Get To Know : Chestnut Bakery
Can you walk us through the meaning behind the band’s name: Chestnut Bakery?
We were originally named ‘Chestnut’ because there was this little roasted chestnut stand very close to our band room, and sometimes we would go grab a pack before our rehearsals. But then, when we registered ourselves on a musician website, we found out that the name was already taken. Back then I thought having a bakery with friends would probably be the best thing that could happen to me, so I immediately put the word ‘bakery’ behind ‘chestnut’.
Years later we got to know that a famous bakery in London is literally called ‘Chestnut Bakery’ as well (I promise you we had the name first!) We are so going to have a visit! I’ve heard they have very good croissants…
Your sound has been described as nostalgic, reflective of “shiny little moments” of life. When you write lyrics now, do you still lean on that feeling of looking back, or are you writing more about the present or future?
A very intriguing question! Throughout the years, I am more leaning towards writing about the present and future. I think it has taken me a lot of courage to use present tense and future tense in writing. It’s much easier to acknowledge the past and look at in with distance, even if it’s the most hurstful thing, distance makes it somehow bearable.
‘Mirror’ our 2024 single, is exactly about who I was and how I felt at the moment when I wrote it. We just put out a single called ‘Tomorrow’ and this is my attempt to look into the future.
Have there been lyrics you wrote that felt too personal to share? If so why or why not?
‘September’ was quite a personal song for me, it’s about someone who was very close and very strange to me at the same time. The song has only 4 lines of lyrisc in total, because I didn’t want to expose myself much more than that. Back then I also assume my friends will all get to hear the song at some point, so I didn’t want them to know whom I was writing about, haha.
I still vividly remember the moment we played this song in the bandroom for the first time, everything was improvised and we didn’t change a bit of the song since it was first played, including the lyrics.
You’ve been based outside China now (in Europe) for some time. How has relocating changed how you work in terms of writing, recording and performing?
Writing feels like a much lonelier thing since I moved to Europe. Obviously I can no longer just play a song in front of my band members and they would just slowly jam towards it. When I write a song now, I would already plan ahead where the drum and lead guitar could be in the song strucutre.
It’s quite similar to putting personal belongings on two extra seats in the school canteen for your best friends :)
You emerged from the Shenzhen / Southern China indie-scene, which has its own distinct feel. How do you see your band in relationship to that scene now?
The Southern China indie-scene was mostly about making something beautful and at the same time having the courage to end it - an inheritance from Sarah Recordss. I think most bands from the same scene are no longer active. Some retreat to their personal lives, or moved on to some other genre.
We survived because I find no reason to end the band - my guitarist Levy and my drummer Sango are two of my best friends and we text each other on a daily basis. It would be kind of awkward to end the group chat I guess…
When you play live shows now, what do you try to preserve from your DIY roots, and what things are you willing to let evolve?
I guess not using any programme in live shows is an act of us trying to stick to the raw, DIY feeling. When we recorded ‘Diaries’, our goal was to make it sound like how we would sound live. We didn’t record things in separate tracks, as in, my guitar has one track and Levy’s guitar has one track, and if we make a mistake in recording we will have to play it from the beginning again.
Nowadays, with recording software being so easily accessible, one can easily correct recordings or making everything sound lush without having to save up for months to boy a reverb pedal.
Our aesthetic has deviated a bit in the last two years since I also put on harmony track in the recording. Of course we like it when our songs sound raw and simple, but we also want to allow ourselves for some experiment. We will however stick to no programme when we play live.
What’s the next step for Chestnut Bakery?
We never thought we would ever play shows outside of China, but we have already taken our first steps playing three shows in Europe. After our show in London, we will fly back to the East for our Asia tour.
We might play some more shows in Europe since we are all based in Europe now, but we will see where life takes us. We are excited to find out together!