Baby-Faced Old-Souled Psych Rockers Backspace Talk New LP Ahead of Aug 31 School Bar Gig

Zheng Dong peered out the window of his Haidian apartment and contemplated the sea of gleaming lights from other windows staring back at him. The capital’s high-rise-studded skyline was far different to the one he grew up with in Yulin, Guangxi, before he left the small town behind in order to begin his undergraduate studies in design in Beijing. It was here that he formed and became frontman for indie psych-rock group Backspace.

Zheng captured that moment in “Building”, a brief but poignant track on the band’s album Human Nature Architecture, released earlier this summer by top-notch capital imprint Maybe Mars (and produced by label boss and frontman of veteran post-rock outfit P.K. 14 Yang Haisong; check out the LP on Bandcamp here). Ahead of Backspace’s Aug 31 gig at School bar, the final stop on a 16-date nationwide tour, Zheng tells us that “Building” is a song about social class and status, like floors stacked upon each other in a high-rise, and how arts and culture can take on a similar hierarchy. He says: “Some people will tell you have bad taste because you like this or that, and think they’re at a higher level than you, which I think is really childish.” The brisk 57-second instrumental conveys those ideas with surprising effectiveness, thanks to guitar pedal effects that moan at a rapidly descending pitch, like lofty notions that quickly come crashing down.

Gripping as that song is, its brief running time makes “Building” more of a memorable interlude between the new LP’s ninth and 11th tracks. The former is much longer, clocking in at seven minutes and forty-six seconds. Titled “Screen”,  the sprawling song kicks off with a jittery drum line followed by a frenzied post-punk style guitar riff. Zheng says the anxious tone of that instrumentation, along with the song’s title, are all meant to convey his feelings about tech. He says: “We’re all just going through a loop from one screen to another and another, looking at our phones, then computers, then TVs. There’s no end, like we can’t escape it!”

It may come as a surprise that Zheng and his bandmates would draw on tech-induced anxiety for one of their albums best songs. That’s because, at first glance, one might assume the boyish alt-rockers are smartphone-addicted millennials. However, the baby-faced 25-year-old Zheng can only laugh and shake his head at that notion, before quickly pointing to Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” and Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” as some of the first songs that inspired him and his bandmates to learn how to play instruments and form a band. Although such vintage rock and blues has little bearing on Backspace’s sound today – many of the tracks on Human Nature Architecture evoke their indie rock Maybe Mars brethren, along with psych-rock influences and a bit of New Wave and post-punk for good measure – Zheng and his bandmates have long likened themselves to old souls ill-suited for their surroundings in modern China.

For instance, despite feeling the pressure to excel in his university studies in Beijing like so many of his fellow undergrads, Zheng quickly grew bored and pined for the days of jamming with his hometown bandmates. He took quite a bit of solace in Beijing’s thriving live house scene, and before long he began messaging those friends, who had also moved on to their own undergrad programs in different cities across China, imploring them to make their way to the capital. He recalls telling them again and again: “Beijing is like a wonderland! You can play your music, go to the live houses, make friends and have fun.”

Zheng spent a few months pestering those old pals on WeChat, and before long, one by one, they agreed and headed to Beijing to take a crack at the capital’s indie rock scene. Backspace plugged away in obscurity at first but their gigs steadily gained enough renown to secure them a spot on the bill for Yue Space’s opening night in 2016. Along with a number of bands slated to hit the stage, that debut event also featured a gallery exhibit showcasing many young artists’ work. That made for a diverse and sizeable crowd when Zheng and his bandmates began their set. Despite those attendees being more varied than a band might encounter at a typical Beijing gig, Backspace won them over, and their set ended with warm and enthusiastic applause.

It was an impressive early feat, but Zheng winces with some embarrassment when thinking back on their breakthrough show now. That’s because their setlist featured since abandoned songs like “Romantic Young”, an overly earnest number that lacks the neurotic edge and dynamic complexity of anything on Human Nature Architecture. That growth impressed Yan Haisong, who says he likes the direction Backspace is heading in because “It reminds me of the C86 generation [the renowned NME indie cassette compilation], with psychedelic ambient elements, though underneath all that you still can see the core of ‘indie rock’ in their music.”

However, Zheng knows the fans Backspace initially won over with such heart-on-their-sleeve sentimentality like “Romantic Young”, have been surprised by their subsequent, more nuanced music. But he’s clearly undeterred, explaining the boys of Backspace are growing up, are unafraid to challenge their audiences, and are eager to take on the even bigger challenge of getting those crowds moving with music that’s more complex and accomplished.

All that doesn't mean, however, that Zheng and his Backspace bandmates have outgrown their boyish charm entirely. Or as he puts it, while wracking his mind for the right word in English before joyfully, and then a bit bashfully, blurting out: “At shows, I like to hear music that makes me shake my leg. That’s what we want to do with the crowd at a Backspace show, we want them to shake a leg!” he says before pointing at his foot that’s thumping like that of a rabbit, a sheepish grin on his baby face.  

Backspace will perform at School Bar on Aug 31. The show starts at 9pm and tickets are RMB 90 at the door, RMB 70 advance. Listen to their new album Human Nature Architecture on Bandcamp here.

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Photos: Live Beijing Music, Du Huaiyi