Another friend of mine have recently come into the picture (I seem to have a few don't I?). He's an arranger/engineer who's working with one of Malaysia's best producer.. and I must say I'm simply stoked. He had a listen to what I've done so far and he's excited to try and take a shot at achieving the sound that I've been looking for.. That very same night, we had a chat about how I should be approaching my career and thus began a new chapter in this journey: Identity.
I've been getting this question a lot lately: "What makes you different from the rest?". I tend to get a little annoyed at this question because I find it somewhat insulting when people can't see something special in me that differentiate me from others... but that's just the ego talking. In the end I can't blame them because I've been approaching this project somewhat in secrecy. Anyways, I'm gonna take this this opportunity to clear it up to the best that I can... So here goes.
There's a famous Asian popstar from Korea named 'Rain' that 'claimed' to have taken Asia by storm (I say claimed coz I can't help but get the feeling that his popularity was exaggerated). Anyways, for those that don't know, this guy's pretty much the closest thing Asia has to our own Justin Timberlake. He sings and dance quite well, and the look? well he was a model so...
Now it seems like this guy is a winning formula for success, right? Close.. but not quite. He did tour Asia and had his time in the limelight but he seem to have phased out as fast as he entered the industry, and I think I know where it went wrong, and this is what I'm hoping to correct.
See the problem with this guy is that he only sings (and can only talk) in Korean. As great of a performer he was, Asia is made up of multiple countries and thousands of different races who speaks different languages... so the majority of his target audience had no idea what he was really on about!
Don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of this guy. I respect that he tried, and he did it with pride as he attempted to do it in his own native tongue. He attempted to revitalize a stale industry by upping the standards.. making it one step closer to that of western standards.. but ultimately Music is about being able to allow your listeners to relate... and they simply can't do that if they don't understand.
That said, I'd like to think of myself as somebody who improves on this 'close-to-winning-formula' by eliminating the one thing that held him back: the language barrier. And how do I intend to do that? To do it in English of course - the one universal language that most of the population can understand.
Recently I explained this to a friend of mine who's a director of a major publishing company (who also happens to be my publisher) and he has no doubt that I'm capable of achieving this BUT provided I have a very strong label behind me. I couldn't agree more. There's plenty of great talent n music out there that never reached its full potential because of a lack in marketing. So, with no budget whatsoever and no label behind me, where do I go from here?
After much thought I've decided to start from the ever popular MySpace, along with many other free music-based internet promotional sites. I realized that I can't keep making music and not expose it. Though my intentions are sincere by holding on to it until I'm ready for scrutiny, I gotta face my fears and allow my music to be out there and heard and, yes, be scrutinized.
This is the only way I see left to allow me to proceed with my project. I could never get the budget for 'Asian market domination' on my own so my only chance is to create a buzz on the internet, if that buzz is due of course. From there I could only hope that people are receptive of what I've done so far and perhaps, if I'm lucky enough, catch an international label's interest. A long shot yes, but the best option at this point...
So, planned date of posting? January '08. Consider it the first thing I'm gonna do in the New Year. Look out for 3 - 4 songs, done to the best that I can with what I have, spread out on MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, Amp, Imeem, Pure.volume, Mp3 unsigned, and whatever else is out there.
The next couple of weeks will be a lot of tweaking and pulling strings to try and get the music to sound as good as possible before then.. so... WISH ME LUCK.
If you think you have any ideas that may help me I would really appreciate it if you could leave your suggestions by commenting on this post. Anything at all :-)
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