“I just love trash metal ! I cannot explain why. It is something that I feel much more than I can understand it”, Mai says. She is sitting in front of me, in this dark café, playing utterly loud rock: the Hoi Café on Cach Mang Thang Tam street in Saigon, one of the favorite hangout of heavy and death metal fans and musicians. Even though we are shouting at each other , I can barely hear what she says. Mai (aka Nemesis on her blog) is only 22 year-old but she is already 10-year long passionate. “I discovered rock with Bon Jovi. I was in 8th grade at that time and a friend of mine lent me a tape of Bon Jovi. I loved it. I just felt that it was the right music for me. At that time I was only listening to pop, Vietnamese and overseas bands. But when I listened to Bon Jovi, I knew I’ve just found my style of music. It was a new sound, so energetic and unbelievable”. From there she got in the internet to search more about the group. On the web, she realised that there were more bands and so many different kind of rock, so she moved step by step, exploring each style and she finally prefers now trash metal group like Panthera, Megadeath, Annihilator… But she also listens to Power, Death, Metal or even alternative … as long as it’s rock !
Prior to the late nineties, music in Vietnam was divided into two groups: boys/ girls band and authentic songs. Writers such as Trinh Cong Son and Van Cao created the style which is referred to as "author's song", mostly played on unaccompanied acoustic guitar and characterized by a strong accent on lyrics. An underground scene of rock artists emerged that based their style on a mix of rock music and hard rock, death and heavy metal, trash or power rock (such as Dying Foetus, Iron maiden or Dream Theater). These bands were consequently ignored by the mainstream radio and television, often reaching audiences only through word of mouth.
The first Vietnamese rock band, Da Vang (which means Yellow Skin in Vietnamese) appeared on the scene in 1989, greatly influenced by western bands such as Bon Jovi or the Scorpions. Since then, more bands were create , and there are around 50 bands now in Vietnam. The native bands grew popular in spite of scarce audience at that time. This continued into the 2000s, when native bands gained some success, but were still hampered by financial issues, which would not allow them to record CDs or perform on stage. Today, most of the rock bands don’t make money out of their music. They are still struggling to get enough money to record a CD. Band members are students or have day job and their rock band is a passion, a hobby.
But some of them want to give it a try and go for it. “I am young, I feel it is the right time to go for my passion”, Hung says. He is 25 year-old and he studied film making in Los Angeles. There, with his friends, he founded “Black Infinity”, a melodic death band. When he returned to Vietnam, he kept the name and recruited new members among his friends. “I know these guys from primary school. We are like brothers. But now I really want to know how far we can go. I have plenty of projects for the group and now I will have time to do it: I want to release an album and do some concerts. I will be the leader and also the manager, I am really excited about that.” But Hung is aware of the tasks and difficulties. That is why he will give himself one year. “If after one year, I see no viable way to earn a living with my music, I will come back to my job as a film producer.” He still keeps his feet on the ground as most of the fan and musicians in this music.
Most of them are indeed young and well-educated, with a university degree. In fact, one could consider that rock and hard rock started in the University of Architecture of HCMC. Maybe because it is quite enjoyable: students can listen to music during IT class, and even while working … This is where, at the beginning, you could find most of the rock fans, rock festivals. Tuan, 25 year-old, with his long hair and soft voice, may not look like a death metal fan. He works as an architect during the day. But meet him during a trash metal concert and you will not even recognise him. He shows me a photo of him, taken during the Saigon rock festival, where he is standing above the crowd on the shoulders of a friend, bare torso and shouting like crazy. “I just can’t help it. This music gives me so much energy, it puts in a trance!”, he tries to justify. Tuan is quite a fan, with a double life one could say. He works as an architect during the day and at night, he is Metamphetamyn (his nickname on his blog), a blog totally dedicated to metal and hard rock. The whole blog is black and have the iconic dark symbols which go along. But there is nothing violent with him. No beer, no drug, no cigarettes, just the passion.
Even if the music and rythm can sound apparently violent, the lyrics are often mature and deal with the problems of modern life and human conditions such as solitude, love and hate, domestic violence, alcoholism, prostitution, and crime. These universal themes and the quality of the music seems to attract more and more people. “The audience is growing larger everyday”, Vu says. Vu is the founder of hehemetal.com, a website dedicated to hard rock in Vietnam. “It is growing more solid. There are more and more enthusiastic fans; and even more, people who are very into hard rock also come to rock shows!”. As for the latest rock show in Saigon in March “Saigon Rock Night”, an outstanding 12000 tickets were issued! The success is tremendous and Vu is confident for the future of rock and hard rock in Vietnam. “I think that it is not only a fashion and that the enthusiasm of the audience is sincere; it will last and grow, just like any other music and just like in foreign countries ; we just started so we have to be patient !”.
Sign of time, international companies are now rushing to sponsor rock events. Sony Ericsson sponsored the show and it is a huge chance for Saigon Rock to hit a larger scale and target audience. “It is great to have Sony Ericsson with us”, Hung says (Black Infinity played at the concert). Bigger, better shows, with more groups and big screens can be successfully organised. I guess that is why we can have people who even don’t know about rock coming at our shows”. Hung has become somewhat of a rock icon now as Sony Ericsson chose him to pose in their latest advertising, featuring him as a hard rock guitar player. They will even sponsor him a CD release and maybe some shows all over the country. Another show helps in popularising rock: the Tiger Translate “Rock your passion” show. Last year, this show invited My Chemical Romance, an English rock band, to perform in Saigon last February.
Another characteristic of the popularisation of Rock is the increasing number of dedicated shops: CD, clothes, accessories shops selling black T-shirt of various bands with bloody-ish designs, chains, necklaces with spines. “But hard rock is not only about that”, Brutal Pearl (aka Minh Ngoc in real life) says. “We sure dress like this for the show, fans also dress like this, dark raincoat, black boots and black make up around the eyes. Considering the fact that hard rock is new, it is not a big surprise that the “look” play a far larger role than in other countries”. Brutal Pearl is the drummer and leader of Lazee Dolls, a 100% female trash rock band. As the one and only hard rock girl band in Vietnam, they bring a feminine touch in their music. “In some of our compositions, we mix hard rock and Vietnamese instruments”, Hung from Black Infinity adds. “In our song The Secret, we introduced the traditional instrument “dan tranh”. For sure, we like to bring a Vietnamese taste to our music. It is not because hard rock is new that we should only copy foreign and famous bands. We need to reach the foreign standard, but in our way. Black Infinity does not forget that. But on the other hand, we want to be heard and understood by the whole world; that is why our lyrics are in English and we incorporate latest music trends such as electro. We want the world to listen to our voice, our message from Vietnam”.
Well, we heard you loud and clear! (Photos by Yeah1, Lazee Dolls, Black Infinity)
