After months of accumulating hype, Chengdu quintet Hiperson is ready for their close-up. The winners of Douban’s Alibu Music Awards for ‘Newcomer of the Year’ have just released their debut album and will bring their first national tour to Yuyintang on May 30.
“I feel like I’m in class and the teacher just called on me to answer a question,” laughs guitarist Liu Zetong during a break from band rehearsal. “A little nervous, at a loss for what to do, but very stimulated.”
Few newcomers have accumulated as much cred as Hiperson. The group began three years ago in university when guitarists Liu and Ji Yinan recorded a couple of demos. Bassist Huang Rentao, drummer Wang Boqiang and frontwoman Chen Sijing later joined.
Although it's each members’ first time in a band, the early twenty-somethings find themselves at the forefront of a Chengdu rock explosion alongside like-minded peers such as The Hormones and Stolen.
“Chengdu’s a great place for bands. It’s very inclusive and there are plenty of opportunities for different types of music,” Liu says, praising acts like rockers Daredevil and Lanzhou folkies Gajin.
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Already, the group has been featured in documentarian John Yingling’s Chinese mainland episode of The World Underground series that covers underground music scenes across the globe. Domestic rock vets like Wang Wen’s Xie Yugang have taken the young upstarts under their wings, and the group is Maybe Mars-approved, joining stalwart domestic acts like Carsick Cars and Duck Fight Goose on the label.
“We were deeply drawn to Maybe Mars and hoped to be like one of their bands: genuinely young, dynamic, sensitive, adept at communicating and willing to sacrifice for the sake of music,” Chen says.
Label CEO and PK14 frontman Yang Haisong recorded and produced their album No Need for Another History and the disc will be available in double-vinyl form.
“We wanted to structure the album as a timeline, beginning at the immature and reckless period from when we first started,” Liu explains.
Their remarkably self-assured debut makes good on the group’s growing hype as keepers of the Mainland post-punk tradition established by acts like PK14 and RE:TROS.
Musically, the band shows remarkable skill, disregarding the standard verse-chorus-verse format for something more unpredictable. Their intensity and penchant for anthem-tune group “whoa-ing” is reminiscent of early Arcade Fire.
The poetic and charismatic Chen demands attention on stage. She’s been dubbed “the female Yang Haisong,” which she is less than pleased with; afraid the moniker “will take attention away from the music.” However, she shares his passion and commitment to Mainland indie rock.
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“If you’re interested in rock music, get involved in the scene. If you want to be in a band, start one as soon as possible,” she implores, while shouting out likeminded young groups like Xi’an’s The Fuzz, Henan’s The Fallacy and Beijing’s Birdstriking.
“If you’re young and want to be an artist in China, you will encounter three questions: how do you support yourself, how will you handle your family and society’s reaction, and do you have the passion? As long as the answer is yes to the third question, then you will be able to solve the first two.”
// May 30, 9.30pm-late, RMB60-80. Yuyintang.
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Image by Xiao Fu
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