专访｜Instupendo：期待我的第一次中国巡演

如果用三个词来形容你即将带来的现场演出，会是什么？

Q

《Comfort Chain》及《Six Forty Seven》在全球流媒体上拥有数亿次的播放量，但你本人一直处于一种极致低调的“幽灵状态”。你如何看待这种“作品声量远超创作者形象”的现象?

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Instupendo：我觉得这反而给了音乐第二次生命。因为大家不需要把音乐和我本人捆绑在一起，音乐成了一个独立的部分。听众可以在旋律里构筑属于他们自己的故事。说实话，我觉得大家远比我有意思，也更有创造力。音乐就是这样进入新世界的——人们用它做出了我从未预想过的表达。我只是写了一首歌，而真正赋予它灵魂的，是每一个听歌的人。

Instupendo：I feel like it kind of helps the music take on a new life, because people don't have to tie it to me. So it becomes something else; they can kind of imagine their own world. And oftentimes, everyone else is more interesting and creative than me. So that's how it takes on a new world—people do things that I could never imagine. I just made a song, and everyone else does more interesting things.

Q

这种状态会让你感到困扰吗?还是说，你其实非常享受这种藏在旋律之后、不被真实世界打扰的状态?

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Instupendo：倒也不会……外貌或者是那些外在的东西，我觉得的我无法控制。但我学会了做音乐和编曲，在旋律的世界里，我就是拥有了掌控权。所以我挺享受这种状态的。怎么说呢……就像是在指挥一整支管弦乐团。而回归到生活时，我只是我。

Instupendo：don't think I ever... I inherited my looks and the things about me that present outwards. But I learned how to make music, I learned how to compose, so I have more control over the things that I do when it comes to music and melody. So I don't think it bothers me. I think it's actually quite nice. I mean, I'm... you know, I'm playing the orchestra, whereas when it's me, it's just me—I can't do anything about it.

Q

既然一直保持隐身，为什么现在决定从屏幕背后走出来，甚至远渡重洋开启中国巡演?心态上最大的转变是什么?

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Instupendo：我一直对中国挺好奇的。那里的生活逻辑和审美体系跟美国完全不同，这种独特性在很多方面跟我做事的状态很契合。所以，我一直挺向往的。我以前压根没想过会有机会去那边走走，更别提演出了。当 Antigen 找到我合作巡演时，我真的很兴奋，因为我刚好有几个朋友也跟他们合作过，所以我知道在那儿我收到很好地照顾，演出也会非常棒。总之，我很期待。

POiSON GiRL FRiEND：I have always been interested in China just because, clearly, there’s a completely different approach to everything, and I think in a lot of ways it aligns with how I do things. And so, you know, I have always been interested. I never thought I would get the chance to come and visit, much less play my music. But yeah, I have always been interested, and when Antigen reached out to do the shows, I was really excited because I actually had a couple of friends who do shows with Antigen as well, so I knew that it would be hospitable and they’d put together a good event. So I'm excited.

Q

《Comfort Chain》和《Six Forty Seven》已经成了某种氛围美学的“圣经”。当你创作这些旋律时，是否预料到它们会产生这样的共鸣?

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Instupendo：完全没有，真的。写《Comfort Chain》时我还在读寄宿高中，也就十五六岁。我那会儿天天把自己关在宿舍房里，除了做音乐什么也不干。写那首歌那天正下着大雪。从我那个小小的、旧旧的木头房间望出去，因为楼层高，窗外除了白茫茫的一片雪什么也看不见。我当时就想写出那种感觉。现在回看，这种共鸣挺奇妙的。我觉得大家给这首歌配的视频——包括《647》也一样——其实都在捕捉某种难以言表的美感。就像我当年盯着窗外那抹银色的微光发呆一样，虽然不确定自己在看什么。但我当时没想那么多，我只是在埋头做歌。

Instupendo：No, not at all. I made Comfort Chain when I was in high school, so I was probably 15 or 16. I spent a lot of time in my room—I went to a boarding school—I spent a lot of time in my room, and I just made music all the time. And that was one that I made when it was really snowy. Kind of all I could see from my room... this small, old wooden room, and the only thing I could see out my window, because it was high up, was snow. I was trying to compose something like that. And so, in a way, it's kind of similar. I think that the videos that people make using the music—same thing with 647—it's kind of a capture of something they think is beautiful or hard to describe. And it's kind of similar to how I would see things out my window; I don't really know what I'm looking at, but it's a small silver, so... but it never occurred to me, I was just making music. (04:36~05:36)

Q

你有想过这两首首歌会成为如今拥有如此大的播放量，在 TIKTOK 等短视频被反复使用的爆单吗?

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Instupendo：那会儿 TikTok 还没出现呢。不过我当时发现有个圈子，大家喜欢用电视剧角色做混剪。经常是演员一个特写镜头，背景音乐就响起了我的歌。我每次看到都觉得，哇，我的音乐跟这些画面真的很搭。但我确实没料到，后来大家会拿它给任何东西做背景音乐。这真的让我受宠若惊。

Instupendo：Well, TikTok wasn’t around at the time, but I did see that there was a big community of people who would make, like, montages with TV show characters. It would be like a close-in zooming shot of some, you know, actor or actress, and then it would be my song. And so I always thought that whenever I would see those, it fit really well. But I could never imagine that people would use it to soundtrack just about anything. So it's really humbling.

Q

聊聊你的创作习惯。你写出这些极具梦核感的旋律时，有没有什么特殊的癖好?比如独特的乐器/宿主软件使用方式?

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Instupendo：我喜欢在做歌时放空自己，顺着当下的直觉走。通常我会先写一个极其简单的动机，可能也就五个音符，然后我就不停地往上叠东西，直到最后连我自己都分不清怎么回事了。我也说不清楚具体的时机，最后听一遍，觉得“嗯，挺好，写完了”。至于癖好？真没有，我就是坐下来开始搞。我觉得，当我完全忘了自己在“写歌”，而只是沉浸在那个行为里时，那才是创作真正开始的时候。

Instupendo：I kind of like just not thinking about anything when I make it, and kind of following the pattern. A lot of times I'll, you know, start with one layer, and it’s pretty simple—like "du-du-du-du"—which is just, what, five notes? And then I just kind of layer on everything until you can't really tell what's what anymore. And I don't know, eventually I just listen to the whole thing and I'm like, "This is good, this is done." Um, so rituals? No, I kind of just sit down and do it. And I think it's once I stop remembering that I'm making a song and I'm just doing it, then I guess that's when I have begun.

Photography connorytheballantyne

Q

聊聊你最近正在创作的内容。在目前的阶段，你的音乐方向正在发生什么样的进化?有哪些新的元素让你感到兴奋?

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Instupendo：过去这两年我开始尝试唱人声了，这次的演出现场我也会唱。演出里会专门留一个环节：我有个好哥们儿帮我弹吉他。这会让过程变得挺奇妙的：因为我其实不太懂怎么控制嗓音，这对我来说完全是新领域。但我对声音又极度挑剔，所以这就像是一场博弈：一边是我的掌控欲，一边是那种我完全控制不了的人声。不过说实话，最近我又回过头去做纯旋律了。我总觉得，旋律和编排能传达的东西，远比歌词要深。这大概跟我以前不喜欢露脸的原因差不多——我觉得旋律能带给我的可能性，比语言多得多。

Instupendo：Well, for the past couple of years I started singing, which I'll be doing in my live shows. It’s kind of a section—it's like instrumental, and then live I'm bringing one of my close friends to play guitar live. And it's been really interesting because I have no idea how to control my voice, and it's all kind of new. But at the same time, I'm very particular about how things sound, so it's kind of been a battle between, you know, extreme control and something I have no control over. So that's been interesting. But recently, I have been more in a mode of wanting to make instrumental music again. I just feel like there’s a lot more that I can say with an instrument or a composition than my words. Probably the same reason why I didn't like to, you know, previously show my face so much—I think there is more I can do with an instrument.

Q

如果用三个词来形容你即将带来的现场演出，会是什么?

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Instupendo：“Fusion”（融合）。因为这次我会把 DJ Set 和 Live 表演揉在一起。我还带了 Rip Squad 的老伙计 Distance Decay 来，他弹吉他，我唱人声。我们要把这两种平时不太搭边儿的形式合二为一。第二个词是 “Colorful”（斑斓）。选曲跨度很大，涵盖了我各个时期的作品，我也花了很多心思像玩拼贴一样把它们凑起来，效果很妙。最后一个词是 “Curious”（好奇）。这是我个人的心情，我完全无法想象会发生什么。中国看起来总是那么美，我有预感，在那儿演出的兴奋感甚至会超过在美国本土。咱们现场见，我期待值已经拉满了。

POiSON GiRL FRiEND：I would say “Fusion”, just because I'm doing a combination of music in a DJ set as well as a live performance, where I'm actually bringing on a close friend and collaborator from the group "Rip Squad"—his name is "Distance Decay", and he is a longtime collaborator of mine. He will be playing guitar and I'll be doing some vocals, and we are kind of trying to mix together these two performances that typically don't go together. So, "Fusion". And “Colorful”, because it's a pretty broad selection of music—there’s kind of something from every era that I have done, which is interesting, and I have tried really hard to piece it together. I think it's come together in a really interesting way. And then “Curious”, just because... this is more of a personal thing, I have no idea what to expect. China always looks so beautiful, and yeah, I have a feeling it might be more exciting even than performing over here in the States. So we will see; my hopes are high.

Q

这是你第一次来中国。除了音乐，你对这里的城市或乐迷有什么特别的好奇或期待吗?

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Instupendo：我好奇的事情太多了。在美国刷到的那些关于中国的视频——那种氛围美学，简直就像是为我的音乐量身定做的。中国网友捕捉生活瞬间并配上音乐的方式非常独特，我真的很幸运，他们选了我的歌作为背景。所以我特别好奇，这种美感搬到现实中会是什么样？那里的真实感是怎样的？我甚至在想，在那儿我能交到新朋友吗？

Instupendo：I'm curious about a lot of things. I think a lot of the videos and imagery of China that come over here—maybe my TikTok feed—is almost an image that’s made for video, it’s made for music to be combined with. And I think that Chinese netizens have a really specific way of capturing things and putting it to music that... you know, I have been lucky enough for them to use my music. So I'm curious how it translates just to real life—what it's like. I'm curious, will I make friends?

Q

最后，请对中国的粉丝说几句话。

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Instupendo：能受到邀请我真的觉得很幸运。无论是支持了我很久的老朋友，还是刚认识我的新粉丝——我很期待能在这个现场，面对面地和你们分享我的音乐。谢谢你们带我玩。

Instupendo：I feel very lucky to be invited, and to old fans and new fans—I'm excited to share my music with you in person. Thank you for having me.

poster by dodleyz