Published on Apr 1, 2004
Powerful screams erupted from Thai fans at the appearance of Taiwanese artist Wang Lee Hom at the Channel [V] Thailand Music Video Awards III ceremony at the Thailand Cultural Centre last Thursday. The heartthrob came onstage to announce the winner for Popular Group Artist and was himself given the award for Popular Asian Artist.
“Khop khun khrap!” he said. “It’s great for me to be here, and great to receive an award I never expected. I’ll be here again soon!”
At the event, the singer performed two hits – “You and Me” and “Love U is Love Me” – from his latest album, “Unbelievable”.
Wang Lee Hom was born in 1976 in Rochester, New York. His interest in music was sparked when he was three years old and saw his elder brother, Leo, playing violin. When he was six, he began taking violin courses at Eastman, a famous music school in Rochester.
At 13, he became the youngest violinist with the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
In 1994, he went to Massachusetts to study music at Williams College and founded a music club. At 19, he joined the music circles of Taiwan when he arrived there for the first time and entered a singing contest. Although he didn’t win, his performance won the audience’s heart, including the Rio Music Production House in Taiwan.
In 1995, he released his first Chinese-language album, “Beethoven, My Rival”, with three self-composed songs, “Listen to the Rain”, “Last Night” and “Hate to Say Goodbye”. He didn’t have a chance to promote the album because of his studies, but he caught the interest of critics.
In 1996, he released his second album, “If You Ever Heard My Song”, for which he wrote the title track as well as “Headline Rock” and “Better Off Alone”. The same year, he put out his third, “Missing You,” with two self-written songs, “An Appointment for Your Love” and “Noah”. After that, he played his first live concert at KK Disco in Taiwan.
His fourth album “White Paper” was released in 1997 and his fifth, “Revolution” in 1998. This was his first for Sony Music in Hong Kong and sold more than a hundred thousand copies in its first week.
In 1999, Wang Lee Hom studied singing and jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and later released “Impossible to Miss You” featuring the hit song “Julia”.
Wang’s seventh album, “Forever’s First Day” featured 10 of his own tracks, including “Descendent of the Dragon”, an ’80s dance remix.
In 2001, he released “The One And Only” distributed in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. The title track and “Last Night” were on the soundtrack of “Moon Child”. For this album, he won for Producer of the Year, Composer of the Year and Song of the Year.
Last year, the singer released his latest album, “Unbelievable” with hits like “You’re Not Here” and “You and Me”.
The Nation caught up with Wang Lee Hom at the Dusit Thani last week.
＊How do you define your music?
Wang Lee Hom: “New classical is so many styles. You have elements of rock, R&B, hip-hop, and it is still pop. I think the most important thing is what you sing, not the many styles. For example, my music has a mixture of elements because of my background in classical and jazz piano. But in pop music, I think it is just siting down and talking to people – just very close and natural.
I like to bring people together in pop music, so I think it is exciting having anything to communicate.”
＊Are you happy with the feedback to “Unbelievable”?
“It is very, very good. This album is called “Unbelievable” because it is so different from the last album and I wanted people to be surprised at something they’ve never heard before. I got a great response for many different songs, and everybody likes a different song. It wasn’t like one singer’s album with every song on it about love, love, love.
I play jazz piano, horn section, bass, jazz drum. It’s a mix of different styles. Yes, I’m very passionate and feel very happy that this album has received great feedback from fans and music critics.”
＊Have you ever thought of the language barrier when you want to break through to communicate with people?
“Sure, it is a barrier with different cultures. You want to communicate with English-speaking people. But, I think that music has a universal element, so people in Taiwan listen to Korean music and it isn’t necessary that they understand. I want to mix music that people from any background can listen to.”
＊How do you feel being compared to other Taiwanese artists?
“Yes, I am compared a lot, but that’s okay with me. I think it’s natural for the media to make comparisons. We have a lot of differences. Back at my music school, we compared Beethoven with Mozart, or Brahms.”
＊With which superstar would you most like to work?
“I’d love to work with Stevie Wonder. I met him two months ago and we hung around all day. He played a lot of music for me and we talked about music, singing, his career. He is my hero.”
Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul
The Nation
Source:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.arcview.php3?clid=18&id=96297&date=2004-04-01&usrsess=1 
