Interview with Mr. Graceless

Mr. Graceless is:

Amojo: guitar, vocals
元帅 (Yuan Shuai) : bass, vocals
官僚 (Guan Liao) : drums

How did you guys meet and form the band?
Amojo: I met Yuan Shuai at university, and he already knew Guan Liao from high school.

What colleges do you guys attend?
Amojo and Yuan Shuai: Beijing Transportation University.
Guan Liao: Beijing Aerospace University. (They are all engineers).

So, you don’t study music?
No.

Are you busy?
Very busy…

Are you well known at your schools?
Not really, only a few people know us. Just some friends. We’ve only been together for a few months. We haven’t played any shows at our schools, only in bars.

Why do you play rock music?
Because we love it. It’s just our own way and we do something that interests us. We don’t want to be rock stars and we don’t care how far we will go even if we can be “stars.” We just like it.

What are you trying to express?
Our attitude for love and our lives. Our feelings about growing up. And how we face the world and society. Some true feelings from inside our hearts. Because sometimes we may have some different opinions about something so we write music to express them.

You only sing in English?
We also have some Chinese songs but most of them are English.

Why English?
Because English is easy to sing! And we always come up with the guitar parts first, then the bass and drums. We write the words last. We find that it is very easy to write lyrics in English. We just make some words at random that sound good and then form them to the songs. Like “freestyling”. It’s fun!

Can you tell us more about the feelings that go into your songwriting?
Things don’t always turn out the way you want them too. There is always some difference between what you want and reality. Sometimes it makes us upset. Sometimes we want to change something, but we feel powerless. But we also want to share our happiness. We called our song “Lovely Face” because we once saw a very beautiful girl (she doesn’t know us!) and we just wanted to write a song for her. We hope she can live a happy life without any troubles.

How did you come up with your band name?
It’s from the Rolling Stones. They have a song called “Wild Horses”. “Graceless lady, you know who I am.” Our name sounds like we are graceless and wild, but in reality we are studious and normal gentlemen who work hard. But when we rock and roll, we want to be “graceless”. Maybe Mr. Graceless is the right man for this lady…

What inspires you to write your songs?
Amojo: Sometimes I think of some old friends, some old memories, and this feeling inspires me to write some guitar parts. Then we come together and everyone shares their opinion of how they want the song to come out. We try to have good imaginations.

What musician would you love to see come to Beijing? Alive or dead?
The Beatles, The Strokes or the Pixies.

What do you do for fun?
Play baseball and soccer.

Do you have any favorite Beijing bands?
Carsick Cars. Hedgehog. Joyside. 周云蓬 (folk rock). New Pants! Their performances are really energetic! Fire Balloon (from MIDI music school). Brain Failure.

Many foreigners criticize the Beijing rock scene because of a lack of originality. How do you feel about this?
Yuan Shuai: It’s developing…
Amojo: I haven’t heard of any of this criticism. And I think most foreigners like Chinese bands!
Guan Liao: It’s very important to play some different and special music. If you want many people to know your music, you must make your music unique.
Their manager, Frodo, chimed in: It’s a common problem in China. Most bands steal from and learn from great foreign bands. I think we are still on our way, a long way, to work on this. But I think this situation is much, much better these days. There are many different styles here [in Beijing]. For example, ten years ago we didn’t have a band like Carsick Cars. Back then, most Chinese bands sounded the same. Now, we have different voices, different music. If a band wants to be a big band, they must do their own music and do their own way. They can’t sound too much like a foreign band.
So did the Producer: Every big band has this tradition…even the Rolling Stones were like the Beatles when they first started.
Guan Liao: Many bands, if they want to grow up, can copy other styles, but once you reach a certain point you must branch off into your own style.

So do you think Chinese rock has its own developing style?
Amojo: Some of the bands tonight had their own styles. Some bands are really trying to make their own music that is really different from others.
Yuan Shuai: A lot of bands mix Chinese factors in their songs, like traditional Chinese instruments and Peking opera.
Amojo: Like Peking opera “cross-talk”. (For an example, check out 南城二哥.)

Do you have hopes for an album?
Right now, we only have some singles. We need more time. We need to write more songs.

Any thoughts or wishes for the New Year?
More live shows! And we dream of playing at the MIDI festival! That would be fucking cool! We’d also like to release an album by the end of 2009. Maybe find a beautiful girlfriend for the guitar player. *laughter*. More inspiration for our music, of course. And a successful graduation from university, with a high grade! Don’t forget, we are students…

The annual MIDI festival will be on May 1^st-May 4^th in 2009.

Photos by Xue Hai Feng/ 薛海峰

Mr. Graceless just had a nice show at D-22, see theBeijinger review here.