Musical Multitaskers: Win Tickets to Pet Conspiracy
Musical Multitaskers is a month long series exploring how Beijing’s boldest musicians draw inspiration from other mediums, art forms and vocations.
Huzi loves music so much, he burned his feet to keep from dancing to it. That may not seem to make much sense. Unless, of course, you’re a member of Beijing’s most bombastic electro punk crew, and you started your performance career off with mandatory dance practices in the People’s Liberation Army Dance Troupe.
“I didn’t want to do it anymore, I wanted to play guitar,” the founding member of Pet Conspiracy says of the Tibetan, Mongolian and other minority style steps he was forced to learn while serving in the army at the age of 17. “They wouldn’t let me near my guitar, because we had dance practice every day. So I poured boiling water on my feet. I was hurt so bad, they let me out of dance practice for a month. Then I got to play guitar.”
Today Huzi’s band mates (drummer EDO, vocalists Mary and Fiona) show him the value of dancing, crowd surfing, elaborate animal costumes, and now a highly sophisticated video and light show (which will be showcased when Pet Conspiracy launch its new EP, Noise From the Future, on Friday at Yugong Yishan). Below, they make the case for concerts that awe the eyeballs along with the eardrums.
How do you plan to blend music and visuals at the show?
Mary: We want to synch all the elements of the show ourselves. Before, we always had a VJ and a light guy. But this time we have specific videos for specific songs, and each video is synchronized with specific lights and music.
Like stage design as a performance instrument?
EDO: In a way yes. When we recorded the songs, we added another track (on the studio console) in the mix for the lights. So it’s like adding another instrument to the song.
Huzi: This way we can synch a snare kick with a light, so it flashes with the beat. Or if the song slows down we can switch to softer light, or if Fiona screams they’ll go bright.
How can stage design enrich music?
Mary: It’s more complete like this. You’re not only expressing yourself in one respect, you have it in 360 degrees. It takes a lot more work, but in the end it’s more fun and gives you more satisfaction because you have a project, not just a band. It just feels better.
What would you say to music fans that prefer more subdued shows, with a tighter focus on the songs? Could all these lights and effects compete against you guys for audiences’ attention?
Mary: There’s no problem about us being shy (laughs). We have too much energy, we don’t need a mask to hide, it’s the opposite of that. We are actors in the play, along with the lights and the visuals.
What about the other visuals- you mentioned videos that will be projected behind you while you play?
Huzi: It’ll look something like lasers in space, to go with the songs’ futuristic concept. The images aren’t all that concrete, kind of abstract, which is the atmosphere you get from the EP too. We got help with that from this visual engineer named Yang Tao, who did a lot of video for professional Peking Operas. He made these visuals for our songs that look like a dream.
Pet Conspiracy will launch its new EP, Noise From the Future, at Yugong Yishan on Friday, Oct. 19.The band is giving away 10 free tickets to the first 10 people that email petconspiracy@gmail.com. Send your name, phone number, and the number of tickets you want right away for your chance to win.