专访 caroline | 创造独属于这支乐队的声音
2026-04-11
在风格多元、社交化的 20 年代独立音乐里，caroline 以充满即兴感和在场感的跨流派创作，走出一条难以被定义的路径。从两张专辑之间的进化再到极具沉浸感的现场表达，他们在严谨编排与自由即兴间找到平衡。首次来华演出之际，UPEE 有幸与 caroline 进行一期专访，聆听他们的创作哲学与对中国之行的期待。成员 Casper Hughes 回答了我们的问题。
UPEE：caroline 的音乐非常拥有 20 年代的“乐迷体感”，即充足的流派视野同时不拘于风格标签，以及更具有探索性的配器、音色和录音尝试。你们会如何形容自己的创作？对于当下的更与互联网独立乐迷社群关联紧密、同时更为年轻化的独立音乐环境，又有什么特别的感受吗？
Casper：我们的创作通常由 Jasper、Mike 和我三人开启，但很难给我们的创作模式下一个定论。因为第一张和第二张专辑的创作方式截然不同，未来的作品里也可能再次改变。
在创作《caroline 2》时，我们三人先聚在一起即兴玩音乐。通常的配置是 Mike 和我弹吉他，Jasper 打鼓。虽然有些点子是写第一张专辑时剩下的（比如《Total euphoria》和《U R UR ONLY ACHING》），但新歌基本上都是通过即兴碰撞出来的。我们会录下大量的素材，通过回听筛选出喜欢的片段，然后再将其延展成完整的曲目。
当我们觉得有了一个坚实的核心结构，并对歌曲如何推进、如何让其他成员加入有了初步想法后，我们会把这些 Demo 带给所有人。这通常是在“驻地创作”期间完成的。我们经常一起外出闭关：去过苏格兰、法国，也多次离开伦敦前往埃塞克斯和肯特。我们发现这种同吃同住的工作方式效率很高，白天与黑夜的界限变得模糊，灵感往往在深夜降临。等歌曲基本成型后，我们会预约两周的录音棚档期，把大家聚在一起录音。
最后阶段是混音和制作。Mike、Jasper 和我也承担了大量的混音工作，甚至对一些歌曲进行了大刀阔斧的重构（比如《Tell me I never knew that》）。
关于问题的第二部分，我其实不太了解现在的互联网独立音乐社群，所以有点难回答。但我确实注意到比我们年轻的同行们更擅长社交媒体……说实话，理想情况下，Mike、Jasper 和我宁愿完全不用社交媒体。我挺怀念那个时代（可能是在我开始认真听音乐之前），那时候乐队并不被要求进行线上的自我营销。但遗憾的是，现状就是如此。
The writing process begins with Jasper, Mike and I, but it is hard to say what our process definitively is. I say that because it was different between our first two albums and could very well be different again for any future music. But for ‘caroline 2’, we began by meeting as a three and just playing with one another. The configuration was normally Mike and I on guitar and Jasper on drums. We had a few ideas left over from the writing of the first album, such as ‘Total euphoria’ and ‘U R UR ONLY ACHING’, but we generally came to the new songs through improvising with one another. We’d record a lot of it, listen back and then focus on the small sections that we liked and then try and expand them into songs.
When we felt like we had a solid core with ideas for how the song could progress and incorporate the other band members, we would take it to everyone else. This was usually done over the course of residential writing trips. We went away quite a lot: to Scotland, France, and a few times out of London to Essex and Kent. We found we worked quite well both living and working together, where the day never really ended and inspiration could come late into the evening. Once the songs felt complete, we booked two weeks in a studio and recorded them all together.
The final stage was the mixing/production process. Mike, Jasper and I did quite a lot of work on the mixes, even quite drastically re-orienting some of the songs (Tell me I never knew that, for example).
Regarding the second part of your question, I’m not especially up-to-date on the online indie community, so it’s a little hard for me to answer. I do notice younger peers of ours are more social media-savvy than us… in an ideal world, I know Mike, Jasper and I would rather not be on social media at all. I’m quite nostalgic for a time (probably before I began properly even listening to music myself) where online self-promotion wasn’t expected of a band. But that’s just unfortunately the way things are!
UPEE：与此同时，一部分创作者在面对自己的影响来源时会显得缺乏个性。作为一直致力于探索自己声音的乐队，我们好奇 caroline 在创作的过程中是否也出现过类似的担忧？你们会对自己声音特质投入更多的关注吗？
Casper：这是一个很有趣的问题。避免拙劣地模仿你的偶像确实至关重要。你的艺术应该是受其启发，而非对其复制。我认为关键在于和你的合作者进行大量的练习和演奏，通过磨合找到属于你们独特的“化学反应”。此外，不断尝试和不落俗套也很重要。你必须尝试一些不同的东西，否则很容易写出那种“只是比前人稍作改动”的作品。在写第一张专辑时，我们非常警惕那些被过度使用的套路。现在的心态会更放松一些——我想我们现在更自信了，相信我们创造出的声音是独属于这支乐队的。
That’s an interesting question. It’s always worth trying to avoid mimicking your influences. Your art should be informed by their work, not a copy of it. I think it’s just about playing and practicing a lot with the people you collaborate with and really honing in on your very particular alchemy. It is also important to try and be unconventional. You have to try and do something different, otherwise it is very easy to just make another slightly different version of what has come before. During the writing of our first album, we were very careful to avoid certain tropes that we thought were overdone. Our mindset is less like that now - I think we feel more confident that what we produce is particular to our band.
UPEE：相较于不少独立乐队的成员体量，caroline 的八人编制显得突出，但同时在你们的音乐中又有调和、平衡的听感与表达。我们好奇你们会如何协调作为一支乐队在表达上的一体性，同时又是如何应对乐手们在演奏上的个性的？
Casper：我们的音乐虽然在编写和编排上是非常严密的，但在每个人的演奏部分里，我们也留出了即兴的空间和让乐手自我表达的余地。
The music is very tightly written and choreographed, but there is also room to improvise and space for each player to express themselves within their parts.
UPEE：你们此前有在一些采访中提及，caroline 在写作上对“重复”的应用来源于 Caspar 年轻时的 House、Techno 的影响。我们好奇在乐队之后的发展中，会不会有更多流派元素的融入，例如更为“电气”的声音？
Casper：现在说这些还为时过早，但我们不设限。
It is too early to say but nothing is off limits.
UPEE：之外我们也注意到 caroline 音乐中关于留白、嗡鸣与各种环境声音的细节。我们好奇你们如何形容 Ambient 在你们创作中的位置？这些与环境、场域相关的声音又是如何成为你们创作的一部分的？
Casper：对我们来说，在哪里录音、如何录音，与在那一刻演奏了什么同样重要。音符本身与声学环境之间没有高低之分。在吸音极其彻底的录音棚里弹吉他，和在一个充满混响、灵动的房间里弹奏，听感是完全不同的。录音地点对我们极其重要，我们的核心哲学之一就是——录音不应该被局限在录音棚的环境里。
如果所有东西都在一个地方录制，听感会显得有些单调（Monochrome）。既然我们的音乐是在各种不同的环境下创作出来的，那么如果非要在同一个地方录完所有东西，反而会让我们觉得很奇怪……有时候，客厅、墓地或者是空旷的回音大厅，才是这些声音听起来最棒的地方。
It has always felt obvious to us that where/how something is recorded is as important as what is being played at that moment. There is no hierarchy between note and sonic environment. A guitar played in a deadened studio and one played in a lively, reverberant room, sound remarkably different. Where things are recorded are important to us, and it is vital to our philosophy that sound recording should not be contained to a studio setting.
Having everything recorded in one place can feel a little monochrome. Because our music is written in a range of different settings, it would feel odd to us to then record it all in the same place… sometimes the living room, the cemetery, the big reverberant hall is where the thing sounds the best.
UPEE：有了解到你们在演出在站位上的独特同时拥有互动的状态，我们好奇如果条件允许，你们想要在什么样的现场进行表演？
Casper：那种“罗马斗兽场”式的场地会非常棒。我们在圆心围成一圈演奏，观众席层叠环绕着我们。最好台下有几万名观众……
A coliseum-type venue would be amazing. Us playing in a circle, tiered seats all around us. Tens of thousands of people…
UPEE：除此之外，你们录音的场域也十分多变，可以是泳池也可以通过 iPhone。你们会如何形容收听录音室版本的 caroline 与在现场体验 caroline 的不同？
Casper：那是截然不同的体验。现场演出并不会百分之百复刻专辑——毕竟要在现场重现录音室的制作技术和环境切换是不可能的。但现场在忠于原作的基础上，会进行更深度的延展。我认为现场是一种能通过身体感知的体验。
Very different experiences. The live show doesn’t exactly replicate the album - it’s obviously impossible to exactly reproduce the same production techniques and environment switches - but it is very faithful to the record while also expanding on it. I think it’s an experience felt in the body.
UPEE：对于即将启程的中国巡演，这是你们第一次来到中国演出，包含北京专场以及舟山的Can Festival。对此你们有什么期待？
Casper：我们中没有人去过中国。能第一次体验这里，我们感到非常兴奋。我个人等不及想尝试各种美食，还想在北京和上海到处走走，去感受这两座城市（哪怕只是走马观花的一两天）。
None of us have been to China before. We’re just so excited to experience it for the first time. I personally can’t wait to try as much food as possible, and just walk around Shanghai and Beijing and get a sense of them (as much as you can from walking around for a day or two).