Back in 2010, Rick Fischl was playing his music as part of the entertainment at the then in-spot Don Quixote, when a Chinese customer asked him if he could play any Chinese songs. He couldn’t but said he would make one up.
The result was “Xiao Long Baozi”, a song that was to become a cult among Nanjing’s foreign community. With its popularity spurred, the four friends Rick, Chase, and Zepp and Jonny came together as Fisch’n Friends and went on to produce the accompanying music video that was released Saturday.
With almost 3,000 views in just 2 days on Youku alone, Xiao Long Baozi is already a hit. The video was shot in just one day; Saturday 17th June.
The premise for the video is thus. Three of our protagonists awake after a night of much revelry feeling more than a little worse for wear. Outside in the all-too-bright Nanjing sunshine, they befriend a lazily busking Zepp. The four of them then sing, play and prank their way through the 5 minute video, while curing their headaches with Xiao Long Baozi, Guotie and more than a little hair of the dog.
Talking with The Nanjinger of the song’s origins and their inspiration for the video, lead singer and rhythm guitarist Rick said, “When I was asked to sing a Chinese song at Don Quixote, my Mandarin was terrible, so I pretty much only knew how to say my favourite foods”.
A musician from the suburbs of Chicago, USA, who has been teaching in Nanjing since 2008, Rick draws inspiration from Jimmy Buffet, Pearl Jam and the Beatles.
“Chase and I sat down and wrote a basic plot and then it evolved a bit throughout the day when we were filming. We had ideas of where we would film and improvised a lot”.
Bassist Chase Stewart added, “Rick, Zepp and I had the idea for the video that then evolved into one about going around Nanjing eating xiao long baozi in lots of different famous Nanjing spots since the song is kind of an ode to Nanjing for us”.
Hailing from Philadelphia, USA, Chase has been in Nanjing for 7 years. He is the co-owner of Tap Planet Co., an American style craft beer bar and restaurant, while he has also been featured on JSBC, NJBC, and Tudou Box Show productions and has travelled around eastern China performing with many different groups.
Jonny Schouten, percussion, is a multi-instrumentalist and music teacher from Manchester, UK, living in Nanjing for 5 years. Jonny performs with a number of different bands and writes and produces music in a hugely diverse genres.
Jonny said, “Local people’s reactions to what we were doing, as well as the enthusiasm of the video team, were typical of the friendliness we experience daily in Nanjing. The video also demonstrates the close-knit nature of the expat scene here; the support we received was incredible.”
As lead guitarist from the heart of Kathmandu, Nepal, Utsav “Zepp” Kharel is inspired by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Nirvana and Audioslave. Zepp has been in Nanjing for over 9 years and in addition to performing all around China, he has staged numerous live music events in Nanjing, including the Chic Hills Music Festival and the Nanjing International Festival.
On the concept for the video, he commented, “At first it was just for us. Because we had been planning to do it to give our history and experiences here a permanent shape. But as we kept on going with much help from many people it came to be bigger and bigger”.
Speaking of a video production process for Xiao Long Baozi that was at times a little haphazard, albeit in a fortuitous way, Chase revealed, “All the things we planned didn’t go exactly as expected but it still turned out great or better. For example, we were all supposed to be at Rick’s apartment waking up after a night out, but we had to pick up a friend’s car in the morning and he didn’t answer his phone for like an hour, so Zepp was late getting to Rick’s and so we filmed inside then had to come up for an idea about how we meet up with Zepp; we were discussing and finally decided on having Zepp be a busker and we find him on the side of the road”.
Xiao Long Baozi may be the band’s ode to Nanjing, but making the video in itself has also provided many a great memory. Rick recalled, “My favourite part was when we were filming at Tap Planet and had ordered 240 Xiao Long Baozi; as we were playing people were eating them and started throwing them at us on stage. It was awesome having a lot of our friends there supporting us and singing along”.
The video for Xiao Long Baozi can be watched on Youku and Youtube.
