Print

Mail

wiki links

Recording a musical ode to Taiwan

By Gavin Phipps
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002, Page 18

Zhang Yu-wei describes his new album as a "music-documentary". PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES

He might have been a winner at the Golden Horse Awards two years ago, but Zhang Yu-wei (張羽偉) certainly hasn't let the achievement go to his head.

In fact, fast forward two years and the singer-songwriter is much the same relatively unknown nattily-dressed musician who took to the stage to receive the award for Best Original Film Score only to be ignored by the press in the media frenzy that goes hand-in-hand with the glitzy event.

"The whole thing was pretty amusing. I hadn't made much of an effort to dress-up for the occasion," recalled Zhang. "I remember sitting in the auditorium holding the award for about 20 minutes before I even had my photo taken. I was wondering what I was doing there, as nobody had a clue who I was."

As a complete outsider, Zhang took away an award for his musical score to Chen Hsin-yi's (陳芯宜) film Bundled (我叫阿銘啦). Quite an achievement, especially for an artist who had never had a hit and an even greater one considering Zhang's rather unconventional approach to his music.

"I used electronic equipment to enhance a project once, but wasn't happy with the results," he explained. "It was too clean, too faultless and quite inhuman. There's nothing at all wrong with a bit of human imperfection here and there. A missed chord, a cough, it makes the end result all that more genuine."

While Zhang's folk/rock hybrid brand of music continues to lurk some where on the peripheries of the mainstream and underground scenes, the musician set tongues wagging recently when he signed a deal with Taiwan's Wind Records -- a label with a predominantly New Age catalogue of musicians.

"It was quite a break from tradition for the label. And at first I think [Wind] was pretty wary about signing such a contrasting act," said Zhang. "As the project progressed, though, management became increasingly open to the idea and let me record how I saw fit. There was no interference in the studio whatsoever."

While the finished product cuts a musical swathe through genres ranging from rock, folk, blues and even traditional Taiwanese ballads, neither his record label nor the musician see the release as just another record.

Littered with social commentary, How Will You Live Your Tomorrow (明天要按怎過?) is a portrait of Taiwan as seen through Zhang's eyes, or rather his six-strings. It is something that the balladeer likes to refer to as his "music-documentary."

His audio creation paints an amusing if less than rosy picture of life on Taiwan. In liking the production to a fly-on-the-wall documentary rather than simply an album, Zhang hopes to open the ears of the listening public to the Taiwan he discovered.

Cutting his teeth in the music industry 20 years ago with an album entitled Lover (愛情) -- an acoustic album on which Zhang's rough edged vocals crooned their way through simple folksy melodies -- and following it up shortly thereafter with an equally mellow production, The Very Best (出狀元), Zhang was to find life in the love-lane increasingly dull and restrictive.

"It was a frame of mind. Being young I felt the need to experience and explore love though music," continued Zhang. "But as grew older and wiser, I found myself moving away from simple human emotion and instead began to view my surroundings and the environment in which I lived in much the same manner as a documentary film maker would."

After a brief stint with indie label Crystal Records (水晶唱片), Zhang set out to explore the Taiwan he had been born in, but knew little about. With his songwriting prowess and off-center approach to music acting as his camera, Zhang traveled around the country documenting both the good and the bad, the colorful and the bland in a musical format.

During his journey Zhang penned a staggering 100 tunes. And while many of his adventures led him to places and into situations in which less pleasant aspects of life in Taiwan often manifested themselves, Zhang maintained his on-the-fence documentary-style line of thought.

This approach made him a lot of friends, but it did prove somewhat problematic, however, especially when he entered the recording studio. Not wanting to be categorized as a protest singer, Zhang steered clear of criticizing government policies, social values or society as a whole.

"Anyone can stand on a soapbox and let loose with a tirade about this or that," explained the singer-songwriter. "To make social comment without apportioning the blame might sound odd, but, hey, what's the point of pointing the finger at any one group or person when social problems are rarely, if ever, the fault of one individual."

More than just random tunes, the album's 10 numbers were written in order to document specific people, places and events and each tune carries with it its own story. Zhang's songs portray the everyday lives of Taiwan's people, regardless of social standing.

From the street vendor to the bourgeoisie and from the garbage truck to private automobile, the tunes are all gently persuasive yet at the same time rough and ready.

The musical styles Zhang incorporates are as varied as were many the people he met while compiling the album. At times Zhang's guitar oozes rock and sounds remarkably like that of Taiwan's much troubled heavy rock act, the Chairman, as on the opening track A-be's March (阿伯進行曲). On numbers such as Fool (憨大呆) it's the nakashi-laden refrains of traditional Taiwanese folk that ekes its way out of the sound system.

"I wanted to be as close to the street, so to speak, as is possible," he said. "I'd go and hangout with the people waiting for the garbage truck for hours in order to hear their voices. The idea was to meet as diverse a mix of people and hear as many differing ideas as was possible. And put the lot together in one very varied and unique package."
This story has been viewed 1659 times.