Showdown Sounds 西城最后的西部男孩

Chinese Psywaves is a collaboration between Neocha and M-Lab by Modern Sky. Throughout the month of May, we’re going to introduce four Chinese alternative rock groups who are making waves. For them, music is a spiritual sustenance that transcends the boundaries of genre. This week, we’ve got The Molds, straight out of Beijing’s Xicheng district. 

We live in fast times: no one has time to exchange a few friendly words anymore, because we’re inundated with information, and what’s new today is obsolete tomorrow. The Molds, who sing old-fashioned songs of love and vengeance, are determined to resist these trends. They have a fondness for the showdowns and shoot-outs of Western movies, and generally for anything in life that sticks to its guns and refuses to change. Though the members may not look like cowboys or desperados, their impassioned croons seem to be made for riding off into the Wild West.

The Molds got their start in the heyday of Beijing’s avant-garde rock scene around 2010, when all kinds of underground punk and post-punk artists were active on the scene and hung out at Beijing’s D-22 club. The Molds stood out for their rockabilly sound, with echoes of Elvis, 60s psychedelia, and surf rock. Asked if their sound might be out of step with life in China, Liu Ge, the frontman, just asks, “You really think so?” The love and revenge that The Molds sing about are universal, and while their lyrics aren’t quite as bloody as a Western flick, they’re sung with a rugged charm.

Click here to listen to tracks by The Molds:

In the more than ten years since they got started, The Molds have always kept a low profile and an air of mystery. Each time they start to generate buzz, they opt to take a pause or gradually fade from the public eye. By 2016, when The Molds again were in the limelight, D-22 had long since been converted into a pizza joint, and the other rock clubs seemed to have lost their edge.

Today, the band is made up of frontman Liu Ge, drummer Li Zichao, bassist Liu Fang, and guitarist Qiao Xi. As they put it, they’re as close as brothers, and this relationship makes writing songs a breeze. “If someone talks shit about me or says I suck, I don’t care,” says Liu Ge. “But I won’t stand for someone talking shit about the other guys in the band.” Qiao Xi agrees: “We’re like that propaganda slogan from the 30s: united, alert, earnest, and lively.”

Click here to listen to tracks from The Molds’ new EP L’Ultimo Saloon del West:

The Molds released their first LP, Born Astride the Grave, on the Space Fruity label in 2018. Most of the tracks, which are reworkings of their earlier songs, center on lost youth, decadence, disappointment, and betrayal. It’s a reckoning with their past lives and works.

The band’s new EP L’Ultimo Saloon del West offers something new and unusual. It’s the first true collaboration since they formed their new lineup, and it’s presented as the soundtrack to a non-existent film. This “film” involves a romantic entanglement and evokes the nostalgia for their years in Beijing’s western district of Xicheng. The track “The Theme Song,” closes the album with their most unexpected song to date, a duet sang by a fictitious couple madly in love. With the release of the new EP, Neocha caught up with the band to chat about their lives and their music.

L’Ultimo Saloon del West is now available on vinyl and can be purchased here.

Neocha: On your new EP, why did you use the pseudonym “The Bad Molds”?

Liu Ge: The name is our alter ego, because men don’t just have one face.

Neocha: Where did you find the name of your latest EP, L’Ultimo Saloon del West? What story does it tell?

Liu Ge: For the last ten years we’ve been living in Xicheng, on the west side of Beijing. As for why it’s the last saloon, maybe it’s a sendoff, an elegy for the beauty of the past. It’s mostly a love story about life and death, and the ending is rather poignant.

Liu Fang: It’s set in a virtual Westworld.

Qiao Xi: It’s cinematic, and the listener can imagine film scenes to go with the music.

Neocha: If the new EP was a film, who directed it or who would you want to direct it?

Liu Ge: A lot of people say our music reminds them of Tarantino, but I think that’s going a little far.

Qiao Xi: Jim Jarmusch or the Coen brothers could direct it.

Neocha: Where do you usually find inspiration? What areas of life are relevant to writing music?

Liu Ge: Sometimes when I’m walking down the street, there’s a tree blocking the person walking toward me. If neither of us move, our faces are always obscured by the tree, and we can never see what the other looks like. Moments in life you can’t quite put into words or make sense of can spark my desire to create.

Qiao Xi: Our work draws on the current state of our lives. Getting by, dealing with emotions—these are all things we want to express in our music. Literature, film, and other people’s music all have a subtle influence: an image or a scrap might gets recorded in our minds, and create a chemical reaction with something happening in our lives. And that combines to make our music.

Li Zichao: Playing the drums is like cooking, it takes both hands to make something of value.

Neocha: You guys draw heavily on Western movies. What is it about them that attracts you?

Qiao Xi: Westerns have really strong characters, and these forceful personalities are unwavering throughout the film. They never change.

Neocha: In your music, you wax poetic about earlier age. Do you think modern life is still rubbish?

Li Zichao: It’s fine, I guess.

Liu Ge: Yes. There are too many choices. Writing songs is a way of resisting the modern lifestyle.

Liu Fang: Technology makes things a lot easier, but at the same time it moves too fast and makes people shallow and impatient. Slow growth is better. I don’t really look at my friends’ posts on social media, I don’t think there’s much of a point.

Neocha: What do you think it takes to make a good band? How would you tell good music from bad, from a fan’s perspective?

Li Zichao: Being a good person.

Liu Ge: I think a good band needs to have a style—everyone should wear leather shoes! Whatever the style of music, the band has to be on the same wavelength. The members have to have an unspoken agreement.

Liu Fang: I think a good band should create music that moves themselves as well as others. It’s crucial for a band to be steadfast about their personal tastes.

Neocha: How can musicians stay true to themselves in the face of the commercialization of China’s underground music scene? Is there anything you want to say to the current age?

Liu Ge: I think it’s pretty good. It gets people in the habit of listening to underground music.

Liu Fang: I think there’s good and bad. The good side is that underground music gets exposed to a mass audience, and more people can hear it. Last year, after “The Big Band” reality tv competition, more people have become interested in seeing bands perform live. The bad side is that if musicians chase after these goals too much, it’s hard for them to be committed to their own vision.

Qiao Xi: I think there’s a lot of confusion in today’s Chinese-language music scene. Reality shows are educating people. Underground music has gained a lot of followers because of the media, which in itself is a good thing.

Neocha: Does the spirit of rock still live on? If so, where?

Liu Ge: You’ve got to believe it does. It lives on in anyone willing to challenge conventional ideas.

Qiao Xi: The spirit of rock isn’t tied to one style of music anymore. No matter what your style, if you can express yourself, you’ve got that spirit.

Neocha: If what your new single says is true, “the band’s about to go on hiatus.” What are you each planning to do on this hiatus?

Liu Ge: We want to get this year’s tour lined up, and then we’ve got some new songs to record. The style won’t be different. We’re like the bad guys in a Western: we never change.

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Weibo: ~/TheMolds

Contributor: Pete Zhang
Photographers: Ganchao Lao Yan, Lao Zhai
Images Courtesy of The Molds