6/14[海峽時報] Chua's in a lovely mood
Chua's in a lovely mood
If TANYA CHUA sounds elated over the telephone from Taipei, she has more
than one reason to be happy.
Her new Mandarin album, Stranger, was released by Warner Music in Taiwan
last Friday, ending her two-year silence there.
It will be released here on Wednesday.
Response, so far, has been warm and mostly positive. She says on Thursday
evening, relief evident in her voice. Her previous releases in Taiwan had
also been critically acclaimed.
Warner could not provide sales figures for Stranger, but a spokesman says
advance orders there had exceeded 20,000 copies.
More than 80,000 copies were distributed to retailers on the first day of
release.
Such good indications of market confidence prompted the label to throw a
celebration party in Taipei last Friday.
Chua, 28, says the album title stems from the fact that "I've been always
for a while and feel like s Stranger being relaunched again".
It marks the start of a relationship with Warner which signed her recently.
She was previously with Universal Music, which dropped her over lukewarm
sales.
Another reason for Chua feeling on top of the world is her blossoming
romance with sought-after homegrown composer and producer Eric Ng, 27.
He has written and produced for the likes of Sandy Lam and Fish Leung and
is also an accomplished session guitarist.
He is, by Chua's admission, "an old friend" and one of the collaborators
on her English album, Jupiter, from last year.
For Stranger, he wrote and produced the first single, Deep, and he also
tweaked the knobs on other tracks.
To her, the album, of which she wrote seven of its 11 songs, is a
collection of urban love stories that chart the cycle of falling in and
out of romance, as well as gaining enlightenment in the process.
Like Jupiter, the songs here are arranged in such a way that they can be
easily replicated for live performances.
"Having loads of samples sounds great, but you can't reproduce them
entirely on stage. So we went for a more live and organic feel," she says.
Preferring to keep the lid shut on her love life, she is cagey when asked
when and how she and Ng got together. "Let's just say it happened in the
midst of making music." Word has it that sparks flew during the making of
Jupiter.
By then, she had already broken up with her then-boyfriend of four years,
Austrian musician-producer Lupo Groinig.
Anything else you ask, other than her past and present relationships, is
dandy with her, it seems.
For instance, she speaks freely about her self-imposed 10-day quarantine
in Bali – "a neutral, Sars-free place" – before flying to Taiwan on May
19 to promote Stranger.
Though she is now on the same label as Stefanie Sun, there are no plans
for any collaborations. She has, however, penned a song for the
Singaporean singer's next album, something "very melodic and U2-ish".
Chua is open to suggestions that both of them should team up to write a
duet about love. Sun, 24, has reportedly fallen for an accountant here.
"Just tell me when. I'll be waiting," says Chua.
◆Stranger will be released on Wednesday.
By Samuel Lee
The Straits Times
2003.06.14
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