Bye, Bye Fish Are Trapped on Earth and Need Your Human Shell to Fix Their Spaceship
Seven years back I found myself at Temple Bar one weeknight to catch the mysterious side project from the esteemed band SUBS, whose rock-em-sock-em attitude and DIY ethics had made them beloved by both audiences and musicians alike.
Named after Douglas Adams’ hilarious (and all too relevant) sci-fi romp and fourth book in the A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Bye, Bye Fish, consisting of Kang Mao and Wu Hao, was exactly what the volatile and highly combustible pros were known for: an avant-garde folk project that wouldn’t be out of place at a Renaissance Faire, albeit one spiked with absinthe and paranoid dread.
I was floored. That faithful evening would turn out to be the duo’s last show for some time – seven years to be exact – until last summer when the self-proclaimed aliens awoke from their slumber and returned to Earth with newfound energy. Strapped with more offbeat electro sensibilities and donning baroque-esque masks, the two have created something that’s positively delightful and unique – a hypnotic, enchanting, and sometimes malevolent sound that feels straight out of a dark fairy tale – or better yet, deep space. I sat down with the intergalactic duo to discuss their contempt for humans, their affinity for bioenergy and their upcoming show at DDC on Saturday, Mar 9.
What’s the story behind Bye, Bye Fish? How did it begin?
We are from the universe – in a faraway place at least in terms of three-dimensional or four-dimensional space. Our spaceship has a serious problem – worse than having your slippers chewed up by a dog. We are trapped on Earth. We need to fix the spaceship here. So sometimes we borrow the ‘shells’ of the two members of SUBS to go out and experiment with those things that look like space controllers under the name Bye, Bye Fish. You seem to call them instruments.
Bye, Bye Fish disappeared for a few years – what happened? What made you two to return to the stage?
No, if you can understand 4D, then you would understand we are coming from the future. While we were repairing our spaceship controller, we would sometimes jump back and forth, left and right through time – it was utter chaos.
How does Bye, Bye Fish help you explore areas that you weren’t able to dive into with SUBS?
Bye, Bye Fish is not helpful to SUBS. SUBS is not helpful to Bye, Bye Fish. Of course we know they loaned their ‘shells’ to us, but we have nothing to thank them for because the human shell is way too ugly. SUBS is researching humanity’s stupid impulses and desires, and Bye, Bye Fish doesn’t find any use in that. You don’t care about the philosophy of the chicken before you eat the chicken.
There’s something chameleon-like about the band’s sound that works to your benefit. What kind of scene or audience are you hoping to tap into with this project?
Oh – is that what you call a chameleon? We are not satisfied with our surroundings – the air is so poor and the humans are all the same. We want the humans to take plants or animals to our laboratory, like the chameleon, which may provide more bioenergy to our spaceship.
I take it you two are big Douglas Adams fans? What other authors or pieces of art influence your music?
We used the last of our spaceship’s power to scan the books of the Earth. Books are full of lies, but Douglas Adams leaked our secrets! What is art? Tasty?
Congrats on over 16 years of SUBS… I heard you released an anniversary double LP on vinyl last year – how did it feel to dig into the band’s catalog? Were there any tracks that resonate more with you today? Where can we find the release?
As we know, that vinyl of SUBS is so loud that it could ignite the Earth. Why feed so much energy to a black hole? Why dance to blind people? We feel that they have tried hard to be the first evolved civilization on Earth, but there is no civilization at all on Earth, so they want to blow it up. You can listen to the ship’s log? (It’s on Bandcamp – the rest are thieves. SUBS also has their own Taobao store.)
The music industry in China seems to be regulating itself more and more now – how does being DIY today work? Are you glad you played by your own rules over the years instead of handing yourselves over to a label?
What is the relationship between the music industry and SUBS? We are fixing the spaceship. SUBS – they like music. They like civilization. They like destruction. They don’t like the music industry. SUBS are happy when they’re doing things they enjoy on Earth. When they die or leave they’ll have no regrets. Anyway, there isn’t much time.
What’s next for Bye, Bye Fish?
We must continue to look for equipment, look for more places, and hope more humans come to our laboratory to provide more bioenergy before our test flight can be successful.
Bye, Bye Fish play at DDC on Saturday, Mar 9 alongside LST, Sour Tower, and Unit. Tickets are RMB 80 on the door or RMB 60 advance. Don't go if you're very attached to that meat sack of biofuel you call a body.
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Images: courtesy of Bye, Bye Fish
