Watch Out! The Statues are Back!

It’s been nearly four years since Re-TROS released its Cut Off! EP under Modern Sky Records (domestic release) and Tag Team Records (US release), and their bass-heavy tunes and marching-band rhythms have been gaining reputations among livehouse fans in Beijing. Earlier this year, out with their debut album Watch Out! The Climate Has Changed, Fat Mum Rises…, the statues went on a tour across the country in March. After performing in 30 cities in 50 days, now they are back in town for the sake of post-punk rebellion.

Rebuilding The Rights of Statues (Re-TROS) are:

Following is an interview with the band by tbj’s Wang Ge.

the Beijinger: How did you come up with the band name?
Re-TROS: We decided on the band name by having each of us come up with one word, and they were “rebuild”, “right” and “statue”.

tbj: What kind of music does Re-TROS play?
Re-TROS: Music that are dark, delicate, beautiful, low and psychedelic.

tbj: Who’re your major influences?
Re-TROS: Bauhaus, Joy Division, Gang of Four, The Birthday Party, Blonde Redhead, Liars, Ape, Androids...and many more.

tbj: You’ve worked with Brian Eno in the Cut Off! EP, how’s that like?
Re-TROS: It’s been 3 years, and people just keep going on about it. Frankly it’s enough, we really don’t want to talk about it anymore.

tbj: Has the genre changed in the new album?
Re-TROS: Unlike the straightforward and catchy tunes in Cut Off!, the new album is expressed in a more artistic way with colder emotions. Different elements and instruments blend more coherently as a whole.

tbj: Describe your songwriting process.
Re-TROS: We come up with the riffs first, not only on bass and guitar, but also on drum as well; then we add other instruments and effects. We plan carefully before every single rehearsal, stuffs like establishing an overall direction and scheduling specific things to do. It’s unacceptable for us to go to a rehearsal without knowing what to do.

tbj: Who comes up with the lyrics?
Re-TROS: Our lead vocal man Hua Dong.

tbj: Is there any writer you particularly like?
Re-TROS: Yes there are many of them, but we don’t want their names here.

Music Video of "TV Show (hang the police)"

tbj: Do you have any other jobs apart from making music?
Re-TROS: No we don’t have any other full-time jobs, we spend most of our time on music. But sometimes we write freelance articles to get some extra cash.

tbj: Where do each of you come from?
Re-TROS: Hua Dong is from Nanjing, Liu Min comes from Leshan in Sichuan, and Ma Hui is a Lanzhou native.

tbj: When did you first come to Beijing?
Re-TROS: 1999.

tbj: What makes you stay in this city then?
Re-TROS: Because Beijing is a degrading city. It has no sense of style, and vulgar as hell. This is a place where people are unsettled and insecure, with creepy artists in every corner. We stay here to tell these people the true meaning of manner and attitude. We are going to smash their delusion of “making it overnight”. In fact, we are not living “in” Beijing, because we don’t really consider ourselves as a part of it.

Re-TROS will be performing with The Offest: Spectacles at Yugong Yishan on June 12 (RMB 60, 9pm). Listen to the Cut Off! EP here and the new album here.