美籍华裔制作人Zhu匿名的背后究竟为何

“ 我希望大家能用心去听、感受音乐，然后把音乐带到他们的生活中去，融入到他们的穿衣风格和他们讨论音乐的方式。我想这是一件非常棒的事情。”

"I want people to listen and embrace and take it into their lifestyle, what they wear, the way they talk about music. I think there’s something powerful about that."

让音乐自己说话吧。这很容易就能说出口但当这句话实践到艺人身上时却是一件不简单的事。对于Steven Zhu，这个27岁在加州湾区长大，现在在洛杉矶的美籍华裔音乐家来说，让音乐自己说话的一个方式就是把自己从这个等式里面去掉。

Let the music speak for itself. It’s easy to proclaim but hard to practice in an era when buying into an artist’s persona is often an expected part of the deal. For Steven Zhu, a 27 year old musician of Chinese descent who grew up in the Bay Area and is now based in Los Angeles, one way to let the music speak for itself was to remove himself from the equation.

2014年2月，Zhu在Soundcloud上发行了第一首混音单曲，混合了Outkast这个二人组的饶舌和house节奏。他用一首国际榜单热单（让人难以捉摸的“Faded”），跟Columbia Records美国的一笔交易，还有一场在电子舞音乐节HARD Day of the Dead的表演结束了这一年。他有个窍门，就是利用他匿名让网上沸腾——网上出现了很多关于他神秘的标志和在电台播放的曲子——这吸引了很多好奇粉丝们的注意力。

In February 2014, Zhu debuted via an unattributed Outkast remix medley on Soundcloud, blending the duo’s raps over house beats. He ended the year with an international chart hit (the slinky “Faded”), a deal with Columbia Records in the U.S., and a show at EDM festival HARD Day of the Dead. The trick, it turns out, was to leverage his relative anonymity to build online hype — stoked by images of a mysterious logo and radio play —and draw curious fans to his music.

“Faded”也获得了2015年格莱美最佳舞曲奖的提名（英国的Clean Bandit最后得到了这个奖）。接着那年Zhu发行了充满活力的Genesis EP，这是一个很多元多样性的EP，有着和Skrillex，A-Trak，和AlunaGeorge还有其他人的合作。上个春天，他开始了作为美国头牌演出嘉宾的巡演，为他在7月29日发行的第一张专辑Generationwhy拉开了序幕。

“Faded” went on to receive a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording in 2015 (the win went to the U.K.'s Clean Bandit), and later that year Zhu released the energetic Genesis EP, a diverse set of collaborations with Skrillex, A-Trak, and AlunaGeorge among others. This past spring, he embarked on his first U.S. headline tour, a prelude to his debut album, Generationwhy, due out July 29.

“对于我们这个年代的人来说，网络是一个非常好的门槛去宣传音乐，和我们制作音乐一样。”在他成为一个网络人物之前，他好多年都是用传统的方式去制作音乐：小时候弹钢琴和吹小号，上学时在爵士乐队和管弦乐队里训练；在USC学习音乐；有一年还在Soundcloud上每周发行一首曲子（“一个自我培训的过程”）；还有他也发行过一些很低调的曲子。

“For our generation, the internet is a gateway to distribute music in the same way we make it.” Before he become an internet figure, Zhu had been making music in a more traditional way for years: playing piano and horns as a kid; jazz bands and orchestral practice at school; music studies at USC; a one-year stint releasing a track a week on Soundcloud (“a self-training process”); and some low-key releases.

“就说我以制作音乐来维持生计吧，已经有3年了，”Zhu然后说，“但这肯定是有1万个小时的努力。”这那么多时间的练习能在他的音乐里体现出来。在装饰后的电子舞音乐界下，Zhu的曲子都是非常精巧和平滑的。曲子都能在你不经意的时候吸引你的注意力。“管弦乐和曲子编排都是我很感兴趣的，”他继续说道，“曲子编排可以让一首歌成功或者失败。”

“In terms of actually saying I make music for a living, it’s been three years,” Zhu says before adding, “but of course there’s been 10,000 hours or more put into it.” Those hours of practice are evident in the music. Beneath their polished EDM house front, Zhu’s songs are well-crafted and slick. So much so they might catch you off guard. “Orchestration and arrangement is always interesting to me,” he continues. “The arrangement of a song can make or break its success.”

当初为什么选择去隐藏自己的身份？

Why did you choose to

hide your identity initially?

“这个隐藏身份的背后一直是我坚信的东西。那些我从小就钦佩的艺人们，他们很多都露脸但是也有些没有，像Gorillaz——我不是专注于音乐背后的那个人。我想作为一个艺人，你应该去抓住音乐所释放的东西。”

"The message behind it is something I firmly believe in. The artists I admired growing up, many had faces but some didn’t. Gorillaz, for example — I wasn’t focused on the men behind the music. I think as an artist you have to capture what the music represents."

在匿名的背后是有什么样的故事呢？

What is the message behind anonymity?

“回到2013年，当舞曲音乐在各大头条出现时，我觉得有一半的人都有鬼魂作曲人，其他人不知道怎么去表演，还有一些人连音乐都不懂甚至连音都听不出来。我觉得很多人用脸去强调音乐，吸引粉丝们的注意力，而不是去更加完美音乐。我对于我的音乐很自信，我觉得如果大家都不知道我是谁就能很准确的判断音乐。”

"Back in 2013, dance music was making big headlines and I felt like half the people had ghostwriters, others didn’t know how to perform, and some couldn’t even play music or were tone deaf. I felt everybody was using their face to capitalize off the music, grabbing fans instead of perfecting music. I was confident in delivering the type of music I had, I felt it would be a statement if people didn’t know who I was."

“Generationwhy”的背后是有什么想法呢？

What's the idea behind "Generationwhy"?

“我对这张专辑的概念是能让人们感受到有一种重生的感觉。我最初的想法是把我的听众们带到一个旅途上，去到一个美丽无邪的地方。这可能听起来很俗套，但是有时候这些东西会是最真实的！对于现在这个世界，我们都会有很多问题想要问。很多人都不会很敢问出来。艺人们有责任和义务去创造能讲述这个时代的音乐。我想这张专辑是这几年洛杉矶的感觉。”

"My concept for this record was to bring people towards a feeling of rebirth. My intention was to bring the listener on a journey and back to a youthful innocence. As cheesy as that may sound, but sometimes cheese is real! And in terms of what we’re dealing with right now in the world, there’s a lot of questions we all ask. And many people are afraid to ask them even. Artists have a responsibility and duty to create the music that describes their era. I think this record is the soundtrack to what west L.A. feels like in the past few years."

在PYRO收听ZHU的音乐：

original article by The Fader, translated by PYRO Music

http://www.thefader.com/2016/07/26/zhu-interview-generationwhy