top, Chiu enlisted the help of Grammy Award-winning sound engineer Chris Gehringer to master the album.
Being such an ambitious and painstaking endeavor, the production of SPLENDOR ate up most of Chiu’s 2017. But with this new year, he hopes to find a better balance between work and personal life, even entertaining the idea of being in a relationship. Explaining his shifting priorities and outlook, he says, “Without a destination to look forward to, people don’t feel motivated. However, in the past, I thought that walking alone meant getting to my destination faster. Now I’ve realized, much like Frodo being accompanied by Sam in Lord of the Rings, having someone by my side will ultimately help bring me closer to completing my journey.”
《大放》一人分饰四角的演唱方式暗合了心理学所谓人的四部分：本质、理智、情感、身体。这是邱比全新的尝试“全地球上没有一张唱片这样做”，由曾获格莱美的母带工程师Chris Gehringer负责整张专辑的响度处理，这次的环形编曲也并不是简单地去剪接整段完整的演唱，而是依靠一个词一个词的录制重组，去强调邱比对每个中文词语含义的不同理解，这也几乎让他的整个2017都置身在这种禅修般的创作环境中，以至于他的新年愿望是希望可以恋爱，“人总要发愿才会有愿力，以前觉得，一个人会走的比较快，可是如果我有一个伙伴就像山姆跟弗罗多一样，我才能走更远去摧毁魔戒。”
In Chinese mainstream music, listeners have been conditioned to expect songs that focus on generics stories of experiencing heartbreak and finding catharsis. Chiu abandons this clichéd formula in SPLENDOR. Instead, he sings about his own random musings and mundane observations (such as discarded aluminum cans or even his own pillow). “Most people can only enjoy superficial topics,” he says. “But I believe this album will resonate with certain listeners, and through my music, I want them to grow. I want to grow with them.”
在主流音乐世界里我们似乎习惯了太多泛泛而谈——概念的失恋，通用的自我安慰或者干脆直接截取的一个群体价值观，《大放》描绘的那些私人意象就显得格外动人，漂洋过海的铁铝罐跟你的枕头与一些看似毫无关联的形容词碰撞在一起，他毫无保留的呈现出这些来自真实生活的物品，“大众化的情绪不够性感，我更相信有很多特别的听众存在，我想通过我的音乐跟他们一起去成长。”
His upcoming 18-city Asia tour will be one of the largest Asia tours by a Taiwanese musician in recent years. Acknowledging the long road ahead, Chiu jokingly tells us needs to go and do his voice exercises as our interview comes to a close. The name of the tour, Shang Xia Yi Fang (上下一方), is constructed from dissecting the Chinese characters from the albums SPLENDOR (大放) and Zang Zang (正正). While the nuances of the tour’s name become lost in translation, the main takeaway will be that it’s designed to be an ambivalent phrase; the purposeful ambiguity perfectly embodies Chiu’s own musical style – thoughtfully created yet difficult to define and categorize.
邱比接下来会开始十八个城市的巡回演唱会，这大概是台湾音乐人近年来最大规模的巡演了，他笑称挂了这通电话就要立刻去练肺活量了。这次演唱会被邱比命名为「上下一方」，取自《正正》与《大放》的缩写，一个就像没有任何风格的镜子的名字，却能折射出最邱比的样子。
Website: chiu-pi.portfoliobox.me
Weibo: ~/chiupi
Instagram: @chiu.pi
