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Musings on Music -- Birdstriking

We were walking in central Leeds on a warm July evening when a shriek loud enough to be heard in Skegness erupted from behind me.

"Chicken Cottage!" screamed Wang Xinjiu, the drummer of Beijing indie rockers Birdstriking. He was pointing a few doors ahead. "Yes! I love this place."

Within minutes Xinjiu, bandmates He Fan and Zhou Nairen, and several of their friends had occupied a bench along the wall and were joyfully scoffing down boxes of unidentifiable deep-fried meat.

It's possibly not the kind of post-gig routine people would expect for a young Chinese rock band, especially one touring the UK as support for influential psychadelic-rock outfit The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

The trio had just played another blinder at The Cockpit, having already won over fans in Brighton, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and ... ahem ... Bangor, and were set to play Liverpool's East Village Arts Club as the last stop before heading back to China.

I caught up with Xinjiu this week to ask him about his highlights from the tour and what's next for the band.

You got the offer to join BJM on tour after Carsick Cars, another Beijing noise rock band, pulled out. What was it like when you got the call? XJ: It was just unbelievable. Can you imagine Miguel Michu inviting you to play centre forward in front of him? (Note: I should point out Xinjiu is a Swansea City FC fan. He often speaks in these analogies in the belief that others also rate his team. He has an particular fondness for Michu, an attacker currently on loan at Napoli.) How did you and the other guys prepare for the tour? I quit my internship at a sports news website several days after it was confirmed. That's the first time -- and probably the last time -- I have been actually a full-time musician. It was a lot of fun. It was nothing but rehearsals, watching the World Cup and playing FIFA on the Playstation 3 with a jobless Englishman.

So how was life on the road with BJM and your tour manager, Dr Kiko?

It was just unbelievable at Newcastle when Anton (Newcombe, founding member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre) said, "See you tomorrow." Dr Kiko was the first professional tour manager I'd toured with. With him around everything was much easier. And he likes the Chinese foods that normally Western people won't eat, such as duck tongue or lungs, and blood tofu. On this tour you played some top British music venues, including the Birmingham O2 Academy and Manchester's The Ritz. How'd you like that? Every venue on the tour was amazing. Some are not that modern but you can just feel the history, especially at The Ritz and at the O2. They were both venues I'd been to when I was doing my master's degree in the UK. Coming back as a band was pretty cool. Where do you feel you had the best shows? I felt pretty much the same after each show. Although, according to the reaction from the audience, Birmingham was the best. We sold the most amount of merchandise too, so it means we did pretty good. Off stage, what was the highlight of the tour? We had a day off after the Bangor show (not part of the BJM tour) and before Manchester. So we went for a trip to Snowdonia in North Wales. It has some stunning views. That night Dr Kiko also ordered some Indian takeaway that changed my attitude to Indian food. It's not that bad. What was the lowlight? I almost screwed up our show in Bangor. During the gig my bass drum kept moving forward during every song, like 40 centimetres. It definitely didn't do that in the sound check. I just felt really bad. Despite early starts in several venues, which meant crowds were smaller, you seemed to get a warm response from those who saw you. What was your take? Playing shows in the UK and China is totally different. In Beijing three or four bands share a venue together each night, while in the UK its headline and one support act. I didn't have high expectations, so I was happy enough that at least some people came to see us and some of them even bought our CDs and T-shirts. (Note: There was a bit of confusion among the crowd as to where the band came from. Outside the East Village Arts Club, for example, I chatted to one BJM fan who, when asked about Birdstriking, told me: "I don't know much about Korean music.") You changed the setlist from venue to venue, ranging from a slow jam start to a rapid rock intro. Was that tailored to the venue or was it more down to you guys experimenting to keep the set fresh? We just didn't want to get bored. We only had six or seven songs to play, and if we played them always in the same order it would have just been too boring. Sometimes we even didn't talk about setlist. We just got on stage, played the first song and saw where it went from there. So what's next for Birdstriking? We've already got several new songs. We didn't play them in the UK. We've got one new song where we've included a bit inspired by The Brian Jonestown Massacre. We hope to record something before the end of the year. Did anyone see Birdstriking play in the UK? Have you seen them in China? Get in touch and share your thoughts on the band.

He Fan jams in Leeds centre

BIRDSTRIKING: FACT FILE HE FAN guitar & vocals ZHOU NAIREN bass WANG XINJIU drums The group was established in 2009 and released their first album, "Birdstriking", on the Maybe Mars label in 2012. The record was mixed by Yang Haisong, producer and frontman of post-rock giants P.K.14. Listen to the album on Soundcloud.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre onstage in Liverpool.