Buyi becomes big in Japan

Buyi is constantly on the road. Every spring and autumn, the rock band goes on tour covering around 50 cities at a time. They perform an average of four gigs a week with back-to-back shows from Fridays to Sundays in addition to appearances at music festivals and multi-band concerts.

But for its members, this intense lifestyle is a joy and isn't hard to maintain, even after more than a decade. They relish traveling to any live venue to perform for fans and savor a local beer afterward.

This November, Buyi went a bit farther and embarked on a tour in Japan. Within 20 days, they performed 17 gigs in a dozen Japanese cities, the majority of which they headlined alongside Japanese bands or musicians.

The theme was a continuation of the band's 2024 China tour — Back to the Future — which seeks to take the audience on a journey through the band's 29-year history, re-creating the raw energy of Chinese rock music in the 1990s.

"We don't bring lighting or visuals. We simply turn up the lights, so the audience can see the four of us performing. The lyrics display and visuals only dilute the energy onstage," says Wu Ningyue, Buyi's lead singer and guitarist.

"We are returning to the band itself and drawing all audience attention to our performances and music, without distraction."

Buyi was formed in 1995 in Yinchuan in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region when Wu was just 21.The band's name, which means "cotton clothes", is a reference to ordinary people or a modest lifestyle, reflecting the sense of genuineness and simplicity valued by the band.

It merges rock 'n' roll with the authentic, visceral folk music of Northwest China and consciously uses traditional instruments in their arrangements.

Since it was formed, Buyi has performed over 1,500 concerts and the band aims to take its music to every corner of the country. The band members have also made appearances at Chinese and international music festivals, including this year at The Great Escape music festival in the United Kingdom.

"Every member of our band has had our fates changed by rock 'n' roll. We want to share our experiences with more people and let everyone know that life has limitless potential," Wu says.

"We visit more cities to share our music in the hope that more people will resonate with our songs and become healthier, happier and more empowered. Live music is a form of catharsis, finding happiness and connecting with kindred spirits. It creates an extraordinary energy and we like to spread this energy through the crowd."

The band had one of its most meaningful moments in 2005 when Japanese drummer Satoru Sueyoshi, who is also known as Funky, met its members by chance.

Before his first visit to China, the now 65-year-old Funky was already established in Japan's music scene as drummer for the rock band Bakufu-Slump.

During Bakufu-Slump's peak in the 1980s, the band had to record TV programs five days a week, a lifestyle Funky disliked as he prefers performing live. When he first visited China in 1990, he chanced upon local musicians like Zhang Chu and the band Black Panther, igniting his passion for Chinese rock 'n' roll.

Funky later settled in China where he's worked with many musicians, contributing to the development of Chinese rock 'n' roll. However, this lifestyle was growing increasingly hectic, coming to resemble the life he led in Japan, until someone suggested he produce a song for Buyi in 2005.

When the band invited him to their courtyard in Beijing, Funky assumed that it was another well-off group. This impression quickly evaporated when Wu picked him up in a beat-up and barely functioning Jeep.

The rented courtyard where the band lived and rehearsed was equally modest, but to Funky, he'd found his dream place to play rock 'n' roll.

"When I was young, I moved to Tokyo, working odd jobs while rehearsing in a band. Eventually, we made it big and became rock stars. But looking back now, I realize my happiest days were those early days of rehearsing and working," Funky says.

"I'd forgotten about that life, but meeting Buyi brought it all back. I remembered how happy I used to be, having a dream to pursue."

Funky immediately decided to move into the courtyard, invited a recording engineer to set up a professional recording studio and helped Buyi produce albums. He officially became its drummer in 2018.

Wu says that after meeting Funky, Buyi has been taken to a whole new level. "Before, we'd never even considered releasing an album. The cost was simply too high. Funky was our producer and recorded drums for many of our tracks. Almost all our albums feature his drumming. So really, Funky lifted us up several levels."

Funky also arranged this Japan tour. Apart from appearing as featured artists at the 40th anniversary reunion concerts of Bakufu-Slump, the band members also performed on the same stage and jammed with a number of well-known Japanese musicians.

"The session with the Chinese band Buyi was incredibly exciting. After this song, we played one of their songs, which I didn't know at all, in response to the encore. It turned out to be very moving," Japanese guitarist and singer-songwriter Kyoji Yamamoto wrote in a post on the social media platform X after his Nov 12 concert with Buyi.

"It became a wonderful moment of friendship between China and Japan. Music truly has no borders."

Wu says that they embarked on the Japan tour with a humble heart, simply hoping to make their music heard, not caring about the size of the audience that showed up and wanting to learn from other veteran musicians.

The tour turned out to be an enlightening experience. Performing with Japanese musicians to predominantly Japanese audiences proved an in-depth, cross-cultural exchange.

Wu says that he was impressed by the strong, multigenerational rock music fan base in Japan, the virtuosity of Japanese musicians and Japan's well-developed music industry.

But Buyi was not daunted by appearing with high-level acts. Instead, Wu believes that they were able to bring their own style to the stage, and discovered the edge Chinese bands enjoy — a vigor unpolished by the music industry.

"Many of our songs have a powerful energy distinctive of Northwest China. We lived in a place with deserts, and our music shares that raw and rugged quality. The Japanese musicians often mentioned our 'energy', saying that, although they couldn't understand our lyrics, they felt our unique energy," Wu says.

"I consider these exchanges especially meaningful. We were respected for our style. Though we might not be as technically proficient, we performed and expressed what we wanted to convey and the audience and musicians received our message. The beauty of live music is truly irreplaceable."