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Helen Feng’s Nova Heart

Jetting into Adelaide in the lead up to Oz Asia Festival, Nova Heart’s Helen Feng is no stranger to Adelaide, having filmed the first takeaway show for a Chinese band for La Blogotheque with French filmmaker Vincent Moon.

Articulate, bold, and savvy, Feng has been vocally compared to Debbie Harry of Blondie although she doesn’t see the similarity herself.

Pic: Artist's Myspace

Pic: Artist’s Myspace

Jetting into Adelaide in the lead up to Oz Asia Festival, Nova Heart’s Helen Feng is no stranger to Adelaide, having filmed the first takeaway show for a Chinese band for La Blogotheque with French filmmaker Vincent Moon.

Articulate, bold, and savvy, Feng has been vocally compared to Debbie Harry of Blondie although she doesn’t see the similarity herself. “I think she (Debbie Harry) is absolutely gorgeous, and I really admire her. Perhaps the nasal quality of my voice is a little the same, it could be due to the punk influence both of us have had.”

Watching Feng performing on stage with Nova Heart is more akin to a theatrical production, which makes perfect sense as she cites her greatest influences as Film Directors such as Kubrick, Polanski, David Lynch to name a few who she sees as pushing boundaries. “Their work is cinematic and orchestral at the same time. Visually we are engaging the audience, so I adopt a character. For the music side, we were ‘trendy’ but we’ve taken that aspect out and come up with something that encompasses a storyline, character development, coda’s, essentially a soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist rather than simply a concept album!”

In explaining the multi-sensory elements of Nova Heart’s unique style, Feng quotes a former dance therapy teacher and states in ever so holistic terms that “the eyes are the two-dimensional station whilst sound is the three dimensional station. You can close your eyes and hear everything in the room, such as the size & people there, the interactions…and get an intuitive idea about the room just based off of hearing. But when you open your eyes, that’s when the details are fleshed out. Based on that, the performance is one aspect of our shows but there is room for our audience to create their own pictures.” Having said that, Feng also adds that Nova Heart aren’t trying to be or feel intellectual, they are trying to make the audience feel slightly uncomfortable yet mesmerized.

Given that Nova heart are quite daring, Feng explains that the Chinese Cultural revolution, and in particular music, is quite open and not as conservative as one may think. “ I’ve gained some legitimacy having been in the industry for a while, and I can lead people and take them a little further as a storyteller even if it’s a little uncomfortable for them. Western audiences have different signifiers to say what’s good or bad- this judgement is already preset. I don’t see that there’s a lot of personal judgement- it’s driven by influence and surroundings”. It is quite clear that Helen Feng has a great insight into more than just music itself, and understands the psyche of her audience and beyond. She has some great observations on the manufactured parts of the music industry and feels that there is much bigger gravitation towards societal responses to music within Asia and points out differences between cultural interpretations.” In Asian culture, you often see yourself as part of a much bigger society; it’s the bigger picture …maybe too much. but it’s vastly different than the more individualistic Western culture.”

Feng sees young modern Chinese as being quite trendy, but the biggest problem is that it’s losing it’s own cultural creativity to a degree. Chinese kids aren’t exactly encouraged to develop individuality and creativity overall, with parents rather pushing them to achieve academically.

But this is changing, and the younger generation of Chinese are more worldly and savvy with regards to western culture, so are more inclined to step put and try something different. Feng and Nova Heart are a classic example of this, and thrive on a degree of spontaneity. There can be no doubt that Nova Heart are trailblazers in their own right, and with the articulation of Helen Feng as their leader, are sure to be a brut force in the music world.

Helen Feng performed a one off show at Jive on Friday 27 June.

Interviewed by Darren Hassan

 

 

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