[新聞] Soul trader

看板KhalilFong (方大同)作者rururuby (rururuby)時間17年前 (2008/09/15 18:18)推噓0(0推 0噓 0→)

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（舊的,不過我覺得部分內容很有意思） :) （香港）[South China Morning Post] 2008-3-27 After winning over fans in Hong Kong, Khalil Fong is set to conquer the rest of Asia. Lee Wing-sze meets an artist who never misses a beat. It can't be easy being a soul boy in a sea of Canto pop, but after spending recent years warming up in Hong Kong, singer-songwriter Khalil Fong says he's ready to conquer the Asian music scene with his soulful sounds. The Hawaiian-born Chinese musician has received widespread regional acclaim for Wonderland, his third studio album but the first to receive a full Asian release. I've waited for this release for three years. For my last two albums, the time wasn't right in the market and perhaps with me personally for an Asian release, but they gave me a good warm-up for my official entry into the Mandarin regions , says the singer and multi-instrumentalist nicknamed Soul Boy. Fong is based in Hong Kong, but has spent the past few months on the road promoting Wonderland in Taiwan, Beijing, Guangzhou and other areas. And now it's Hong Kong's turn for an evening of soul classics and Fong's spin on the genre, with concerts scheduled for Sunday and Monday at Hitec in Kowloon Bay. Besides playing numbers from his three albums, the 24-year-old will perform renditions by his heroes such as Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, James Taylor and Frank Sinatra, as well as tunes by Taiwanese musicians such as rocker Chang Cheng-yue. We're going to play some songs that the audience will probably not be familiar with, but we don't care. I've been asked if I'm afraid people will not respond when I play unfamiliar songs, he says. But I believe that if you never play it, they'll never hear it. Fong, who co-directs the shows with highly rated producer Edward Chan - the band leader since his first small solo gigs at the Hong Kong Arts Centre - says much attention is paid to the arrangements, and the concerts will offer complex tones and layerings with the help of performers such as Philadelphia bassist Rayvaughn Covington and renowned local guitarist Wong Chung-yin. We aren't too flashy. We're going to keep it quite musical, Fong says. In Hong Kong, most shows are not as strictly musically based. We are hoping to make ours more like the western style of concerts. While Fong has been performing small-scale gigs during his Asian promotional campaign, he says he will try to transfer this interactive and intimate live experience to the 3,000-capacity hall at Hitec - his biggest solo shows so far. He will play in front of another 3,000-strong audience in Taipei next week. After a childhood reared on his father's record collection, it was perhaps no surprise that Fong developed a love for soul, and his early favourites included Earth, Wind and Fire, Wonder and Marvin Gaye. His father also taught him to play drums, and then Fong taught himself a range of instruments including piano , guitar and bass. Although he listened to rock 'n' roll, R&B and hip hop from an early age, Fong says soul music is his greatest love. I'm not a technically great player like Jamie Cullum. I play what I feel and hear. I grew up with [soul music] and playing that kind of groove and feel is something that comes naturally. It's an extension of what I do, he says. Fong describes his latest album as a mixture of every era of soul music, from 1970s retro to neo soul, with a plethora of catchy hooks and harmonies. My first album [Soul Boy] was the first batch of material I wrote. On the second album [This Love], I played around with a few genres that I like. But on this one, I wanted to give a more consistent sound, since this is my first album released outside Hong Kong. It's the first time that many people will hear my music, so I wanted to give them a very direct representation of what I do, says Fong. A follower of the Baha'i faith and a vegetarian, Fong is also a committed conservationist and addresses environmental issues through the love songs on his latest album. Obviously, I realised I couldn't actually write about recycling bottles and stuff like that. But I really believe that love between two people and the environment is very much the same thing. If you don't protect it, respect it and develop it, one day it will fade away and be destroyed. Fong describes himself as a one-man studio, as he writes, arranges, produces and performs most of the songs on his albums, and says everything in life can be an inspiration to him. Anything that is artistic and has to do with images, information and daily experiences can be a topic of interest, he says. Movies are another strong influence on the performer, who developed a strong interest in rock as a child after watching the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba. On his second album, This Love, Fong took inspiration from the Wong Kar-wai film In the Mood for Love to write the song So Lai-chun. And on his latest album, the arrangements songs are subconsciously influenced by the movie world, he says. I try to create different pictures through the arrangements, like a backdrop for everyday life, he says. However, Fong hasn't had time to watch any movies of late due to his hectic promotional jaunt throughout Asia - and this packed schedule will remain a challenge while he tries to meet his goal of producing an album every year. I'm wondering if I can realistically get everything done, he says, adding that all he can think of is a holiday in Paris. When you are tired, you can enter a different mode. I feel a little like I'm losing my sense of humour. -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 219.77.145.192