Four of the five band members are visually impaired, rehearsing for five or six hours a day, and currently has nearly 30,000 fans on the live broadcast platform

　　Zheergen Band: Life blooms and lights up the night

　　Zheergen is a plant and the name of a band.

Zheergen likes to be warm and humid, hardy, and afraid of strong light. It can grow tenaciously in the dark humus soil. Zheergen is also a "strong vitality" group... Four of their five members are visually impaired.

　　During the National Day, the Zheergen Band also entered a state of "empty". They talked freely with reporters from Beijing Youth Daily about their past experiences and planned for the future.

　　Work 13 hours a day

　　The band really "woke up" after nightfall

　　Guanshui Road, Nanming District, Guiyang, Guizhou, is located among several prosperous commercial streets. At 8 o'clock in the evening, it was already night, and the shutter doors were closed one after another.

In a massage shop for the blind, after 13 hours of work, after serving the last guest, several blind masseurs picked up their instruments and went out.

　　After walking for about 15 minutes, to a small house less than 10 square meters, the surrounding environment slowly calmed down.

Open the live broadcast room of the mobile phone, here is a "small world" where blind masseurs stay away from the noise and truly express themselves.

　　The "Zheergen Band" has nearly 30,000 fans on the live broadcast platform, where they record the results of their rehearsal for five or six hours a day.

　　In September of this year, this little-known "pure hobby" band was recommended by a friend to a local reporter. After being reported by CCTV, their lives had different opportunities.

　　A group of stubborn children

　　Formed the "Zhe Ergen" that is not afraid of the cold

　　When Yang Zhi was 8 years old, he suffered a serious illness. The accident caused the optic nerve to atrophy and lost his vision.

But the suffering from childhood has brought him a keen sense of hearing.

Yang Zhi said that his favorite singer is Xu Wei. When he was a child, he went to relatives' house and heard a collection on the VCD. One of them was Xu Wei's "Time".

He said that at that time, he imagined that when he grew up, he could wander in the city with a guitar on his back.

　　Yang Zhi didn't have his first guitar with the support of his family until he was 16 years old, and then the 120 yuan guitar became an integral part of his life.

　　When Yang Zhi went to vocational school, he hit it off with Chen Changhai, who had the same musical dream, and began to play their campus music.

Soon, they became a celebrity on campus and attracted many people. Peng Wanhai, who majored in hotel management at the same school, was one of their followers.

The three formed the 1.0 version of the "Zhe Ergen" band.

　　After graduation in 2014, everyone went their separate ways, and the band was facing disbandment.

But once the seeds of music are planted, they can no longer be erased.

Chen Changhai and Yang Zhi became blind masseurs. After work, they began to sing on the street.

In 2016, Chen Changhai opened his own massage parlor for the blind with the help of his mentor and friends. Yang Zhi returned to Guiyang to join in after years of traveling in Guangdong, thus gaining a foothold and regaining his music dream.

　　Soon, flute player Yang Lin joined them; Peng Wanhai, who was their "fan" at school, also heard news to join...In the early morning of January 15, 2018, after a glass of night beer, the band "Zhe Ergen" was born. Chen Changhai is the team leader.

The members of the band rehearsed and sang and enjoyed it.

However, the good times didn't last long. Due to livelihoods, in 2019, flute player Yang Lin and guitar player Peng Wanhai went abroad to make a living, and the band once again stagnated.

　　Peng Wanhai recalled that during that time he was doing odd jobs in an e-commerce warehouse in Zhejiang, and his income was higher than when he was in Guiyang.

During this period, Chen Changhai and Yang Zhi have not given up on their "ideological work."

So at the end of 2019, he and Yang Lin both returned to Guiyang to find Chen Changhai.

In the spring of 2020, the blind singer who was attracted by the song "Blue Lotus" on the street was also persuaded by Chen Changhai to join Zhe Ergen. This singer is now the lead singer of the band, Chen Kexing.

　　Chen Kexing knows some music, and relies on his excellent musical sense and flexible mind to compose and arrange music to make life easier.

It was not the melodious singing or the cooperation between the bands that made him stop, but the few people who had the same experience and the same dreams as him, made him feel resonance.

　　At this time, he decided to end his wandering days and join this band with the same dream.

This evening, the band, like Zhe Ergen in the spring mud, survived the severe cold and regained its vitality.

　　Not favored by family

　　The rehearsal in the middle of the night in the massage shop lasted for two years

　　When the band was founded, it encountered many problems.

"Rehearsal venues and equipment are all problems." Yang Zhi said. At that time, he always waited until 11 o'clock in the evening and there were no customers after get off work, so he moved the massage bed in the store and used it as a rehearsal room.

This situation lasted for two years.

　　At the beginning of 2020, the good-hearted massage shop owner vacated this room of about 10 square meters.

Everyone installed soundproof cotton in the room, purchased musical instruments, bought fill-in lights, and decorated it into a decent rehearsal room.

　　"We are ordinary office workers during the day, earning money to support our family, and at night we gather together to play on the team. Music is our spiritual food, and rehearsal after get off work is what we look forward to most." Chen Changhai said.

　　"Although we can't see it, music is our eyes, leading us to run." Chen Changhai, who was the captain, recalled that when the band first started, many relatives and friends did not support them. "This is for sure, music is costly. One is a waste of energy." They charge 68 yuan for a full body relaxation massage for guests, and a professional guitar starts at 10,000 yuan, let alone a band.

But they just relied on the money earned from the massage and the donations from a few supporters to slowly make the band what it is today.

　　Chen Changhai said that until now, his drums have been borrowed from others, and the guitar is also second-hand by Yang Zhitao. The total "equipment" of the band does not exceed 10,000 yuan.

　　Just a few like-minded people feel happy.

At present, they all agree that the song that touches them most is the band's original "Blooming Light": "I want my life to shine and light up my night. No amount of pain can stop it."

　　Chen Changhai said that there are currently more than 18 million blind people in our country. He feels that Zhe Ergen can convey confidence through music and soothe the hearts of these 18 million people.

　　On September 23, the "Zhe Ergen" band sang this song in an online live broadcast conducted by Kuaishou Beijing headquarters.

The live broadcast called "My Self-Illumination" set "Zhe Ergen grows tenaciously in the invisible underground, just like us" as the live broadcast slogan, and then they soon joined the CCTV variety show "Golden One Hundred Seconds". During the recording rehearsal.

　　Rely on voice screen reading software for blind people

　　It’s common to practice a song dozens of times

　　In order to ensure their "business level", the Zheergen Band maintained a daily rehearsal for five or six hours in a small room less than 10 square meters after finishing their work every day.

　　Every time a new song is rehearsed, the band members have to rely on the special voice screen reading software for the blind. It is common to practice a song dozens of times.

At this time, as the only one with normal vision, Peng Wanhai was responsible for reading the lyrics to everyone.

In addition, when encountering performance opportunities, Peng Wanhai also acts as an agent, taking care of performance affairs.

　　For Chen Changhai, a group of visually impaired youths, memorizing music scores is also difficult.

Others can sing and play with music, and they may need to listen to it dozens of times to remember.

"We think the most difficult song to remember is the cover of "Jiang Jinjiu". It may be twenty days to remember it." Yang Zhi said that there are many elements of ancient style in this song. These are made, after repeated additions and replacements, it becomes a song.

　　For the members of Zhe Ergen, not having received systematic professional music education is another big problem.

"We rely more on self-study, so sometimes the practice is very slow, because you can't see it yourself, so you don't know if some of your playing methods are standard. Moreover, practicing instruments and basic skills are very important, but in fact I just At the beginning, I didn’t know how to practice basic skills, so I just started to practice chords.” Besides, the lack of professional arrangers also made the band members quite a headache. “We can write a song, but we don’t know how to arrange it. , I don’t know how to make it nice with what instrument."

　　But Chen Changhai said that no matter how late the rehearsal is, everyone in the band is very positive and tries to complete it in the best possible state.

Chen Changhai's rehearsal room is only a 15-minute walk away from the massage room at work. "But as long as we enter the music room at night, the fatigue of a few people for a day is basically gone."

　　Text/Wang Haoxiong, intern Han Yudi

　　Coordinator/Zhang Bin

　　Outlook

　　Plan to release an original album in three years

　　Speaking of future plans, Chen Changhai said: “I want to have a larger rehearsal place for our band. Our rehearsal venue is too small. I calculated it yesterday and it was just over 7 square meters.” He said that the band is the largest. His wish is to turn his hobby into a career. "What I want is to open a physical store to attract others through music, and then provide this kind of comprehensive service. For example, selling musical instruments, or sitting down for a cup of coffee. "

　　Speaking of this plan, Chen Changhai is mixed.

The good thing is that the dream is slowly unfolding in the future, and the worry is that there are too many practical problems in front of us-even if the instrument supplier is willing to cooperate, the cost of decoration is roughly estimated to be two or three hundred thousand yuan, which is for the monthly salary Chen Changhai, who is only about 3,000 yuan, is a big sum.

Coupled with commercial risks, Chen Changhai still has concerns about the actual situation of future plans.

　　Chen Changhai bluntly said that he would spend more energy on charity performances, "It is by everyone's help that we have come to this day step by step. We are a grassroots band and we must not forget our roots. If possible, we must try our best to give back to others." Under this belief, the Zheergen band refused to fall into the deadlock of being used by commercial activities. Chen Changhai did not want to allow his dream to be overconsumed, but wanted to slowly accumulate energy and move closer to his dream.

　　After being reported by CCTV, the Zhe Ergen band had a group of fans on the Internet. They called out "We should go to the band's summer!" But Chen Changhai said that these are not within the scope of his plan. The band still has five or six songs. I haven't recorded them, and I just want to accumulate my songs slowly.

　　It is understood that the Zhe Ergen Band now has six original songs of its own.

They set a small goal for themselves, planning to release an original album within three years and tell their story with music.