Interview by William Chan
HornPsychos, a local music band, will perform in the Macau Art Garden this coming Saturday night featuring jazz-funk music, band member KC told The Macau Post Daily in an exclusive interview last week.
HornPsychos is a recently formed local band comprising four horn players*, a bassist and a drummer. Most of the band members, who have known each other for some time and performed together before, have regular jobs, but they still come together in their leisure time to express their passion in music.
Horn & jazz-funk music
According to KC, neither wind instruments nor jazz-funk music are popular in Macau. “We have all been playing wind instruments in bands since we were young and we have attended so many performances together. But outside our tiny world, our instruments are rarely known compared to the mainstream instruments such as the piano and the guitar,” KC said, adding the reasons behind this are that they are not popularised, relatively expensive, and hard to maintain.
In KC’s opinion, most people are only interested in songs with lyrics and focus on the vocalist but pay little attention to what the instruments in the background are doing. “As this is the case, how would you expect people to recognise local music without singers? Nonetheless, we would also like to thank our predecessors who have promoted wind instruments vigorously so that we have the opportunity to share our music,” KC underlined.
Meanwhile, KC also noted that jazz music is not very popular in Macau either. “Besides the audience, I think even for us musicians jazz is quite formidable. There is a saying that jazz is ‘musicians’ music’ – improvisations, chord progressions, forms and rhythms are way too steep for both the normal audience to enjoy and for many musicians to master,” KC added.
According to KC, jazz-funk music appeared to be the best option for HornPsychos when they decided on the focus of their music choice. “While jazz represents complexity and unpredictability, funk is much more repetitive and puts emphasis on a strong rhythmic groove played by an electric bassist and a drum player. This fusion creates great chemistry and they complement each other – it is very approachable, but at the same time we can put our own spin on it and show our love of jazz music,” KC said.
Moving with the music
Facing the increasingly diverse entertainment choices, KC feels that the demands of the audience on the performers have also grown. “Funk music by nature is a very dance-driven kind of music. Listeners, including us who perform, always desire to move our bodies according to the beat. Eventually, we decided to add some moves to it. At the end of the day, our purpose is to provide a diverse experience to the audience both sound-wise and visually,” KC said.
HornPsychos’s debut was on December 10 last year, also at the Macau Art Garden. “There was just a little seating and most of the audience watched our gig standing, because we wanted them to move with us, resonate with our music. Drinks are also available there, they are free to move around, talk with friends and engage with us, clap and cheer whenever they like.
“When we were rehearsing that day, some kids come to listen to us. All of a sudden, they started dancing with the music – based on their instinct,” KC noted, adding, “This is what we wanted for our audience to enjoy and participate in to our music, and to treat our performance like a party with friends,” KC said.
The performance will be held at the Macau Art Garden on Saturday at 9 p.m. For more information, visit the HornPsychos Facebook and Instagram page.
*The expression “horns” is often used colloquially to refer to all wind instruments used in jazz.
This photo taken on December 10 last year shows Jonas Chan with his tenor saxophone at the Macau Art Garden. – Photos: Dove Lio (all the other photos also taken at the same venue last month)
KC on the alto saxophone
Kabi on bass guitar
Alex Cheng on the baritone saxophone
Wong Un Tong on drums
