He might have been a winner at the Golden Horse Awards two years ago, but Zhang Yu-wei
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."
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
As a complete outsider, Zhang took away an award for his musical score to Chen Hsin-yi's
"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
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
"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
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
"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."
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