采访：小火车心 Mini Train Heart Interview

By Tom, 2011年 3月 28日

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《 看中文采访 》

Hubei band Mini Train Heart have operated at the fringes of Wuhan’s music scene for almost two years now, most recently supporting Shanghai noise conspiracy Pairs when they visited Vox, Wuhan’s main livehouse, this January.

I’ve followed the band since stumbling on their Douban page a while back, and took advantage of a recent trip to Wuhan to get in contact with lead singer Xu Jian, who suggested I meet the band for a Sunday afternoon rehearsal at Vox’s practice rooms in a crumbling building in the city’s bucolic East Lake complex, down the road from Vox itself. As well as Xu Jian, Mini Train Heart currently is: guitarist Chen Li, bass player Li Lixin and recent arrival Deng Chenglong, who plays synth. Partly as a result of Deng’s influence, the band’s sound is undergoing some changes, as some of their rough edges and plunky keyboard are swapped for a more synth-driven new-wave sound.

Mini Train Heart – “同志网吧”

Mini Train Heart – “就是那种感觉”

Mini Train Heart – “危险人物”

pangbianr: How did you get together?

Li Lixin: Mini Train Heart have their origins in Xu Jian and Chen Li’s, Lao Jiaoshou, which they formed with two of their college classmates. The band played Vox about 4 times, and I saw them twice. I’d never seen anything quite like them before in Wuhan, it looked like what they were doing was fun and I wanted to get involved. Their musicianship wasn’t so hot, but I like their overall thinking and what they were trying to express musically. Their style was really all up to Xu Jian, and wasn’t easy to categorise. After Lao Jiaoshou split up, they were looking for a bass player, so I decided to give it a try.

Deng Chenglong: I used to be in a noise band called Swing Photographer Thomas. Not quite like Beijing’s Mafeisan, a bit more upbeat, just messing around really.

Li: We’d been looking for a keyboard player for a while, as our music felt a bit too empty, we needed a synth to fill out the sound. At that time Chenglong was working as a bartender at Vox, where we met. We were worried he wouldnt like our music as he was into all this weird noise stuff, but actually he didn’t have a problem with it.

pbr: Do you have any common musical influences?

Li: Yeah there’s some bands we all like: Radiohead, The Strokes. Joy Division are OK too.

Deng: I’m more into Acid Mothers Temple

Li: I think Chenglong has influenced my tastes a bit, before I probably wouldn’t have listened to a band like White before, but became a fan after meeting Chenglong.

pbr: What’s it been like performing in Wuhan? How have your audiences reacted？

Li: Our first show was a bit of a disaster, we were the warm up act for a heavy metal group, once we’d finished I felt like should just split up. But we spent another three months writing and practicing. Then Jasmine Garden, another Wuhan band who were from the same college as Liao Jiaoshou asked us to support them at Vox. That show was during the National Day holidays, the place was packed. Once we came off stage one of the staff at Vox, who happens to be from Nepal, came up and congratulated us, from that performance I started to think we might actually be OK.

pbr: Whats the song writing process?

Li: We don’t worry too much about what the audience thinks, as long as we’re happy that’s ok. Usually its Xujian who comes up with an original idea, which is often pretty vague, things are a bit messy and its up to the rest of us to straighten things out. Lyrics are usually the last thing we think about, sometimes there’s no lyrics at all and we just sing randomly onstage. Sometimes songs are making fun of something from everyday life, like the song Power Off, which is just about an everyday phenomenon which happens between friends of in business [two of the band have run or are in the process running Taobao stores]

pbr: Is there a lot of contact between bands in Wuhan?

Li: We know the bands, but to be honest there’s not a lot of exchange of ideas going on. We haven’t been rejected by other bands, but I don’t see our band as carrying on any kind of tradition from previous generations of Wuhan bands. It’s pretty hard to think of any band that could represent a ‘Wuhan sound’, even with AV Okubo it’s not like you can hear them and know straight away they’re from Wuhan, even though they sometimes sing in Wuhan dialect.

pbr: Wuhan has a distinguished musical history, which Wuhan bands would you recommend?

Li: I genuinely think Lao Jiaoshou were one of the best Wuhan bands. I’m also a big fan of the old bands Flip Side and Ten Bottles Heart.

Chen Li: When I first met Xu Jian he was doing hip hop stuff, a bit like Wuhan’s Da Gou

Xu Jian: That wasn’t an influence….

pbr: What’s next for the band, do you think you’ll stay in Wuhan?

Li: I don’t see that happening. We’re all comfortable here in Wuhan, no plans to move at the moment.

Deng: I think its important to keep your own style.

Chen: Beijing can affect people too much.

湖北的“小火车心”乐队立足武汉音乐界已经有两年了，最近他们也给上海噪音乐队pairs当暖场。

自从去年我看到他们的豆瓣小站到现在，我一直在关注他们。趁着去武汉旅行的机会，我找到了他们的主唱许建。他邀请我去武汉东湖附近，离Vox不远的排练室看他们的排练。主唱许建，吉他手陈力，贝司手李立鑫，合成器手邓成龙。他们的音乐风格还处在变化摸索的过程中，从以前比较偏后朋克的风格到最近渗透出的new wave感觉。

小火车心 – “同志网吧”

小火车心 – “就是那种感觉”

小火车心 – “危险人物”

旁边儿: 你们乐队是怎么创立的？

李立鑫: 小火车心的前身是吉他手陈力和许建和另外一个鼓手、一个bass手（他们已经毕业回家的）共同建立的一个叫老教授的乐队，是他们在上大学的时候组建的. 在Vox演过四次，我看过其中两次.当时觉得他们的乐队特别好玩，跟我以前在武汉看过的乐队都不一样。虽然节奏和整体感都不好，但是他们的想法和他们音乐所表达的东西我觉得非常棒，听了之后就想有意愿想和他们一块儿玩儿。整个音乐风格是由许建主导的，具体类型也不好说。老教授解散散之后，他们想找个bass手，于是我决定试一试。

邓成龙: 我以前有个噪音乐队叫Swing Photographer Thomas. 跟(麻沸散)不一样，感觉更愉快一点！就随便玩。

李立鑫: 我们一直想找一个和声器手，找一个键盘，因为觉得我们的音乐稍微有一点太空洞了，所以找个和声器来帮我们把声音做的更饱满一些。成龙当时在VOX打工，做酒保，所以就在那里认识他. 但是我当时感觉他可能不会喜欢我们，他特别喜欢那种很怪很噪的东西，但后来他也是慢慢就喜欢并接受了。

旁边儿: 你们有哪些共同喜欢的乐队？

李立鑫: 我们四个都有共同喜欢的乐队比如Radiohead，Strokes. Joy Division也还可以。

邓成龙: 我个人喜欢Acid Mothers Temple

李立鑫: 我被成龙影响比较多.我之前都没怎么接触过像white这样的乐队，在认识他之后觉得太好听了

旁边儿: 在武汉演出感觉咋样？观众是什么反应？

李立鑫: 第一次演出是一场灾难，我们是给一个重金属的乐队暖场。演完了我就想解散了。之后我们用三月的时间焖头在写歌排练，然后一个好朋友的乐队叫茉莉花园办了他们自己的专场，想找我们跟他们演。当时是10月1号，因为国庆放假所以很多人来看演出，我们是在他们的之前演的，当时Vox有一个员工是尼泊尔人，我记得我们演完下台的时候，他马上过来握我的手说“你们乐队实在是太棒了”。那场之后，我们发现我们其实也没那么差。

旁边儿: 你们的歌是怎么写的？

李立鑫: 我们没有过多考虑听众需要听什么，就想自己开心就好.一般是许建先有一个动机，但是他经常想着想着就找不着边儿了，我们就负责把他拉回来，先把配乐做好，歌词一般是到最后才完成。我们有很多歌在第一次演出的时候都是乱唱的.有几首是调侃生活的感觉，像Power Off这首，就是表达一种给朋友倾诉做买卖的事，因为我现在就在做买卖，开淘宝店。

旁边儿: 你们这些武汉的乐队之间经常联系吗？

李立鑫: 基本上都认识，但交流不是特别多. 我们倒是不排斥，但我们音乐没有继承武汉以前乐队的风格. 现在虽然能够走出来让大家知道，但是要说能有武汉本地特色的乐队其实很少。包括大家都知道的AV大久保，他谈我们的东西的时候就说到，也听不出来我们是武汉的乐队，虽然有些乐队的唱腔部分是用武汉话。

旁边儿: 武汉摇滚历史比较悠久，你们会推荐哪些武汉的乐队？

李立鑫: 老教授，我真觉得算是武汉挺好的乐队. 老乐队。。。Flipside也可以，还有十瓶心我蛮喜欢

陈力:许健以前是搞hip hop的，有点像武汉的大狗。

许健：那个基本没受到影响。

旁边儿: 你们有想过小火车心以后会怎么发展，打算跑到其他的城市么？

李立鑫： 没必要，主要我们都习惯了武汉的生活节奏，所以现在暂时不会去外地。

邓：需要保持自我的风格。

陈：如果去北京受到多方的影响比较多。

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