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Petting Zoo

 

Sharon Li

 

The coolest musical purple dinosaur since Barney is coming to China . Mochipet (David Wang), born in Taiwan, is an experimental electro hip-hop act whose uniquely frenetic style comes from a childhood of mainstream hip hop, avant garde jazz, and metal guitar.

 

Where did you get that dinosaur suit?

My friend had that suit in her closet that someone had given her. She told me I should wear it for the record release party (of “Baby Godzilla”). I did and the rest is dinosaur history.

 

Your number one friend on Myspace is Charles Darwin. What gives?

I think Charles Darwin is funny because in the music world, there is no such thing as natural selection. Usually, the worst songs and musicians rise to the top of the charts. This seems to be the running joke in my life.

 

Your music has been described as ‘breakcore’. Why do you think everyone throws the suffix ‘core’ into descriptions of their genres? What does it even mean?

I think core means hard? Like hardcore? I make some pretty aggressive music sometimes, so maybe that stuff gets lumped into breakcore? The one thing I do like about breakcore is its punk rock DIY aesthetics and its openness to sounds. Breakcore can be slow and it can be fast, loud or quiet. I think it’s the new punk rock for electronic music, yet to be defined.

 

You have your own record label, Daly City Records. What kinds of artists do you sign?

We have anything from noise to hip-hop to techno, with a splash of death metal mustard in between. Mostly, I like experimental music with a pop element.

 

What can we expect this year?

The new releases coming out later this year on Daly City Records are mostly hip-hop and instrumental beat oriented stuff. Wonkey and bass-y stuff with a sense of dance. A lot of really slow music that sounds really fast for some reason.

 

Who have you had the most fun working with?

Weasel Walter of the Flying Luttenbachers. [He was] very well mannered and quite the gentleman, but on the drums, he was an all-out madman. Something between the Muppets and Dave Lombardo from Slayer.

 

What other passions do you have besides music?

I like many things: philosophy, cooking, snowboarding, drawing, but I hardly have any time. Music keeps me pretty busy.

 

What if you had to choose a dream job other than music?

I’d want to be like Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre Food from the Travel Channel. I love food, travelling, and discovering new things, so it would be perfect for me.

 

And your dream project?

I want to host an episode of Iron Chef with world famous musicians battling it out, cooking fried chicken as they remix one of my tracks. For the judges, I would have Neil Diamond, Perez Hilton, Jet Li, and Dave Chappelle.

 

What do you do after playing a show?

Usually relax, have a beverage, and take off my purple dragon suit while I wipe the rivers of sweat off my body.

 

RMB 50. Saturday August 15. The Shelter, 5 Yongfu Lu, near Fuxing Xi Lu. Tel: 6437 0400