Ashura - группа из Чэнду, играющая поп-рок, с элементами nu metal и других современных стилей.
Состав:
Vocals: 泰然 Tai Ran
Guitars: 小齐 Mr. Qi
Bass: 龙俊 Long Jun
Drums: 邓超 Deng Chao
Tai Ran -is the lead singer. They are a Chengdu band signed to a Beijing label. The band is named after the God of War in Buddhism.
Another name is "阿修羅" (A Xiu Luo), as opposed to A Xiu Luo Yue(?) Dui
"Traditionally, Ashura is a kind of being who favors war: women are extremely beautiful while men are extremely ugly. However, this is not where the band got its name. Being a big cartoon fan, the vocalist Jin Tairan named the band after a popular character in the 90s' Japanese manga "The RG Veda", or 圣传 in Chinese, in which the unisex character Ashura is endowed with a kind of Jekyll and Hyde personality. Following their adoption of this name, the band discovered the religious imagery behind Ashura and decided to use it to express their die-hard musical attitude.
Besides being involved in the band, Tairan has another identity—he is a conscientious teacher in the design department of his prestigious Alma Mater, Sichuan University. And, Tairan is not the only member of Ashura with an impressive background. The rest of the band members all boast rich experiences too. Guitarist, recording engineer and co-founder of the band, Luo Yousheng, quit his profitable IT job to concentrate on his rock & roll aspirations and became a Buddhist later on. Bassist Ranwei was once, a truck driver, and a restaurant worker and another band's frontman, before he joined Ashura. And drummer Du Du has come all the way from selling instruments at a music store thanks to teaching himself both guitar and drum.
It all jump-started back in 1998, when Ashura's now vocalist and guitarist were still studying at Sichuan University, the most prestigious school in Sichuan province. The two friends formed the band, which they called 夜叉 or Yasha, back then. They held their debut show was at Little Bar, a famous local bar known as the cradle for underground music. The next day, the two were lucky enough to get the opportunity to warm up for Cui Jian, who's touring through the city; and, the "Godfather of Chinese Rock" had good things to say about them. No doubt, the praise from their rock idol gave the fledgling band a lot of confidence to keep on going.
After settling down its membership, the band gave up Yasha for the name Ashura in 2000, to avoid conflicts with a Chengdu peer band that first established the name in Beijing. In 2001, the shaken-up Ashura performed at Shenzhen Music Festival, receiving more national attention and soon self-released their first EP.
The band's gamble with their self-released EP actually paid off. Songs like this finally resulted in Ashura securing a record contract. After hearing Ashura's first album attempt, the producer of Guangzhou-based Yiren Records decided to enroll the band under its flag. So the band canceled all of their performances, and traveled to Beijing, spending a year producing their first album, "Wake You Up" We already heard the album's title track at the beginning of the show.
Actually, 2005 was a break-though year for Ashura. Apart from finishing their album, the band was invited to perform at the second Tokyo Music Festival as the only Chinese band among other promising groups from all over Asia. In fact, the Chengdu-based band has been extremely active when it comes to performances. They have given over one thousand performances, on either a large or small-scale.
Ashura is among the top bands in the southwestern city that has seen over forty bands mushroom to stardom in recent years. Advertised as "China's Linkin Park," however, Ashura is open in expressing its appreciation of more well-known groups. Among those on the band's inspiration list is Limp Bizkit, Dream Theatre, etc. The band says it's been inspired by the work of such great bands; but, their original aim remains to make music to find and bring happiness and the touching moments of life both to themselves and their listeners. Three years ago, invited by Sichuan M-zone, Ashura wrote a theme song for them, called My Territory.
As Ashura continues to get fame, its guitarist, also the band's co-founder, Luo Yousheng, announced this month that he is going to take some time off. Actually, besides making music as a group, both Ashura's vocalist and guitarist have aspirations to produce music that reflects their own personal music tastes. But a busy performance schedule has left little room to do so. Thus, Luo explains, in a personal statement, that he hopes to spend more time making his music rather than touring around.
Tairan wrote it [Rainstorm to Come] when he was experiencing a low point in 2003, and he says he's been listening to this song quite a lot recently since the departure of his good fellow. Rock bands often lose and replace members, but it's hard not to feel hurt when the one who's leaving is the person you have shared an intimate eight years with.
Ashura
Линейный вид
