TT: What’s the current state of Taiwan’s hip-hop scene?
FL: In Tainan, there used to be a group of rappers that focused a lot on freestyle and rapping skills. But right now it seems like the creativity is happening in Taipei — because in Tainan, even though they did a lot of rapping, not many people were writing their own music.
They would use foreign instrumentals ... but they didn’t really write their own music. What makes Taipei’s scene great is more people here write their own music. Maybe it’s because of the US and Japan’s influence ... there are a few hip-hop jazz groups starting to come out now in Taipei ... It used to be that a lot of people wanted to learn American gangsta rap, more hard-core, tougher stuff. But now it’s becoming more diversified.
FC: But I think one problem is that there’s no new generation ... Many groups out there now are already two or three years old, and even fewer new groups are coming out. This isn’t just happening in hip-hop but it’s also the same for indie bands ... There are fewer new bands nowadays that are making good music and have a big following.
JC: It’s hard for bands in Taiwan to keep it going because of [compulsory] military service ... It often causes bands to break up.
TT: But wouldn’t a band just continue on after they finish their service?
J-Chen: People then get jobs … they give up the dream of doing music.
TT: Where’s Taiwan hip-hop headed?
FC: It’s moving toward many styles ... before everyone just liked gangsta rap. More groups are also releasing their own CDs.
TT: What’s in store musically for Kou Chou Ching?
FL: I think that you don’t only need hip-hop beats to rap … Our beats in the future will probably include drum n’ bass, house, to which we will add rap. We don’t just listen to hip-hop but a lot of other music too, so we’ll be trying other styles.
TT: So you’re leaning towards electronic music.
FL: Electronic, but reggae too. But we will keep adding traditional [Taiwanese music samples] to electronic and maybe even reggae music. We’ve starting to realize that they are compatible.
TT: Where do you get your music samples?
FL: For traditional music, night markets. Some places in the countryside, temples sell their own CDs of traditional opera music.
FC: On Huaxi Street (華西街) there’s a place that sells cassette tapes [of old Taiwanese songs]. We’ll buy tapes there to make into samples … I’ve also had this idea of recording on the street, where you sometimes see these tough old ladies bawling someone out … the way they yell — that feeling is a lot like rap. And it’s very rhythmic. We could tape that and put it to a rhythm track, make an intro to a song. I think that would be really cool.
Kou Chou Ching’s next show is on Thursday, 8:30pm, at the Ilan County Stadium (宜蘭縣立體育館). Visit the group’s blog at blog.roodo.com/kou/ or Web site at www.kou.com.tw for details.
[This interview has been edited and condensed.]
RSS