Xie Tian Xiao

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XTX

Xie Tian Xiao (谢天笑) , rock singer, guitarist, guzheng player, short form: XTX or X.T.X.

Contents

[edit] History

XTX, March 24th 2010, Shanghai, Mao Live, Photo: (c) CHEN CHEN, link

Xie Tianxiao was born in 1972 in the town of Zibo, Shandong province. At the age of 9 he began to learn Beijing Opera, and appeared in the role of "The Monkey King" in a local operatic production of Journey to the West.

After being placed under a six-month juvenile "house arrest" for stealing bicycles, he relieved the boredom by teaching himself to play bass and guitar. In 1990, he began composing his own songs. A year later, he moved to Beijing to develop his musical career.

In 1994, Xie Tianxiao formed his first band, Hunters of the Cloth (出家的猎人 / Chujia de Lieren). Not long afterward, he wrote and recorded 你不像/Ni Bu Xiang (English title: You're Not at All), the theme song for the soundtrack of the film Vietnamese Girl / Biandang de Guniang).

In 1997, he founded the band Cold Blooded Animal with bassist Li Ming, his childhood friend from Shandong. Although the band went through a number of personnel changes (past drummers include Liang Xu, Wu Rui and several others), they soon established a loyal fan base.

Between 1997 and 2002, Cold Blooded Animal performed hundreds of gigs in Beijing, released their first album (2000) and played on tour in China and the U.S. In 2001, they were the first Chinese rock band to appear at the South By Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

From 2002-2003, Xie Tianxiao lived in the U.S., playing his music in Los Angeles and New York. Upon returning to China, he promptly proposed to his fiancee (now his wife, with whom he has two children, a boy and a girl) and set about re-establishing the band, renaming it "X.T.X. & Cold Blooded Animal".

Since then, Xie Tiantiao's (or X.T.X., as he is now known) star has been on the rise. He and his band have released two more albums, each of which has sold hundreds of thousands of official copies, and perhaps millions of pirated copies. They have toured China, travelled to Europe and Japan, released a series of rock videos and are now a staple on Chinese radio and television, on the Internet and in CD/DVD shops all over China.

As Qian Wang states[1], in 2005 Xie Tianxiao has been praised as the possible successor of Cui Jian as journalists have described him “Yirenzhixia, Wanrenzhishang” (under one person – Cui Jian, but over all other Chinese rockers), and teenagers were keen on imitating him as what happened to Tang Dynasty in the early 1990s.[2]

On 1 October 2006 in Zeng Cheng near Guangzhou, Xie Tianxiao stated, “let us play rock to celebrate the birthday of China” at a six-day rock festival. When the national anthem of People’s Republic of China was played by Xie’s electronic guitar, the heavy and distorted sound made the audiences feel that their warm blood was boiling (Rexuefeiteng). This performance was applauded by the media and read as significant as Jimi Hendrix played the USA anthem at Woodstock in 1969. Xie admitted that his performance was inspired by Jimi Hendrixs’.[3]

August 9th 2009, they performed during the InMusic Festival 2009 on the Zhangbei Grasslands on the Main Stage. At the end of October, XTX won the two awards Best Male Rock Vocal Performance and Best Live Performance at Midi Awards 2009.

In 2010, XTX went on a China-wide tour called Boundless Rock through 11 cities ending on April 18th in Xuzhou. During the tour he visited: Shanghai's Mao Livehouse on March 24th. On May 2nd, 2010, he performed at the Midi Music Festival 2010.

[edit] Participated Festivals

Midi Music Festival 2010, May 1st-4th 2010

InMusic Festival 2009 - 2009, August

Lijiang Snow Mountain Music Festival 2007

Beijing Pop Festival 2007 - 2007, September

Beijing Pop Festival 2006 - October 2006

[edit] Music

The music of Xie Tian Xiao is basically rock 'n roll, but the influence of grunge music is apparent even in his earlier works. Traditional Chinese music always forms the backdrop to his songs, some of which feature Chinese instruments such as the guzheng.

In the last album, the mood is more Reggae (bass player Guo Jian doubles as the leader of The Way of the Dragon God, a reggae band).

[edit] Discography

There is only one Desire - 2008, April

X.T.X - 2005, March

Cold Blooded Animal - 2000, April


[edit] Further information

[edit] Articles & Interviews

[edit] Videos

[edit] Photos

[edit] References

  1. ↑ W. Qian (2007). The Crisis of Chinese Rock in the mid-1990s: Weakness in Form or Weakness in Content. Page 41. University of Liverpool.
  2. ↑ Cao, Hongpei (2005) ‘Xie Tianxiao He Lengxue Dongwu’ (Xie Tianxiao and the Cold-blooded Animal), Zhongguo Xinwen Zhoukan (China News Weekly), Vol.46/2005, Information is from website (Accessed on April 12, 2006 by Qian Wang): http://ent.sina.com.cn/y/2006-04-11/17491046261.html
  3. ↑ W. Qian (2007). The Crisis of Chinese Rock in the mid-1990s: Weakness in Form or Weakness in Content. Page 219. University of Liverpool.


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