A half-decade gap between albums may be the norm for veteran rock stars holding on to what’s left of their musical careers. But for a young band with massive potential and a solid fanbase, it’s rare. “We’ve been through a lot, both in and out of music,” say Wang Xinjiu and He Fan, the founding members of Beijing noise rock outfit Birdstriking.
They aren’t kidding.
Not long after the band first formed, Birdstriking had risen through the ranks of the Chinese capital’s rock clubs. In 2012, the college-aged trio released their self-titled debut album, which was recorded by local hero Yang Haisong from P.K.14 via Maybe Mars.
The problem? Lyrics like “You can control the media, but you can’t control my mind” didn’t sit well with authorities, and because of a track called ‘Monkey Snake,’ Birdstriking weren't able to distribute their album in the PRC.
This rebellious punk exuberance convinced Anton Newcombe, the frontman of San Francisco psych-rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre, to re-release Birdstriking’s album under his UK label ‘A’ Recordings three years later. That same year, Birdstriking went on a 25-date US tour under the management of Ricky Maymi, The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s guitarist. It was Maymi who proposed a follow-up record by the Beijing-based band.
We think people should open up their brains and let in new things
The result was Holey Brain, which is slated for an August 2017 release under Maybe Mars once again. When asked if they’ve consciously chosen to avoid potentially controversial topics this time around, the band say they're unconcerned with things like sales distribution or the lack thereof.
“It wasn’t a big problem for our debut, as the genuine fans will buy our music no matter what,” says the band. “We didn’t pay too much attention to the content either. The writing was a pretty fluid and natural process.”
Fans anticipating a new brand of Birdstriking social commentary need not look further than the album’s unusual title. “We think people should open up their brain and let in new things,” they say. “People, including us, are too lazy to leave their comfort zone sometimes.”
The band is urging their fans to have ‘holey brains’ and open up to their new musical direction, a more developed sound, albeit without the first album’s active courting of controversy.
While the Velvet Underground-meets-Sonic Youth controlled chaos of the first album remains, the lyrical content of Holey Brain is as clean and wholesome as it gets. Instead of rallying cries against brainwashing, the band sings about the struggles of being 25, distant relatives and favorite sports teams.
It’s easy to argue that an artist’s freedom of expression is being stifled yet again. But in reality, it’s been five years since the song ‘Monkey Snake.’ The boys have left school and traveled the world, and the trio are now a five-piece, with Xinjiu stepping up from behind the drum kit to play guitar. He Fan is now a proud husband, too. All this growth is reflected in the new album’s themes and preoccupations.
“We believe that real rock music reflects who you are,” says Birdstriking. “We wrote the first album at the age of 20 and we did the second in our mid-20s. It’s less punk, but more melodic, and the songs are deep thoughts about ourselves rather than us telling people what they should or should not do.”
Holey Brain drops mid-August via www.maybemars.com; Birdstriking perform at Modernsky Lab’s second anniversary party on Fri Aug 25-Sat Aug 26, 8.30pm; RMB150 (door), RMB100 (advance); Modernsky Lab, see event listing.
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