When Re-TROS first made their impact on Western ears, it was as part of the so-called ‘China rock explosion’ of the late 2000s. It’s been a long eight years since their last LP, 2009’s Watch Out! Climate Has Changed, Fat Mum Rises, which rode the crest of that particular wave, a distinctly western post-punk sounding record that was, though excellent for what it was, not much else than a decent record.

All that’s changed on Before The Applause, their new album. Like before, the band are still hoovering up their influences – there’s hints of Nick Cave, The Coral, Einstürzende Neubauten and Steve Reich on the new one, for example – but this time they’ve gone further than simple imitation. In the years since the fade of ‘China-rock’ from the collective blog-consciousness the band have in a way retreated, honing their tools and exploring the rabid worlds of German electronica, classic acid house and rave, adding them to the post-punk melting pot.

Before The Applause, the result of their toils, is a monster of an album, a colossal record that veers from brilliant bombast to mounting terror like the flick of a switch, taking in stonking beats, acid house bliss and even a handclapping segment on the way. It’s a fantastic record not just for its unique blend of forebears, but for the fact that it’s entirely Re-TROS’ own. No longer are they imitators, now they’re undeniable outliers in a world of their own devising. Ahead of the record’s release, I caught up with frontman Hua Dong to talk the health of the Chinese rock scene past, present and future, and his ambitions for Re-TROS to be mentioned in the same breath as music’s greatest ever groups.

The main thing that sticks out to me with your music is the breadth of influences it takes in, can you tell me more about your early exposure to these bands?

We were super fans of the 70s and 80s post punk and new wave, Bauhaus, Gang Of Four, The Birthday party. We really loved them, at the very start we really wanted to be the Chinese Bauhaus, or the Chinese The Birthday Party.



How easy were those bands to hear?

This is a long story actually. Now we can download all the music at the same time as the Western people, but when I was 18 or 19 it was very difficult to get Western music because we didn’t have the internet. The only way for Chinese musicians to hear the music was through cut off CDs, CDs that are shipped to China as plastic garbage with a quality problem or those that didn’t sell so much.

What was the first music you heard that inspired you to become a musician?

The Cure, Seventeen Seconds.

Why?

When I was pretty young, 13 or 14, I was a fan of Cantonese pop music, like everybody else. But somehow a friend of mine introduced me to a magazine called Music Heaven which was the first rock ‘n’ roll magazine in China, and it included a free CD. There were a lot of bands like Bon Jovi and Pink Floyd – big rock ‘n’ roll bands from the Western market. I thought it was very good, Guns ‘n’ Roses were very powerful, but somehow they were not my type. I’m not a heavy kind of guy, so a friend thought I would prefer The Cure. He gave their CDs to me and I just discovered that music can be so simple and so easy. There’s no guitar solos, no loud voice, it was all very cool, I could totally understand what they were playing. After that I was introduced to Bauhaus and Joy Division, and I learnt that this style of music was called post punk. I got started in the post punk world, step by step.

What about live music? Was there much opportunity to experience that kind of music at a gig?

No, we didn’t have so many gigs when I was young. The live music scene in China has only really developed in the last 10 or 15 years. When I was young there was no opportunities for bands to play in a bar or club.

Re-TROS began in the more underground scene of Nanjing, before relocating to Beijing. How do the two cities compare for a young band?

It’s hard to compare, they’re totally different. It’s like comparing Beijing to Tokyo. In Nanjing we’re all locals, we don’t need to worry about food or housing, we just have fun and play what we want. When we came to Beijing everything changed. We had to start worrying and start getting better, there’s thousands of bands in Beijing and very few venues to get the opportunity to play live.

How hard was it to make a name for yourself once moving to Beijing?

There was only about 8 clubs we could play in, but with over 20,000 bands wanting to play in them. Almost every day there’s a show, but only the biggest bands can play at the weekend. We had to try our best to practise and write songs, to let more people know our music, and to get to play at the weekend. It’s a very long process for every band in Beijing.



Do you think the so-called ‘China rock explosion’ was fairly represented by those from outside the country?

I don’t care about it. Rock ‘n’ roll music exploded in China, but just because the history of Chinese rock n roll is so short. There’s no roots for it, so new bands came out to play music and it was more interesting, people were very surprised about them and we started having new bands and young blood.

You’ve spoken before about wanting to rise above being categorised simply as a ‘Chinese band’, can you explain more?

I want to be a band, not a Chinese band, I want people to compare us with Western bands, not just Chinese bands. We don’t have a lot of rock ‘n’ roll history in China so there’s not many established bands. It’s easier to get famous in China because the market is huge but the quality of bands isn’t so good. If you can play professionally you can be famous, it’s not so hard. My goal is someday to have our audience outside of China, not just in Beijing or Shanghai.

Much of the talk surrounding your new album is about being ‘the first Chinese band to go global’, why is that?

To be global… this is my final goal. I think that rock ‘n’ roll music is from the western world, it’s not Chinese. To be a global band, it’s the only way. It’s the right way for a band, not just a Chinese band or a Japanese band, it’s the only right way for anyone. Every band should want to be global.

Would you want to inspire Chinese bands after you to do the same? To make China a reputable breeding ground for new musicians?

I’d love to do it if we could. I really don’t care about other bands though, I just care about Re-TROS.

What kind of bands would you like to be compared to?

A lot of bands. The post punk bands, Joy Division and Bauhaus, and now I’m a big fan of Battles too. I love them. Another British band I love who are super creative are King Crimson. If I could do something creative or as brilliant as they did, that’d be my biggest pleasure.

The song that sticks out to me on your new album the most is Pigs in the River, which is about an incident in 2013 when 20,000 dead pigs were seen floating down the Huangpu river in Shanghai, polluting the water supply. Why was that something you wanted to write a song about?

It’s also about something else. At the same time [as the Huangpu river incident] there was a guy who drowned in Beijing, in the very centre of town. He was driving his car back home, but somehow it stopped in the water, and he drowned. These two things make me feel very… absurd. When I knew these two things I think ‘I’d like to write something about this’, they’re very traumatic to me, like a weird David Lynch movie.



Political songs?

This is a good question because people, especially from the west, like to say that we’re political. I wouldn’t call it political, it’s our real life. I’m writing about our real lives. For example, the guy who drowned in the centre of Beijing, it could happen to me too. Perhaps it will some day…

Have you ever experienced any backlash or opposition from the Chinese authorities?

We don’t have such a problem yet, but just because we sing in English. Our censorship is focused around Chinese lyrics. We have to send them to the censorship office, but they have a lot of lyrics to go through. The other reason is that we’re not so big at the moment. There’s big, huge artists in China and they have a problem. We’re an indie band.

The song itself is quite grotesque and gothic, it reminds me a lot of Nick Cave…

It’s inspired by Red Right Hand musically.

Do you like the gothic and theatrical as well as post punk?

We’re really into it, and we’ve been fans of Nick Cave for a long time, from The Birthday Party to the Bad Seeds. They’re not a post punk band, but the core of their music is very similar, it’s very dark, sometimes violent.



Why do you think it’s always been the darker side of music that stood out to you?

I think I’m just that kind of person! I’m not very talkative, I don’t hang out a lot, I like to stay at home writing songs and reading books. I’m not the kind of person who’s really into loud music and heavy metal. Sometimes the Birthday Party can be loud, but it’s another type of loud, I’m not sure of the right word for that in English.

What’s your live set like?

We’re just a three piece band but recently we’ve been using a lot of loops, we just record a guitar or bass riff into a loop station and we can do overdubs to make it sound like a bigger band, like we’re 5 or 6 people. This makes our structure more electronic, having the main thing as the loop. Our music is still based on rock n roll, but we’re still inspired by electronic music?

The electronic influences on Before The Applause are the most prominent steps forward in your sound, where did this new influence come from?

Not so long ago, over the last five years. Battles opened the door for me to electronic music. They’re very based around rock music but their ideas are electronic, that’s why I thought ‘maybe I could do this too’, playing guitar, drums and bass but around a minimal, looping structure.