words rachel mok

Hong Kong’s hottest band talks about a sweaty shirt, channelling Eason Chan and their new album If I Am

In a star salon in Central where posters of Khalil Fong and Angelababy dominate an expanse of white wall, I sit with current hot five-piece Mr., chatting about their recent double-bill show with RubberBand. Despite the concert venue’s foul sound system, the two bands played as if it was a full house at the Asia-World Arena, Mr. covering Beyond and Tat Ming Pair and earning the loudest screams of the night for turning Taiwanese rock rebel A Yue’s famous ballad into something from Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown. And in a surreal moment, Mr. frontman Alan sang a duet with RubberBand’s vocalist No 6 on the Spice Girl’s 2 Become 1. ‘That was kind of the spirit of the show – two bands playing together in one show,’ he smiles.

It has been a fruitful 10 months since the band’s debut release Mister hit the streets. They opened for international acts like Placebo and Fall Out Boys; renovated their rehearsal room; and collaborated with Alan Tam, the very man who brought Mr. – formerly known as White Noises – into the mainstream. One could say they are now the iconic Hong Kong band. ‘Before watching Placebo I thought it was impossible to ask thousands of people to jump with you at a local concert. But now I realize Hong Kongers are not as conservative as I thought – if the music is powerful enough they will follow you,’ says drummer Tom, and quips about not being able to return a shirt borrowed from a colleague to mingle with the crowd after opening for the British trio: It was too stinky and ripped.

Excluding reunions of the likes of Beyond and Tat Ming Pair, Mr. are probably the most visible, if not biggest, band in Hong Kong now, though they are shocked when I suggest it. Alan says it’s the biggest compliment they could have, while bassist Dash jokes, ‘It is better than winning the Good Citizen Award.’

Tom is more reflective, though. ‘We just want to make our own music. The pressure is not from how outsiders look at us actually, it is from the people who bought the first album and liked it – I would worry if they think the second is not as good as the first. But now the recording is finished and I am confident about the outcome. We have improved a great deal.’

Their new release, If I Am, doesn’t suffer from the common “difficult” second album syndrome: Dash guarantees it will show a more mature, solid side of the band. Many of the songs were produced and mixed by Davy Chan of Anodize and LMF and the band are happy they have had more time to think of what they wanted. ‘When we made the first album we were still doing our day jobs and often we only decided how to arrange a song right before we recorded,’ says guitarist Ronny. ‘But for the new album we’ve had seven months to think of how to do it. We particularly paid attention to the sound of the instruments – I guess audiophiles will be happy to listening to it.’

‘The songs from the first album distilled our essence of the previous two years – all were based on personal experience. But in the new album, songs are more about what we see happening in this city and the world,’ says Alan. And he quotes the second plug as an example. He has often been compared to Eason Chan, and If I Am Eason Chan is both a self-mockery and a comment on how difficult it is to stand on one’s own two feet in this city. But the track that defines the album, Forest, is a song Alan wrote after a dispute with the management of the band’s label.

‘We had different opinions on which song to plug, so the five us went to the meeting room to talk [about it] among ourselves. Alan just picked up a guitar, played some random chords while looking out over the Kwun Tong skyline and said he wanted to write a song about the city,’ recalls guitarist MJ, who penned the lyrics for the song that tells of the struggle to realize one’s destiny in an unhappy city. MJ also wrote a short note on every song for the album sleeve, and designed a T-shirt based on Forest, the graphic being a forest of skyscrapers. To introduce the band to audiences yet to hear Mr., the album will come in a 2CD + DVD combo which takes in the entire Mister album. The DVD will include videos the band made with guests in their rehearsal room: ‘If people talk of bands and think of Mr., we will be very proud. After all, we hope to help the band scene too,’ remarks Alan.

If I Am on sale now