Street roots
March 16, 2012
W ASHBURN fro m page 1
phenomenal fusion of the heart of American
immigrant culture and the beginnings of it’s
own culture. So I decided I had to take a
banjo to China.
The second thing is that before I left, I
wanted to do some things in America that I
wouldn’t be able to do because I was going
to be living in China for so long. So I took
my banjo and went to West Virginia and
North Carolina in my little red truck. I
ended up in Kentucky at the National
Bluegrass Music Association Convention.
Out of the blue, as I was sitting there
participating in one of my very first jams
ever with a couple of girls that I had met at
the convention, and this record executive
comes up and invited me to come to
Nashville to cut a record. So my whole life
shifted. Talk about having a little slice of
Americana before I go to China, I mean,
heck yeah, I’ll go to Nashville and make a
record! And so I did. I went to Nashville and
I’ve lived here ever since. It’s nine years
later. I’ve made my home in Nashville and
obviously never went back to China — to do
law, at least. That highlight had a huge
impact on my life, too. Now I tour China, so
that’s a wonderful thing.
S.Z.: You speak fluent Mandarin, which is
a tonal language with emotive expression, as is
music, what was the process like for you to
combine the two in your work?
A.W.: The interplay between the banjo
and Chinese. I like to write music. I like to
write songs in Chinese. And one of the
things I noticed very quickly when I was
writing my very first song in Chinese, “Song
of the Traveling Daughter,” was that the
pluck of a banjo string mimics the sound of
a Chinese word because there are the
consonants - which you can think of as the
way the nail hits the string - and then
when I went back, I was reunited with some
good friends, ex-patriots who lived in
Chengdu and they quickly asked me if I
would want to go into a disaster zone and
try to help kids. They had an organization
called Sichuan Quake Relief, and
immediately I thought, that’s why I’m here.
So we started planning these dates to go
play for kids in relocation schools in the
disaster zone.
At the end of my shows, I’d have all these
kids come up to me and express how sad
they were to be so far away from home, and
they often wanted to share songs with me
from their home. I was struck so many
times by these incredible interactions I’d
have with kids and I kept thinking, I wonder
if there is something more I could do for
them. There was a lot of post traumatic
stress disorder that the kids were dealing
with. I saw a lot of it when I was hanging
out with kids playing basketball or soccer
before the shows, I’d see that there was like
rage in these Chinese kids that I had never
seen in Chinese students before. We are
very used to violence in schools in America,
but it does not happen in China. It was just
such a surprise to see that happening. It
was so obviously PTSD, so that was heavy
on my mind.
When I came back to the states after that
six weeks, I just had the thought that it
would be really cool to make a record of
these kids voices and their stories. But I
wanted to make a record that they would
like — not necessarily one that I would like.
I’d love to hear just a spare field recording
of just a child with an instrument singing an
old folk song. But those kids are totally not
interested in that. They want to sound like
the Asian pop star. I knew if I was really
going to do a record in honor of them, their
stories, I needed it to sound like Asia pop.
So luckily I had recently worked on some
remixes of my own music with (DJ
producer) Dave Liang of The Shanghai
Martine (The Decemberists, Mudhoney.) What
to Asian pop grooves. We came up with
did Martine bring to the album?
Afterquake. Probably the highlight of the
whole thing was the making of “Song for
A.W.: When I chose him as a producer, it
Mama” which is a track that a young boy
sings. He was singing, “I’m going to give my was largely because he’s not somebody who
heart to the moon because I know the moon comes from folk music or old-time music.
He has a lot of projects that derive a lot of
can see you even though I can’t. And I’m
their meaning and
going to ask the
sort of rootsy quality
moon to shine down
form folk music like
on you all the love
The Decemberists,
that I feel for you.”
Laura Veirs, My
We were just so
Morning Jacket or
touched by this. He’s Probably the highlight of
crying, we’re crying.
(making Älterquake} was the Bill Frazel. All of
these people he’s
My god, he missed
making of Song for Mama
worked with, you can
his mom so much. As
which is a track that a young hear such a strong
soon as we recorded
affinity for folk music
boy sings. He was singing,
it, we knew it was so
in everything they
special, and we
"I'm going to give my heart
do, even though it’s
immediately tried to
to
the
moon
because
I
know
like an Indie Rock
figure out where his
sound. So I thought
mom was because we the moon can see you even
were thinking, “God
though I can't. Änd I'm going that would be pretty
perfect. It was fun
if I was his mom, I’d
to ask the moon to shine
for both of us
want to hear this and
down on you all the love that because he was kind
I’d want to know he
of psyched to be
I feel for you."
was doing okay.” We
working with
were quite surprised,
somebody who is
but it only took about
very much connected
a seven hour van ride
to the old-time
to find his mom. We
community and
ended up finding all
strongly a part of the tradition and the
the childrens’ parents throughout our time
preserving of it.
there and sharing photos of their children
and also the recording of their voices
S.Z.: You blend traditional American and
singing with the parents. And then, in
Chinese music in your work, but you also
return, of course, they would give us a cup
bring to each culture, windows into the
of tea and we would record them telling
traditions of the other. What is that experience
some stories about their time during the
like?
earthquake.
S.Z.: “Dreams of Nectar” is a song from
your latest album, City of Refuge. To listen to
it is beautiful, to watch you and Kai Welch
perform it, is magical. Did the experience of
recording Afterquake fell into influencing you
A.W.: It’s so interesting because it seems
like every single person I talk to or every
single audience is in a different part of their
evolution of their kind of realization or
recognition of that other culture. The
th e re ’s the resonance of the string which
could be com pared to th e vowel - th e open
R estoration Project, and he had done such a
good job, and he had been so easy to work
on City o f Refuge at all?
experiences are across th e board. I’m
dealing with the guy in Podunk, Mory River,
vowel sound at the end of most Chinese
words. It’s incredibly easy to write these
words over banjo plucks, (laughs) Really
natural. Anybody who cares about linguistics
and language could see that that’s really
exciting. So there is a relationship there.
with even though I’d never met him in
person. I called him and I said, “Hey, I’m
coming through New York and I’d love to
have lunch and I’ve got an idea to discuss
with you.” We met and I asked him to invest
money to make a CD to help the kids in
Sichuan with me. A month later, we were on
a plane back to Sichuan and we spent the
month there together and made a record
with the kids. We came up conceptually with
what we thought music and story-wise was
going to be an important tale to tell in terms
of selling this music back in the states and
in terms of what we thought would be the
most healing aspect of making music with
these kids. So we ended up choosing
traditional songs and stories that the
children had learned from their parents or
from loved ones that they had lost. We spent
day in, day out with them for a week and
recorded their voices, and then Dave set it
A.W.: That’s totally accurate. I really had
been purely an acoustic, folk-related
musician up until working with Dave Liang.
After working with Dave and seeing how he
did electrónica, I know that my heart and
mind were opened up to the idea that this
could be a cool way to make music. And I
hadn’t thought that before, honestly,
because I thought, well, that’s not my world.
And then it became my world. So when I
started envisioning (my next project), I
think the making of Afterquake had a huge
part to do with how I envisioned my future.
I can’t say that I wanted to work with
somebody who looped, but I was definitely
much, much more open minded about what
kind of collaboratives I might be working
with. >
Virginia and then a guy that’s been studying
China for his whole life in Beijing. At least in
America and China, I feel like I have a really
good cross reading of society — a huge
spectrum of people. I feel almost well-
equipped enough to consult government and
people about where we’re at.
S.Z.: Can you talk a bit about recording the
album Afterquake? It was in response to the
massive 8.0 earthquake in China.
A.W.: That was so special, Afterquake.
The idea was conceived when I went back to
China to teach American traditional music at
Sichuan University in 2008.1 really did that
because I knew about the earthquake. I was
pretty heartbroken by what I was seeing in
the magazines and on TV. I wanted to go
see for myself how the few friends that I had
left in Sichuan were doing. So that’s what I
did. My ticket there was going to be
teaching American traditional music. And
S.Z.: City of Refuge was recorded in
Nashville and mixed by Portland-based Tucker
1500 NE Alberta St.
Portland, OR 97211
503.287.4333
www.albertagrocery.coop
open to everyone 9 -1 0 daily
A.W.: (Laughs) I guess so. I’ve often
thought that’s not the worst idea. Not that I
should be an ambassador because I really
don’t want to get my hands messy in
economy and trade and those kinds of
diplomacies that are expressed for the
purposes of advancing our own power in the
world. A true Chinese-American cultural
ambassador? If we ever actually valued that
enough, I would certainly apply for the job.
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