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P.K. 14’sConnection? 1984 The Orwellian
PETE JACKSON
The first thing that you need to know about P.K. 14’s 1984, one of the most highly anticipated underground Chinese albums of recent years, is that it’s not about 1984. Or is it? ? ‘It’s not about the book, not about George Orwell, it’s about the reality around us, in Beijing or China and around the world. It’s about 2013, it’s not about 1984.’ ? ‘All of PK 14’s albums are conceptions… all the albums, for us, are about the time that we live in. For this album, it’s our life – these five years, four years, two years, it’s our life. We got a reaction from reality and our daily life and wrote it – that’s the musician’s job. The concept is our lives.’ ? If you’ve got to ask more than that, it seems, you’re missing the point. That’s twice that I’ve asked Yang Haisong about the 1984 title in interviews, and both times he’s been nebulous in his answer. The subtext in the P.K. 14 frontman’s words is clear – ‘Come on – do you really have to ask what the connection is?’ ? Released five years after City Weather Sailing, P.K. 14’s previous effort, 1984 is ‘a serious, thought-provoking album’, says our reviewer Mahanadan, that ‘continues to pick at the scabs that protect some of China’s deepest wounds, exposing class inequality, environmental issues, and a pervading sense of impending doom.’ All the lyrics come from Yang’s poetry, with production from Steve Albini (producer of In Utero and many other seminal albums) ensuring that this record hits just as hard musically as it does lyrically. ? The band have always taken an uncompromising path, since their beginnings in the late 90’s. Originally, Yang Haisong played Chicago-style punk in a band called West. ? ‘At that time we were still young, we had a lot of energy to do raw power stuff, three chord stuff.’ ? Back when the artistic lifestyle was even more
of a difficult choice, Yang characterised P.K. 14 as the voice of a ‘rotten generation.’ ? ‘We didn’t want to earn money in the normal way, so we were losers. Our parents, teachers, see us as losers, we didn’t like official, normal jobs. So we say ‘OK we are losers,’ and we are happy about that.’ ? The music has changed, but the attitude hasn’t. ? ‘In my heart I still feel the same things…once you’re rotten, you’re always rotten.’ ? ‘The scene has changed a lot. The scene is people; the musicians. It seems the new generation plays music for fun, but it was different for the older generation. [The] younger generation play music more for fun, not for philosophy, this sort of stuff. But it was different for the older generation where if you play music, your lifestyle is totally different [to everyone else]. It’s not like that now.’
‘In my heart I still feel the same things…once you’re rotten, you’re always rotten.’
? But it would be grossly unfair to characterize Yang as a grumpy old man complaining about the kids these days. Far from it – as a producer, he is the go-to person for most young bands wanting to record their first album. He’s a passionate supporter of the underground scene all over China, and works to build up bands in smaller cities so that they can inspire future generations. He’s also motivated to record the efforts of bands with blink-and-you-miss-it careers, so that those who come after have something to build on. ? ‘I want to document it - there’s a new band, they create a really good album, then they break up. Always like that, right? So before they break up I try to help them record their albums. And then after 10 years some new Shanghai kids can know that something happened before in Shanghai.’
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