Manta

“我愛他們遊動時優雅的姿勢，不緊不慢上下扇動著的翅膀，兩隻略顯呆滯的眼睛下詭譎的譏笑。 他們有一個聽起來很可怕的名字，但一顆牙齒都沒有。 當我第一次隔著厚厚的玻璃在海洋館看到Manta游泳的樣子，被造物主的創意和巧思沖昏了頭腦: 原來水下也有飛行家。遠看光滑如鏡的皮膚和錯落的白色斑紋，是他們前衛廓形的燕尾服，沉默飛翔的魔鬼魚們像是星辰和大海之間的使者，在無盡的藍色中穿梭。 他們在水裡飛起來的樣子，像極了天空上展翅高飛的鳥，美得不像魚，據說在中生代侏羅紀時就在海洋裡了。都說魚兒在水裡遊，鳥兒在天上飛，但是魔鬼魚的存在，打破了那些常理和規則對我來說，這些美麗生命的特殊性給我展示了一種世上無限的可能，和在規則之上的自由灑脫。 在海洋館時看到的魔鬼魚總能讓我感受到困獸的憂鬱，後來為了想要親眼看到屬於大自然的野生魔鬼魚，去斐濟學了水肺潛水，終於考完證在最後一天和跟隨當地漁民坐船6個小時去蹲點魔鬼魚吃飯，但當我趕到時卻錯過了他們，要是有朝一日能夠和他們在水裡一起舞蹈就太美妙啦。 蝠鱝俗稱魔鬼魚，聽起來像是海底怪獸，但張開深淵一般的大嘴之後其實光禿禿的沒有牙齒，捕食習慣是對著洋流游泳，一邊張開嘴坐等小魚小蝦被沖進嘴裡。聽說他們性情溫順但偶爾古怪，喜歡搞點惡作劇捉弄人，得知這飯來張口的佛系吃飯習慣之後更覺得他們可愛了，加上傻乎乎的黑眼睛和嘲諷的假笑，怎麼會有這麼完整生動的魚設？矛盾，藐視規則，熱愛自由，複雜得像你，像我，像每一個人。 他們吸引我的這幾個特質都看起來有些矛盾，而這種衝突感是我這首歌靈感的來源，代表著世上真的存在難以被定義的存在，和身為一個異類卻依然自由的狀態。我在這首歌裡把自己裝進了魔鬼魚的身體，賦予自己在這一首歌的時間裡無限的可能，試圖讓這股能量能穿透耳膜沖進每個聽者的血液，成為“打破規則”行為的BGM. 不用定義，他們是特別的存在，你也是。” ----劉柏辛 Lexie: “Manta is one of the key symbols of this whole album that’s coming right up. The song ‘Manta’ is about possibility and freedom. Manta Ray is my favorite animal. I love the way they move underwater: flapping their wide fins up and down (as if they had real wings) in a nonchalant manner silently, different from everything else down there in the ocean. I saw Manta Rays for the first time in an aquarium behind those thick glass walls. I was in awe of these exquisite and delicate creatures—the sleek, glossy skin shimmers underwater, looking like an avant-garde black tuxedo with white prints. “Flying” underwater, defying the rules of gravity, challenging the stereotypical “birds flying in the sky, fish swimming underwater” type of notion, with a little black tux on, a Manta Ray is like an elegant emissary, or a rhetoric traveller between the stars and the ocean. Their 100 million years of the peculiar existence on earth really hit me with the infinity of possibilities of life on this planet. I actually learned scuba diving in Fiji just to see the wild ones in flesh, but sadly I still missed them after spending 6 hours on the yacht looking for their eating spot. Maybe that’s why the wild ones are wild! I still wish someday I get to dance with them underwater. Sometimes I see myself in them. I can sense the depression of the ones trapped in an aquarium. Their complexity, nonchalance, unruly spirit, and just the peculiarity of these coexisting yet conflicting elements, even the half-ridicule, half-playful “smile”. In this song, I imagined myself being inside a Manta Ray’s body for three and a half minutes and went crazy by challenging infinite possibilities in my music. Hopefully I can transfer this power to whomever listening, pump up the blood in their systems with the energy of my sound, and waken the sleeping beast inside their hearts and souls haha. I also wanna send out this message through not only this song but the entire album that there is no single definition of your existence, and you should be whatever you want to be. ”