Crikey!

我一直嚷着要去芝加哥。芝加哥是我最向往的美国城市，甚至比纽约还向往。原因除了Andrew Bird，还有Wilco。

Wilco是1994年成立于芝加哥的非主流摇滚乐队，Jeff Tweedy是它的主唱，吉他手，歌曲创作者。Wilco起初默默无闻，直到2002年，出了那张令他们名气飙升的专辑Yankee Hotel Foxtrot（北方佬酒店的狐步舞）。它的封面是Marina City，一对位于芝加哥地区的塔形建筑。

这张唱片也许是近十年来最好的唱片之一。在Pitchfork评选的2000年代Top专辑榜单上，它名列第四，在Rolling Stone的榜单上，它名列第三。Q杂志评选了史上最棒的100张专辑，它榜上有名。

围绕这张专辑发行的前后，其实有段非常曲折的故事。

在Yankee Hotel Foxtrot之前，Wilco已经在Reprise Records旗下出了三张专辑。Reprise Records是华纳的子公司之一。2001年前后，美国在线(American online)收购了时代华纳，于是包括Reprise Records在内的唱片公司都被要求尽力削减费用，以求渡过难关。

Wilco那时已经录好了专辑的demo，放给Reprise Records的高层主管听。高层主管的反应是：“这是一张商业上不会成功的专辑，它缺少潜在的单曲。” 他们试图让Wilco把专辑向他们需要的方向改进，Wilco不肯，其实就是Jeff Tweedy不肯。双方僵持。唱片公司不肯发行这张专辑，Tweedy不妥协。最后，Wilco被踢出了Reprise Records。

我很欣赏Jeff Tweedy。他也许并不具有完美的性格，然而非常有才华，有个性。非常的无所谓，不买帐。在现场演出时，他被形容为"charmingly insecure, self-deprecating and fun"。

2001年，Wilco被Reprise Records开除。经过协商，Wilco带着已经录好的专辑离开了这个厂牌。Jeff Tweedy没有寻找其他厂牌以便迅速发行这张专辑，而是把整张专辑放在Wilco的官方网站上，以供所有人免费试听。

作为一个靠音乐换取版税以谋生的艺术家，这是怎样的慷慨大度。接下来的几个月里，Wilco的官方网站达到了前所未有的点击量。紧接着的巡演也颇为成功，乐迷们在现场跟唱专辑里的歌，一张根本未曾发行的专辑里的歌。

此时开始有大大小小的唱片公司竞争Yankee Hotel Foxtrot的发行权。最终Jeff Tweedy选择了Nonesuch Records，它和Reprise Records一样，也是华纳（即美国在线）下属的子公司之一。

2002年4月，这张专辑终于得以发行，而且销量大大好于Wilco之前的专辑，第一周就成为Billboard排名第13位。

事后有业内人士评论：Yankee Hotel Foxtrot的发行风波足以说明21世纪初的音乐界(music business)是多么的乱成一团(screwed up，其实我想翻译成“操蛋”的)。

Reprise Records吸取了血泪教训，开始栽培更多非主流乐队，比如The Flaming Lips。The Flaming Lips主唱Wayne Coyne说：

“唱片公司对Wilco的事件追悔莫及，这令我们从中获益。华纳的人说：‘我们再也不会让Wilco那样的乐队觉得我们不信任他们了’，他们说，这样的事情再也不会发生在我们身上。哦，那真是个好日子！”

Wilco接下来的唱片越卖越好。第五张A Ghost is Born令他们拿下了格莱美。

Ethan Hawke也喜欢他们。

今天我看到的八卦是，奥巴马的ipod里装着Wilco (The Album)。原来Jeff Tweedy和Obama早就认识。

Andrew Bird和Wilco的关系很好。

于是我又想到了6 degrees of separation ... 倒不是说我特别想认识奥巴马 ... 

嗯，谁不想认识奥巴马呀？

出于赶时髦的心理，我来列一个年度专辑清单。不过自己今年一共也没听过多少专辑，一大半儿还是以前发行的。

凑整数对我来说有点困难，只能勉强分成第一梯队和第二梯队，每梯队内排名不分先后。

第一梯队：

Wilco - Wilco (The Album) 
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest 
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 
Andrew Bird - Noble Beast 
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor 
Graham Coxon - The Spinning Top 
Sondre Lerche - Heartbeat Radio 
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

第二梯队：

St Vincent - Actor 
Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence 
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs 
John Mayer - Battle Studies
Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey & The Crew Crux King

恭喜John Mayer上榜。对于Regina Spektor（Far）和Mika（The Boy Who Knew Too Much）我只能道抱歉了。望二位再接再厉。

至于年度电影清单就算了。自己今年去电影院看过的电影屈指可数，家里看的碟更少。不过似乎可以列一个年度所见活人清单（好可怕的title！），所以也还是算了。借此机会展望一下，小妹还想见的活人有：James McAvoy, John Malkovich, Paul Bettany, Daniel Day-Lewis, Edward Norton，也许还有Ewan McGregor, Hugh Grant和Colin Firth。不过这些名字列出来一看，我觉得多数是没有指望了，除非他们决定来伦敦演舞台剧，或者我搬去纽约。至于Daniel Day-Lewis这种发誓这辈子再不演舞台剧的人... hopeless.

其实我已经很满足了哟。

这东西大概7个月之前也玩儿过一回，倒是惊诧自己在7个月之内又多听了10000首。此处上榜的艺人的确是平时听得较多的，然而Mika似乎特别好运，Patrick Wolf就不那么好运。

1000: Sia - Numb
2000: Mika - My Interpretation
3000: The Beatles - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
4000: Nick Drake - If You Leave Me Pretty Momma (trad.)
5000: Jamie Cullum - Photograph
6000: Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks
7000: Eels - Novocaine For The Soul
8000: Jason Mraz - The Remedy (I Won't Worry)
9000: The Script - Rusty Halo
10000: Suede - The Chemistry Between Us
11000: The Bens - Bruised (E.P. Version)
12000: Razorlight - Who Needs Love?
13000: Fleet Foxes - Heard Them Stirring
14000: Jason Mraz - Did I Fool Ya
15000: Blur - Song 2
16000: Andrew Bird - Heretics
17000: Yo La Tengo - Pharaoh Blue
18000: Patrick Wolf - Teignmouth
19000: Blur - Country Sad Ballard man
20000: Graham Coxon - Babe, It Ain't No Lie
21000: Mika - Over My Shoulder [Hidden Track]
22000: Mew - Repeaterbeater
23000: Pet Shop Boys - Did you see me coming?
24000: Dave Matthews Band - Dive In
25000: The Cribs - Last Year's Snow
26000: PJ Harvey - This Mess We're In
27000: Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire - Two Way Action
28000: Mika - I See You
29000: Sondre Lerche - If Only
30000: Andrew Bird - Spare-Ohs

Try yours

12月16日对话Andrew Bird的文字在此了。此访谈会登在www.weliveinbeijing.com，所以请不要转载。不过我猜它还算安全，原因一：哪家国内媒体会转载大篇的英文呢？原因二：哪有国外媒体会跑来blogbus偷东西呢？（噗噗噗...）

文字是就着对话的录音听写出来的；录音听得我非常害羞...同时听到自己和偶像的声音，怎能不令人害羞呢？

回顾此次经历：

1，自己开始说的很快，也许因为紧张。但鸟先生回答问题支支吾吾，于是后来自己也慢下来，还陪着他一起嗯嗯阿阿。有朋友听了片段后随口评论：怎么你家鸟先生说话这样结巴，显得比你还紧张。(呜呜哇哇。害羞...)

2，其实当然紧张的，整个访谈过程中都在伴着他的回答紧张的笑。而自己不时的给些反馈也是电话采访的必要，看不到对方表情的对话还真的不舒服呢；其中有两处自己大笑，实在是因为Andrew的回答太可爱。现在很想念和他对话的感觉。然后发现自己的口音几乎完全是英音主导，衬得他的芝加哥口音格外润滑好听啊。

3，他还记得我在Union Chapel送过他礼物的事情。（哎哟哎哟哎哟哟）

4，自己问的问题还是很有深度的（你这个自大狂！）。除了以前就了解的他对现场演出，对歌词创作的态度，还问出了他对当时在芝加哥举行的一系列教堂器乐演出的感受和初衷。他不连贯的，抽象的话语里折射出的想法更加使我确认Andrew Bird是非常与众不同的音乐家，才华横溢，冰雪聪明。而他回答问题时的直白和真诚简直无法令人不喜欢他啊。

5，自己的准备工作过分充足：比如我知道他的脚最近受伤了；我知道他在芝加哥演winter church instrumental concerts；我知道他演了一首没有填词的新歌叫"Oh Baltimore"；我知道他未来的亚洲巡演是solo show，但之前的澳洲巡演又是和乐队一起的；不知我这对一切细枝末节了若指掌的架势是否令Andrew倒吸一口凉气，也许他有...（执着的歌迷太可怕了）

6，后悔和遗憾当然是有的：没能再和他多说一会儿，有些问题其实还可以进一步问下去的，然后我忘了问一个最重要的问题——他回家休息期间有什么打算。唉....那么就留到下次吧！（你，你，你还要干什么？？！）

录音就不贴在这里了，因为我好害羞啊~~~~（被拖走）。想听录音的同学可以发邮件给我：wikilucy@googlemail.com

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M: How are you? Thanks for agreeing to do this.

AB: Sure. I’m OK.

M: How’s your foot?

AB: Uhh..it hurts. But it’s not broken, so not terribly serious, just hurts like hell.

（问：你的脚怎么样了？答曰：呃。。。疼。）

M: We’ve met actually, I’m not sure if you remember. I saw you in London at Union Chapel last month and I gave you a pair of socks.

AB: Oh yeah yeah! Alright! Thank you. I’m probably wearing them right now.

M: That’s great. Shall I start with the questions then?

AB: Yeah.

M: So you've been touring kind of non-stop since Noble Beast came out, or you’ve been touring more or less for the past 12 years, how's life on tour been for you?

AB: hmm…the touring life?

（他这里走神了...想什么呢？莫非在想我是怎么冒充成记者混进来的？）

M: Yes, do you like … being on tour?

AB: Uh, I do enjoy it or I have enjoyed it. It’s become, a little …just last year how many shows I’ve played and how desperate I’ve been at times…but I’m hanging in there and looking forward to the finished life. 

（果然即使是这样热爱现场演出的Andrew Bird也疲倦了，他真的需要休息了呢）

M: Do you feel any difference in audience's response since 2007’s Armchair Apocrypha?

AB: Oh it depends on whether it’s a solo show or a band show. The band show you have a bit more power or force physically and the audience response reciprocates, whereas in solo shows you don’t have that force, but there’s more of a emotional intensity to the response from the audience and I’m not entirely sure what that is, but it does sort of makes sense, the solo shows are more vulnerable and I’m taking more risks and I think people may respond to that. But with the record…I don’t know how to gage that honestly. There are more people waiting outside at the stage door than it was before (laugh), whether that’s a proper gage, I don’t know.

（和乐队一起的演出有力，而个人演出时更多是情感上的张力。他倾向于在个人演出时冒更多的险，观众通常喜欢这一点。至于2007年之后观众的反应有什么变化...他也不知该怎样衡量，只是发现在stage door等他的人越来越多了。笑）

M: You are in the middle of a series of winter church concerts, with more instrumental sets. How do you feel so far playing these concerts?

AB: What I’m doing right now at Chicago are even more instrumental than in Union Chapel. I do maybe three songs with lyrics and the rest are instrumental. Again they are very intense because you are creating all the sound yourself; you have to create not just the outward energy but also the energy that pushes back. You are creating your own tension, it’s just a different way of energy coming from inside of you and it’s very susceptible to your mood. Always your performances are susceptible to that. It’s very interesting. I tried this when I was working on songs on my farm. The kind of music I hear one day from the next is drastically different, and I tried to re-create something I did the day before. No, loss of memory and it’s just not there, like there’s some kind of quantum physics involved. You can change something by how you look at it. The melodies are ghosts, they are very elusive. You can re-create everything note for note but still, there’s an imaginary realm, it’s still in this cloud-like state, it’s not concrete.

（关于在芝加哥教堂的器乐演出，这样的演出非常容易受当时情绪的影响。比如他在家里的谷仓里写歌时，前一天和第二天的演奏的东西就截然不同。旋律就像幽灵，它们令人迷惑。你可以一个音符都不差的复制它，但那儿仍然有想象的空间，仍然像云朵一样飘浮着，它不成形。）

M: I heard some of the new, instrumental songs, one of them called “Oh Baltimore” sounds really great, without lyrics.

AB: Oh thank you. The challenging thing about these solo instrumental shows is to resist the urge to entertain, the urges to tell stories or do what you think it’s gonna get a reaction from the crowd, and have the patience, or trust your audience’s gonna have that patience, cause I did have this internal clock where I imagine I’m in the audience. I imagine I might start to get sleepy or un-engaged. I came up in the classical world and I didn’t like that indifference towards the audience that I’ve felt, or sometimes even the contempt for the audience. So I’ve always been in this reactionary mode to the classical world. I want to entertain, I want to entertain for so long but, at what cost am I doing that? How much am I suppressing my urges to experiment, so for me the instrumental shows are kind of testing the waters for that.

（原来这些instrumental show算作是一种尝试，有助于他在追求音乐的实验和作为娱乐大众的表演者之间找到一个平衡，他真的太聪明了。）

M: Speaking of instrumental music. (Useless Creatures is fascinating!) But singing is also an important element in your music. Your singing voice changed across albums. Your vocals sound rich in Noble Beast. But it sounds quite different on your earlier albums. How did you develop your singing voice?

AB: On the first record I wasn’t fully confident of what my voice was supposed to sound like. So I would, like anyone, emulate my favorite records which were old jazz, blues records, and my objective was to try to make the microphone distort the way those recordings would. So I would bellow and try to do “more is more”. I still don’t feel I have fully realized what I’m capable of vocally on a record. I think Noble Beast got fairly close, on songs like Effigy, where I think I get a nice “bigness” to the voice without bolting, that’s the trick. A lot of the times in the studio you can hear yourself so well that you don’t project, and every time you do project you seem to get less back. It really messes with your head in the studio. On stage, there’s no question of how to sing, but in the studio even after 8 records you still get self-conscious and self-analytical. Some day I’ll figure out how to get passed that entirely. But now I think I’ve performed so much live that I don’t question who I am or what I sound like.

（他对自己早期的声音不很自信，说他对Effigy里的声音是比较满意的。又提起自己为什么不喜欢录音室。说自己即使出了8张唱片，还是会质疑自己。这样诚恳而深入，我满满的感激他）

M: Is there a preference for you between singing and playing instrumental music? Do you prefer one to the other?

AB: No no, I think I prefer to sing…because it’s so personal and because it is so elusive. Singing to me is cool that I still don’t feel I’ve done my best, ‘cause there’s still somewhere to go. With the violin, I don’t have anywhere to go! (laugh) I can pretty much fool with anything I could’ve imagined, which is cool but it just doesn’t get you up in the morning think “Hmm, I’m gonna become a better violinist today.” I stopped trying years ago and now I just sort of molest my instruments to get what I need.

（这里我大笑了。“对我来说，唱歌的好处是，我依然有改进的余地；而小提琴...我已经完全没有改进的余地了，虽然这样很好，但我无法在早晨激励自己说‘今天你可以成为一个更好的小提琴手’，我若干年前就不再做这方面的努力了。Andrew的自我认识很清晰。）

M: Lyrically, many of your subject matters are things that are not often touched on in songs, but people could still relate to. "Why" for example is incredibly interesting. What inspired the line "Damn you for being so easygoing"?

AB: That one I wrote a long time ago. You can tell it’s like a dialogue between two people. One of whom is …usually I say to protect the innocent but in this case it’s myself. I changed the pronouns. I’ve always been accused of being so …passive that it drives people crazy, whether it’s my brother, my roommate, or girlfriend. I can often at times elicited violence from them by doing nothing. So the song is attempts to understand how I do that to people. I don’t know why that song seems to have such a long life to it, I think it’s because it’s “never not true”. Some songs come and go whether there’s still truth in them or not, but that one is probably always gonna be true.

（关于“Why?”的歌词。Andrew你怎么可以这样坦诚的谈自己的性格？！>//////<）

M: Before you write lyrics for a song, do you have an idea of what your song is going to be about. Do you say, “I’m going to write a song about this this this”...

AB: No, not at all. That kind of thinking usually leads to bad art. After I’ve got maybe 60, 70 percent of the lyrics I do start to realize what I’m talking about, and then the last bits are attempts to make it more understandable perhaps, hopefully without saying something lame. Everything else is going down in the song because it conforms to the melody, not too burdened with a narrative or trying to make so much sense. It begins with total nonsense it usually begins with a bunch of vowels strung together, and then they take shape into a word, and that word must have occurred to you for some reason but you don’t know why. Other songs are kind of inspired by scientific phenomena, and I sort of realize there is something in that phenomena that beholds some truth about ourselves, and has some pretty brilliant words in that idea. So I’ll use that as a canal and kind of build in and around it.

（歌词创作，他歌词的最初形态通常只是一堆元音，笑）

M: You delivered some of the best shows to many people around the world. But this will be the first time for Chinese audience to see you live. What do you hope they can take away from your shows that they cannot get from listening to your albums?

AB: I hope they get some sense of humanity I guess. I try to maintain a presence on stage like I’m just sharing something with you, like showing you what I’ve been doing, like cooking or something (laugh). I try to have that demeanor on stage rather than a look of extreme concentration; I try to be flippant about things onstage. If you try to fight your emotions onstage people get uncomfortable. If you kind of just embrace, even your own uncomfortableness, if you embrace that onstage and people will somehow can relate. Like when people are watching a soccer match they might be imagining they are on a field, so there’s that connection. “Oh well I can see he’s kind of stumbling here.” I wouldn’t wanna do a very scripted performance. That’s what I hope they get, not a note perfect performance.

（他对现场演出的态度，对他来说，演出是一种分享，是一种自然态度的流露。）

M: I guess this will be your 1st trip to China?

AB: Yes.

M: Is there anything in particular you'd like to explore?

AB: Well, I think there will be little time for sight-seeing. I’m just fascinated by the history of China. I also just like street life, which I imagine there will be plenty of, just observing the way people communicate with each other. I have an idea what to expect, I don’t know if that prepares me.

（显然他很忙，不会有时间看风景。对中国历史感兴趣？！<-- 谁让美国历史短呢？）

M: Do you still get time to explore the places where your shows take you, in general? Not much huh?

AB: Not much, and it’s difficult, not without projection on the mood you’re playing. Sometimes it’s difficult to connect. I really relish moments when I actually can have a conversation with somebody, and that becomes more and more difficult these days.

（哎呀呀一个人在路上孤独的Andrew，我可以参与你的谈话吗？）

M: I guess some people would be curious about your sock monkey, where did you get it?

AB: A woman in Toronto made one in my likeness. She did one for everyone in the band. I just got attached to it. Now I’m superstitious about it. If the show isn’t going well I’d be like, “Oh, ‘cause the sock monkey is still back stage!” It’s just one of those superstitions.

（他对自己的猴子玩偶果然是迷信的，难怪每次演出都要放在身后）

M: You'll be performing solo for your Asian tour. And you are touring with your band in Australia?

AB: Yeah. We’re playing festivals. They wanted the band for that.

（估计这个问题把他吓到了）

M: How does it feel different from when you play by yourself?

AB: With the band…I guess I’m still working pretty hard up there, I still do what I do with the solo show. With the band if that stuff goes wrong you can always play like a set. But sometimes you play for your band as much as you play for the audience. The band has a momentum to it. The forward momentum and the resistance to the momentum all have to come from me. So it’s a different kind of energy.

M: OK I think that’s all. Thank you very much for answering the questions. Good luck with your show tonight and we are looking forward to seeing you in China!

AB: You are welcome. Thank you for staying up so late.

M: (laugh) No I'm in the UK, it's evening.

AB: Thank goodness for that.

（哎哎哎Andrew我还是舍不得放你走哎~~~）

阿苗同学我刚刚通过电话采访到此时正在芝加哥的Andrew Bird了。此事历经周折，终于还是实现了，感谢Splitworks的工作人员，尤其喜北帮我联系此事，另外要谢谢Plurk上朋友们的帮忙。:)

我们仅仅说了22分41秒，其中的前1分钟是在客套。

虽然20分钟的长度是鸟先生方面的要求，但我仍然在挂掉Skype后的瞬间就后悔了：awwwww why did I let him go???!!!

作为一个乐迷，能做到这个份上应该算是极致了吧，可我却还惋惜没能再说久一点。

这人啊，真是不知足。