It’s hard to get one’s indie music fix here in Beijing and manage to keep your dignity in check. But somehow newly formed band Dwaas, which consists of Arrows Made of Desire frontman Joewi, Jingweir zine founder Michael, bass player Fei Fei, and drummer Hui Han, did just that. Whatever label you want to throw at them – jam, post-rock, progressive – they seem to be exploring an alternative sound that has been lacking thus far in this fair city. Before their show this Saturday at the Hot Cat Club, I asked them some questions to see how they manage piece together a song, and the thematic nature of their work.
How long have you guys known each other? What brought you together?
Hui Han: We\’ve all gotten to know each other on different occasions. I guess that on some weirdly calculated overall average, each one of us has known the others for around two years. I think what brought us together was mere coincidence and nothing special, what kept us together however, was a distinctive, shared approach to playing music.
There seem to be a lot of different musical elements running through your sound. How would you label yourselves?
I still don\’t know what to say when people ask me what type of music we play. Preferably, I wouldn\’t label ourselves as anything. We have four very different backgrounds, but one common approach, which is a certain openness towards music. My background is mostly jazz and funk, while others are more blues or electronic oriented. What makes Dwaas work is the fact that we combine our different musical backgrounds with an open mindset and a desire to connect with each other while we play. it is easy to write 3 minute songs with three or four standard chords and a backbeat on the 2 and the 4. It is difficult, but much more interesting to me, to let go of the set musical frameworks, patterns, roles and styles that are subconsciously in everyone\’s mind, and truly start from silence with an open mind. Dwaas isn\’t there yet either, but we\’re slowly getting closer.
You guys recently worked on a film together – “Spirit Is A Killer” – how was that process, especially the score which fits the film like a glove?
That was great fun. The master mind behind the film was Joewi, who wrote the script and directed it. Feifei and Huihan acted in it and Michael and Huihan did the score. The score was done with the same approach as that of Dwaas\’ music, all was based on improvisation and feeling. We started with briefly discussing together what type of feel we wanted for each scene, and then all we did was gather a bunch of instruments, and play what felt right while watching the scenes on a laptop.
Would you agree that there is a cinematic feel to your music as well in terms of structure and atmosphere?
Perhaps. Our songs typically evolve from jams. we jam first, take out different pieces we like, and try to glue them together in a way that makes sense. We have endless hours of jams, recorded on an iphone in the rehearsal rooms, and we probably only used 1% of the ideas. Dwaas\’ biggest challenge seems to be how to deal with the endless flow of musical ideas, how to stay focused, and turn creative outbursts into structured songs suitable to perform on stage.
How busy are you guys on a daily basis? Is it difficult to get together to rehearsal?
Everyone has other things going on: jobs, study, bands, etc. as some of us travel quite regularly, it is definitely a challenge to get into a rehearsing and performing rhythm. It’s happened several times that we started to gain some momentum, but then had to take a break for a month or more because someone was traveling.
What’s next for Dwaas? Can we expect to be seeing more of you in the near future?
We need to get tighter as a band while keeping the loose feel that defines it, but that\’s a simple matter of time and practice. On the musical side, with all our different strengths and weaknesses it still feels we\’re in the middle of some sort of discovery process. We all feel Dwaas has a lot of potential, but we haven\’t really found how to get the most out of our strengths, while circumventing our weaknesses and limitations. It’s an exploratory journey and we\’ll see where it all leads, but as long as we\’re having fun and as there\’s progress, you can expect to see more of us.
Thanks for the answers guys! Don’t forget to get over to Hot Cat Club this Saturday to catch them along with Trouble Trouble and The Incisors. Go their douban page to listen to more of their music. Also, keep your eyes peeled for the next Jingweir issue.
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