Birdstriking Photo: supplied
Birdstriking are part of a relatively new underground music scene in Beijing. Around ten years ago a generation of Chinese millennials picked up guitars and started making sounds that drew comparisons to bands like Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Television. But rather than being a pastiche of influences, the music being made by these young bands exists definitively in its own genre.
The scene caught the attention of Brian Jonestown Massacre guitarist Ricky Maymi, who brought Birdstriking to wider attention via his blog Far Out Distant Sounds. Die! Die! Die! frontman Andrew Wilson is also a fan, after he discovered the band while touring China.
Birdstriking members Wen Yuzhen, Wang Xinjiu, and He Fan at RNZ's Auckland headquarters. Photo: Andrew Wilson
Music 101 talked to Birdstriking about making ecstatic guitar noise, their debut album being banned in China, and growing out of being 'yobs', when they visited the RNZ studios during their first trip to the southern hemisphere.
Andrew Wilson from Die! Die! Die! Wang Xinjiu, RNZ's Tony Stamp, Wen Yuzhen, and and He Fan. Photo: Carla Tod
