由七人编制构筑独特声场的美国独立摇滚乐队 Racing Mount Pleasant，以自由跨界的曲风、细腻多元的编曲，成为当下新生代独立乐坛极具辨识度的新鲜力量。伴随着备受期待的首次中国巡演开启，UPEE 有幸邀请 Racing Mount Pleasant 进行一期专访，分享他们对创作和现场的感受，以及对中国之行的期待。主唱兼吉他手 Sam DuBose 回答了我们的提问。
UPEE：你们去年的专辑《Racing Mount Pleasant》在乐迷社群之间受到了比前作更广泛的关注，作为活跃于当下的年轻创作者，你们对于当下互联网属性十分明确的乐迷社群有什么体感？就你们来说，你们会怎么形容 Racing Mount Pleasant 和乐迷之间的关系？
Sam：看到越来越多人开始聆听、互动我们的音乐，这件事真的很奇妙。依托互联网形成的乐迷社群非常棒，能够帮助乐队扩大影响力。但我们整体上刻意保持相对疏离的状态，线上曝光并不多。我们不会频繁发帖、事无巨细向粉丝同步日常，我们就喜欢这样。我们只想好好做一支乐队，不想成为网红博主之类的角色。我们拥有一批十分忠实的听众，经常会收到听众的留言，他们真心喜爱我们的作品，读到这些鼓励的话语总是令人倍感温暖。
We think it’s amazing to see just how many people have started listening to us and interacting with our music. I think the internet driven fan communities are great and help bolster a band/musicians reach. For us, we have definitely kept ourselves relatively isolated. We don’t have too much of an online presence. We don’t really take part in the pattern of constantly posting or keeping our fans up to date with everything we do. I think we like it that way. We’re just trying to be a band, not a group of influencers or anything like that. We have some pretty dedicated listeners and we get messages fairly often from people who really enjoy what we do and it’s always nice to hear encouraging messages.
UPEE：同名专辑很多时候对音乐人有非常重要的意义，可以分享是什么让你们觉得这张专辑应该以乐队的名字进行命名，它是一个具体的时刻或者事件成为契机的吗？
Sam：说到这张同名专辑对我们的意义，它诞生于我们人生一段动荡、同时又塑造自我的关键时期。乐队原本有另一个名字，当我们决定更名之后，索性更进一步：不仅更换队名，还把正在制作的这张专辑定名《Racing Mount Pleasant》，有点像向世界正式宣告我们登场的感觉。专辑后期制作阶段，我们一伙人一起吃晚饭，就这样敲定了这个专辑名。
In terms of our self titled album and its significance to us, it honestly was just made at a very turbulent and defining moment in our lives. Originally our band had a different name and when we decided to change it we ultimately chose to go all out by not only renaming our selves but naming the album we had been working on “Racing Mount Pleasant”. It kind of acted as a “hello world” type of moment. We were all eating dinner together during the post production of the album and we just landed on naming the album “Racing Mount Pleasant”.
UPEE：Racing Mount Pleasant 是一支在大学校园里结成的乐队，你们觉得密歇根大学对于独立音乐而言是一个什么样的环境，它有影响到你们当时或现在的创作吗？以及作为音乐人受到关注后，你们创作的方式或心境有什么改变？
Sam：乐队成立那会儿我们还在读大学，体验很不错。大家住得相隔不过几个街区，相处氛围轻松自在。但那时候压力也不小，尤其是我，我一直觉得我们要认真对待，如果坚持写歌、录音，做音乐是可以成为一份正经事业的。我们本身学的就是音乐专业，组建乐队对我们而言并不算离经叛道。唯独一点，我们对自己格外较真，说实话，或许较真得有点过头。我们的创作思路并没有发生本质改变，但确实会更多去思考，我们做出来的音乐要如何传递给更广泛的听众。
It was nice being in college when the band started. Everybody lived within a few blocks of each other and it was pretty easy going. There was always a pretty big pressure, especially from me, that we should take it seriously and that if we kept working on music and recording that this could become a viable career. I think because we went to school for music, being in a band wasn’t all that bizarre or different. The only thing that was really unique for us was just how seriously we took ourselves. Probably too seriously to be honest. Our creative approach hasn’t exactly shifted, but we definitely think a little more about how the music we make translates to a wider audience.
UPEE：你们的音乐有很多跨流派的养分，这种很有“乐迷属性”的制作取向被一部分评论认为是 2020 年代独立摇滚领域的时代印记，在流派融合成为许多人创作音乐的共同理念时，你们会不会以什么方式来尝试让自己听起来与其他人不同？
Sam：写歌的时候，我们会反复讨论想要达成怎样的音乐样貌。乐队一共七个人，可以挖掘、糅合的音乐影响就更加丰富。随着时间推移，我们确实找到了属于自己的音色。但写得越多我们也越发现，我们很难固守某一种固定风格，不管是全长专辑还是其他项目，里面总会容纳大量迥异的曲风，基本上是一首歌一个面貌。
We have a lot of conversations about what we’re trying to sound like or trying to do when it comes to the songs we write. With seven people we have even more influences to pick through and put together in our music. I think as time has gone on we have definitely found our own sound. However as we have written more we have realized that we have a hard time sticking to one “sound” and any full length album or project we work in has a lot of different genres or sounds. It’s really just a song to song basis.
UPEE：在现场呈现《Racing Mount Pleasant》是什么体验？以及，你们认为作为表演者和创作者有什么区别与共通？
Sam：这张专辑里有些歌，是乐队刚成立头一个月写的，还有的甚至更早。部分曲目距今已经五六年，在录音之前我们就已经反复在现场演奏。最大的变化就是，现在听众熟悉这些歌，还会跟着一起合唱。这感觉很奇妙，过去很长一段时间，我们只在酒吧、地下室演出，台下没有人听过我们的作品。如今一切截然不同。但说实话，我们已经十分期待转向全新的创作，打算暂时把这些年代久远的老歌收起来。
Some of the songs on “Racing Mount Pleasant” were written in the first month or so of us being a band. Some of them even earlier. Some of these songs are five or six years old and we’ve been playing them live before we even recorded them. The biggest difference is that people know them and will even sing along. That has been really weird for us because we went so long just playing in bars and basements where nobody knew any of our music. Now it feels much different. It’s true though, we are really excited to move on to new music and put some of our oldest songs on the shelf for the time being.
UPEE：可以分享你们在视觉上的理念吗，无论是专辑视觉呈现，再到现场表演的视觉等等？
Sam：视觉层面的表达，可以说是我们遇到最大的难题。很多人并不会过多关注这部分，只聚焦音乐本身。但乐队里有成员十分看重视觉，于是我们组建了小型视觉团队，由他们最终敲定封面美术等相关内容。和做音乐类似，我们的视觉参考来源同样庞杂，我们只想慢慢搭建独属于我们的小世界。
The visual philosophy of this band is by far the hardest thing that we have to navigate. A lot of people don’t really think about it too hard and just focus on the actual music we’re trying to make. Some of us do care so we’ve started establishing a little visual team that makes the ultimate decisions when it comes to artwork and stuff like that. Similarly to the music, we have our wide array of visual influences and we are just trying to carve out our own little world.
UPEE：很快你们就要开始 Racing Mount Pleasant 在中国的首次巡演，对此你们有什么期待？无论是演出本身，或者想要去到的城市、吃到的食物等等……
Sam：就我个人而言，除了加拿大，我此前几乎没有离开过北美。这是我第一次跨国飞行。我一直渴望旅行，却始终没有机会。而我写的音乐，竟然可以让我去到全新的地方、拥有全新体验，这件事想想都觉得不可思议，我从未预想过真的会发生。我有一些中国朋友，得知我要来中国巡演，他们同样十分惊讶。坦白说我单纯很期待去探索这片土地。另外，乐队全员都很爱吃川菜，对此我们已经翘首以盼。
Personally for me, I have never really been outside the US before, besides Canada. This will be my first time flying internationally. I’ve always wanted to travel but I’ve never had the opportunity and the fact that the music I write has allowed me to experience new places and things is probably the most insane thing and I never thought it would actually happen. I have some friends from China and they were equally shocked to learn that I’d be going on tour there. I’m honestly just excited to explore. Also, the band is a huge fan of Szechuan food so we’re really excited.
