Roll over, Beethoven—and light me a cigarette. Ever since Thai-Chinese violin sensation Vanessa-Mae was featured on a 1995 album cover as if she had just won a wet-nightgown competition, record companies have been prowling for accomplished female musicians capable of playing fiddle at a high, steamy pitch. In bond (the "b" is lowercase in deference to 007 copyright lawyers), U.K.-based Decca Records has found its own variation of Sex in the Symphony. Released in 2000, the group's first album, Born, topped classical music charts around the world, selling more than 1 million copies to date. The quartet is often dubbed the "classical Spice Girls" and "Vanessa-Mae times four."
After recently completing a three-month tour of Europe, the group—Eos, Tania Davis, Haylie Ecker and Gay-Yee Westerhoff—embark on a 16-date concert tour in Asia this week. Expectations are high. Nearly one-third of Born sales has come from the region, an unusually high proportion for a debut album by Australian and British musicians. The bond bombshells may give purists a bad case of classical gas, but their tracks play so well against those of regional pop bands that the group was awarded a coveted opening slot at the recent inaugural MTV Asia Awards.
There is no denying they are part of a minor phenomenon on the Asian music scene. Audiences in the region are demonstrably drawn to fetching violinists who can play the moldies—as long as compositions are laced with contemporary hooks, dance beats, and the occasional hip thrust. Record labels are busy marketing other young fiddler-cum-vamp acts such as Diana Yukawa of the U.K., American Hilary Hahn and Akiko Suwanai of Japan.
The genre's popularity is due in part to that fact that, with classical music, "there are no language barriers," says Harry Hui, Asia-Pacific president of Universal Music. Vanessa-Mae and her acolytes reduce the fuddy-duddy factor. Kids can relate. "Classical music is an underexploited commodity in Asia given that there is a strong tradition of Asian parents who want their children to play the violin or piano," says Steve McClure, Asia bureau chief for Billboard magazine. In the hands of a group like bond, a classical piece sounds like a palatable pop song that won't frighten away the folks while pulling in the kids. "It makes the music accessible," says Jamie Lee, music manager for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
And then there are the cool clothes. Bond members deny their slinky nightclub attire and libidinous onstage posturing has much to do with their fame. "Our success is not based on our outfits," says Ecker, 26, the quartet's lead violinist. "It goes beyond our image. We play great music." Indeed, while members of most manufactured girl bands wouldn't know a lute from a flute, the bond women are all veterans of black-tie recitals, prestigious conservatories and eminent music academies.
It is hard to blame any one of them for wanting a career beyond second chair in the string section of the Shropshire Philharmonic. Give the prodigies their props: bond's music is not warmed-over Bach. The playlist for their Asian tour contains but one classical cover: Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Most tunes are original compositions by Westerhoff, Eos and contemporary New Age songwriters.
Westerhoff, 28, says the girls are toning down their attire for Asia in deference to regional rectitude. But there are no plans to dump their formula and venture into pop singing, as Vanessa-Mae has. "Few people have gone into this area of music, so it's natural to compare us to her," Eos, 26, says. "But that's okay. She's nice. She bought us some champagne when we bumped into her in Switzerland." Reinventing the string quartet is sweaty work—but it has its perks.