The first thing I noticed was the soft light shining from above. Surrounded by various types of instruments, there were sofas available for both guests and members of the band, while Cao Di, our protagonist, was lying thereon. He looked comfortable and relaxed.
As lead singer with the band, Orange Cats (橘猫乐队), Cao (曹翟) is a talkative person, handing me a cup of Sprite as we began our interview. With his hospitable smile, this was already more like a casual conversation.
Singers write songs, just as some people write diaries. We may not be very good at keeping a diary, but writing songs is another way to record life. Cao’s love for life and his appreciation for the beauty therein are the main motivations for him to continually compose.
Cao said, “I often hear people nearby talking about their plans for the future, such as buying a bigger house, getting a brand-new car, or traveling with their family. A fulfilling feeling often comes over me when I hear all the good news. But when I suddenly realised that friends and parents would eventually leave me one day, and even my two daughters are still in kindergarten, I thought that now is the best time period of my life. Cherishing every single fragment of life is so necessary that writing songs about it has already become a habit for me”.
While discussing this topic, Cao opened his phone, showing me all the recordings he had made casually. It was then that I realised his real love for songs. These were all ordinary things in life, but in the form of music, they glowed preciously. One of those included a demo he recorded when he was walking on the streets of Chongqing, while another was the accompaniment to that his daughter was singing vaguely. “She was less than three years old”, Cao said proudly. “But she could hum incomplete tones every day. Sometimes, when I tell her to sing songs about her day, she can create a brief segment by herself.”
His ability to discover beauty and express it is very hard to find in modern trends. Today’s fast-paced world means fewer people have the habit of paying attention to the trivial around them, let alone making a record of that. Finding inspiration in life has its unique meaning in different ways.
Cao says that “Hello Teacher Zhang” (你好张老师) is his favourite song he has ever composed. The song references a female teacher who devoted herself to establishing schools for girls in rural parts of China. It was one of their band’s most popular songs and was praised by People’s Daily, an official organ of the CCP.
Cao says wrote this song largely because Teacher Zhang’s spirits were similar to the notion of Rock and Roll. “Though she was praised a lot, she also met with much controversy. Many people accused her of being responsible for some boys losing their opportunity to go to school”, said Cao. But Zhang eventually succeeded in bringing about a miracle deep in the mountains, giving more girls a chance to see the outside world and realise their dreams. “The sincerity she showed on her way to lead the children to pursue their dreams was touching. It also planted a blazing seed in the hearts of us musicians.”
Although he was skilled in music, Cao recalled numerous occasions that were not at all comfortable or memorable. Once an athlete studying at the Nanjing Sports Institute, he there encountered several instances of bullying.
Such was the inspiration for the song, “Back to Xiao Lingwei” (回到孝陵卫), which contains the lyrics, “Wake me up and close my eyes”, in reference to bullies who force the weak into a corner and make them hold their breath before slapping them awake.
Although this song seems lively and was selected as as a promotional tune for Nanjing, it is such struggles that make people tell good stories.
As Cao concluded, he said, “Life is an original material, we are the ones who collect them, and compose them into songs. Maybe these songs do not fit into modern trends, but they are truly unique and each has its story to tell”.
