PHM – Phỏng vấn Steve Stander của Synergy

tôi không cho rằng SMP là một nhóm chơi nhạc đương đại, lại càng không cho rằng âm nhạc đương đại ở tp.HCM (theo cách diễn đạt của SMP và Phạm Hoàng Miên) là tốt hơn ở hanoi. Tôi đã từng đến một số show của SMP chỉ để thấy rằng các bạn chơi nhạc vui và vui vẻ, giống như một trò chơi vui với nhau mà thôi, chứ khó mà nói đó là những hoạt động âm nhạc có tính nghệ thuật và càng không thể gọi là chuyên nghiệp được. Tôi rất tiếc khi đọc những bài viết như thế này về âm nhạc trên hanoigrapevine, bởi nó cho thấy sự non kém rõ rệt của người viết về đề tài này

In response to Vu Nhat Tan:

I think what was said was “Only in contemporary music, we’re still behind Ho Chi Minh City! ” which means we are hoping to be improve the contemporary music scene in Hanoi. We are not saying Hanoi is better than HCMC ;-)

I am also not sure why you say we play ‘happy and fun’ music like its a bad thing. Our events are varied, sometimes fun, sometimes serious, sometimes experimental, but always for the love of music and artistic expression.

Thanks B, hearing from the community is important to Synergy and it is great that Hanoigrapevine offers a platform to facilitate/foster such communication.

Hello…

it is important to know the scene before making statement…
“It surely is the capital in many things. Culture? Yes. Art? Yes. Only in contemporary music, we’re still behind Ho Chi Minh City! We don’t want that. We want to make Hanoi the capital of music as well.”

most of the music trends, come from hanoi…HCM city, just commercial music…if SMP think that is “contemporary music”, Vu Nhat Tan maybe need to discuss with SMP for more explaination of hanoi Gangs…
just to name a few who make their own music and leading the trends and they all from Hanoi…

Kim Ngoc-Female electronic aritst
Luong Hue Trinh-Female electronic aritst
Vu Nhat Tan-Noise aritst
Son X-Electro-acoustic experimental percussionist
Nguyen Van Cuong-Visual Aritst/sound artist
Nguyen Manh Hung…
Lingh Dung…
Ngoc Dai…
Quoc Trung…
Le Minh Son…
Rhapsodie Philhamonic…
DJ slim V…
MK
Autobot
Huy percussion
Thu Thuy
….
…
..
.
Phuong Dang (never heard of her) at last, some links?

best regards
Tri Minh

I would love to hear all the above artists (mentioned by Tri Minh). I would also love them to be pushed into my face like Synergy pushes its artists week in, week out, serious, fun, big event or small. I’ve been in Hanoi for just over one year (I’m not saying that is long) but I have not been exposed to a lot of the names above. Maybe the problem is with me — perhaps I’m not looking in the right places.

I say get all the artists together for one massive night.

Tonight?

Hello…Ian Paynton and all…

you can catch some of these artists at hanoi sound stuff festival 2012 on 13th and 14th of April 2012…if you are staying that long?

these artists are at local scene, sorry but it not gonna happen at hanoi rock city or expat communities if you are looking for it…

and yes, a massive evening…

best regards
Tri Minh

Dear Tri Minh,

So you’re saying there is NOWHERE we can hear ANY of these artists until NEXT YEAR? 2012?

Sorry anh oi, but that’s not a scene. There’s one thing making music in a studio among fellow producers and friends, and there is another thing playing that music out for the masses to hear and enjoy it.

That’s like me saying “i’m a really good DJ (honestly) but sorry you have to wait one year to hear me”.

Let’s have more gigs, more events, more dances, more raves, more fun — let’s have that “massive evening” once a month?

And what’s wrong with HRC and expat communities? Who knows, people in the expat community may understand your taste in music more so than other cross-sections of Hanoian society. I don’t think we should start differentiating between local and expats, private studios and music venues. We are all people and we all love music.

Best regards,

Ian

And also anh Tri Minh, about Hanoi Soundstuff – maybe you should promote it more to the “expat community” next year? From my experience this year, it lacked a bit of atmosphere and signs of people actually enjoying the music (ie, dancing). But I did only go on the second night. Even still, if I waited another year for more of the same, I would be disappointed. But maybe that’s just me — someone that danced to electronic music all night, once a month, for ten years in the UK.

Synergy, a question for you… why aren’t Tri Minh and other artists mentioned by him (above) on the line up for B.A.S.S this weekend? Would seem like the perfect collaboration.

Love all round,

Ian

Even newer on the scene than SMP, DepSkillz is a Saigon based collective with similar aims and goals to our Ha Noi counterparts.

The music our artists play is certainly ‘happy & cheerful’, because that’s largely what our audiences want to listen to. Mixing genres, we encourage creativity and a lot of our regular gigs are improv based – musicians having a ‘game of fun with each other’.

Our roster of artists mix locals with expats, but we too are pushed to find Vietnamese musicians who are not stuck in styles of rock & ballads and who can play freely with our other musicians.

That said, we are happy to welcome a growing number of young Vietnamese artists to our collective who can freely ‘mix it up’ and get in to the groove.

As DepSkillz continues to establish itself in the Saigon live music scene, and the fees we can demand for our artists increase, we look forward to collaboration with SMP and an exchange of musical talents from one end of the country to the other.

You can check out our weekly gigs on our site calendar – last weekend we had 10 events in 4 days, not bad for a collective only a couple of months old!

http://depskillz.wordpress.com/depcalendar

Please continue to support musical initiatives, regardless of the city you live in!

Now thats more like it DepSkillz! You have our full support and collaboration. You guys seem to be heading in the right direction down there in Saigon.

Music knows no boundaries and whoever is in the scene to promote evolution and exposure to music, are friends of ours ;-). Will talk soon about some plans we have.

@Ian in response to your question:

“why aren’t Tri Minh and other artists mentioned by him (above) on the line up for B.A.S.S this weekend? Would seem like the perfect collaboration”

We are hoping to have more of the local Hanoians Tri Minh mentioned involved in future events, our door is and always will be open. Now just to try and find out where these lads and lasses perform and then we can scout and work out a concept suitable to their styles.

For B.A.S.S this weekend we have a limited amount of time for each DJ behind the decks, also Synergy wanted to give our loyal DJ crew an opportunity to bang it out at HRC.

@Tri Minh, I know its difficult to get hold of you on facebook, could you drop me an email with your address?

@ Synergy: yes well it seems like you will have to wait until Hanoi Soundstuff next year to do your scouting mission. Unfortunately.

To @all

The problem here is *cultural differences*. I am just a beginner to Vietnamese culture, but I can see there are some huge gaps between Westerners and Vietnamese, in what they expect from music events and performers.

Organisations like Synergy, CAMA, and DepSkillz are organising Western-style gigs – a concept which tends towards a medium-sized event space and lots of punters coming regularly to see a small roster of *new* artists.

On the other hand, what I can see is popular on the Viet side is either huge stadium-sized gigs with thousands of people – with tried and tested artists (Tùng Dương), and ostentatious presentation – or the café culture gigs with limited setup and small audiences. Also, original music is not a priority.

Another important thing I’ve noticed: I immediately searched for the artists you mention, @Tri Minh, and none of them appear to be visible on the internet – that is MySpace, Facebook etc. Any time I hear about music in the UK, I immediately search the internet, and have a listen to that artist. I also tried http://www.nhaccuatui.com and found *a* Kim Ngoc, but as your description said ‘electronic artist’, and this certainly didn’t sound like that.

What I want to know is _why can’t I find these artists?_ Where are they hiding?

I’m a producer, in the old fashioned sense of being able to do arrangements, tweak songs and guide artists, and also in the modern sense of being able to work a recording studio and produce a CD. I want to get involved in the music scene in Hanoi. Where do I start to find new Vietnamese talent?

To finish, yesterday I saw by Hoàn Kiếm a large group of people, all Vietnamese apart from one Westerner, standing around a guy playing guitar, and a famous Hanoian fiddle player. They were all singing songs together, and drawing a crowd. The audience is there for the taking if you want it, you just have to be visible.