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Dec 17, 2002 11:31:33 GMT 8
Post by forever on Dec 17, 2002 11:31:33 GMT 8
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forever
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Dec 17, 2002 11:48:08 GMT 8
Post by forever on Dec 17, 2002 11:48:08 GMT 8
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forever
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Dec 18, 2002 14:39:10 GMT 8
Post by forever on Dec 18, 2002 14:39:10 GMT 8
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Dec 18, 2002 16:33:27 GMT 8
Post by forever on Dec 18, 2002 16:33:27 GMT 8
He sings, he dances, he acts, he composes songs, he works as a producer of many major records- & he is only 24. Lee-hom Wang, young, handsome, & sociable, seems almost too perfect to be true. But the young pop star who has captured the hearts of million insists that he is just a naughty boy next door.
Say the name Wang Lee-hom to any teenage girl in Hong Kong, Taiwan or China & you're likely to get an excited scream in return. Wang, 24, has only been in the music industry for fives years but, with his musical talent & sunny good looks, he has already established himself as one of the most popular pop icons in Asia. Whether it's Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai or even Xi'an, hordes of fans bombard airports & hotels in hope of catching a glimpse of Wang.
Luckily, we successfully suppressed the news that Wang should be arriving at our studio for make-up & that he would be going to Big Wave Bay for the photo-shoot (& even changing his top in front of everyone), otherwise, a squad team of fans would certainly have shown up.
With so many reports of prima donna pop star heartthrobs these days, it's easy to imagine Wang as a spoiled brat from hell. His bio states how he started playing violin at age six, taught himself the guitar by 13, composed his first songs at 15, & went to music school & became a pop artist at 19. All this might indicate something of a precocious talent. Happily, nothing could be further from the truth.
After the initial handshake, Wang turns out to be surprisingly down to earth & sociable. At the photo-shoot session on the beach at Big Wave Bay, Wang actually seems to enjoy the succession of different outfits & being ordered about by the art director, climbing around the rocks & dipping his feet in the water during breaks. Every photo shoot should be likes this, Wang says as he leans comfortably on a lounge chair enjoying the sun while the photographer works on capturing the best of him.
Born & raised in Rochester, New York, Wang has an American flair to his personality that is obvious when he speaks. Yo, dude! He exclaims at some foul-looking foamy substance washing up on the shore. What's most likeable about Wang, however, is his ability to combine the best of both worlds. Despite his upbringing in the States, Wang speaks & reads Chinese, loves his heritage & even aspires to be the link bridging Chinese & international pop cultures. At present, he seems to be on the right track.
Having won the Best Male Artist of the Year & Best Producer of the Year in 1999 for his album Revolution at the Golden Melody Awards, the Taiwanese equivalent of the Grammies, Wang has been nominated again this year in six categories, including Best Arranger of the Year (Descendants of the Dragon) & for top Golden Melody Song of the Year with his newest song Forever First Day. He has also recently been interviewed by CNN as one of the most successful Chinese pop artists. And with his natural good looks & charm, he has recently been picked for the second time as one of the winners of Top Ten Idols, an event held by Taiwanese publication Ming Shen Bao. Last November, Wang was selected as one of the sexiest male artist by Esquire magazine in Hong Kong.
None of this success was expected in 1993, however, when Wang causally joined a talent search contest in Taiwan. I was 17 years old, & i was on summer holiday. My mum & I were sitting in a restaurant & we spotted this poster on the wall about a talent search show, Wang recalls. 'I had nothing to do, so I thought, 'why not.' I didn't take it seriously at the time.
With a guitar & one of his own songs, Wang instantly attracted the attention of the record company that hosted the competition & was approached with a contract. I just treated it as a summer job, says Wang. Studies always came first & I had a deal with [the record company] to only work on the albums during the breaks I had from school. The contract meant forfeiting his entry into the final, but Wang wasn't really in it to win anyway - after all, he has never been a stranger to awards.
Since elementary school, Wang has won awards in everything from Maths to essay competitions. He was ranked second in the American High School Thesis Competition, held by Cornell University in 1993, & was accepted as a member of Golden Key National Honour Society with his painting titled Eagle. He later graduated with honours from Sutherland High School & received a scholarship fro Pittsford Musical Inc. of the University of Rochester in 1994. Having passed the violin exam of Eastman Music School, Wang entered Williams College majoring in music.
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Dec 18, 2002 17:03:01 GMT 8
Post by forever on Dec 18, 2002 17:03:01 GMT 8
Besides working on his degree, Wang spent a lot of time at Williams, singing with an Accapella band called the Springstreeters. His combination of passion for music & talent with people was already becoming apparent. I fell like we grew up together, Wang said in an interview with the school's journal, about his days with Springstreeters. For his final year project, Wang penned a musical entitled The Bite That Burns! & received an A for his work. Wang still speaks of the experience as one of the happiest moments in his life. It was such hard work but everyone who was involved enjoyed it. They were doing it for free & they did it because we're friends. I appreciate that spirit & motivation.
Despite his formal music training, Wang was keen to enter the pop scene - despite claims that it was a waste of his talent. In classical music we have Yo-yo Ma, but there is no internationally recognized Chinese pop star, Wang explains. There is a huge potential there. Wang thinks it's a good thing that there are so many Chinese artists who have achieved international appeal, such as Jackie chan, chow Yun-fat & Lucy Liu, & he hopes to achieve the same in pop music & be a good role model for Chinese youths around the world.
Neither does he mind the ever-increasing commercialism of the pop industry. My view on music is that it has to be commercial, Wang says. If it's good, people love it & buy it. One crucial difference here is that Wang is not in it just for the money & fame. He's not led by commercialism but merely plays into it. My goal is not to make a lot of karaoke hits, make lots of money & be famous, otherwise i would have made more than one album a year, Wang says. Music must come first. When it's good, it becomes commercial.
Besides his remarkable musical talent, Wang's career has also been blessed by man notable musicians around the world. It was the late Seth McCoy who taught Wang how to sing. McCoy, who passed on a few years ago at 68, was among the very first black soloists to break through the boundary of racism & sing for Metropolitan Opera. It was McCoy who inspired Wang to think about his heritage. Seth told me the world is not Rochester; here you're Wang Lee-hom, but outside there, you're a foreigner.
After his pop career kicked off, Wang met Jim Lee, a respected & experienced music producer who has worked with many notable pop stars such as Karen Mok & Coco Lee. The pairing has proved to be sensation in the pop music industry. And it was with Lee that Wang worked in producing the highly popular track, Revolution. Lee taught me a lot how to be a producer - the technical side of things, says Wang. He is my mentor. Back in New York, where he spend about half of the year churning out new songs, Wang also works with many big wigs, one being Alex Richbourg, drumer programmer for Janet Jackson. In one of his newest songs City of Pleasure, Wangs works with Richbourg to combine Chinese elements, such as ping-pong ball & kung fu sounds with Western style drum grooves. This is apparently the path Wang wants to take in bridging the two worlds he is familiar with.
Wang's passion for his heritage is also noticeable in his rearrangement of the song Descendants of the Dragon. Originally sung by Wang's uncle, Li Juan-fu, Descendants of the Dragon became a legend in Chinese music when it was released in the 1980's. It was at a time when China was recovering from an especially turbulent & destructive period in its history & moving on to becoming a world power. The song touched a chord for many Chinese people, at home as well as around the world.
While Li has given up singing & moved on to heading Yahoo Taiwan, his nephew is picking up the ball to take the legendary song further . Twenty years ago, when my uncle sang this song, it had a more local meaning. Now, when you talk about Chinese people, you are talking globally, Wang said in a recent interview.
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Dec 18, 2002 17:10:39 GMT 8
Post by forever on Dec 18, 2002 17:10:39 GMT 8
Another of Wang's musical inspirations is Stevie Wonder. Wang quotes one of Wonder's 1974 hits, Living For The City as what he thinks music creation should be. In the middle of the song, the music lowers & there is dramatic interlude about a black man visiting New York City, & being tragically framed for drug possession. [Stevie Wonder] does all these different voices; he doesn't mind doing these things that might make others think of him as an idol, Wang says. He believes in what he is doing.
Wang's attitude to life & his career seem to be a winning formula, & work has never stopped pouring in. Besides his newest album, Forever First Day, & the single, Time To Fall In Love, this talented homeboy, as Wang often refers to himself , has just finished the shooting of his first two movies. China Strike Force, in which Wang stars with pop legend Aaron Kwok & Japanese bombshell Norika Fujiwara, was released last month, while In the Names of Heroes, with Hong Kong heartthrob Stephen Fung & pop princess Gigi Leung, is expected to be released this month.
Yet if there is one more thing that Wang has succeeded in over the past years, it must be the art of dealing with people. Like many other up-&-coming pop artists, Wang has had his fair number of publicity headaches. Rumours about his sexuality & who he has been dating recently, as well as whispers along the grapevine that he stepped on Aaron Kwok's toes for wanting to sing the title track for China Strike Force, have all, at one time or another, got this homeboy frustrated. I personally didn't mind [the sexuality rumour What upsets me is the way that the question came out, Wang says vehemently. I was at an event for something totally unrelated & then out of the blue there was this question. It was rude & disrespectful.
At other times, Wang is weary of how reporters are so interested in his love life. I was at this press conference once promoting my album, & there were a few minutes out of an hour-long press conference where some reporters asked about this song i wrote about lost love, Wang recalls. The next day, i read the paper & the headline was Wang Lee-hom's Lost Love. There was no mentioning of my other songs. I was like, 'what the hell?' Needless to say, recent sightings of him at a restaurant with Karen Mok have fuelled further speculation about the duo's relationship.
Wang sees nothing in these rumours & looks on them with a laugh. I've wised up to see things as they are; there are always good things & bad things said about you. Wang sums up the experience: Some people might say, you've put on weight, & then others say, you're skinnier. I say, 'screw it'
Wang has found the perfect solution to getting his thoughts across without them being twisted by the press. He now writes a weekly diary on Sony Music Taiwan's website in Chinese & English. If people care to read about it, then they'll know. And Mandy do. The content of the diary has been recapped in many of his fans website & Wang receives many responses each week.
In a couple of months, Wang will return to the life he loves most: making music in the studio. He is expecting to release his first English album in Japan next year. It's not going to be a holiday - as a matter of fact, work in the studio can get quite stressful & intense. I don't deal with stress very well, I sink into it, Wang says. When I'm stressed, I become high-strung & can't eat & sleep; I don't change my clothes & I don't take a shower. Sounds horrible, but when that stress is a result of your passion, it can be ironically pleasurable. I feel much better now, having spent my day off practicing piano in pure unadulterated solitude. I spent quality time today...& am much happy this way, Wang wrote, closing one of his recent diaries. The End!!!!!!!!!!
Alamak! this article is reali long that i have to split it up,> 5k words. Anyway will start new thread tomorrow.
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Dec 18, 2002 17:27:30 GMT 8
Post by fAytH on Dec 18, 2002 17:27:30 GMT 8
Wowee~ never knew the bit about the ping-pong ball and kungfu sounds fused with western drum grooves until i read tt article.. heh. Now the song sounds so much more different after you know the details.. and "Living For The City" is really cool~ I think the thing about Black singers is tt over so many years, the things they've been through are massive, tt's why the music they make is so different.. their determination is impressive as well.. guess tt's why Lee Hom likes them.. not to mention the fact tt he looks up to them btw, rem in Christine's article Lee Hom said he listens to India Arie? Well, she's also one who's inspired by Stevie Wonder. She's got a song called "Wonderful" which is a tribute Stevie Wonder. Good stuff~
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Dec 18, 2002 23:54:24 GMT 8
Post by cHrIsTiNe on Dec 18, 2002 23:54:24 GMT 8
Hey I never know she is inspired by Stevie Wonder. Woah! Seems like a lot of artists r inspired by him. Anyway, he is def the Mozart of mainstream music, dun u think so?
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Dec 19, 2002 0:23:23 GMT 8
Post by fAytH on Dec 19, 2002 0:23:23 GMT 8
Mozart 'cos like him, Stevie Wonder's a child prodigy? I think india.arie looks up to him 'cos she's a Motown artiste, like Stevie was. All those who listened to Motown and got inspired from there definitely knows Stevie Wonder. All those who're into soul and stuff like tt, I'm sure Motown is not unfamiliar.. ;D well, what can I say? Stevie Wonder is the guru.. haha~ i better stop before i start sounding corny with things like, "the guru"..
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Dec 19, 2002 0:28:29 GMT 8
Post by cHrIsTiNe on Dec 19, 2002 0:28:29 GMT 8
Haa. The Guru is a corny show. Haa. Dun tell me Boys 2 Men r inspired by Stevie too ince they r from Motown? If I didn't remember wrongly, he is the youngest artist to have a No1 hit. I think he was in the music biz since 10+, around 12. Amazing rite?
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Dec 19, 2002 1:20:59 GMT 8
Post by fAytH on Dec 19, 2002 1:20:59 GMT 8
I suppose to a certain extent they are as well. He got a record deal at the tender age of 12 and was noticed when he was playing drums in church. impressive, huh? He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in '96. for more details, you can visit this website, www.rollingstone.com/artists/bio.asp?oid=2256 or conduct a search for his biography, it's all over the net. Ok, I'm beginning to sound like his publicist.. those people who have no freaking idea of how he sounds like, he did "True To Your Heart" with 98¡ã on the "Mulan" soundtrack, and his most popular song would be "I Just Called To Say I Love You" (it was in the 70s, go ask ur parents ) But tt pop song is seriously not all there is to him.. you gotta listen to the other great stuff. ;D
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Dec 20, 2002 13:46:53 GMT 8
Post by forever on Dec 20, 2002 13:46:53 GMT 8
In the song, "City of Pleasure", I also tried to incorporate many elements of Chinese music and Chinese culture, without being too obnoxiously literal. Actually, I had a lot of fun creating this song. The melody in the verses is again, strictly five-note (Eb pentatonic) and uses call and response devices to enhance the melody's simplicity. But the real fun was in making the arrangement, and it's this kind of detail which is not audible in a casual listening of the song that impells me to write about the album much in the way that classical composers write about their pieces. First off, the song begins with the sound of hitting ping-pong balls, which I recorded with Janet Jackson's drum programmer Alex Richbourg. I figured Ping-Pong, a Chinese game that has been embraced by the entire world, added a different dimension to this song, and also could serve as a great percussion snare sound! In the middle section of this song, I also sampled a section of a Sony Playstation Kung-fu fighting game because Kung-fu is also an internationally embraced aspect of Asian culture. Plus, the game just sounded great in the track. "City of Pleasure" also features instruments such as the gu zhen and er hu to give it even more of a Chinese flavor. However, the singing style and funky drum grooves played by Alex definitely make this dance track an international sounding song.
this is what Lee hom says in one of his weekly diary abt his song city of Pleasure
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Dec 21, 2002 0:52:02 GMT 8
Post by fAytH on Dec 21, 2002 0:52:02 GMT 8
Ahh~ don't you just love it when he explains all the technical stuff to his music? ;D I think it makes the listening experience so much better when you know the background to it. And you get to know all the techniques he and the musicians use.. wah seh. Cool man.. For now, I hope he still remembers that he has this online journal thingy going on and continues to share with us stuff like that when he embarks on the journey of his two new albums, as well as the "Moon Child" soundtrack.
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