theme says "I don't want to be a singing machine"
Jeff Chang (Jeff Chang), Xiluo Town, Yunlin County, Taiwan Province, China, native of Tong'an District, Xiamen City, Fujian Province, Chinese pop music male singer, actor, stage troupe leader.
Hello everyone. I may be better at "singing" than "speaking", but I will try my best to say what I want to say today.
Regarding the question of stars, I think it is completely impossible for me to become a star. Of course, many incidents also told me - "You are not suitable, you are impossible." For example, in the process of entering this industry, I was kicked out. When Brother Li Zongsheng actually asked me out one day, he said he wanted to chat with you.
At this time, I was completely blank, "How much do you know about this music industry?" I said, "I don't." What else do you expect. I said, I have no expectations. "What do you want to do?" I said, "I'm not pursuing it." Then why did you come to sing? "I said: "Because I like music. "After asking a few questions, I was directly told to say goodbye."
In fact, at the beginning, all the states were not in my imagination and expectations, nor in my expectations. When I came to the label, my first thought was that there was no way I was going to release a film anyway. Since you signed me up, I will find a part-time opportunity.
Maybe if I work hard, I can upgrade it to a work one day. People. Because such voices were not popular at that time. For example: in my early days, all the singers were made by the Rolling Stones, such as Zhao Chuan, Zhou Huajian, Li Zongsheng, Luo Dayou, so my voice was very important to them.
is an outlier. The only chance I had to try to improve was of course the song "You Are the Only" by Pan Yueyun , but at that time, I found that I actually had several reasons: The first was that this album was "ten people in one set", so the record company had pushed all the available male singers, but they couldn't make up ten, so they gave me a chance to make up the tenth.
My voice was alien for that era
After releasing this single, we recorded it based on the reaction. After recording the new album, the planner from the record company came. Chatting with me, he discovered that I was a person who said ten sentences to me and I would only reply to one sentence. They complained directly to the boss, "I don't know what to do now.
" I remember that I should be the only artist in our company who was scolded by the photographer. He just threw things and said he couldn't shoot. What was the cover of my first album? When he was helpless, angry, and didn't know how to take pictures, when he complained to the publicity staff, I just sat there in a daze.
He took a photo and that photo became the cover. What's even more exaggerated is that they finally decided: Forget it, I won't slap you in the face, no. So the back of this album is an album that I lay on my desk and couldn't see anything. So there’s really no way the record company can push me, and then I can’t get into any media.
So they used the only bad strategy: buy all the ads and play the song on the radio. So my song is like this. It started getting played on the radio, and I started letting people hear my voice first. I didn’t expect this song to become a hit.
Why the record company treated him as a "slave"
After becoming popular, my time does not belong to me, and my life does not belong to me. This album was released in March, so I have to go to the army in November, so I still have a little more than half a year, and the record company basically treats me as a "slave".
In the past few months, he has released three albums, filmed two movies, and filmed two TV series. I remember one time I couldn't stand it anymore, so I told my boss, "I really can't help it. Can you give me a day off?" He secretly took me into a small hotel and let me sleep in the hotel 24 hours a day.
During that time, I actually felt that this was a big test for me, thinking, "What are you going to do? What are you doing?" I felt that I was already a clown during that time. To be honest, except for singing, nothing I did was what I knew.
I remember the funny thing is, I went to film a movie called "Successful Ridge". I happened to have an injury to my foot at that time, so I walked with a cane. They said "It's okay, I can shoot it" and asked me to perform.
A soldier with an injured foot. I said that was okay, but I didn’t shave my head. "It doesn't matter, let you be the squad leader, and the squad leader doesn't need to shave his head. They said.
There is one thing in particular that makes me want to quit the entertainment industry right away. When I stand on the stage, everyone gives me great enthusiasm, just like before. But when I went to serve in the army, I was a private, and I was the one with the lowest shoulders. I was a soldier, so I felt very uncomfortable since the day I checked in.
Because as soon as I checked in, the minister's car came to pick me up and said that a certain officer was looking for you. Is there something important going on? I went there uneasily, but what did he ask me to do?
When I put so much effort into it, making so many records over such a long time, doing so many things, it just turned out to be fun for everyone to watch. I felt that this was not what I wanted to do when I first entered this industry, so I kept thinking that after I retired from the army and fulfilled my contract, I would stop singing.
Almost missed "Love Like Tide"?
But this album "Love Like Tide" gave me a complete change, that is to say, it made me understand the power of music. The song process was also filled with a lot of complicated choices. First, after Li Zongsheng wrote this song, he felt that this song was not suitable for me.
He feels that this song is meant to be sung to a person who has had many life experiences and a sense of vicissitudes of life. But I don’t know what convinced him to have such a whim. In other words, if you put such a background on a clean boy who has nothing, how will he react?
I gave it a try, but the song didn't actually react during the release stage. No one could accept it, and the record company was very, very disappointed and very discouraged. But just a few months after the album came out, and I think it had built up some energy, this song just exploded. It's like the whole world knows me.
This is a big turning point from "I don't want to do this job anymore, I just want to do my job well" to "This job is kind of interesting", meaning Yes: When you're really committed to something, you can still feel that power, and the connection isn't like watching the show when I was in the military. It means they are willing to share with you what is on their mind.
Men from all walks of life and of all ages come to share their views on relationships with me. Because they feel that finally someone is willing to sing about their fragile or weak side, and they have another spokesperson. So this is also the power of music that I feel.
and then " is a little bit tempting ". Because Carina Lau listened to "Love Like Tide" and she liked it so much. So my boss lied to her and said, "As long as you come and sign the contract, I can let Leslie Cheung sing with you.
"I lied to her, and then I also sang this song. But I think there is a hurdle that I have never been able to overcome, which is that one successful song after another has been released, allowing me to have a lot of heart-to-heart communication with the audience. But I am still a singing machine, We release three or four records a year.
So I have been thinking, is this how I keep singing? It’s not that I don’t like these songs, and it’s not that I have nothing to do with them, but I have been singing songs for so long, just to make some money.The songs I sing have nothing to do with me, they all belong to the record company, and even if I leave the Stones, I won’t be able to use these songs anymore.
What made him want to quit the entertainment industry
This thing made me feel too terrible, so I was very, very determined at the time: I wanted to set up my own studio. I'm going to start taking ownership of the music. When we hear creative rights, we think of the creator writing the lyrics or composing the music, but what about the singer? The singers are actually just on stage, singing their music. Is
so simple? Not really. Let me give you a simple example: the song " don't be afraid of my sadness ". I'm not the original singer. Before the singer sang "Don't Be Afraid of My Sadness", he had his own way of writing, but the creation of this song was considered unsuccessful.
My creation, although I sang this song, I used my own way to make the audience feel the emotion they deserve. This is the power of creation, so the singer should be another creator. I don’t just want to be an artist who sings and dances on stage for everyone to see and earn some money. So the other thing I have to do is: I have to manage my private life and I don't leave any clues that they can follow me.
I think this circle is not what everyone imagines, it is so impersonal. It's not as mercenary as everyone thinks. You yourself know what attitude you should use to face this circle, and he will give you an appropriate response accordingly.
I remember a story where I changed agents and I had just been with him and he wanted me to send fake news to reporters. He said, "Okay, let me make an appointment with a reporter for you first. After talking to the reporter for five minutes, he (the reporter) said: "Don't talk about this yet. Are you sure I will write this story? "
If you want to write, I can help you write, but you have to consider the consequences afterwards. "Consequences" means that you will have to use this method to get the title forever and ever in the future. So that time I said decisively, "Okay I understand, I don't want this title either.
“I went back to my agent and said, ‘This is not what I’m going to do, this is not what we should be doing.’ So from that point on, it was clear to me that everything I was doing was for my music. This choice is important.
I'm not an artist who's pushed into a position through packaging, gossip, fabricated events, or headlines, because I'm not that kind of singer. So, working with professionals is a very important thing I've learned since entering this industry.
Now looking back on my second album, it is still a fantastic production combination including Li Zongsheng, Qi Qin , Xiao Chong. So can you catch up with these professionals. You are as good as them and can accomplish such things together on a parallel line with them.
So this has always been a principle that I adhere to in this industry. That is, I want to be the best, but not the best. In fact, this matter has always been a very important motto for me, that is, I want to be on the same level as these great people, and I want to be a great person.
But there is no first place in this industry, so I have always believed in the "secondary philosophy" in this industry, which means that the second place is also within the top three. When I'm not arguing with everyone, I feel like I get more help. When I was at the Rolling Stones, the record company created some imaginary enemies to boost everyone's morale.
Who was our biggest competitor at that time? Flying Saucer Records' Zhang Yusheng . The other is Wu Sikai that can play records. Once we met Zhang Yusheng at an event, and his publicist and my publicist were chatting. Only then did you realize that the hostility between the two parties suddenly emerged. You heard the other party say in a very sour tone: "This record is selling very well, and no new fans have joined." That's about it. So I felt very uncomfortable at that time, which meant that it was necessary to do this. I definitely wouldn't want to work with anyone else in this mode.
Until now, I think I still have this mentality. I don’t need to be the first in everything, but I look forward to having more space to cooperate with outstanding professional elites. So I think these are probably the things that made me who I am today. The first is my “second philosophy” that keeps me going until now. The second one is how I want it to be. I have always been loyal to my inner choices and will not be swayed by external fame, fortune or more temptations. This is my personal experience that I share with you today.
Author introduction:
I am a writer born in the 1990s. I share positive energy every day, insist on doing what I like, and pass on every beautiful life. Regardless of the hardships of life, live a good life according to your own ideas!
