Alt-rock pioneers return to their indie roots

When guitarist Vincent Jeng (鄭峰昇) looks back at the early days of his band, Backquarter (四分衛), he does what many veteran rockers do — he gets a little nostalgic.

“Whether our songs were good — that’s a separate matter — but the energy was strong ... and we were young,” he says, laughing.

But Backquarter today is far from a relic. After enjoying both underground and mainstream success, the group has returned to its indie roots, and is currently self-producing an album slated for release in August. For now, fans and Taiwanese rock enthusiasts have the chance to hear some of Backquarter’s latest music live tomorrow night at The Wall (四分衛) in Taipei.

Not one to be pigeonholed, Backquarter has always made an effort to play different rock styles, ranging from the early grunge of its classic song Vampire (吸血鬼) to the Latin rock groove of Caramel Macchiato (焦糖瑪奇朵) or the polished pop-rock of Dizzy (暈眩). Formed by Jeng and his childhood friend and lead singer, Spark Chen (陳如山), Backquarter was among the earliest generation of indie acts in Taipei’s nascent underground rock scene from the early 1990s, which included bands such as the Chairman (董事長樂團), the Clippers (夾子), and pop idols May Day (五月天).

The down-to-earth, cigarette-smoking Jeng, 38, doesn’t seem like the type whose band would record for Sony Music Taiwan, fusing Mando-pop melodies to their guitar-heavy sound and recording karaoke-friendly tunes.

But that’s exactly what Backquarter did at the beginning of the decade.

Looking back, Jeng, who is also the bandleader, has mixed feelings about the “rock star” experience. He says he wasn’t crazy about the TV appearances or music video shoots, which he found “embarrassing.” They played fewer live gigs, and eventually the band grew tired of recording KTV-friendly ditties and publicity events for the sake of business. “We didn’t want to make money, we wanted to play shows,” he says.

But it wasn’t all bad. Jeng says, for the most part, the band was able to steer the artistic direction of their Sony albums Deep Blue and Rock Team, which earned them wider recognition. And the group learned to communicate better with producers and recording engineers, which helped them to find new ideas and sounds, says Jeng.

The band’s experience at Sony also inspired Jeng to produce and record other bands, which he continues to do today for his band’s original label, Taiwan Colors Music (角頭音樂), that specializes in Taiwanese underground and new Aboriginal folk music. For Jeng, producing and sound engineering brings similar rewards to working with Backquarter, such as the chance to bring a band’s music to a new level.

As for his own band’s new album, Jeng is happy with the freedom of being fully independent again: “We have full control in every aspect,” he says. And they feel wiser. “Having come from the independent scene to the mainstream and back again, we’re much more clear about everything now, about being an indie band.”

Tomorrow night fans can expect classic Backquarter songs, with some new arrangements as a three-piece horn section will play along. But this should be no surprise — change is a constant for Backquarter, which occasionally puts on shows with new rearrangements of their older, more well-known songs. “Once we rearranged old songs for an acoustic set and you couldn’t recognize anything but the lyrics,” Jeng says.