Silver Ash is one of the very few visual rock bands in the country. They were recently signed on by Scream Records - a welcome surprise for the band - and are now busy preparing to go to America to record their new album.
With such an unusual genre of rock, the members of Silver Ash have had to make more sacrifices than other bands. Be it physically or mentally, the lead vocalist Ling says, "You must be able to control yourself." What  does this mean?

By the way, the members are all male.

I - interviewer
L - Ling

I: What is the background of the band?
L: I studied economics, trade and international trade. When I was about to graduate from university, because I loved music, I wanted to develop this interest. I felt that visual kei was different, at least within the country.
My friends liked it too. Now, there are 4 members. We've being doing this for a long time and should be considered the first band that truly tried visual rock. Before us, many bands also tried make-up, but I don't  think they should be considered visual kei. Many people have a hazy understanding of the concept and think that makeup is visual kei. The important point is,
the greatest difference is that visual kei has a certain concept of beauty that it conveys. For example, we want to bring across a darker, more gothic image. The physical image, the music, the lyrics all must express this idea of beauty; it is all integrated.

I: The names of the members are very unique, are there any special meanings?
L: The image represents the form of address. Frankly, these names don't have any deeper meanings. As to why everyone uses a single word, that's  because we feel that the Chinese language embodies deeper meaning, and to the senses, these words are beautiful, as well. (plhu: sorry! I don't know  what he's saying in this whole paragraph!)

I: Briefly tell us about your understanding of visual kei.
L: In the earliest days it came from the West - there are some connections between glam rock and visual kei. Some of the earlier bands in Japan were influenced by Western bands then, like Boowy. X The earliest 'visual kei' was introduced by the guitarist of the Japanese band, X. Our style is basically Japanese, and the term itself refers solely to Japan.  Manson's
style is not termed visual kei. The term doesn't refer to any specific form of music; it should be said that for visual rock, 'visual' comes before 'rock'. The basis of the music is still rock, just that more emphasis  is placed on the outward expression of the style. The image is different  from dyed hair. Just as a painter paints a picture, we are trying to give  form to and make these elements tangible. The concept of visual kei is too complicated; ours is just a division of it, and a more mainstream division
at that.

I: Do you have a professional costume designer?
L: Yes, we do, we have costume and makeup designers, but they're not really image designers. First, we formulate a basic concept of beauty and tell it to them. Of course they'll share their opinions too, and then they'll start creating.

I: Is there a basic idea for the design of the image?
L: It's still close to the Japanese style; weren't there some people who called it blatant copying? How do I say this, does it look the same? [plhu:I didn't understand this sentence] (laugh) Since we're doing visual kei, we have got to have its trademarks.  It's just like how you can't let a big group of people with pipas and guzhens (traditional Chinese instruments) do rock.

I: What's outstanding about your visual image is that it's androgynous. Is there any special meaning to that?
L: Yes, because the beauty of visual kei is removed from the concept of gender. This is an important thing: its beauty is regardless of gender, it doesn't care if it's a male of female, and don't call it guys dressing  as girls...its own beauty exists by itself.

I: Does this fundamental of visual kei have anything to do with 'sex' or 'sexual orientation'?
L: No, it's got nothing to do with the idea of sex or sexual orientation,it's just a form of expression. To get to the point, everyone wishes to be beautiful. Just like Manson, he is confused about the concept of  gender, at a very basic level. What he wants to bring across isn't "I'm homosexual" or "I'm bisexual". Especially in this age, the gender barrier is already  very
blurred. Visual kei just expresses that in a more gothic form.

I: Your inner beauty -- music -- which way does it lean?
L: It's more of metal. Personally, I hope to make the music darker, but we've tried all kinds of musical styles. Our style is very varied; just  like what our image brings across, it won't stay in the same place. On the whole,our members are more classic. Some songs are simpler and easy to listen to, and some are heavier, because I feel that this is very important for a rock band.

I: Do you have many live performances?
L: Not a lot, it's too difficult! Costumes, makeup...we must be at the venue many hours in advance to prepare. To us, the lights and stage effects  are very important too. It can't be helped, bands like us in China have it  bad. We are especially grateful to Lv Bo for signing us on. Back then, we didn't even dare to hope that a company would sign us on. Frankly, the expenditure
is very, very high. But, if you want to paint, then you have to buy brushes. Morever, many bands in the country have a strange impression of us, thinking that we depend on our image to attract people. Our bassist likes  'behaviour art' [plhu: help! xing2 wei2 yi4 shu4] (his eyebrows have been plucked out and redrawn). He says, this is a form of behaviour art. Some say that
our visual look is very mainstream, I don't think so, I feel that we are quite individualistic.

I: Do you still remember your first time onstage?
L: It was at Hao Yun. Back then, there were only two guitarists and myself in the band, the bass and drums were done by a drum machine. When we went onstage, the audience offstage was at a loss. They didn't know what was happening. I remember that after the first song, some idiots offstage  said "Hey, these girls are really pretty." To us, this misconception is very
common. Many times, people have looked at our photos and commented on how pretty these girls are. Actually, I chose visual kei for a reason. All along, I've not been satisfied with the path taken by bands in this  country in terms of image. Everyone thinks that music is the root, yes! That's perfectly right. But rock isn't just about that. Just take a look, from the Beatles to some of the Western bands now, their visuals have always been striking.

I: Does visual kei have any technical requirements?
L: The simplest one is to control yourself. Only people with very strong self-discipline can do that. That is, in order to express this image  and impression of beauty, you must be able to take other things, like  maintaning your body, dyeing your hair - which is really bad for your hair quality (laugh) Sacrifices must be made. We all pluck our eyebrows, have thin eyebrows, and put on makeup. These days, youngsters in rock think that wearing chains, boss trousers and boss shoes [plhu: lao3 ban3 ku4 -
what's that?] is cool, but we feel that wearing high heels, leather pants, androgynous costumes is in.

I: Talk about your life outside of work?
L: I like to play basketball, I used to be in the school team during high school. I was a defender, because I'm not tall! 1.76 metres. Truly, apart from music, my biggest interest is basketball. Sadly, I'm not tall  enough and I'm too skinny, barely more than 100 pounds.

I: Along what path will the band develop?
L: We will continue with visual kei till the very end. In Japan, many  visual bands rely on their glamourous and brilliant image to get the attention  of others, but 'shed their makeup' as they gradually move towards the mainstream. We will definitely not do that, even if we move nearer the mainstream in future, we will maintain our visual expression. Of  course, at some time and place our ideas will change and we'll have different  forms of visual expression. But, we will never give up visual kei.

When the readers read this interview, the band's demo should already have been released.
(Interviewer: Ka3 Yue4)