New Noise Celebrate 10 Years of Touring Some of the Biggest Rock Bands on the Planet

If live music is part of your Beijing diet, chances are you’ve been lucky enough to attend a New Noise show. Some of the indie music scene’s biggest hitters, from Japanese post-rock legends Mono to US emo rock trailblazers American Football, have rolled through China under the wing of the seasoned promoters, whose passion for music is only matched by their robust professionalism.

The organization, founded by Belgium transplant Jef Vreys, got its humble beginnings in Chengdu and has introduced a whole new generation of music lovers to true legends of the scene, scoring names that ten years ago would have been unimaginable. It’s a testament to any company who has managed to stick around in the music industry here – one that is in constant flux, often because of factors outside of its control – and New Noise have proven themselves worthy ambassadors of high-quality music, with their 800-plus shows across Asia leaving tens of thousands of fans stirred.

To celebrate that milestone, the label has brought back some of their favorite guests, including Massachusetts instrumental rock band Caspian, Brooklyn noise rockers A Place to Bury Strangers (regularly described as "New York's loudest band"), and Munich indietronica group The Notwist, for a triple-header at Tango on Sunday, Dec 8. I chatted with New Noise’s Vreys about the company’s journey from 2009 to now, and the memories and friends they’ve made along the way.

Can you give a little background on your time here in China and how New Noise got its start?
In September 2007, I moved to China with a scholarship to finish a master's in Chinese history, originally I only had planned to stay one year. My first year in Chengdu was a great experience – it was my first year living abroad and I was overwhelmed by the nice people in Sichuan. I made a lot of great friends that year who were all involved with music.

To my surprise, at that time there were almost no foreign bands touring China, let alone Chengdu. A few of my friends knew The Maple Room, a Belgian band I was very close with and told me I should try to get them over. In 2008 I moved back to Belgium for a year and I was thinking to try and get them over to China at some point. In September 2009, I moved back to China with another scholarship and plans for a tour with The Maple Room that had taken six months to put together. That tour was really great and we had around 300 people per show, which was crazy at that time.

The moment I realized I could possibly turn this into my job was after I did the first tour with pg.lost the same year. That tour changed everything and I got the feeling the whole country was excited to see them and all the shows ended up being huge. 

The first two years of New Noise were a big learning process since I basically did everything by myself, including poster designs, promo, tour management, merch, stagehand, etc. So from the early beginnings, I learned about all aspects of touring in China, which still helps me to this day.

There’s a certain level of prestige (as well as a certain sound) to the bands you bring over. Does New Noise’s taste come from you or has it evolved as well during your ten years working?
For me, it's very important that I love the music from the bands that we work with. I was lucky enough that throughout these 10 years we got the chance to work with some amazing artists from all over the world. We don't need to work with any specific kind of genre, but we do need bands that play honest music and that are passionate and professional in what they do.

I have had the chance to work with some of my favorite bands such as Mogwai, múm, Tortoise, the Notwist, and Explosions in the Sky. For me, it's important that all the bands that we work with believe in the project we create together. For the moment, New Noise's bands are still curated by myself, but I've been very open to discover new artists and we would discuss possible artists in the office as well. There are many bands that I still would love to work with, but I do have to be careful on which bands to bring over, since China is not a cheap country to tour in and I don't have any investors, so I basically put my own money into these shows and need to make sure that I can pay my staff at the end of the month.

What have been some of your fondest memories over the past ten years? 
There have been so many great memories during the last ten years. For me, the most important thing is that many of these bands that we tour with have become very close friends over the years. The people from pg.lost and MONO are almost family to me.

One of the biggest things that keeps me going is to see these young Chinese kids getting moved by the music and really appreciating what we've been doing. I think during these ten years we've achieved to build up a very loyal fanbase because these people know that we really care about them. When I just started I had people traveling for more than 20 hours just to see a show. This is something I can't imagine happening in Europe.

One of the things I am most proud of is this split vinyl between Wang Wen and pg.lost. When we played in Dalian, Wang Wen took really good care of us and when I brought Wang Wen to Europe, the pg.lost guys helped out a lot as well, so we did a split vinyl together that really celebrated this friendship.

Ten years is nothing to sniff at here in China. I'm sure you’ve seen all sorts of developments in the music scene since starting out. What have been some of the biggest changes to the industry and how did New Noise navigate them? 
China has changed so much during these last ten years; a decade ago I did shows in more than 15 cities, and all of the venues were opened by people very passionate about music. In the last five years, there has been a huge shift within the industry, with huge companies trying to get a piece of the cake and people throwing money around like crazy.

Right now, I feel the balance is very bad. Touring costs are probably five times higher than they used to be and many more people are trying to put up shows for foreign bands, some of them fail and some of them succeed. I try my best to keep on doing our own thing, try to stay independent and not have to rely on investors. I think one of the reasons why we are still going is that people know that we stand for quality bands. At the end of the day, this is the most important thing. If you keep on doing great shows, people will know that there is another option other than the big mainstream artists or bands/music coming out of these talent shows.

In the next year, I feel that we need to try and focus on a younger audience, because people going to shows in China are probably between 23-28, which is a whole other generation and we have to try to keep on being relevant, without losing our own identity – this will be our biggest challenge. 

Bands have only the nicest things to say about the professionalism New Noise brings to the table. What do you think makes you guys stand out above the rest? 
I am not sure that we stand above the rest, but I do think it's important to be professional in what you do. It's very important that you have good communication with the bands that you are bringing over and do everything you can to put on the best show possible. We really put our hearts into promoting all of these shows. So when a show isn't doing that well, I really take that personally.

Another thing is that we never tried to do stuff that we can't handle. After all, we are not a huge company. I was very proud to have pulled off the After Hours festival last year, where we've invited five of the best Japanese bands to come over and play on the same date. A lot of effort was put into that festival and I think it was one of the best things we've ever done.

A lot of professionalism also comes from the band's end. Since I was born in Europe, I know that things can be different here, and I do my best to make everybody feel comfortable and create an atmosphere where everybody can give the best of themselves.

What’s in store for the ten year anniversary?
For our tenth anniversary shows, I really wanted to create a lineup that reflects what were are doing here and invite the best live bands that we've worked with over the years. The Beijing show will be special with American post-rock band Caspian presenting stuff from their upcoming album, New York-based noise rockers A Place to Bury Strangers, and legendary German band The Notwist. We've toured with all of these bands before and they are some of the best live bands that we've worked with so far.

We will also show a lot of video footage from the last decade and a photo series of Muto, a very talented photographer that has been with us for years. This show will be a celebration of music, an alternative to the mainstream, new noise, new art for the real people.

Celebrate ten years of New Noise with Caspian, The Notwist, and A Place to Bury Strangers at Tango this Sunday, Dec 8, at 8pm. Tickets are RMB 260 on the door or RMB 220 advance.

Looking for more gigs to tickle your fancy? There are many more right here.

Images courtesy of New Noise, Gio