Life

Christmas is going crackers

By Natalie Thomas (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-10 07:57

The band wants to be the most outrageous band in Beijing. Provided to China Daily

In a city where bands struggle for recognition, being "ridiculous" has paid off for one laowei band singing in Mandarin.

Beijing has rock, metal, hip hop; now it also has something called Christmas, an unclassifiable foreigner band (plus Chinese drummer) that possesses a style that can only be described as what would have happened had the Beach Boys somehow formed in Beijing, not sunny California.

In addition to this somewhat unique sound, what sets the group apart is language. All of the band's lyrics are composed in Mandarin, which was always the logical thing to do as far as the band members were concerned.

"Being in China, we believe our listeners want to be able to understand what we're singing about," explains the band's flamboyant lead singer Brian "Shafa" Gore.

Is Shafa the rock 'n' roll Dashan? Not quite. He admits that writing the lyrics is still a collaborative effort between him and his wife.

"The whole exercise has been a hardcore Mandarin learning experience for me. My first songs were really basic. I was producing lyrics like: 'Pretty girl, pretty eyes, pretty hair'."

As a foreigner, being a successful Mandarin singer requires more than just writing some vaguely coherent lyrics. Pronunciation is crucial.

"I'm still not sure to what degree people can actually understand me when I sing," admits Shafa. "When we first started a lot of people didn't even realize we were singing in Chinese."

From the beginning, the band's mission has been to maintain their title as Beijing's most outrageous and ridiculous band.

"In the beginning we actually just wanted to alienate as many people as possible," said Emily Schreck, the band's keyboard player and backing vocalist. "The whole band was an in-joke, and only we were in on it. We used to go out of our way to alienate our audience, we'd do stuff like spend five minutes just laughing on stage, with the crowd having no idea what was going on".

From those early days, which left some listeners confused and some indignant, the band has been making efforts to become more accessible to a mainstream audience.

"I used to perform in my bathrobe, but now I like to dress up a bit," said Shafa, wearing a grubby surgical mask and a jacket that looks like it was made out of an old carpet.

Christmas have just landed themselves a recording contract so generous as to be almost unheard of in Beijing.

With their new financial backing, the band is working on its first studio album, which is set to include full string and trumpet arrangements.

For China Daily

(China Daily 03/10/2011)