Gong Gong Gong im Interview

Musik wie geschnitten Gemüse

6. Februar 2019 / Philipp Knappe / Bild: M94.5/Markus Hensel

Nach großer USA-Tour erobern Gong Gong Gong jetzt auch Europa: Mit Psychedelic Blues und Phantom Rhythm. Im Interview hat uns das Pekinger Duo bestehend aus Josh und Tom verraten wie sich das genau anhört.

How would you describe your music for our listeners, who don’t know you yet? And what is Phantom Rhythm?

Josh: We only use a guitar and a base, we don’t have drums and it’s extremely rhythmic music. That`s how I’d describe it.

Tom: It’s like chopping vegetables on a chopping board, while you’re riding on a horse.

Which things are influencing your music? Where does it come from?

Tom: We always play in bands without drums, so I always have to be the rhythm keeper. I see myself as a drummer on guitar. That’s where the „chopping vegetable“ thing comes from.

Josh: We are playing guitar, which is obviously a rock instrument, but we always try to do something a little bit different, from what a standard rock band is. Because of that, I would say we are influenced from different cultures of music, which might have guitars, but are trying to do something different as well.

You do not just write songs, your lyrics are more like poems. Do you think it is more difficuilt to convey your art when people in Europe or the US don’t understand your lyrics and have a hard time translating them?

Tom: I wrote all the lyrics in Cantonese. In Beijing all people speak Mandarine, so even when we’re playing in our hometown people don’t understand my language. We are used to playing in front of audiences, that have no idea what we’re singing about.

Josh: I think the lyrics are really important, but when you experience it in a live-setting, you can still understand pretty clearly, what we’re trying to convey. We have put a lot of time into transmitting the lyrics. I translated Tom’s lyrics on our new single „Down Quantity Road“, we definitely try to share our lyrics as much as we can. Obviously not everyone can speak Cantonese, but I think you can still feel the intention behind the music.

Tom: The music style is the language itself and it communicates well with the people.