6 Jan 2011

Introducing: FEICHANG FRESH (Arseny Knaifel)

When I met Arseny for the first time, it was at a Not Called Jinx gig at Kesselhaus (actually as opener for the 5Bugs concert). Vincent, a friend of mine and the former intern at my friends’ company new.fm (r.i.p.) was playing that day, being the drummer of NCJ. I had been managing another band called Sturge a while ago, and back then, we had tried to set up a gig with NCJ, which did not happen, because Sturge dissolved as the guitar player sold his guitar and left Berlin without further notice…

Arseny was busying around with a cam inmidst of hundreds of people in the crowd. Later I should learn that he did all the technical stuff for NCJ (besides being the bassist and composer for NCJ) and loads of videos, including the M/V of NCJ covering Jason Derulo’s Whatcha Say. As I got to know him more, I learned that he was a jack of all trades, playing several instruments, composing and texting, programming and singing… Just amazing.

Coming from a musician’s line (being the grandson of Alexander Knaifel), Arseny is one of the most intelligent, talented youg lads I have met in Berlin. I wanted to start the Expat series with him, because within months, he has already gained some fame over there in Beijing, where he went to study and improve his Chinese skills (he already speaks German, English, Russian fluently).

Arseny, you have been a long time member of the band Not Called Jinx (Berlin) and you left the band due to your Chinese major at FU Berlin. Do you ever want to get back to NCJ?
No, definitely not. It has been a great experience – perhaps the most fun 4 years I’ve ever had. I learned a lot about the music industry, about recording, songwriting, interacting with fans and most importantly working together as a team. But playing in a rock band is not a thing I was wanting to pursue long term. The excessive touring, drinking, collecting money and of course the creative restrictions we had to endure to have a chance of making it as a rock band were the reasons why I decided to prefer my academic career, and I am very happy with my choice. The band found great new members and is doing amazingly! I still support them and help out as much as I can.

You are living in Beijing currently and your M/Vs are famous, the message has reached us here in Berlin as well. “Feichang Fresh” – Who is this and how did this all start?
Feichang means “extraordinarily” in Chinese. Yet the Feichang Fresh project started quite ordinarily… Like a lot of things, it was originally meant to be a joke. Me and a few classmates decided it would be fun to record a rap song in Chinese and throw in some Beijing slang words – we certainly didn’t expect it to be perceived this well. We are all students at Beijing University of International Business and Economics. Two of us are from Berlin, one from Paris, two are corn farmers from Iowa. In our home countries we major in different things, most of them business or culture-related.

“Feichang Fresh” has become a small sensation.
We have released three videos so far – “A Beijing Love Song” has reached 300,000 views as of January 2011, “Meinü, Guolai” 150,000 and “Gongxi Facai” – a mash-up of Chinese classics – also 300,000 in China.*

(*Update Nov 2011: “A Beijing Love Song” reached 25.375 hits, “Meinü, Guolai” has about 12.000hits on youtube)

… and on Chinese New Year you are going to be on Chinese tv?! What is it about?
Our third video was actually a contest submission. We won the contest and with the help and support of Youku, China’s leading video sharing network, are performing on Beijing TV (one of China’s largest national TV stations) on Chinese New Year. It became sort of a Chinese tradition to host talent shows on New Year’s.
(We don’t know the exact air date and time yet. Probably Feb 3rd at night.)

What happens with “Feichang Fresh” next?
We are working on new songs, we want to try different styles, work together with other artists – and of course crack the 1 million views! :)

What are your plans for 2011?
Explore the artistic boundaries of Beijing. Independent art is still a pretty new thing in China, but Beijing is the center of it. If we manage to get some kind of voice in the Chinese media scene, we would love to use this opportunity to get to know talented and creative Chinese contemporary artists.

Facts about Arseny Knaifel:

. Name: Arseny Knaifel aka Antoine Shapiro
. Date of birth (age): 1987-06-03 (23)
. Live where, reason for chosing the place: In Berlin: Friedenau (proximity to my university, yet not complicated to get to any other part of the town)
. Occupation: student (Chinese Studies)
. Band/DJ Name: Antoine Shapiro / Feichang Fresh
. Online appearance:
http://www.youtube.com/user/antoineshapiro
www.antoineshapiro.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Antoine-Shapiro/180265845329744

Ich danke Dir!!!!

…und ich dir :)

Updates Nov 2011:

Antoine is back in Berlin and finishing his studies at FU Berlin.

The songs by Feichang Fresh are officially picked by German secondary schools in Chines language classes.

“Theme song for the 60th anniversary of Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). 北京对外经贸大学60周年主题歌After studying at UIBE for a year, my teachers asked me if I could write a song for the school’s 60th anniversary, so I did. I produced the instrumental and went on to record vocals with a few fellow students, Chinese and international. A “professional film production company” (shifus with good cameras) then came in to shoot the video with us. All scenes were shot on campus and we all had a blast! Thanks to everyone involved! The title “Hello, The World” was picked by the university’s PR department. I thought it would be best to leave it as it is ;)贸大万岁万万岁！”

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