Life & Work with Yunxuan “John” Yuan and Changheng “Arthur” Zhao

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yunxuan “John” Yuan and Changheng “Arthur” Zhao.

Hi Yunxuan and Changheng, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
We are Yunxuan “John” Yuan and Changheng “Arthur” Zhao, a Chinese heavy metal duo based in Hollywood. We formed our band Rubbrheads in Shenzhen, China, back in 2021. Now we are rocking on the sunset strip while attending college.

In the summer after high school graduation, John, a brawny tenor prodigy, and I (Arthur), then a sentimental shoegaze guitarist, decided to turn the remnant of our teenage angst into heavy metal. Helped by two other high school friends Yuhang “Ktulu” Zhou and Haoyu “Davy” Zhao, we quickly recorded our debut single, “Redhead Beauty,” which became a local hit as well as our ticket to the music industry. We named ourselves Rubbrheads, inspired by the David Lynch movie Eraserhead (1977). For the rest of the summer, we toured South China, gathering a small but loyal fanbase before we left our country.

Fall 2021, John and I landed in Los Angeles to enroll in Musicians Institute and UCLA. John majors in vocal performance while I study Computer Science, leaving Rubbrheads on hiatus. However, that lasted only a short time. As we strolled down the Sunset Strip, watching our childhood guitar heroes rock the Whisky or the Roxy, we immediately knew we must be a part of it. Between lessons and exams, we produced our first full-length album, Butter Supply, which was released in December. We formed our new lineup in Spring 2022 with guitarist Billy Gao, bassist Sam Callahan, and drummer Haoyang Li from the Musicians Institute. Since then, we’ve established our name through regular gigs at Universal Bar & Grill, the Whisky, and various parties.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Our early days in LA were fraught with obstacles. Being new to the game here and not knowing anyone, it took us a while to book our first gig, an early spot in the Whisky. Although we had few audiences besides friends, we gave our best energy and enjoyed every moment. Upon leaving the stage, other bands of the night and the venue’s booker cheered for our performance. That gave us a lot of impetus to keep playing. Since then, we gradually built our connections and began gigging monthly. This February, we performed in front of over a thousand people at UCLA Royce Hall.

Being the only Chinese metal band in LA, we found navigating our image in a white-dominated market challenging. People don’t expect ferocious screaming and authentic blues licks from our oriental faces. A comment from an A&R is, “why don’t you just dress in your traditional costumes and blend in some Chinese music?” Although other Asian bands like the Hu succeed by doing this, we’re committed to playing pure 80s Sunset Strip metal instead of selling our ethnic roots. We are ready to put in twice the effort as others to be recognized as a genuine members of the LA rock scene.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Our band Rubbrheads is the only Chinese heavy metal act in LA. We revisit the sounds and styles of the 80s Hair metal while applying our Chinese rock vocabulary. We use the English language to tell stories of our lives as teenagers in China and how we navigate our unique cultural landscape.

Butter Supply (2021) is our first full-length album. Written in 2020–2021, the year of total COVID lockdown in China, it captures a world of absurdity and our yearning for escape. “Redhead Beauty” and “Tough Candy” depict our visceral emotions and fears as irresistible sirens, tempting us to plunge headlong into their murky depths. “Take Them Back” confronts the hierarchical Confucian education; “Same Ol’ Places with the Same Ol’ Crowd” pokes fun at our underground gigging life; and “Concrete Jungle” reflects on the excesses of urban materialism in 21st-century China…This album cloaks all our adolescent turmoil in a veil of high-gain distortion, raspy vocals, and a morbid wit.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Do singles, not albums. Nowadays, listeners just consume music in smaller doses. Maintaining a constant flow of exciting singles is much more beneficial than focusing solely on creating a long, conceptually coherent album (what we did). And while it may not always be true, we believe that the best things happen when you least expect them, so don’t get too anxious about progress!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rubbrheads.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubbrheads/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rubbrheadsofficial
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rubbrheads
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCGBD8uYWQKk6U5KIYMLzcw
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@rubbrheads

Image Credits
Kayleigh Urban