Interview with Rita
Rita is a singer of her own rock band, Flying. She formed the band with a couple of her friends during the first year in high school. Their rock band consists of a guitar player, a drummer, a singer and a base player. Like many other amateur high school rock bands, Flying mainly performed in some school art events or singing competitions and sometimes they play music together privately just for fun.
Before I started the interview with Rita, I was wondering would it be different from a girl's perspective of forming a band, but when I asked her the first question"why did you want to form a band at first?", I found there are always something common for those who love music. She said, "we play music just for fun. We love it and then we want to play it together. Also, playing music in your own rock can make you known by more people. I don't mean that it can make you famous, or something. I just want to say that you can make more friends in your school, thus expanding your social network."
" Then what do you think you have gained until now from forming a rock band by yourself? Do you think the results are consistent with what you expected, like you've talked about just now? " My question just went naturally after I heard her first answer.
"Yes, I think so. It indeed expended my social network and I made a lot of friends during such an experience. Actually, I think it gives me more than what I expected at first, because as we play music in an organized group, like a rock band, we can have more chances to know more professional local singers as well as some other rock bands, which have already been popular locally. Although they are not either very professional or very famous, they can share their stage experience with us and help us improve our own performance. My friends and I have also learned some music theories from them, and I think that indeed goes far beyond what I expected before, because at first we just want to play music for fun, but at last we actually learned something besides gained the happiness from playing music. I think this is really amazing!" Even though I didn't hear her voice as we just did this interview in text message (Rita is in China now), I can still sense the excitement and satisfaction she wanted to express through her texts.
"So do you guys think about how your band can develop? Have you ever thought to become a professional rock band and perform more publicly?" ( This question is drawn from a web post discussion, How Can Rock Bands Formed by College Students Develop)
" Not yet, and I don't think we will try to become a professional rock band. On one hand, it is really difficult for an amateur rock band, especially formed by high school students, to become famous and have its own albums or concerts. On the other hand, until now at least, neither of us wants to take a rock band member as a life profession. That is, we all have our own ideal future job and like I said before we play music just for fun. Music is a part of our life, but not all of our life. We indeed love music and instill our passion into it, but we just don't want to be professional. You may say maybe that's because being professional requires more talents and efforts and we don't have enough of them. That's true. I can't deny and I think that is also why we never thought to be a professional rock band, haha."
Before I started the interview with Rita, I was wondering would it be different from a girl's perspective of forming a band, but when I asked her the first question"why did you want to form a band at first?", I found there are always something common for those who love music. She said, "we play music just for fun. We love it and then we want to play it together. Also, playing music in your own rock can make you known by more people. I don't mean that it can make you famous, or something. I just want to say that you can make more friends in your school, thus expanding your social network."
" Then what do you think you have gained until now from forming a rock band by yourself? Do you think the results are consistent with what you expected, like you've talked about just now? " My question just went naturally after I heard her first answer.
"Yes, I think so. It indeed expended my social network and I made a lot of friends during such an experience. Actually, I think it gives me more than what I expected at first, because as we play music in an organized group, like a rock band, we can have more chances to know more professional local singers as well as some other rock bands, which have already been popular locally. Although they are not either very professional or very famous, they can share their stage experience with us and help us improve our own performance. My friends and I have also learned some music theories from them, and I think that indeed goes far beyond what I expected before, because at first we just want to play music for fun, but at last we actually learned something besides gained the happiness from playing music. I think this is really amazing!" Even though I didn't hear her voice as we just did this interview in text message (Rita is in China now), I can still sense the excitement and satisfaction she wanted to express through her texts.
"So do you guys think about how your band can develop? Have you ever thought to become a professional rock band and perform more publicly?" ( This question is drawn from a web post discussion, How Can Rock Bands Formed by College Students Develop)
" Not yet, and I don't think we will try to become a professional rock band. On one hand, it is really difficult for an amateur rock band, especially formed by high school students, to become famous and have its own albums or concerts. On the other hand, until now at least, neither of us wants to take a rock band member as a life profession. That is, we all have our own ideal future job and like I said before we play music just for fun. Music is a part of our life, but not all of our life. We indeed love music and instill our passion into it, but we just don't want to be professional. You may say maybe that's because being professional requires more talents and efforts and we don't have enough of them. That's true. I can't deny and I think that is also why we never thought to be a professional rock band, haha."
Click here to see: Photos of Rita and Flying rock band