上回说到：2009年对Split Works来说并不好过，但黑暗隧道的尽头似乎有曙光闪现。未来如何，谁都无法预料……

When we last left our intrepid heroes, it was 2009 and things were looking a little shaky at Split HQ. But no one could have predicted where the story went next. 

继续听Archie Hamilton和Nathaniel Davis讲接下来的故事。

Back to Archie Hamilton and Nathaniel Davis. Take it away, guys:

VI

Handsome Furs

2009/2010

Nathaniel: 

能带Handsome Furs这支夫妻乐队来巡演，在当时的中国看来相当超前，乐队也是期待已久。他们人很有趣，一直能量满满，观众也喜欢他们的音乐，所以后来听说他们解散了非常难过。

An early, pioneering tour with an interesting couple who loved China and were super keen on the whole thing. They were just tons of fun, and their music was high-energy and extremely well received. I was sad to hear that they’d split up a few years later.

Archie: 

我在SXSW看过Handsome Furs之后，就邀请他们来亚洲巡演。乐队很好讲话也非常想来玩，所以第一年我们做了七场演出，还第一次去了越南。2010年我们在缅甸政治变革前做了一场，那是第一次有除朋克以外的外国乐队在缅甸的小场地表演。

我们溜进了缅甸，越过国界，变革就在眼前发生着，整个过程非常吓人。

I saw them at SXSW and invited them to come to Asia. They were super chill and easy and desperate to do it. We did 7 shows in the first year around Asia, we went to Vietnam for the first time. And on the second tour in 2010, we did Myanmar before the transition. I think it’s the first international band to actually play tiny venues in Myanmar, outside the hardcore punk scene.

So we sneaked in and it was so out there that we were actually pretty freaked out about the whole thing.

Handsome Furs 2010 Asian Tour

因为当时完全摸不清状况，一切都是偷偷摸摸进行的。我还发现他们当地有好多诡异的乐队，朋克啊亚文化那种。

后来我们又在泰国北部城市清迈做了一场，在践行“亚洲巡演”这个概念上算是先驱。因为很多所谓的“亚洲巡演”，都是在日本稍作停留就直奔澳洲，如此横跨大陆的旅程非常少见。

It was insane – the whole thing supremely under the radar, on the sly, and we found all these strange local bands, full of crazy punks and weird subcultures.

We then played a show in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. This was really the earliest stage of “formal” Asian touring – an Asian tour that actually spanned the continent rather than dipping its toes in Japan and running away to Australia.

直到2016年的今天，我们都没机会再次涉足那些地方。这周开始，我们将带英国后朋乐队Eagulls进行中国五城巡演，然后他们会在印度演三天，即使这样的行程也非常少见了。我们一直尝试在这片亚洲大陆的城市之间建立联系，也因为这样，我们的亚洲巡演机构Scorched才应运而生。

Scorched策划了Wye Oak和Shabazz Palaces的亚洲巡演，那之后的发展也非常顺利。

I don’t think we’ve cracked that route even now, in 2016. We’re touring the post-punk band Eagulls this week through 5 cities in China, before they play 3 dates in India – and that’s still unusual. We’re still working on connecting the dots across the continent – which is where our agency Scorched came in.

We did a tour for Wye Oak, then Shabazz Palaces and Scorched has been ticking along pretty nicely since then.

Handsome Furs这次巡演海报背后还有个小故事。2010年这张海报出自Idle Beats之手，他们是上海一家丝网版画工作室。2009年，Neocha将Idle Beats介绍给《觉》音乐+艺术节，在此期间Idle Beats背后的两位创始人Nini和Gregor相遇，并且之后开始一起合作。

There’s a nice little connection that came out of this tour. One of the posters out there is the 2010 poster, which Idle Beats - the Shanghai screen-printing studio -did. The folks at Neocha kinda brought Idle Beats to the first JUE in 2009, and that’s when Nini and Gregor (the two people behind Idle Beats) met and collaborated!

VII

Diplo & Steve Aoki

2009

Archie: 

是的，我们早在EDM盛行之前就做过EDM。

那时候我们和北京的糖果有合作（前身是星光现场），他们想找艺人来场地做演出。当时我们身无分文，所以当之前Battles巡演时合作过的代理公司提供了一个可以做Diplo+Steve Aoki的机会时，我们就建议给了糖果。他们答应了。

这或许是十年来最不Split Works的一场演出，不过那天晚上大家都玩得很开心。之前我以为Steve Aoki很蠢Diplo比较酷，结果情况完全相反，Aoki人超好，而Diplo…他们两人都是第一次来中国，可能也是我们最后一次与他们合作…还是很难想象我们真的做了这场。

Yep, we did EDM before EDM was big.

We had a deal with Tango, the club in Beijing over Starlive, and they were looking for people to book stuff. We didn’t have any money at that time and we were kind of skint, and we had this double bill offered to us by the same agent that helped with Battles. So we offered this to Tango and Tango said yes. 

Quite possibly one of the most non-Split Works style shows ever, but it was a good night. I thought Steve Aoki would be a twat and Diplo would be a super chill dude but it was completely the other way around: Steve Aoki was really nice and Diplo was a douchebag. That was the first time either of them been to China and certainly the last time we’ve worked with them...still a little hard to believe we did this.

Nathaniel: 

非常诡异的一场演出。也许EDM在中国泛滥有我们一部分责任吧。

One of our oddest shows. We should probably take some responsibility for the EDM overload in China today.

当时他们一起做亚洲巡演，北京是第一站。出于某种原因，整个巡演过程两人滴酒不沾，也是很有意思。

They were touring Asia together, and Beijing was the first stop. For some reason, they’d decided not to drink on this entire tour, which was really funny.

Steve跟他助手到的时候带了两个超大行李箱，装的都是T恤之类的周边，上面印着他的大笑脸。我们叮嘱他的助理说，如果这些被海关盯上了，千万别说是要在演出上卖的。

Steve and his assistant had arrived with two giant suitcases full of T-shirts, merch, that had his grinning face on it. We’d told his assistant that if Customs shows an interest, don’t for the love of god mention “shows”, or that they’re for sale.

海关当然感兴趣了，助理也顺理成章地讲出了“对呀这些要在演出上卖的”这种话。

But of course they took an interest, and of course she said, “it’s for a show, and it’s going to be on sale.”

然后海关的人打开了箱子，看见T恤上的笑脸。“这不是刚走过去那个人吗？”

助理点点头，海关也点点头，然后让他们过去了。

So the customs officer opens it up, looks at the t-shirt and says, “Wait, isn’t this the guy who just walked past us before you?” 

The assistant nods. Customs guy nods back, and they just let the whole thing through.

VIII

Owl City 

2009

Archie:

Owl City这场可以说是为了照顾中国观众的口味。在那之前，我们做的大多是自己欣赏的以及值得在中国推广的音乐，但三四年之后我们开始摸清自己的位置，开始了解真正的目标观众。

The first show we did purely for our real Chinese audience. Up till that point, we just book a lot of stuff we thought was good and we thought deserved voice in China, but after 3 or 4 years, we started to get aware of where we were and who our real audience was.

我其实有点怀念早期的社交网络。2007年Facebook刚火起来，在中国还没被封，我们建过一个Split Works的群，里面有三四千人，氛围很好。每当你发布一个新活动，大家会出于面子或礼节在线讨论，来不了的人甚至会表达歉意。现在情况完全不同了，活动太多让人疲乏，通常都是关闭提醒就不理你了，对我们这样的主办方来说其实蛮沮丧的。

I kind of miss these early days of ‘social networking’. We built a Split Works Facebook group real early on, cause in 2007 Facebook became kind of mainstream and wasn’t blocked in China. The Split Works Facebook group had 3000-4000 people. Back then, when you put an event up, it was kind of a close unit. There was a graciousness and remarkable politeness to online conversation: people would apologize for not being able to make it.  Now, folks are bored and used to it – they just mute and ignore you, which is a bit frustrating  as a promoter.

2009年的时候我们大概意识到了“老外”这个群体，在中国还是算暂住者，如果不能回应这里的需求和反响、发出自己的声音，就很难打下一个长期的基础。

Anyways, we started realizing in 2009 that the ‘expat’ community, such as it was, was extremely transient, and we could never build a long-term base if we didn’t have a voice in China, and responded to what was in demand here.

Owl City这个乐队是办公室的Lily推荐的，之后她还给出了许许多多非常棒的艺人邀请建议，这只是其中之一。

Owl City was Lily’s recommendation – the first of a long line of successful artists she would bring to my attention.

当时他们正要蹿红，我记得只花了700美元就搞定了三场演出（那时候没钱，境况很糟），可能是到目前为止最划算的一次合作了。演出费换算过来差不多4000块人民币，他们自己还承担了所有的开销。

This was just as he was becoming popular, and I remember I offered 700 dollars for 3 shows (because we had no money and were completely fucked at that time) and this might actually be the best deal I’ve ever done. It’s like 4000RMB in fees and they covered all the costs.

我承认当时对Owl City的音乐并不感冒，甚至到现在都不明白是如何火起来的，但那几场演出绝对是创纪录的。

I will admit that Owl City’s music does absolutely nothing to me and I still don’t get his meteoric rise, but the energy at these shows was off the charts.

Nathaniel:

当时我带乐队巡演，观众都是一些青少年，每首歌都会唱。我记得在武汉跟他们的经纪人聊天，我说在Owl City后面唱和声的那个女生Breanne声音很好听。“你应该把她签下来”，我这么跟经纪人讲，两年后她就出了自己的专辑。（这其中应该有我的功劳吧。）

I was on the tour, and the crowds were all these young kids who knew every single word. I remember talking to manager at the Wuhan show, and I thought that the girl Breanne who did the backing vocals for Owl City at the time had an absolutely enchanting voice. “You should sign her,” I told him and next thing you know, she has a solo album out two years later.

I’ll take credit for that one.

Archie:

三场演出全部售罄，上海是在芷江梦工厂。我们跟乐队到的晚了，大家都不是很满意试音效果，所以我们无法按时开门让观众入场，因为乐队的试音拖延了。

We sold out all three shows. The Shanghai leg was in Dream Factory. We reached the venue late, and everyone was unhappy with the production. So we couldn’t open doors on time because they were still sound checking.

梦工厂的布置有点奇怪：你要先上到四楼有一块酒吧区域，然后下一层才能到演出场地。所以我们关了楼上的门，那里只能容纳差不多100人。但现场却有五六百人，很多都是家长带着小孩。后来家长们都在吵吵：“早就过了孩子睡觉的时间了，为什么还不开门？”家长都疯了，孩子也跟着疯，最后终于开了门，一瞬间所有人的尖叫声穿破屋顶，然后持续了一整晚。

Dream Factory was a bit weird: you had to go up to the fourth floor to this bar area, and then down a floor from there to get into the venue itself. So we had the door closed in the upstairs bar area, which only fits 100 people. Except we had 500-600 people there, mostly kids with parents. And the parents went crazy. “It’s past my children’s bedtime!” “Why can’t we get in? It’s too late.” Because the parents went crazy, the kids went crazy. When we finally opened the door, this shrill, high pitched scream just enveloped the venue….and went on all night along.

X

Immaculate Machine

2009

Archie:

这是最长的巡演之一——我们走了11个城市。我们的“Main Man”Fanmu负责带乐队，而那也是他的第一次经历（现在已经是老司机了）。

One of the widest we’ve done – 11 cities in China.  Our main man Jeremy went to tour with them and that’s the first time we sent him off to do something like that (he’s a veteran now).

上海站演出之前，我跟主唱Brooke一边喝酒一边聊，他说在香港上飞机的时候，Fanmu问“能让我坐靠窗的位置吗？”因为那是他第一次坐飞机。Brooke说当然可以。

When the band got to Shanghai, Brooke (the singer) was drinking and saying, “When we took the plane in Hong Kong at the start of the tour, Jeremy was like, ‘would you mind if I sat next to the window’, I said sure and he says, ‘because this is the first plane I’ve been on’.

我们派Fanmu去做这场11个城市的巡演，事先却不知道这是他人生第一次离开上海。

We sent him off to manage a 11-city tour of China, and it turns out he never left Shanghai before that.

XI

Frank Turner

2010

Archie:

Frank Turner算得上大明星了，但整个巡演只有他和他的吉他。我们去了中国的五个城市，每一场都堪称完美。因为配置简洁花费不多，所以那几场门票都不贵，能让更多的人来看他表演。

He was really a big star but he just came on his own. We toured him across 5 cities in China - just him and his guitar and he just nailed it. Because it was so sparse, we could keep ticket prices low and have people take a chance and come out to see him. 

在看他的现场之前，其实我对他的音乐兴趣并不大。但当你和他身处同一个空间，沉溺于他的音乐，那就是你看过最好的演出现场。我记得在上海他随意地跟我聊起来，说他之后要给Green Day暖场，在体育馆那种规格的场地。他带着一把吉他走了中国五个城市，然后不动声色地去为Green Day暖场。实在太酷了。

Those shows were fucking incredible. I didn’t even like Frank Turner before I saw him, and but when you got into the room with him, it’s like the most captivating show you’ve ever been to. I remember in Shanghai, he just casually told me that when he leaves China, he was off on tour, on a stadium tour with Green Day. He’s just a cool guy, happy just taking his guitar and run around 5 cities in China and then go on a stadium tour with Green Day.

Nathaniel:

Archie这次邀请Frank Turner很有远见。2013年他带着全乐队回到中国的时候已经特别红了，但我脑海里还是坐在北京D-22看他拨着吉他的样子。

那次我们还聊了政治。他其实有点无政府主义，真得是我交谈过最聪明的人之一。

Another prescient booking by Archie – he was huge by the time he came back to China (with his full band) in 2013. In 2010, though, I remember sitting backstage at D-22 in Beijing, as he was restringing his guitar. 

We were discussing politics – he’s a bit of an anarchist at heart, fascinating guy - one of the smartest people I’ve ever talked to.

IX

Laura Jansen

2011

Archie:

这场演出有很多故事。《纽约时报》不久前为豆瓣写了一篇充满误导性的文章，他们完全忽略了豆瓣真正的特别之处。

A really interesting one. The New York Times just wrote a shockingly inaccurate piece about Douban, and they missed so much of what actually made Douban special. 

2005-2013是互联网的某种“黄金年代”，而豆瓣就处于中心位置。那时候大的商业运营还不懂互联网是什么，完全是靠年轻人建立起来、为年轻人服务的。那时候你在豆瓣发帖，人们要是喜欢就会分享，如果它足够有趣就能瞬间风靡。到了今天，真正有意义的东西越来越少，越来越不纯粹，都是靠算法和广告撑起来的。

Douban was at the heart of this kind of “golden age” between 2005-2013, when big businesses had no idea what the Internet was; it was by kids, for kids. If you put something up on Douban, and people liked it, they just shared it, and it would go viral because it could. It’s hard to create something that is genuine today, what with algorithms and targeting. 

结识Laura Jansen也是在SXSW，她的现场让我感觉很好，她外形可爱，而且乐于和观众互动，所以我就问了：要么试试把你的作品放在豆瓣上，看看大家怎么说？

I saw Laura Jansen, again, at SXSW and there was just something nice and lovely about her live shows. So I just spoke to her, “Can I put your music up on Douban and see what happens?” 

后来我们在豆瓣上传了她的音乐，一周之后上了“每周最多聆听国际艺人”榜单，并停留了十周之久。于是我们带她来做了五个城市的巡演，每场观众都很多，气氛非常好。因为有荷兰政府的支持所以也没有花很多钱。

So we did, and within a week she was the most “listened to international artist” on Douban and stayed there for like 10 weeks. So we bought her over for a five-city tour, and those shows were very well-attended and really nice because again, it didn’t cost us anything because she was supported by the Dutch government.

处境艰难的那几年，我们思维反而很活跃。因为能负担的宣传途径不多，我们所有的努力都有一种珍稀的纯粹性：之前我们想让乐队做我们希望他们做的事，后来就把这种权力交还给乐队，让他们自己来推动这种交流。

Our position made us really think creatively about the channels we could afford, even though those two years were incredibly difficult for all of us, there is a sort of purity about the way we worked and what we did. We changed from trying to make the bands do cool stuff we wanted to do, and let them drive the conversation a little bit and see where things went, organically.

XII

木+线

Wood + Wires

2013

Nathaniel:

我们占据了整个浅水湾，我认为当时我们创造了一个非常美妙的室内音乐节空间——观众上下穿梭，在楼上楼下的不同场地观看各个乐队的演出，在其他区域伴随的还有市集和助兴表演——这一切同时发生的时候感觉非常棒。

We took over QSW, and I think we created a really nice indoor festival space – just running between the different halls, checking out the sideshows and stalls – it came together really nice.

宋雨喆的个人表演是给我印象最深的。也可能是因为太累了，那场表演差点让我哭了出来。

I’ll never forget catching Song Yuzhe’s incredible solo performance. Maybe it was due to tiredness and exhaustion, but he just absolutely blew me away…I almost broke down in tears.  

Archie:

可能是我们与品牌最棒的一次合作。我们花了一年，给中国的民谣音乐做了一系列经典的视频。我一直觉得民谣是最被品牌低估的音乐风格。那场我们邀请了杭盖，布衣，万晓利，央吉玛，苏阳以及其他很多民谣艺人，帮健力士品牌搭建了这个围绕民谣而与目标群沟通互动的平台。

Still one of the coolest things we’ve done for a brand, in terms of a campaign. We spent over a year, made some beautiful videos around Chinese folk music – a genre still largely undervalued by contemporary brands. We supported Hanggai, Buyi, Wan Xiaoli, Yunggiema, Su Yang and so many others – and created this whole platform for Guinness around folk.

万晓利专访

之后我们也继续与其中一些乐队合作，局面又回到从前。很长一段时间我们做的都是国外乐队，而现在中国乐队正迈出国界线。

We continued working with a lot of these bands, and it’s us going full circle. Initially it’s all about international bands, and now it’s also about Chinese bands touring abroad. 

我们所做所想，都是放眼未来的考虑。我们很看重“共鸣”和“社群”，也常常白手起家创造新事物。很多很多事都需要时间来投入酿造，需要三到五年去发展，吸引人们来关注这些话题，但品牌项目往往负担不了这种时间成本，他们需要立竿见影的成果，快速的回报和上涨的销售数字。其实是让人多少有些难过的局面，有耐心的人越来越少，所有人都想要结果，立刻。马上。

A lot of what we do, and the way we think, is long-term. We think about resonance and community and building something from the ground up. A lot of what we have in mind needs time and dedication…3-4-5 years to develop, to get people heads around it, but with branded projects we have a year tops to hit a ‘sales figure’, and everything just orbits around that. It’s a bit sad – time and again we find that no one has any patience for anything. They want it to be great, NOW.

XIII

The Lumineers

2014

Nathaniel:

The Lumineers在中国有非常多的追随者，能在他们最火的时候做这场演出，所有人都很激动。我记得那场演出中间他们走下台来表演了一小段不插电，所有人围绕着他，气氛无比美妙。

这也成就了Split Works最爱的一张照片⬇️

They had a huge following, and it was pretty exciting to have them in China at the height of their buzz cycle. I remember a really nice moment in their show, when they came down off the stage and did a little acoustic set right in the middle of the crowd, bringing everyone together.

It produced one of our favourite photographs:

XIV

当代变奏 Contemporale and the Future…

2014 and beyond

Archie:

当代变奏系列的海报一直是我们最引以为豪的设计之一。每个前来演出的艺人都很爱它，而这些乐队也为Split Works开拓了全新的可能性：John Grant, Damien Rice, Olafur Arnalds，都是盛大而精彩的演出。

Our work for Contemporale is some of the best poster work we’ve done. Every single band loves it, and the shows themselves open up a whole new world of possibilities for us: John Grant, Damien Rice, Olafur Arnalds – all big, great shows.

十年如斯，故事还将继续。

And so here we are. 10 years and still going. 

从2006年到现在，世界发生了巨大变化，而身处这一场景中的我们，也留下了属于Split Works不可磨灭的印记。独立音乐在关注度和规模上，都见证了令人惊叹的成长，如果这能称得上是成就，希望我们为这块土地做出了真正有益的贡献。

We’ve definitely made a mark here, been a part of something. The difference between 2006 and today – it’s a different universe. There’s been exponential growth – in money and attention and volume, and I hope we’ve contributed something positive to what is, at the end of the day, an industry.

十年之路是艰难的，接下来几年也许同样困难重重。但是对Split Works来说，阻力常常会化成生猛纯粹的动力，伴着我们始终坚持的信仰，让一切困苦都变得值得。

It’s been tough, and I feel we might get through another couple of hard years. But the toughness, the sheer force of will we exert to make shit happen – that’s what makes it all worth it.

而始于2006年的这句话，也将延续下去:

True in 2006, and true today:

Split Works十周年

秘密派对 Secret Warehouse Party

2016年11月26日 | Nov 26, 2016

星期六 SAT | 18:00
入场支持 Entry：150 RMB ‘donation’ （限量）

地址 Address：上海市徐汇区 秘密场地

A secret warehouse in Xuhui District!

https://yoopay.cn/event/SplitWorks10thAnniversary