Collaboration 9 – Stone

30.6.22

Here’s our finished song – I Dream! A blog will follow soon…

這是我們完成的歌—我夢見！部落格隨後就到…

1.7.22

“I dream we’re everything – no more them and us”

「我夢見我們是一體—沒有他們，沒有我們。」

This month’s collaboration is with an amazing human being and musician from Taiwan, called Stone, who is a member of the band Mayday. I was honoured to study alongside Stone at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 2001/2. He impressed my greatly with his gentleness and humility, his generosity, and his ability to really listen, and bring what was needed to a piece of music, rather than adding more than is required (which is something I always struggle with). Stone later invited me out to visit him in Taiwan, where I was lucky enough to sing in Mandarin, and Scots, at his wedding, and to record in Mayday’s studio!

這個月呢，是跟石頭合作，一位來自臺灣，很了不起的音樂家，也同時是五月天的團員之一。我很榮幸能跟石頭在2001到2002年，一起在英國利物浦表演藝術學校唸書。讓我印象深刻的是他的溫和、謙遜、慷慨，還有他善於真心傾聽的能力，以及確切知道要為音樂加些什麼，而不是一味的無限疊加（這是我滿常感到掙扎的地方）。很幸運的，石頭之後邀請我到臺灣，並且在五月天的錄音室錄音，為他的婚禮獻唱中文歌及蘇格蘭語歌！

Dubbed as the “Beatles of the Chinese-speaking World”, Mayday are influenced by The Beatles, and try to spread the ideals of love and peace through their songs. Here’s one of their impressive live music videos from earlier this year: https://youtu.be/h6WhDdeF40Q

五月天被譽為「華語披頭四」，因為被披頭四深深的影響，他們試著透過歌曲，傳播愛的理想以及和平。這是他們年初一段令人印象深刻的現場MV：https://youtu.be/h6WhDdeF40Q

Stone and I began our collaboration by discussing what was on our minds. I shared that the invasion of Ukraine and the horrors of war, including the trauma experienced by refugees, was something I was thinking a lot about, and Stone saw a bigger picture: conflict, which has happened and continues to happen across time and across our planet, and the causes of conflict.

石頭和我在合作起初，討論了那時我們在意的事情。我分享了一件我最近想很多的事情，也就是入侵烏克蘭，還有戰爭的可怕，難民所經歷的創傷等等。然後石頭看到了更大的格局：衝突以及衝突的起因。衝突不僅發生在過去，到現在依舊持續發生，橫跨時間以及空間，

In recent years, Stone has been finding out more about Taoism, and he asked me if I knew much about it (which I did not) and kindly shared links with me to help me to educate myself about some Taoist principles and texts. He mentioned that in Taoism, there is less focus on nations or boundaries, and more focus on how an individual can relate to this world (which perhaps explains why few wars come from Taoism). Values of simplicity, humility and compassion immediately appealed to me. There are also some pretty radical ideas (to me, at least), like this one: instead of defining ourselves as distinct from others, and even other species on this earth, like plants, or animals, we could consider ourselves to be as one with everything in nature. Rather than defining things, perhaps it’s ideas and ideals that we should be defining or challenging. Do we have to follow other people’s ideas? Do we have to aspire to the same life as others? Or should we enjoy the sun, follow nature’s lead, grow vegetables and enjoy life?

近幾年，石頭越來越深入了解道家思想，他問我是否瞭解（我真的不熟悉），他也很和藹地分享一些連結給我，讓我可以自己摸索道家的道理以及文本。他提到，在道家思想裡，國家以及界線並不是重點，反而專注在個體如何跟這個世界做連結（這或許也解釋了為何以道治國會比較少有戰爭）對於簡樸、謙遜、還有同情的重視，馬上吸引了我。當然也有一些（至少對我來說）比較偏激的概念，像是這個：不把自己跟別人，甚至其他物種，像是植物或動物，劃清定義的界線；而是把自己和自然中的一切看作一體；比起定義物品，或許我們該定義或挑戰的，是想法或理想。我們需要追隨其他人的想法嗎？我們該嚮往別人的人生嗎？或是我們應該享受陽光、追隨自然的腳步、種些菜然後享受人生？

I loved this idea. It also reminded me of a saying I’ve heard: “there is no them and us, only us”. We’re all humans; what does it benefit us when we divide ourselves into groups and make judgements on one group over another?

我好愛這個想法。這也讓我想到一段我聽過的話：「沒有他們和我們，只有我們。」我們都是人類；把我們分成不同族群，然後互相評判，對我們有什麼好處嗎？

We discussed how lucky we both are that we have music as a way to communicate with others, and the fact that our music exists, and will exist, beyond our own existence. We also considered the fact you have to create, perform and listen to music “in time” – in the present; it happens over time. Music that can hold you in the present moment feels really good for the soul.

我們聊到我們都很幸運，能夠把音樂當成一種和他人溝通的方式，而且就算我們不在了，我們的音樂也會一直存在。我們也想到，人們必須「及時」—也就是「在當下」—創造、表演、以及聆聽音樂。這會隨著時間推移而發生。能在當下讓你駐足的音樂，真的能讓人感到心靈舒暢。

Finally, we talked about the concept of flow, fluidity and change; in ourselves, and our sense of ourselves, in the world, in others… and we made a plan to create music which embodied the concepts of one-ness, simplicity and flow that we had been discussing, even to the extent of me sitting at the piano and playing, without any intention (something I’ve never done!), in the moment, to see what came…

最後，我們聊到不管是在自身，還有在我們意識中的自己，或是在這個世界、在他人的流變、流動、跟改變的概念；我們希望創作出來的音樂，能體現「合一」、「簡樸」以及「流動」等之前討論過的概念，甚至到了我無意地坐在鋼琴前彈奏的程度（這我可從來沒做過！），在這時刻，等待著…

With huge thanks for the translation, provided by Alice, Instagram: @mayday_stereo