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Swedish-Chinese collaboration PK 14
are taking time out to learn photography, write their fourth album,
and set a date with the recording studio by the end of year.
Founded in the southerly city of Nanjing almost ten years ago,
P.K.14 have released three albums through China’s independent
labels Modern Sky, Sub Jam and Kuguabang. Now relocated to Beijing,
band songs like Religion Lost, written by vocalist Yang Haisong,
have given a voice to China’s urban youth. Guitar player
in P.K.14 (the name is an abbreviation for among other things,
‘Public Kingdom for Teens’) Xu Bo is from Chengzhou
in Hunan Province. Bass Player Ren Jie is from Wuhan, also in
central China’s Hubei Province. Given that both are fans
of post-punk, it’s hardly surprising P.K.14’s second
album Shei, Shei, Shei He Shei, Shei, Shei has gotten the band
compared favorably to Sonic Youth, Joy Division and The Stooges.
The addition of drummer Jonathan Leijonhfvuad – a Swede who
grew up in Hong Kong – widened the band’s horizons and
recent tours have taken them all over Scandinavia, to squats in
Eastern Berlin, Alpine towns in Austria and an anti-racism festival
at Kuba Park in Oslo. Scholarly Yang Haisong, the only surviving
member of the group founded in Nanjing, took time away from his
songbook recently to talk about the band’s next album and
Tour of the Public Kingdom, a documentary film by independent
filmmaker David Harris which chronicled the band’s tour across
China last year.
What is P.K.14 doing these days?
Jonathan went to London to study photography; he came back at
end of June this year. We’re just working, earning money,
listening to music, and writing some new stuff. I think we’ll
book some gigs this August.
When can we expect to hear a new album
from the band?
Yes, we have talked about that. If everything goes well, we’ll
record our fourth album early next year, maybe around the Chinese
New Year. We will have almost half a year to write songs. We hope
they’ll be really, really good songs.
Will you sing in English or Chinese on
the new record?
I sing all the songs in Chinese.
Is P.K.14 a punk or a rock band or do you
prefer to be called indie rockers?
Post punk or indie rock. But we like to describe it as “rock
and roll.” That’s very simple.
How did you meet with your current drummer,
Jonathan?
He went to school in Hong Kong, just like Kim Gordon from Sonic
Youth. In May 1999 he organized some concerts in China for The
International Noise Conspiracy from Sweden. When they played in
Shanghai, P.K.14 were the supporting act so he saw us there. He’s
fluent in Chinese because he lived 21 of his 25 years in China.
In the winter of 1999, he moved back to Beijing from Hong Kong.
The punk scene in Beijing was just starting and things were really
happening. P.K.14 had moved from our hometown of Nanjing to Beijing
at the same time and we ran into Jonathan at Club 17, one of the
city’s now defunct live venues. I met him in Ikea and asked
him to try out for the drums because our drummer was leaving.
How did you find Ren Jie, who became bassist
earlier this year?
Ren intended to study film at the Beijing Film Academy, but Xu
Bo phoned and asked him to play bass. He used to be a guitarist:
he’d never played it before. But he gave it a go.
Tell me about the documentary film made
about your tour. Who came up with that idea? Where will it be
shown – in Europe, China, Asia?
The documentary film was the director Dave Harris’ idea.
It was also his first time to use a camera. He had never shown
us any filmmaking talent. But he is one of our best friends, so
we said “OK, if you want to make it, go ahead.” We had
no great expectations about what it would look like, or if it
would be good. And when we watched the film, we liked it very
much. He did a great job. It’ s cool. It has been shown at
some clubs in Beijing, nine or ten I think. But it has not been
screened outside China. We have plans to release it as a DVD.
Dave also cut a music video for the band, for a single from our
latest album White Paper.
What kind of music are you listening to
these days?
That question is quite difficult to answer. The four of us come
from different backgrounds and we like many kinds of music. My
long time loves are 60s and 70s music, including jazz, folk and
rock music. They still excite me. I also listen to many new bands
from Europe and United States. I started out listening to Bob
Dylan, Neil Young, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Woody Guthrie.
They were huge influences. I still really like post-punk bands
like Talking Heads, Patti Smith and The Cure. Xu Bo, who joined
P.K.14 in 2001, likes Joy Division, Television, Fugazi and Sonic
Youth.
What kind of reception do you receive in
Europe? Are people more interested in you being from China or
in your music?
I think in Europe, people hardly know anything about the rock
scene in China. So we were not surprised that the people who came
to our shows were more interested in a band from China. And we
were also not surprised that people were really moved by our music.
We tried our best in every one of the forty shows we played in
Europe. The audiences felt happy not just because they were watching
a band from China, but because we played good music too. That
made us happy too.
Is it easier to get gigs in China these
days? Are there more venues and fans than before?
Yes, it is easier. We can book gigs in big and medium sized cities,
and even some small cities. And yes, there are more venues and
fans. Everything is developing in China.
What’ s your ultimate ambition as
a band, or do you have one? A number one record perhaps? More
fans in Europe?
As a band, of course, we want to make great records. I mean,
it is good if we have a number one record or we have more fans
in Europe, United States or all over the world, but it is not
the most important thing. The happiest thing for us would be if
someone comes to us someday and says, “You guys really influenced
me, you opened my mind.” That would be great.
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