台北我来了！ 【taipei here i come!】

sorry for the silence, guys...

will be traveling to taipei for the first time tomorrow...

hope to show you some photos then...

i am looking forward to a mad mad CD shopping spree, yahoo!

又一好評 [another feather in the cap]

音乐的路 [the never ending road of music]

音乐的路

路永远都不会容易走因为一切皆在变迁。
世事没有任何一个方案是可以一劳永逸运用到底的。
选择了就要坚持，不断学习就是唯一的力量、信心和方向。

人的一生最值得我们回味的，说到最后其实就是：
在于抉择，不在于期望。
在于追求，不在于等待。
在于投入，不在于埋怨。
在与冲击，不在于安逸。

热量是因为燃烧；火花是因为磨擦。
所以燃烧的灼热是必需的；磨擦的痛楚是必然的，两者都是珍贵的。
我们害怕是因为每天不曾停止过的对未来的难于掌控的恐惧。
我们勇敢是因为终于明白生命其实没有什么是不可能失去的。
置之于死地而后生，破釜沉舟，这就是决心，这就是完成一件事情的一个先决条件。

大家都在说：唱片不能做了！
如果你真的相信，那最好就是改行，这也是一项选择，是身为人者的一项权利，没有所谓的失意或者是难堪；更不该抱有埋怨和不舍。
世界之大，何处不是天地？

唱片是真得不能做了吗？
也许是。
但是，音乐在人类还没有历史记载的荒蛮年代就已经存在了，这是事实。
人的一生都在生老病死中度过，其中每一个环节皆音乐，这也是人类从古至今不变的事实。

所以，若是唱片真的不能做了，那我们就回到做唱片的最初：
我们做音乐。

共勉之。

周金亮
30042009

2v1g 迈进台湾! [2v1g enters taiwan!]

after many futile attempts, finally, 2v1g will be entering taiwan!

many distributors have expressed interest on 2v1g last year, but none could clear the mechanical rights for the song (since they are all cover versions written by taiwanese composers) and none worked hard enough to bring 2v1g to taiwan....

one year later, finally, one suitor shows enough interest to woo us.... and the marriage is almost certain....

you may ask - what's the big deal since many malaysian artistes also appear in taiwan. the big deal is we are merely a small indie label and we have no connections in taiwan. we are able to go there purely based on the strength of our music!

this is another milestone for us! yay!

学无止境 [we never stop learning]

mr. cha seng tiang - famous baritone and vocal teacher

i remember what evelyn, the boss of NBT told me after 2v1g's maiden performance in NBT: "your two girls are good but they can still improve given the right tutor... why don't you send them for classical training?".

that got me thinking. yes, i want my 2 voices to scale higher heights. i got in touch with evelyn's good friend - mr. cha seng tiang, famous baritone and vocal teacher - and was about to bring regine and winnie to see him. that was last november 2008. in december 2008, regine annouced her retirement from showbiz and the whole plan was halted.

now with sheena in the team, i reconnected with mr. cha again. i brought our 2 voices to meet him last friday. mr. cha is a very humble but highly articulate man. his is so good that he could tell the strengths and weaknesses of my 2 voices just by hearing them sing a few notes. i was mighty impressed! mr. cha doesn't normally teach pop singers but he made an exception this time.

mr.cha thinks with my 2 singers' strong foundation, all they need is 3 months' of training to strengthen their foundation and overcome their weaknesses.

you can expect an all-new 2v1g in 3 months' time!

2v1g 第二张专辑开案啦！[2v1g's sophomore album kicks off!]

so after many hurdles and delays, finally we kicked off our 2nd album's production!

it has been a year since we last had our kick-off meeting and it is so exciting to be able to do another album of 2v1g! it is going to be another memorable chapter in our lives!

the committee, with our new "V", sheena lim, met today to discuss several things, chief of all is the songs selection for the 2nd album.

we have shortlisted 15 songs and the girls are going to have a practice with my producer by the end of the month to finalize the songs. we also would like roger to consider doing one solo as a bonus track.

the economic climate is very bad now but with less competition, we are sure 2v1g will shine!

all we can say is that all the songs we chose have very strong characters. compared to last album, which is ballad-centric, this time we have more mid-tempo songs and more power ballads.

overall, the melody is very strong and it has got plenty of variety.

we wish to launch it by end of july.... god willing.

are you excited? we certainly are!

歌在呼吸 #4 [song we cherish #4]

一个来自大陆的歌手； 一个实力派 R&B 的唱将。

刘沁虽没有大红大紫， 但 [影子]却在我们听觉中留下了深刻的记忆。

一首叫好但不叫座的好歌， 我们永远爱戴。

sorry, can't seem to download into imeem for reasons unknown to me... however, you can download from youshare and play it on the window media player or itune. enjoy!

歌在呼吸 #3 [song we cherish #3]

身为制作人之一，我最享受的就是把经典老歌重新翻唱，造福新一代的歌迷。

我和金亮老师和 jz8 主音 lydia 都是周璇的歌迷。

用歌姬来形容周璇一点也不过时; 周璇是天后中的天后。那一把出谷黄莺的嗓子和许多余音绕梁的曲子，的确疯迷了那年代的年轻人。

你以为[老饼]才听周璇吗？我们都很年轻！

[永远的微笑]是经典。 蔡琴在[金片子]以轻爵士的风味玩出不一样的味道。

现在，jz8 勇敢的翻唱了！ 很期待 lydia 和 cher siang 的演出！

Songs That Touch Us #3

jz8 练习 [practice session for jz8]

[sorry for the poor photograhy... i was experimenting something]

it is ultra difficult to get the two members of jz8 together due to their hectic schedule. so whenever we find time, we get them to practise and get the chemistry going.

song selection contributes more than 60% to the success of an album and we are not taking it lightly. jz8 can play many styles, but we would want it to sound a bit mellower than what most western jazz music would sound. in particular, we want cher siang not to over-play on the piano, which is the tendency of most western jazz pianists to showcase their skills and versatility. because this is chinese pop jazz, we would want a slower and mellower presentation to suit our targeted audience.



jz8 practised a few songs, all chinese pop classics re-arranged by cher siang (whose titles we would like to keep it confidential at the moment); some immediately strike a chord with me and chow and some not. as i have said many times before, not all chinese pop tunes can be rearranged into jazz, due to their rigid structure. cher siang tried on zhao chuan [赵传: 当初应该爱你], the results are contrived to say the least, so we immediately dropped it.

at the end of the practice session, we finalized on two songs only.

lydia also proposed to include some real oldies (think 40s/50s, think zhou xuan!) in the repertoire, which chow and i approved. some chinese oldies are real winners if the singer can carry it well and the arrangement is good.

the first practice session gives the production team some ideas on how far jz8 can go. we think the real jz8 hasn't come out yet but in time to come, with more practice and understanding, we would see something magical.

the next practice session is fixed on next monday, 16th march.

as a producer, the practice sessions and the recording sessions later are the best and most memorable part of the journey!

台灣流行音樂200最佳專輯 [best 200 chinese albums]

no serious chinese pop music lover can do without this bible.

get it and see how many out of the 200 albums are in your collection. i think i have at least 70% of the titles listed in the book.

cheer chen's debut album [讓我想一想／陳綺貞] is listed at number #11. read the reasons here. what more can i say? all these reviewers have got excellent tastes and standards.

sorry, neither F4, fahrenhiet nor S.H.E is listed ;-)