Sirens: Interview with SingerSen

Growing up, who were your musical inspirations and how did their music shape the music you make now?

这很难说，因为我一直都很好奇，对许多东西都怀有一探究竟的心情。所以如果问我的音乐灵感来自哪里，我也需要仔细想想。 我喜欢的音乐形式或者风格都很杂乱。 比如我会欣赏中国的一位神秘的音乐人何训有，也很喜欢英国的Kate Bush。 比如：世界各地的原始的民间音乐，比如古典音乐，比如宗教音乐，比如非主流的那些不太知名却很有趣的独立音乐，比如不是音乐的各种奇怪声音，最重要的是，这些引起我兴趣的音乐一定是脱离束缚，很自由的声音，而不是目的性很强、去讨好谁的音乐。总之我不太喜欢听时下最流行的音乐。再有，我喜欢大自然和动物，也喜欢探究一些非现实的故事和思想，我想我可能有些逃避现实，喜欢活在自己的理想世界里吧，反正这些爱好最后都不可避免的融进我的音乐作品里去了，导致我写出了那些被中国乐迷形容为奇葩的作品。但其实最初我只是在唱歌，自己并不写歌的。从2002年我获得中国CCTV全国青年歌手电视大奖赛第一名，到代表中国参加19个国家参赛的“亚洲之声”国际流行音乐大赛获得最高奖，我一直是作为歌手的。到了2009年底，我才开始自己创作词曲，因为我迫切感觉没有人可以满足我的音乐想法了。

This is difficult to say, because I’ve always been curious about everything. So if you ask where my musical inspirations come from, I have to think carefully.

The type of music I like is always very eclectic. For example, I enjoy China’s mysterious musician He Xunyou (何训有) [Xiami], but also like the UK’s Kate Bush. I also like various traditional music from around the world, as well as classical music, religious music, and quirky but perhaps not famous independent music… or even strange sounds that aren’t really music.

What’s important is that the music I’m interested in breaks through the chains and has a sense of freedom rather than music with an aim to please the audience. In general, I don’t usually like contemporary pop music. Also, I like nature and animals, and like to explore unrealistic stories and thoughts. I enjoy escaping reality to live in my own imagined word. These preferences all inescapably becomes a part of my music, making me write music that some Chinese music fans describe as strange.

In the beginning I was just singing and didn’t write. In 2002, I won first place in a CCTV singing competition and represented China to win the highest awards at a Voice of Asia international pop music competition. I’ve been mostly a singer. It was only late 2009 that I begun composing my own songs because I felt like no one else could satisfy my thoughts on music.

How did your meeting with Guy Sigsworth happen?

非常简单。我决定自己创作后，尝试写了4首作品《狼》《阿修罗》等，我拿着这4首歌给了一些朋友听。其中有一位朋友是Caralinda，她非常喜欢我的音乐，带回了英国，给她的朋友们听，这其中就包括了Guy Sigsworth。Guy很惊讶也很好奇，中国有人做了这样他认为很有趣的音乐，于是我们在视频通话里见了面，于是两个人聊起来都兴奋的像个孩子，商量好要一起做我的奇怪音乐，于是我就飞去伦敦和他真的行动起来了，呵呵。我觉得自己很幸运可以和他一起工作，这让我获得太多，他真的很专业也很有才华。和他在一起，我感觉自己在迅速提高。

It was very simple. After I decided to compose my own music, I wrote four pieces — Wolf, Asura, etc. — and I gave these four songs to some friends, including Caralinda. She really liked the music and took it back to the UK to give to some of her friends to listen to, including Guy Sigsworth.

Guy was surprised and curious that someone in China made such interesting music, so we talked through the internet and were both as excited as kids to talk about how to work on my strange music. Then I flew to London and really worked with him (laughs).

I think I’m really lucky to be able to work with him. I’ve gained so much through him, he’s very professional and talented. I think working with him has made me improve rapidly.