So for the next week to ten days, Mayday is off on one of these whirlwind tours of Chinese cities, promoting Benq products, Mayday concerts, peace, love and understanding, etc. The reports from each city should be pretty predictable, because the reporters are going to ask all the same questions and any one of us could answer them correctly, albeit with a little less flair than the band.
This one is from last Friday in which the band noted two things: the first is that the Jump! tour probably won’t be over before next May, and the second is that their next album will not be out until after the Jump! tour is over. I’m all about not rushing them when it comes to creating new music, so that seems fine. I’m sure there will be another single or something between now and then.
That article also includes a variation on the “fake rock” answer, in which Ashin notes that if “real” rock is all about angry indignation, then Mayday’s music is absolutely fake, because more than anything they are striving to inspire people, to capture the hearts of their fans. After all, music swept up in its own self-importance isn’t what people want to listen to. I wonder if he keeps a list of different answers to this question – you know, just to mix it up a bit?
This one notes that Ashin is posting pictures of each step of the tour on his blog, and asks if the other band members have read it; Monster joked that he read it and said “so this is the kind of person he is, I don’t recognize this person.” Ashin threatened to post some of the band member’s “bad sides” in reply.
Before all the mainland press stuff really gets underway, though, here’s another interview from their trip to Malaysia. It is long and funny – it starts out noting that you never know which Mayday is going to show up for any given interview, if they’ll be serious or joking the whole time – but I think my favorite part is when the band is asked if they’ll form their kids into a new Mayday-like band one day, and they said no, because their kids would have their own dreams. Then the reporter asked if they all had kids that wanted to pursue music, would they stop them, and Ashin said of course not, they would not stop them, they’d just break their legs. The reporter asked if he could break his own kid’s legs, and Ashin said no, but that’s what the other band members are for… and Monster followed up by kindly offering to break Ashin’s kids legs for him. See? Everyone’s happy. Er, except all the kids with their broken legs…
They were asked a bunch of questions on what they’re doing for the environment (is this Leehom’s doing?), and Stone says he takes cold showers, even in the winter… Ashin says he reuses towels, like at hotels where you have to put the towels you want washed in the basket – he never does (Monster says it’s because he’s to lazy to do so, so Ashin strikes back with a “compliment” about how Monster drinks beer everyday, but always takes care of the cans), Masa jokes about skipping showers altogether being even better than cold showers.
Finally, here’s a lingering report from the LA concert last month; it claims an audience of almost 7,000 (do the attendees agree?), including a number of students from Taiwan who don’t start school until October and therefore made the trip over. It also notes that while the band was here, a few milestones were reached at home: Guanyou’s daughter can now call him “daddy” and Stone’s son is crawling.