GAS - Chinese Works (image from GAS website)[/caption]GAS is a Catalan band hailing from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona province) that is drawing some attention in the local rock music scene because not only of the quality of their music, but also because a peculiar choice they made for their most recent album: to use Mandarin Chinese as the language of their songs. Their lyrics are also available in Chinese on their website, a proof of their confidence on the quality of their writing, and they have already performed successfully for the Chinese community of the Fort Pienc quarter in Barcelona. After our recent post about the release of their record, we wanted to dig a little bit more into the reasons that motivated them to make such a bold move and we interviewed band member Salvador Mas.
Q: Where did you get the idea to make a record in Mandarin Chinese and how did you decide to actually make it?
R: It was by chance, on September 2012, during the rehearsal of our new demo. We asked our singer Jordi Riba how did it his Chinese exam go and then a friend of us that came to listen to our rehearsal asked him to sing one of the new songs in Chinese. He did that and we all liked it very, very much.
Q: To make a record in Chinese implies a deep knowledge of the language. Who are the members in the band that have it and how did you get it?
R: The only member that can speak Chinese is Jordi Riba, the rest of us we'd love to, but honestly we just know some few basic words. He is also a professional English translator and has been studying Chinese for five years. He is now in his last course at the Official Language School in Barcelona.
Q: Which artists do you know that are singing in Chinese and what are your favorites?
R: We listen to a lot of C-Pop music (中文流行音乐), specially from Taiwan and Hong Kong thanks to Youtube, but we don't try to follow anyone's style because our intention is to play local pop music but with lyrics in Mandarin Chinese. We think that this mixture is the key of our project and, according to the comments we have received by email and on our Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/gasalacarta), we think that generally our fans and followers are pleased with our choice of blending western pop with the beautiful sounds of Mandarin Chinese.
Q: Is this an isolated project or will it keep on evolving in the future?
R: Not at all, this will not be an isolated project. The experience is being so positive at both personal and creative levels that from now on we plan to use Mandarin Chinese in all of our new compositions.
Q: Are you going to tour to promote this record? Are you planning to perform in the Chinese speaking areas?
R: For the moment the new record is just an EP, but we have the more ambitious project of making a whole album. We have published this EP just to test what was the people's reaction and so far it has been so good that we can't do anything else but go on with it. We are currently having conversations with some Spanish record labels to see which could be the most adequate way to distribute our work in Asian markets. We also plan to make a CD in order to promote our music in a more traditional way. Until now, though, the songs can be bought through our platform http://shop.gasmusica.com. We would love to have the chance to contact Chinese music companies in order to speed up this process, but we still don't know who they are and how to get to them. We would also love to be able to play in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and in the many Chinese communities all over the world.
Q: And finally, what is the reaction of your audiences when they notice you sing in Chinese?
Until now we have only made one concert for the Chinese community in Barcelona during the celebration of the Chinese New Year in February 2013. The audience, a mixture of Chinese and Catalan people, had a moving reaction and they encouraged us to go on with our project.
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