WhyOceans interviewed by Online Magazine 《NeochaEDGE》from China / WhyOceans 跟中國網上雜誌《新茶鋒潮》專訪特集 (08-Jul-2010)

[interview | NeochaEDGE talks with macau

indie band WhyOceans ///](http://edge.neocha.com/interview-profile/music-whyoceans-macau/)

[专访 |

澳门独立乐队WhyOceans ///](http://edge.neocha.com/zh/interview-profile/music-whyoceans-macau/)

WhyOceans are a rock band from Macau that was formed in 2005 and consists of Luís Carvalhais (林嘉鏵) on vocal and guitar, Chu Man Wai (朱文蔚, aka: Tommy Chu) on guitar, Lam Chi Kin (林智健, aka: Jase Lam) on bass, Tam Chi Chong (譚智沖, aka: Jackal Tam) on piano / keyboard / synthesizer and Lau Chi Keong (劉志強, aka: Ellison Lau) on drums. More recently, in March, a new member joined: Guillaume Leclerc (羅杰勇).

WhyOceans是一支来自澳门的摇滚乐队，成立于2005年，目前成员有主唱兼吉他手林嘉华 (Luís Carvalhais)，吉他手朱文蔚 (Tommy Chu)，贝斯手林智健 (Jase Lam)，负责钢琴、键盘与和音的谭智沖 (Jackal Tam) 和鼓手刘志强 (Ellison Lau)。最近，新成员罗志勇 (Guillaume Leclerc) 也加入了WhyOceans。

We recently caught up with keys player Jackal who talked with us about the band, WhyOceans’ past and future projects, and the music scene in Macau.最近我们采访了乐队键盘手谭智沖，谈到WhyOceans的经历与将来的计划，此外，他对澳门音乐氛围也有着清晰深刻的看法，非常值得分享！

How did you guys meet and decide to form a band?

Tommy, Jase, and I were playing together while still in high school. However, as the years have passed, each of us eventually went our own ways. But then I met Luís in 2003 or 2004 through a mutual friend. I started playing guitar with him and because at school I used to play with Tommy and Jase, I thought, “why don’t we all join and have fun.” Then Ellison joined and since March of this year we have Guillaume as the newest member in our team.你们是怎么相遇，然后决定组建一个乐队的 ？

Tommy， Jase和我高中的时候就在一起玩，但是随着时间流逝，大家都有了自己的方向。我是2003年通过一个朋友认识Luís的，我们在那以后经常一起玩吉他。 因为在学校时，我总是跟Tommy和Jase一起玩吉他，所以我当时就想，“为何不一起玩呢？” 之后Ellison加入了，今年三月，我们的新成员Guillaume也加入了乐队。

WhyOceans?

The “why” is a universal question. Oceans connect places and people. We wanted to join the two words, as we hope that our music will work like the water, connecting people and bringing their hearts together, irrespective of nationality.为什么取名叫WhyOceans？

“why”是一个宇宙共用的普遍性问题。“oceans”就是海洋的意思，它连接了人们 和不同的地方。我们把两个词结合在一起，是希望我们的音乐可以像水一样，连接人们，聚合心灵，无论他们来自哪里。

Which musicians or artists have influenced your music?

Actually our music tastes are quite different. Some influences would be Pink Floyd, Explosions in the Sky, Mono, Nirvana, Joy division, Interpol etc.哪些音乐人和艺术家影响了你们？

实际上，我们的音乐品味都很不同。比如，Pink Floyd， Explosions in the Sky，Mono， Nirvana， Joy division和Interpol对我们都有影响。

How would you describe your music and how has it been received?

Sometimes there are no words to express a message. That is why our music is focused primarily on the instruments. We want to create a certain atmosphere. We achieve this through compositional structure. People have different reactions to it. Some are enthusiastic, others find it to be strange. Either way, it was a surprise to them. People in Macau are used to pop music and may have never heard anything like the kind of music we make – with few lyrics, sometimes without vocals, several minute long compositions. This is what we want to achieve with our album, to prove that the Macau music scene has more to offer than what people are used to hearing.你如果形容自己的音乐？

有时候是任何言语都不能传达一个信息。这就是为什么我们的音乐主要关注乐器本身。我们想 营造一种特殊的氛围，通过编曲结构来达到这个目的。人们对此会有不同的反应，有些人会情绪高昂，有些人则觉得它很怪。但无论是何种反应，对听众而言都是一 种惊喜。澳门人听了太多的流行音乐，从来没听过这类型的音乐–没什么歌词，有时甚至没有人开口唱的几分钟长的编曲。这就是我们希望达到的目的，我们想证明 澳门除了人们日常听的流行音乐外，也有其他的类型存在。

How would you describe the local music scene in Macau? What problems is it facing at the moment?

The lack of general promotion is a menace to the future of good, quality music in Macau. There are maybe less than 10 “active” local bands at the moment. By “active” I mean bands that are recording or having regular performances. On the other hand, there is a lot of talent and promising, fresh young bands are constantly emerging, but they just don’t have enough opportunities to promote themselves and because of that they won’t last. I think this is the major problem that the local scene is facing today, because if people are not motivated, there can be no development and no variety in the scene.

Also, most of the time the audience attending local band shows is rather small, around 30 people. And this is not only due to the fact that many people are only into mainstream music. It’s just that, at some point, the audience will lose their interest, if every event and show is attended by the usual musicians with the usual set-list. It can become boring and this is the main danger of having too few bands in the local music scene.

And then, there’s also a problem of venues. There are not many suitable places for live gigs. Pubs and bars here do not support underground sounds, they only hire bands who play famous cover songs. That’s why we are usually organizing all our shows in the same venue, and hope that enough people will attend the live show for us to be able to cover the renting fees with the money from ticket sales.

As a result of this lack of promotion, many of our musician friends, including ourselves, are invited to perform without compensation. Some bands are supported by their student friends, but this is not really a long-term solution. We even need to borrow our equipment and pay for any transportation fees by ourselves. We organize and coordinate all events by ourselves. It’s not easy, but it’s fun and we love what we do.澳门的本土音乐气氛怎么样？此刻它正面临着什么样的问题呢？

缺乏宣传是对澳门有好品质的音乐最致命的伤害。现在活跃的本土乐队可能10支都不到，我 说的“活跃”是指会去录音或者固定演出。另一方面，大量有才华的，年轻新鲜的乐队不断涌现，但只因为他们没有足够的机会证明自己，所以不会持久。我觉得这 就是本土音乐面临的最大的问题。如果人们没有足够大的动力，音乐界就没有发展，因此也无多样性可言。

此外，参加本土乐队演出的听众人数很少，一般在30人左右。这并不是因为人们只对主流音 乐感兴趣，而是如果每场活动都是由同样的音乐人按照同样的形式演出的话，在某个程度上，听众会觉得很无聊，会厌倦。这也是澳门本土乐队太少的最大危害。

还有场地的问题。没有太过合适做现场演出的场所。这里的酒吧一般不支持地下音乐，他们只 会请那些玩主打歌的乐队。这就是为什么我们要在同一个地点举办演出了– 我们希望足够多的人们可以来看我们的现场，我们也可以用门票费来支付租金。

因为没多少宣传的缘故，我们很多玩音乐的朋友，包括我们自己，都是“自掏腰包”演出。一 些乐队是被他们的学生朋友支持的，但这不是长久之计。我们还需要接演出器材和自己支付交通费用。我们全是靠自己来组织安排演出活动的，很不容易，但也很有 趣。我们喜欢我们所作的。

Any solution in mind to this unfortunate problem?

It’s like a vicious circle, but I think better promotion is the key to solving this problem. It would encourage more talented people to make music, or to form bands, which in turn would create more variety in the scene, which would motivate people to buy tickets and attend shows, hence financing the musicians and enabling them to organize more shows and rent better venues. Unfortunately we also do not have any official organization for promoting band events yet. There’s only “ Macau Underground” that is running shows regularly, like every two months.有没有解决方法呢？

这是一个恶性循环。但我觉得做好宣传是解决这个问题的关键，这会鼓励更多有才华的人来创 作音乐，或组建乐队，会促进音乐圈的多样性发展，人们会买票来看演出，这样音乐人也有收入，可以组织更多的演出，租更好的场地。但是很遗憾我们目前没有任 何官方组织负责宣传。目前只有“ Macau Underground”在固定组织演出，好像每两个月一次。

Recent projects you’ve been involved in? Plans for the future?

We had some shows in Macau, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, and we have participated in several music festivals, namely “Hush! Full Band Rock Marathon Festival,” “Post-Rock Festival 2009 Guangzhou,” “Macau Flash 2008,” “Hong Kong Flash 2009,” “Macau Underground,” “Hong Kong Underground.” We were also involved in some art projects, such as the 2007 and 2008 Macau International Film Festival.

We would love to go on a little tour someday. Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai – and a return to Hong Kong – are some of the places where we would like to perform in the future.

We are also planning on releasing our first album in the next couple of months. We will have an album launch party at Blue Frog – Venetian in Macau. The idea of the album is to give it to people so they can hear our music, because whoever wants to listen to us has to come to our gigs. Therefore, we would like to give something to people that they can take home and listen to.你最近有什么项目吗？你对未来的计划是怎样的？

我们在澳门，香港和中国大陆都有演出，我们还参加了几个音乐节，像“Hush! Full Band Rock Marathon Festival” “Post-Rock Festival 2009 Guangzhou，” “Macau Flash 2008，” “Hong Kong Flash 2009，” “Macau Underground，” “Hong Kong Underground”。我们还参与一些艺术项目中，比如2007年与2008年的澳门国际电影节。

我们希望某天可以巡回演出，台湾，北京，上海，香港都是我们希望未来能演出的地方。

我们计划过几个月发行第一张专辑。我们 将会在澳门威尼斯人渡假村蓝蛙酒吧举 行一个专辑发布party。这个专辑的点子是把我们的音乐给人们，无论谁想听，都可以来我们的现场。我们把专辑给他们，他们就可以带回家听了。