Interview: Fire Bird International

FBI is a four member indie rock act from Hong Kong. They recently released their debut EP (review soon). In an exclusive interview with Indiecision, Cain McInerney (vocalist) from the band talks about the band, the indie music scene in Hong Kong and Cantopop.

1. Tell us about how the band got together.

One gwailo (foreigner) and three Hong Kong guys make up Fire Bird International.

FBI has been together for just over a year now. I (Cain) met Jerald at a bar in the New Territories and started talking about music. An Oasis song came on and Cain started singing it and Jerald said, â??Man, you have got a good voice.â? I went on to say how I was a singer and Jerald told him that he was in a band, so we decided to have a jam one day. On the first day I met the other members of the band (Archvictor and Nice) they convinced me to have a performance at a community centre for a bit of fun, even though we only had been practicing for around half an hour prior to that. You can still see some of the recorded songs on YouTube, especially â??First Dateâ??, that people have commented highly upon, despite this being the first day or our first date together as a band. The name FBI was came up with after this show. Since I am a foreigner we could be international, since they were already calling themselves something like firebirds in Chinese. FBI just made sense.

Head downstairs for the rest of the interview.

2. How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard your sound?

We play rock music, sometimes soft and sometimes heavy, with a little bit of rap thrown in.

3. What is the music scene in Hong Kong like for independent artists? How easy/difficult is it for you to get gigs at popular venues?

The music scene in Hong Kong is very difficult for indie bands just starting out because there are not a lot of venues to play at and indie music is not so big. Cantopop dominates the airwaves and I think that not many people are aware that there is actually an indie scene here. The indie scene is actually more popular by foreigners, and there are a lot of bands with foreigners. But, there is only one band that has one white guy(me) and three Hong Kong guys. So we are very unique in the industry here. So, we have not been having a hard time getting gigs at popular venues as we are in high demand of late. We appeal to both local and foreign audiences. Thatâ??s what makes us so special.

4. You aren’t signed to any label yet. Is it hard to get noticed by labels in HK? Are there many independent/major labels there that have strong A&R?

It is very hard to get noticed by major labels, as there is not a huge demand for alternative music. Major companies that operate from overseas usually overlook the Hong Kong Indie scene. Cantopop rules in HK and if you want to make a CD you have to do it yourself the hard way, and thatâ??s what we are doing. And we are succeeding. Slowly but surely. There are a few independent labels but they are more to the extreme hardcore scene, and we do not cover that area. I mean, we have a few heavy songs, but we canâ??t call ourselves a death metal band. And donâ??t want to.

5. Top 5 songs on your iPod right now.
Cain
‘Chai Gai’ by Paul Wong
‘KUI’ by Soler
‘Respect’
‘Blood’ by Papa Roach
‘I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am’ by Regurgitator

More FBI.