Lou Nanli — better known to anyone who's checked in with the Shanghai club scene over the last decade as B6 — is a rare story of unmitigated success coming from the Chinese music underground. After an early epiphany stemming from the accidental purchase of a The The dakou cassette, B6 started playing around with a guitar, contributing his talents to post-rock band Godot and the near-mythical noise rock collective Junkyard. While studying design and visual communication at Shanghai's Chinese Academy of Art, B6 became involved in China's nascent experimental music scene, creating conceptual, sample-based compositions reflecting his interest in noise and musique concrète. He's still active in that field: last October he performed at the opening event for Sound Art China, the largest exhibition of Chinese experimental and avant-garde music/sound work to date. These days, however, B6 is far better known for his electronic music and production work. The breakout was 2008's Post-Haze, B6's solo debut. Post-Haze established B6 as one of China's most mature producers, and paved the way to the string of successful projects he's had a hand in since: the long-running party series Antidote, which he co-founded with Dada Bar boss Michael Ohlsson in 2005; the creative consulting firm Neocha, of which he was an original co-founder; and, most recently, Reformer, a new venture that B6 hopes will help him bridge electronic music with popular culture — and, of course, pay the bills. B6 is playing a rare Beijing show on Saturday at Dada under the Antidote banner. Read on to learn about his experimental music pedigree, his subsequent transitions to electronic and pop, and how he's peddling his own vision of music and art in the corporate world: ***

: I started making music in high school, around '98 or '99 I started playing guitar. I don't think I can play any instruments (except computer), according to the standard definition of "play." But yeah, at that time I really liked noise and No Wave, even now I really like that kind of music.

: It's because my major in university [was visual communications], I thought of visual art and music as the same thing. Both are ways to express thoughts inside your brain. Only the means of expression are different. Yes, both sides can completely develop together. But university was really just a boring place, really wasting my time...

: The earliest should be around '97 or so, I accidentally bought a cassette. At the time I had absolutely no idea what it was, I just thought the cover was cool. It was Burning Blue Soul by The The. That was one of the biggest, most significant coincidences of my life. It decided everything that came after. Because of this album, I decided that afterwards I wanted my work, life, and making music to become linked, inseparably close. I thought turning into [The The singer] Matt Johnson, or someone like him, putting out this cool music, that was my true dream at the time. (I'm not sure if this album in the end is considered "experimental" or "indie rock.") After I started playing music, I was listening to a lot of experimental, industrial, and electronic music influences, like Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten, a lot of Cold Meat Industry releases, Aphex Twin. After that it was a bunch of Japanoise and French [musique concrète] influences. In short, at the time, the context for this music wasn't very developed... Making this kind of music totally required a lot of blind fumbling and imagination. But every time I go back and listen to the music I made at that time I always feel it's really hard for me to make music that cool now, haha.

: This side project is a composition using relays of a source signal ... I started it, and then four people relayed it. In the end it came back into my hands for the final processing. The rule for the ensemble was we could only use samples, and most of the samples had to come from Chinese pop songs. As for "Orientalized violence" and "refined tastes," I guess it was something for the music critics at the time to decode. Maybe it's because we used a huge amount of sounds from Chinese-style pop music, then we repeatedly processed and refined them and re-composed them into our own work. I just make music, actually I'm not good at using words to describe music. This is more the specialty of music critics.

: People doing this kind of experimental music at the time were very, very few. There was no way to publish it. Now it's totally different. You have a lot of different scenes that are familiar with all kinds of music. But at that time I just self-published my solo project and band. Aesthetically it was a state of Isolation, like the name. With my own label, I just wanted to publish anything outside of the "independent" music scene, away from any outside influence. That time, not only in Shanghai, but all over China, the experimental music scene was very small. We were basically all friends. Unfortunately a lot of people from that time eventually abandoned music.

: Yes, that's when my solo music career really started to develop, I had a lot of projects and music-related work. I was just always looking for a path to allow me to do the work I personally liked, in keeping with my practical abilities, and at the same time reasonably able to exist under China's special cultural environment. Shanghai is a relatively dream-like city. And I personally feel that, for me, music and art and pretty much my work.

: I think the outside world mostly knows China because China's economy is taking off. In terms of culture, China is just now moving down the path of developing its own system. It's very much a conservative, "post-Cold War" path. I'm more concerned about China's relations with the rest of the world, or for Chinese people talking about culture to understand the ways of the world. Our problem lies in the government's unceasing destruction of things that we're familiar with, or have an emotional attachment to. At the same time, it closes us off from receiving benefits from outside groups that want to help. Foreign culture can only be allowed to enter the Chinese people's field of vision, music, fashion, art, etc, after passing through a series of business operations. These circumstances bring about a situation that I personally feel is very "experimental." When looking for positive aspects of this situation, however, you can see that China makes people excited about this "experimental" point. This kind of excitement is very hard to find anywhere else in the world.

: Right, we've already collaborated on a batch of new songs. The lyrics are all by Li Quan, my team and i are in charge of the music. The original intention of our collaboration was that both Li Quan and I, since we were small, really liked a lot of the same music. The dynamic is a bit like it was in IGO. At the same time, I also hope to be able to put electronic music into mass-consumed, popular music platforms. I've already seen electronic music slowly begin to permeate mainstream music. There's really no conflict between the two sides. On the business end, it's a really attractive investment for me and my company. Overall, I think this project follows from me and my team switching from electronic to pop music composition and teaching ourselves, slowly feeling out how to improve China's standard of pop music.

: That's a project from two years ago. My starting point was to make a work of conceptual sound art, something without any direct connection to mainstream or even electronic music. It's more connected to contemporary art than music.

: Young and crazy years. Actually Michael was the primary person in charge of booking and PR, I really only did performances and design. Over the last nearly ten years I became really good friends with Michael. I also have that period of time to thank for giving me such precious and beautiful memories. After my good friend moved to Beijing and opened Dada there, it quickly turned into one of Beijing's most important venues for independent music. I'm really happy about that. It once again proves Mr. Ohlsson's skill and taste in music. He's still a good friend, but the show on Saturday is not just an obligatory thing. The music will still be mainly the kind of techno and house I played before. To tell the truth, these days I do club DJ performances very, very rarely. But I'll try everything in my power this weekend to show Beijing friends the charm of the Antidote parties from back in the day.

: The main thing this year is setting up my company, Reformer. In the future, this company will consult on custom-made artworks for domestic and international businesses and brands, and produce multi-media installations. My team and I have been working on this for a year and a half now, we've invested our life's blood into it. We really have a lot of projects at the moment. One I can leak: this year Cadillac will do an art exhibit, which will include a large installation piece by my company, as well as a few visual artworks and ad design projects. We have a lot more projects coming out that should excite people… but I can't mention them now. We signed a contract. *** Catch B6 at the Antidote party on Saturday, April 19 at Dada. Cover is 66rmb. Includes free condoms...