Helen Feng's Pimping, Limping, Inspiration

She has glimpsed life's seediest sides time and again — from parades of transexual Roman hookers, to grade school field trips through New Orleans' Red Light District. But for Helen Feng, the most exploitive entertainment lies in China, where she accuses artists and fans of pimping, patronizing, and leaving everything sleazy.

And she should know. Feng spent the last decade working both sides of Beijing’s music biz — first as a host and VJ for MTV China, and later as a singer for bands like Free the Birds and Pet Conspiracy. Now she’s fronting her own electronica troupe, Nova Heart, which will release its debut EP, Beautiful Boys, at Yugong Yishan on April 27.

You were born in China but raised near New Orleans. How did the jazz there affect you?
It was its feeling that appealed to me. Every day in Louisiana it's sticky because it's so hot. So the music is sticky. No clear notes, just jumbles.

We'd take school trips to the Red Light district. The Parents Committee would walk the kids by these walls of porn. Bar doors would sometimes be open and you could kind of peek in. Meanwhile the parents are telling you the history of Louisiana — it's not a pretty history, but they're very proud of it.

Eventually you moved back to China, became a performer, and formed the management company Fake Music Media to advocate for indie artists. What kind of scene were you trying to build?
It's not up to me, one person. That's a very American ideology. Right now every single interloper wants to be seen as the guy that built the 'China music scene.'

Also music reviewers, especially the expat audience, have a very narrow scope of Chinese culture. I mean, what is a Chinese scene, a Chinese musician? That's 1.5 billion people that are the same. It takes the person away, forces them into something that is easily definable.

So you were never guilty of slapping those kinds of labels on anyone, while working as a MTV China VJ before becoming a musician?

[Laughs] Absolutely! I was one of the worst offenders. I'm a hypocrite. It was so easy to talk about artists in referential statements, rather than trying to understand people.

So how are you trying to reach that deeper understanding now?
Well, there's the title track, Beautiful Boys, on the new album, inspired while we recorded in Rome. Coming home from the studio late every night, we'd have to drive through this transvestite district. When the headlights of the car came around it would become a spotlight for these streetwalkers. And they posed perfectly. They had different costumes every day. I don't put that much effort into my work [laughs].

But you've shown considerable dedication —like shattering your knee after stage-diving at The Strawberry Music Festival in 2010.
[Laughs] I severed a ligament! It was so stupid. But I did the draft for my next album while I was bedridden. And I learned a lot — that I was writing music to get a rise out of people. If I exaggerated elements to the nth degree I'd get a positive reaction. But it took over. I realized we should be guiding the audience, not the other way around.

Helen Feng and Nova Heart will perform and release their new EP, Beautiful Boys, at Yugong Yishan on April 27 at 9pm. Tickets are RMB 80 at the door, RMB 60 in advance. For more information, visit here, here, and here.

Photo: MTVIGGY