New Pants

Meet New Pants: The Beijing trio who are channeling the sillyness of The Ramones into indie disco hits.  In 2007 they won both the Best Rock Album award for their forth LP 'Dragon Tiger Panacea' and the Pepsi Music Award for Best Rock Act of the year.

Hello New Pants! What are your names and what do you play?
Vocal/ Guitar -  Peng Lei
Bass – Lobo
Keyboard - Fox Pang

How did you guys get together?
We were classmates in high school.  We thought forming our own band was a really trendy thing to do at that time, so we started New Pants.

Interesting name, where does it come from?
Our original band name was a very long one with 9 Chinese characters (金屬車間的形體師傅).  Then we signed with Modern Sky Records and they suggested that we had a new band name which was shorter and easier to remember.  There was a time when one of our friends wore a new pair of pants whenever he came to see us live. Hence he inspired us to rename our band as New Pants.

Very catchy, what type of music do you play?
Punk & Disco.

Where else do you get your music inspiration from?
Our own daily lives, love lives, films and music.

Do you have a mission statement as a group? If so, what would it be?
“Watch out and see what we can do”

What’s the best and worst thing about being in New Pants?
Best: We have played music for a really long period of time and at least there are people who still like us.

Worst: We don’t have too much time to play with one other.

Do you guys get recognised a lot? And if so, what is the most drastic thing a fan has ever done for you?
The most drastic thing that happened to us was during a live performance in Chengdu.  A girl fan came on stage and kissed everyone in the band.

Tell us about Beijing Explosion – what does the event mean to you?
We think that it’s such a meaningful thing to play a live gig in HK, even just to a small group of fans.

If you were to compare your music to another group, who would it be and why?
The Ramones is our favourite band.  We hope to make wonderful music like them. Also adopting a similar attitude to them when writing our own music and lyrics.  In Mainland, the bands write about serious issues but we’re like the Ramones.  We write about silly stuff.

Apart from music, what else do you guys like to do during your free time?
The band - Work and watching films
Peng Lei – Reading, making films and drawing
Lobo – Constantly meeting up with his girlfriend
Fox Pang - Drinking

What’s coming up next for you guys (after Beijing Explosion)Tell us your plans:
New album comes out in Sept.

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Check out New Pants' Ramones spirit on AMP.

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Posted by AMP Ed on July 24, 2007 10:25:24 AM HKT #