Interview: Luv Plastik

Original Photo by Ross Burlingame

As the music scene continues to grow here, Beijing is finding more and more room for expats making a name for themselves musically. And while most will never make it past their expat bubble, they are some who reach far and beyond. That’s where Luv Plastik comes in, a red hot fury of fuzzed out garage rock that’s trashy, volatile, and heaps of unhinged fun. I had a chance to sit down with the Dan Taylor and Dan Lenk, the brains and brawn behind the blitzkrieg that has taken the city by storm in the past year to see if they have any idea what they have sought.

 

What is a Luvplastik?

Dan Taylor: It’s a vibrator…dildo…isn’t it?

Dan Lenk: [sigh] Yeah, pretty much.

Dan Taylor: We’ve got nothing to say [laughs]

Dan Lenk: There are two concepts. I mean, literally, I walked in. I had this nice idea about societal bubbles and highbrow bullshit and he was like, ‘I like it, it sounds like a dildo’.

Dan Taylor: Just rolled with it.

Any backup names ?

Dan Taylor: Can you remember any of them?

Dan Lenk: Well it’s funny cause we wanted to use a lot of folk names, cause we were originally we were a folk band.

 

You shittin’ me?

Dan Taylor: No, it’s true. We started off as an Elvis cover band. “Come one baby…” [in his best Elvis croon]

Dan Lenk: There wasn’t really much screaming.

Dan Taylor: There was no screaming.

Dan Lenk: Just very fast Elvis blues.

Dan Taylor: Luv Plastik — I just love that name. It’s just dirty and reminds me of vibrators and stuff

Dan Lenk: Most important thing was something that hasn’t been on Google yet. Like no one has used that name so that was a winner.

 

And the spelling?

Dan Lenk: That’s German for Love Plastic.

Dan Taylor: The whole spelling — how did that come about?

Dan Lenk: Fuck it — differentiate it.

What are your backgrounds?

Dan Taylor: Before Luv Plastik, I was pretty much straight up folk. [gets excited] Shall we tell you the story about how Luv Plastik came about?

Dan Taylor: Let me take you a trip down memory lane. So I was texting Dan, for a few weeks, cause I wanted a bassist for The Harridans [Dan Taylor’s other band]. Texting him over and over again. Telling him we’ll meet at the top of Nanluoguxiang. So I’m up there with my guitar. And I see him with his bass. And he just looked at me and said ‘You’re not Dan’ . I was like ‘Yeah, I am Dan’. And he’s like ‘No, no you’re not Dan’. And I was like ‘Yeah I am Dan. Who are you?’. ‘I’m Dan’. He thought he was meeting another Dan. A drummer guy. So I was like ‘ Well, you got your bass here, let’s go try out some shows’. So we originally tried out some Harridans songs .

Dan Lenk: For like an hour.

Dan Taylor: Yeah, sounded fucking good actually. These are old Harridans songs that aren’t used now and it sounded really good and I told him I liked it. And he asked, “Ummmm, can you play the drums?”

Dan Lenk: I think you just got on the drums.

Dan Taylor: Right , we’re playing and we wrote a song and that’s how Luvplastik came about.

 

Had you played drums?

Dan Taylor: No, no. I played drums like at practice and stuff — just messing around but not in a band. So the first few songs were quite different, lot slower

Dan Lenk: Jungle beats, jungle rock.

Dan Taylor: A lot more two-tone and lot more steady — the singing was like [once again in his shitty Elvis croon]. There’s a band called The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster — from England, very old band. The guy sings like an Elvis impersonator. That’s what the sound was at first. No fuzz on the bass.

Dan Lenk:  Just distortion.

Dan Taylor: Yeah, that’s how Luvplastik came about. Then we had a few more practices and changed the songs — from strength to strength

 

How long ago was that?

Both: Nine months ago.

What’s your background, Glasses Dan?

Dan Lenk: I’ve been here six years. So first I came and had my college band. We played mostly like Dinosaur Jr. stuff because my guitarist was too lazy to write songs. So I had to write all of them on bass. And then I joined this band called Candy Monster. Poppy indie band — pretty good. Then I met Winkler whilst I was in Candy Monster. And we got on well,  had similar projects going on. So I started working with him, joined Shen and formed Yantiao. Messed my wrist up. Started making electronica with Cupoli. And then, there’s a gap and I stared doing this. So I’ve been all over the place musically.

 

Sounds like both you guys jump around musically?

Dan Lenk: It’s fun not to get stuck in one genre — like you listen to a lot of the popular stuff on Top 40 or even just on indie labels being released — a lot of it doesn\’t sound super fresh or innovative. It sounds really good but it’s nice to try to do something a little different.  Ironically we heard the new Death From Above 1979 album and the opening of the second track totally sounds like one of our songs so we were like “Arghhh fuck”.

Dan Taylor: I’m gonna write a letter to them.

Dan Lenk: How dare they!

 

Have you always been playing music then? You’re an diplomat kid — no no, an international student, right?

Dan Lenk: Yeah, ever since six years old I’ve been playing something. Obviously when you’re living in Taiwan or Korea, there’s not so much going on as a high school kid. As a student you couldn’t really go out to bars. You could I guess, but I didn’t. And in Korea, it was mostly hardcore and it was in Seoul — I was in a different city. So it really wasn’t until I came to Beijing that I started actually doing some stuff in proper clubs and stuff like that.

Dan Taylor: I came to Beijing just about a year ago. And before Beijing, I played music anywhere I was. I came to Beijing knowing that I would be here for at least a year, long enough to put a band together. I’ve always been in places for six months, eight months, around the world. So before here I was in the Lake District in England, then I was in France just near Paris. I’ve always been playing folk music — that’s just been it. In my hometown, I started a few psychedelic type bands, but very amateur psychedelic bands. I was in Scotland just playing with straight up folk musicians — traditional folk — that really helped me with my finger picking guitar playing and I mean, geez, I really love folk music. But when I came to Beijing, I’ve always had the dream of putting The Harridans together and ummm (looks to the other Dan), a punk band Luvplastik as well, that’s always been a dream of mine [laughs]. But what have you, I knew I wanted to start a big band and I knew it would take a long time so when I came to Beijing I said, “Right, I’ll stay here awhile, put a big band together and record an album” — that’s was it. That was last year. Essentially, these have been my biggest musical projects ever.

 

Like a big band — Tommy Dorsey and Betty Goodmen?

Dan Taylor: Yeah! Nine piece, eleven piece — even The Harridans I want to make even bigger and bigger — Luv Plastik is a lesson in how to streamline a group and The Harridans are not.

 

Any new releases coming out soon?

Dan Taylor: We do have a release coming .

Dan Lenk: A Nasty Wizard Recordings release – this guy called Dann Gaymer who’s been helping us quite a bit, and yeah, we have to suck up to him cause he’s right across from us now.

Dan Taylor: It’s a split release.

Dan Taylor: We owe everything to Dann Gaymer.

Dan Lenk: He’s been supporting us a lot.

Dan Taylor: Is that the Dan you were thinking about when we first met?

Dan Lenk: That’s the Dan

Dan Taylor: Ahhhhhhhhhh

Dan Lenk: We’re recording this month — and then a friend will mix it — and then it’ll be sent to Europe to get mastered, and then it’ll be released in December hopefully completely DIY, digital and cassette.

Dan Lenk: Record eight or nine and put them out digitally

 

What do you think of the music scene here?

Dan Taylor: I think that Beijing’s got a fucking good music scene. For example, lets go back to this Nasty Wizards thing; this is all independently done, it’s a nonprofit push to get music out there, done by independent musicians — guys doing it for the love of music.

Dan Taylor: Because in Beijing a lot of friends playing in friends’ bands and that\’s really nice. Cross pollination and unison. The bass in one band is the singer in another, blah blah blah. On top of that, I see a lot of gigs with Chinese and western bands on the same lineup — I don\’t feel there’s a huge divide between Chinese and western music here — there all in a collective thing here. In some cases there’s this Chinese band that plays more gigs than western musicians. I also think folks do music for the love of music more in Beijing than I’ve seen in any other places. That\’s not to say that’s it’s all rosy, there are a lot of western musicians in Beijing that are very talented that are playing for the money as opposed to playing for the music. For example, (I shouldn’t say this) there’s a very big cover band in Beijing and I’ve heard the music done by one of their musicians in the band and it was fucking brilliant so I asked him”‘Why have you stopped playing with this music.” Because he gets the money from the cover bands so he stopped doing it. It depends you know — where you are in life and whatnot [looking a bit worried about his rambling]. The Beijing scene is really good. What do you think Dan?

Dan Lenk: …

Dan Taylor: I told you stop me when I went on too much — I’m gonna look like a fucking twat.

Dan Lenk: [laughs] That’s going in the interview.

Dan Lenk: I think it’s good. But as a capital city — compared to Tokyo or London or NY — it’s still not on the same tier.

Dan Taylor: The local bands in Beijing, the Chinese bands, are more forward thinking than Western musicians, in my opinion.

Dan Lenk: Well, OK. Maybe in the approach. But a lot of times a band will sit on one album for years and then by the two years in, you’ll see them again and it’s gets a bit boring — a trap many of them fall into.

Dan Taylor: I don’t know what the scene in like in Japan, or Hong Kong, or Shanghai or in Korea.

Dan Lenk: Also, you’ve been here a year, so if you’ve been here three years, you never know.

 

The biggest benefit of Beijing for Luvplastik?

Dan Lenk: Good spot to cut your teeth.

Dan Taylor: We can play a lot of gigs here.

Dan Lenk: If you were going to do it professionally, this isn’t the place to do it. But in those points leading up to it, it can be good.

Dan Taylor: Every city’s hard. There are not a lot venues so you’re always going to be playing the same venues and then it gets boring. You message your friends, “We’re all playing tonight” and then a week later…wait, what was the question?

Dan Lenk: Yes and no. You can do things substantial here, but I do believe in the glass ceiling.

 

Are you just winging it up there on drums when you sing?

Dan Taylor: It’s completely gibberish sometimes

 

So you don’t have lyrics?

Dan Lenk: We have lyrics NOW.

Dan Taylor: We wrote a batch of lyrics a few months ago.

 

Give me a sample.

Dan Taylor: Ummm — what’s that hashish one?

Dan Lenk: Oh, Meatloaf.

Dan Taylor: That’s the one.

Dan Lenk: So there’s this story about a drug dealer called Loaf.

Dan Taylor: The old lyric was ‘meatloaf’.

Dan Lenk: A food and the person.

Dan Taylor: Which I thought was lyrical genius (laughs). The new lyrics is

                                 Meatloaf Moroccan Blackened Deepthroat

                                    Kid Low Whacked Out on Methadone

Dan Lenk:                      Kid Lavenered Up in Methadone

Dan Lenk:  The whole album has a concept through it and its quite dark, but it’s honest and it’s real.

[no one can contain their laughter at the terribly lame comment]

 

If you could compare Luv Plastik to one drug what would it be?

Dan Lenk: What’s an upper that also spaces you out.

Dan Taylor: The older Luv Plastik — speed. But now, we’re mellowing out so maybe like a opiate — maybe MDMA is the best. With a bit of ketamine on top.

Dan Lenk: A ketamine sandwich. Yeah, MDMA to get the people dancing

Dan Taylor: If anyone is ever at one of our gigs on drugs it\’s a privilege…for us.

Dan Lenk: As long as they don’t spazz out on the floor.

Dan Taylor: Take some photos, that’d be cool.

What’s your perfect show?

Dan Lenk: Yugong – packed to the brim.

Dan Taylor: Dark, smoky.

Dan Lenk: Skate park.

Dan Taylor: I think Luvplastik would sound great in a church, a big regal manor house with velvet curtains and shit, and people doing opium, and a swimming pool —  a fancy orgy. A pool party on the set of the OC – loads of hot blondes and guy with beached hair — [does his best American California impression] “Yeahhh, love this Luv Plastik shit!”

 

If you transplant Luv Plastik to a perfect year and setting what would it be?

Dan Taylor: Oh, the ‘70s.

Dan Lenk: ‘70s San Francisco.

Dan Taylor: Would loved to have played with Deep Purple — they got that fuzzy bass down.

Dan Lenk: That’d be cool.

 

Perfect double bill in Beijing?

Dan Lenk: CAT AIDS.

Dan Taylor: That three-piece…SUBS…every time I see them they got a real good energy.

Dan Lenk: I think Alpine Decline would be great

Dan Lenk: Has to be an intense band for sure.

 

Where are you guys taking Luvplastik next? Still just you two?

Dan Taylor: Yeah yeah, still just us two. I got a new vocal effect pedal coming so that should be nice — put some more distortion on vocals, get more delays. We got a new song, a bit more glammy.

Dan Lenk: I want the new stuff to be a bit more groovy and disco punk as opposed to just straight up punk.

Dan Taylor: With a melody [laughs].

Dan Lenk: We always wanted to groove — something you can dance to.

 

Do you see yourself incorporating another instrument or going in another direction?

Dan Taylor: I’dddd love to.

Dan Lenk: Synthesizer?

Dan Taylor: It’d be nice to play with a percussionist — someone who on the outside just playing percussion. King Crimson had this guy in the 70s called Jamie Muir. They had Bill Bruford, great drummer, but they had this guy who used to wear sheepskin and have the stage set with percussion instruments everywhere and he’d just run around and bash shit and get at the audience. Cause we don’t really have a frontman, have we? Well, actually we had Carlo at one of our first gigs bash his head with a tambourine

Dan Lenk: It was fucking cool — looked like Iggy Pop bashing his head in.

Dan Taylor: Maybe a string section…nope? Maybe not.

Dan Lenk: Bango — like a really fuzzed up banjo.

Dan Taylor: I think that after this batch of songs we’re recording, we’ll work on longer songs.

Dan Lenk: I’m really looking forward to doing a lot of new songs — starting to get tired of this set

Dan Taylor: Definitely mellow out, we don’t want to get any heavier .

 

Merchandise?

Dan Lenk: We were going to make a website for the band called ‘Luvplastik’ – which would be a dildo shop and there would be one tab for us – ‘Band’

Dan Taylor: Dildo drum sticks.

Dan Taylor: T-shirts

Dan Lenk: Stickers

Dan Taylor: Rolling Bowling must’ve printed like million stickers — as well as Devils at the Crossroads — their stickers are everywhere. I went into my bathroom the other day and found one just staring at me

 

If you could improve Live Beijing Music, what’s your suggestion?

Dan Taylor: Better editing of the words — light proof reading.

Dan Lenk: Tits of the day.

Dan Taylor: Less Will.

Catch Luvplastik this weekend as they release their split with Seoul\’s Nice Legs through Nasty Wizard Recordings – Saturday, November 15th at Club XP, Beijing