在炎热的夏天发一篇长文, 关于专辑《低声耳语》
A long post from a hot summer day - About the album"Whispers Between Us"
专辑介绍Album Introduction
酸塔(SOURTOWER)首张专辑《Whispers between us》(低声耳语)由小块儿唱片(nugget records)在2023年7月5日正式发行。冷酷动听的电子律动包裹沉稳清透的人声，酸塔内心细腻丰富的情感流淌在十首歌之间. 拂去歌词中的无奈和伤感，可以听到只属于酸塔和听者之间的鼓励和慰藉。如果你购买了实体专辑，在插画艺术家Jen Rao绘制设计的内页里面有酸塔给你留的一段悄悄话。
SOURTOWER's debut album “Whispers between us" was officially released by nugget records on July 5, 2023. The cold and beautiful electronic rhythm envelops the calm and clear voice, and the delicate and rich emotions in SOURTOWER's heart flow through the ten songs. Brushing away the helplessness and sadness in the lyrics, you can hear encouragement and comfort only between SOURTOWER and the listeners. If you have purchased a physical album, there is a text version of a whisper left by SOURTOWER on the inner page of the illustration artist Jen Rao's design.
song writing/ producing/ vocals 词/曲/编曲/人声: WangXu王旭
audio mixing 混音: David Carey康大卫@nugget studio小块儿录音棚
mastering 母带制作: John Davis@metropolis
cover art/design 封面插画/设计: Jen Rao
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我是酸塔。
终于发行了这张专辑，说“终于”是因为最初想的是在疫情结束前发行这些歌。里面的十首歌都写于2021年之前，大部分是2019-2020年，有的歌词甚至是2017年写的 (《昏暗的楼梯间》和《下午三点开始荒废这一天》)。
计划在小块儿唱片发行这张专辑期间，我和小块儿各自的生活，都经历了疫情的反复和许多意料之外的事，心情也起起伏伏，很多进程被迫推迟或修改。有一度我悲观地觉得这可能又是一个永远没有完结的项目了，就像人生中无数只有计划没有执行的项目一样。所以如今眼看着《Whispers between us》(低声耳语)上架，心里还挺百感交集的，也觉得2023年发行它是最好的时候。
It’s SOURTOWER here.
Finally released this album, and I say "finally" because the original idea was to release the songs before the epidemic ended. All ten songs on the album were written before 2021, mostly in 2019-2020, and some of the lyrics were even written in 2017 (Dim Staircase and Let's Waste A Day From 3pm.).
During the planning of the release of this album on nugget records, our (my and nugget's) daily lives were marked by recurring epidemics and many other unexpected experiences, and our moods were unstable, forcing many processes to be postponed or modified. So now I'm looking at "Whispers Between Us" on the shelves, and I have a lot of mixed feelings, I also think 2023 is the best time to release it.
继2020年在小块儿发行了第一张迷你专辑《how many times?》(多少次)后，跟他们再合作发行一张全长专辑的想法是一拍即合的，我们几乎觉得这是必然会发生的一件事。
从我正式开始写歌，经过最初一年多的三人乐队、二人组合的时期以后，我还是决定一个人作为酸塔继续创作。的确有时候我会怀念有伙伴一起分享灵感、分担紧张的时刻，但同时我也知道那样的话，同样的问题依然会出现，而现在的我并没有能力解决这些问题。然而当我真的一个人去面对所有的事，一个人站在舞台上，也还是有点儿局促和紧张的。加上周围的一些声音，有一段时间我开始怀疑自己到底行不行。
在这个让我困扰的时期, 大卫和Jen(小块儿唱片的两位主理人)真诚地告诉我，他们相信我自己做音乐也完全没问题，并且直到今天都在不断地支持我和鼓励我、相信我。这对我来说太重要了。能跟他们成为朋友真的是非常幸运的一件事。
我刚认识大卫和Jen的时候，他们就已经是很优秀的音乐人和艺术家。即便专辑制作后期我们一直同步着进度更新，当我收到大卫的混音版本、Jen的封面设计和MV成片的时候，还是很感慨能看到他们比从前更厉害了。我很为他们骄傲，也为自己开心，因为我知道我们作为团队完成了一张很不错的作品。流逝的时间里我们都更成熟，对生活更珍惜也更有感悟。当你听到这张专辑一定可以体会。
我觉得我们一定都在这个过程里成为了更好的人(笑)。
After releasing my first EP "How Many Times?" on nugget records in 2020, the idea of releasing a full-length album with them was something that we both hit on right away, we almost feel that this is something that will inevitably happen.
From the time I officially started writing songs, and then through the initial period of a 3-member band and 2-member group for about a year, I eventually decided to continue creating alone as SOURTOWER. It's true that sometimes I miss having teammates to share creative inspiration and stressful moments with, but at the same time I know that then the same problems would still come up and I'm not capable of solving them right now. Yet when I'm really alone with everything, standing on stage by myself, I'm still a little bit awkward and nervous. Coupled with the fact that some of the people around me kept telling me what should I do, there was a time when I started to question myself.
During this troubling time for me, David and Jen(The 2 founders of nugget records) sincerely told me that they believed I was perfectly fine to make music on my own, and have continued to support me and encourage me and believe in me to this day. This meant a lot to me. I’m really lucky to have them as my friends.
David and Jen were already great musician and artist when I first met them. Even though we were constantly updating each other on our progress during the latter stages of the album's production, when I received David's remixes, Jen's cover art and the music video, it was still so impressed to see them improve so much. I was so proud of them and myself because I knew we had accomplished a great piece of work as a team. We've all matured over time and have become more appreciative of life. You can feel that when you hear the album.
I think we must have all become better person in the process (laughs).
发行日前的三周里，我和小块儿发布了3支MV作为新专的宣传。因为自己本职美术加上对独立动画的热爱，这三只先行单曲都选择了动画来表达，也特别感谢我的朋友们用心完成它们。
在看到Jen的最终版本封面概念以后，我们(我和小块儿)就觉得它很适合做成一支动画MV，我和Jen也不约而同选择了《let’s waste a day from 3pm.》(从下午三点开始荒废这一天)这首歌。Jen在日程很满的状态下，用最短的周期创造出了一个高质量又让人惊喜的可爱猫咪小世界~ 画面每个细节都恰到好处地贴合这首歌本身，也充满了我喜欢的Jen的个人风格：精彩的配色、跳跃的节奏和一点可爱的古怪。我很爱这个片子。
猴头菌和酥西的MV《dim staircase》(昏暗的楼梯间)之前在“酸塔和酸朋友的小小放映会”活动上放映过(我在2020年组织的一个活动)，所有看过的人都说它非常好，也是我特别喜欢的一个作品。跟她们交代音乐创作背景的时候我还不是很有勇气把所有故事说透，还是把自己放在音乐这层保护下的状态，但我之后看到成片一下就被打动了，她们完全理解我想表达的内心的苦楚，整个片子又极具艺术感和节奏感，真的很棒。
《stuck inside the room》(被困于室)是我自己导演制作的，加上老朋友多年前给我留下的数字动效。这首歌创作于疫情刚开始不久。MV的创作动机也来自那段时间关于家暴急剧增多的新闻和网友的经历分享，让我也想起自己儿时身边的一些过往。片子的美术是我在本职工作以外经历了一段糟糕的自我质疑时期以后，重新拿起笔画画，也提醒了我, 自己有多么喜欢画画。
之前有朋友问我演出的时候为什么不用MV来做背景视觉，我说因为这些MV都是独立的作品，不是衬托我表演的背景。我现在也这样觉得。(当然如果未来有更适合的场景能打破视觉和表演的现有比重，能让更多人看到它们，我也会尝试。)
我只有很小的力量，但我想用这点儿力量尽可能做一些我热爱的事，可能现在看到和听到这些画面和声音的人还不是很多，但我也想尽可能去完成一些东西，帮我的朋友们完成一些东西，我们都值得被看到听到。
In the three weeks leading up to the album's release date, nugget and I released three music videos to promote the new album. Because of my art background and love for indie animation, I chose animation for all three of these first singles, and I'd like to give a special thanks to my friends for their dedication to completing them.
After we saw Jen's final version of the cover concept, we thought it would be a great fit for an animated music video, and Jen and I felt that the song "let’s waste a day from 3pm. " was the best choice. Jen was on a very full schedule and still created a high quality and surprisingly cute little cat world in the shortest possible cycle. Every detail of the image fits the song itself just right and is full of what I love about Jen's personal style: a wonderful color palette, jumpy rhythms, and a bit of adorable quirkiness. I really love it.
Houtoujun and Suxi's music video "Dim staircase" was shown at the "SOURTOWER & SOURFRIENDS tiny MV release show”(An event I organized in 2020), and everyone who saw it said it was great, and it's one of my favorites. When I told them about the background of the music, I wasn't very brave to tell them all the story, I still put myself under the protection of the music, but when I saw the final video, I was immediately impressed, they completely understood the inner pain I wanted to express, and the whole film was very artistic and rhythmic, it was really amazing.
I directed and produced "stuck inside the room" myself, along with the digital effects that an old friend left me years ago. The song was written shortly after the start of the epidemic, the motivation for this music video also came from the news about the dramatic increase in domestic violence during the quarantine during that time and the sharing of experiences by netizens, which reminded me of some of the passings around my own childhood as well. And the art for this piece was a reminder of how much I love to draw after I picked up a brush and painted again after a bad period of self-questioning outside of my daily job.
A friend asked me earlier why I didn't use these music videos as background visuals during my performances, and I said that because they were independent works of art, they weren't a backdrop to set off my performances. And I still think so. (Of course if there are more suitable scenes in the future that break the existing weight between visuals and performance, and can get more people to see them, I'll try them.)
I only have a very small amount of power, but I want to use that to do as much as I can with what I love, and there may not be a lot of people seeing and hearing these videos and sounds right now, but I still want to accomplish as much as I can and help my friends accomplish something, and I know we all deserve to be seen and heard.
↑MV《let’s waste a day from 3pm.》(从下午三点开始荒废这一天)↑
↑MV《dim staircase》(昏暗的楼梯间)↑
↑MV《stuck inside the room》(被困于室)↑
其实我羡慕一些音乐人，他们可以用更娴熟更放松的方式和心态去快速实现脑海里的想法。我知道艺术这个东西，很多时候都不是做得足够多就能达到你想要的，它取决于太多因素。我有时候会像那些“幻想自己中了一亿彩票要怎么花的人”一样，幻想要是自己能做到那个水平，就可以把脑子里这个那个段落完成到什么什么程度~ 这个白日做梦的部分当然是浪费时间的，但我还是会忍不住这样畅想一番~ 这样的幻想和不甘心也驱使我继续着创作。况且我知道，我现在还能做一些自己喜欢的事已经很幸运了。
跟多数“卧室音乐人”一样，我没有接受过系统的音乐学习，所谓做音乐的技术和流程都是在自学和好心朋友的帮助下，慢慢摸索出来的。顶着谋生的压力，还要在不熟悉的领域探索，很多专业术语看不懂搜不到，又不好意思老跟人请教，走了很多弯路。即使这样，也还是强烈地想要表达，想要一个出口。
经常会有很多点子同时在我大脑里混乱的进行，一个动机还没发展完全，另一个情绪截然不同的动机就迫不及待冒出来。抓住这些灵感的时候很有成就感也很兴奋，以至于同一时期创作的歌却都有各自不同的情绪色彩。《Whispers between us》(低声耳语) 的选曲，是我从这些不同色彩的音乐里挑出来、认为更能体现自己内心情感变化的歌。它们记录了我这些年的成长。
我一直觉得自己是一个边缘人，从小到大都觉得。我很少在集体中感受到归属感。而这样的我却总能遇到跟我相似的人，或远或近，让我发觉其实我并不是一个人。《Whispers between us》(低声耳语) 某种程度上就是以这样的立场看这个世界，活在这个世界，看自己和周围的人和事。而产生共鸣的人又回看向我。
There are actually some musicians I envy who can quickly realize the artistic ideas in their head in a more skillful and relaxed way and state of mind. One thing I've learned about art is that most of the time it's not a case of "if you do it enough, you'll get it where you want it", it depends on so many factors. Sometimes I fantasize like those people who says "if I win the 100 million lottery how am I gonna spend it”, I fantasize that if I can do that level I can finish this or that musical piece in my head to a certain level of completion~ This daydreaming part is of course a waste of time, but I can’t help to think about it from time to time~ Such fantasies and this "Unwilling to give up"kinda mood also drive me to continue creating. Besides, I know I'm lucky to be able to do what I like at the moment.
Like most "bedroom musicians", I have not received systematic music learning, so called my music making skills and processes are self-learning and the help of some friends, is slowly figured out. With the pressure of making a living and exploring unfamiliar fields, I couldn't understand many terms and was too embarrassed to ask for advice, so I took a lot of detours. Even so, I still strongly want to express, want an outlet.
There are often many ideas going on in my brain at the same time, and before one motivation is fully developed, another motivation with a very different emotion can't wait to pop up. It's so rewarding and exciting to catch these inspirations that the songs I write at the same time all have their own different moods. The songs I chose for this album are the ones I picked from these different colors of music that I think better reflect my inner emotional changes. They are a record of my growth over the years.
I've always felt like a marginal person, and I've felt that way since I was a kid. I rarely felt a sense of belonging in any group. Yet such a me has always met people similar to me, either far or near, making me realize that I am actually not alone. This album "Whispers Between Us" is in a way about seeing the world from such a standpoint, living in the world and seeing myself and the people and things around me. And those who resonate with me look back at me.
我很少跟人讨论自己的音乐，或者说这么多心里话。这次发行以后我收到了很多正面反馈，让我很欣慰和感激，我也开始觉得或许应该把自己再打开一些。外面的人类也没有那么糟糕(笑)~
对于宇宙来说这张专辑渺小到不能再小，此时此景独立出专辑这个行为，本身就是一种苦中作乐的行为艺术。花费的心思投入的情感，时间和金钱，无论怎么计算都是入不敷出的买卖。我也经常会想我们这样的音乐人和小厂牌还能坚持多久，我们互相鼓劲说着“大卖一百万张！”这样的大话，而实际我们也确实都在为生存焦虑奔走。虽然在今天还这样想有点儿天真——我还是质朴地认为真正有诚意的好东西总会被人理解。非常谢谢每个帮我转发宣传过这张专辑的朋友~
很希望有更多人喜欢这些歌，向更多人传播这张专辑，因为对我和小块儿唱片来说，这张专辑是我们创造出的珍宝。
I rarely discuss my music with people or say so much from the bottom of my heart. I've received a lot of positive feedback since this release, which I'm very relieved and grateful for, and I'm starting to think that maybe I should open myself up a bit more. Humans out there aren't that bad (laughs)~
For the universe this album is too small to be smaller, and the act of releasing an album independently at this time is itself a kind of bitter-sweet performance art. With all the thought, emotion, time and money we put into it, it's a business that doesn't make ends meet no matter how you calculate it. I often wonder how long musicians and small labels like us can keep doing this. Even if we say to each other "Hope we can sell a million copies!" kinda silly thing, and in reality we're all worried and busy trying to survive.. While it's a bit naive to think that way today - I still honestly believe that what is truly sincere and good will always be understood by people. And thank you so much to everyone who has helped me repost and promote this album.
I wish more people would like these songs and share this album to more people, because for me and nugget, this album is the real treasure we created.
2023年已经过半，辛苦大家了。
如果你看完了这篇文字，非常谢谢你~
如果你看完了3支独立动画MV，非常谢谢你~
如果你听完了整张专辑，非常谢谢你~
如果你还没听这些歌，请戴上耳机边听边继续美好的下半年吧~
(可在各大音乐平台搜索“Whispers between us”或“sourtower”)
We're halfway through 2023, thank you for trying so hard to make this far, everyone.
If you've read this post, thank you very much~
If you've watched the 3 animated music videos, thank you very much~
If you've listened to the whole album, thank you very much!
If you haven't listened to it yet, please put on your headphones and listen while you continue the wonderful second half of the year~
(Search for "Whispers between us" or "sourtower" on all music platforms.)
特别感谢：小块儿唱片、MV创作者：猴头菌、酥西、Jen Rao
特别感谢：杂烩饭、咕噜太、何小智、牙也慈、小芳
特别感谢：所有的朋友和听众
Special thanks to: nugget records、MV creators：Houtoujun, Suxi, Jen Rao
Special thanks to: Zahuifan, Gulutai, He Xiaozhi, Yayeci, Xiaofang
Special thanks to: All my friends and listeners
Ps. EP《how many times?》(多少次) 的混音和母带制作是我的好友VAN.NAV，当时我对发行音乐的一切完全没有概念，很多事想的不周到没有给他署名，很抱歉也很感谢他理解~
Ps. The mixing and mastering of EP“How Many Times?” was done by Ivan, a good friend from the duo's days, and given that I knew nothing about releasing music at the time, many things were not thoughtful enough to give him a credit, really sorry about that, and grateful he understands~
歌曲《let’s waste a day from 3pm. 从下午三点开始荒废这一天》里的猫咪声优↓
The cat meower in the song "let's waste a day from 3pm."↓
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音乐人介绍Musician Introduction
酸塔-出生于内蒙古，长居北京的独立音乐人/制作人。(是插画艺术家王旭的个人音乐项目。)
2017年开始音乐创作，在冷潮、迷幻、后朋克、电子乐等音乐风格影响下，她将动听旋律和电气音色结合对平凡生活与广大世界的观察和感悟，以独特的视角和音乐语言表达着只属于酸塔自己的风格。
2020年在小块儿唱片发行首张EP《how many times?》(多少次？)
2023年在小块儿唱片发行首张个人专辑《Whispers between us》(低声耳语)
SOURTOWER-an Independent musician/producer born in Inner Mongolia and based in Beijing. (It is a music project of illustrator Wang Xu.)
She started her music creation in 2017. Under the influence of cold wave, psychedelic, post-punk, electronic music and other musical styles, she combined beautiful melodies and electrical timbre with her observation and perception of ordinary life and the vast world, and expressed her own style with a unique perspective and musical language.
The first EP "How many times?" was released by nugget records in 2020
The debut album "Whispers between us" was released by nugget records in 2023
