24 Hours performing at D-22 on Friday, July 31st.

How do you all know each other, how did the band form?
Zhang Chen and Li Guan Yu were high school classmates, and Ren Yi Lan was a college friend of Zhang Chen. We used to go to music shows in Xi’an and thought the rock music we heard was really cool, so we decided to learn how to play our instruments. We’re all from Xi’an, where we formed the band in December of 2006. We came to Beijing in July 2008 to be closer to the vibrant music scene here.

A lot of your fans have said it’s not easy to categorize your sound, how would you describe it?
We agree. Rock music? We have a lot of different influences, so we don’t have just one label for the type of music we make.

When you’re not making music, what kind of music do you guys like listening to?
Zhang Chen: Everything really. Post punk, bands like Joy Division, The Talking Heads, Franz Ferdinand.
Ren Yi Lan: Same as Zhang Chen. I’d add Iggy Pop and The Clash.
Li Guan Yu: I like punk music, bands like Blink 182 and AFI.

Around when did you guys first hear western rock music?
Different for each of us, but sometime in our teens. For example, we probably each heard Nirvana for the first time somewhere between 1995 and 1998.

Do you guys listen to Prince? Maybe it’s your duel female vocals, but we’re curious if you were influenced by Wendy & Lisa, his two female singers in The Revolution?
Prince? His music is good, but we’ve only mainly heard his Purple Rain album. But yeah, there’s no direct influence in terms of the vocal styling.

You guys used to be called 24 Hour Party People, where’s that from and how come you changed your name to just 24 Hours?
The name 24 Hour Party People is the name of a movie about the UK music label Factory which Joy Division, one of our favorite bands, was on. We like the name. However, the name was a bit too long. Whenever we were on billings with other bands, our name would take up the most room compared to everybody else. So we decided to shorten the name. Plus it’s easier to remember.

How do you guys write your songs? What are they about?
We usually write them while jamming together as a band. Most of the time we come up with the music first, then the lyrics. The songs are about various things, like our daily lives, our friend’s lives. For examples, one of our songs, Mr. Stevenson, is about the guy who first invented trains. We don’t have that many love songs for some reason.

Why do you guys sing your songs in English and not Chinese?
Well, the rock music we’ve grown up listening to is in English, so to us, it’s only natural to write and sing in English. However, we hope to write songs in Chinese in the future. It’s not easy to write songs in Chinese and make it sound good as there are many ways to interpret the language. However, when used well, the language can really enhance the meaning of the song. It’s something we’d like to think about later down the road.

There’s a lot of buzz about your guys’ first recording, when can your fans expect to see it in stores?
The album should come out sometime this fall on Maybe Mars. No set date yet, but stay tuned.

Details on upcoming show: “We Live at D-22” Party with The Flyx, Birdstriking, and The Reason. D-22, August 15th, 10pm.

Check out the band's MySpace for more information