Charismatic

Rewind back a year. I would have looked at this sentence and scratched my head....Who writes like that? Well, me, apparently now, to my Taiwan mates [woops, rewind back 4 years and I would NOT be using the term 'mates'] 哈哈哈 幹嘛醬～沒有那麼奢侈啦～ 不～曉得叻～除非要到師大／古亭附近走一走 A basic translation： Hahaha Why you so like that? (this translation betrays my Malaysian-ness, but I can't think of a better way to translate   幹嘛醬 ) I don't live that luxuriously. I~~don't know ler~~Unless we walk around to Shida/GuTing Cultural adaptation....adding more countries to the pot of Charis...

I am not a person who has ever been very comfortable in my own skin. Identity has always been a source of great struggle for me. The different facets of being Malaysian, being Chinese, being Oriental....they've always 'bothered' me. Of course, there are so many other sub-cultures...growing up in a Northern Malaysian Chinese culture, "Keat Hwa" school culture, volleyball team culture, orchestra culture etc. Then, there is Christianity and the all the millions of subcultures around the faith. Thinking about them makes me grow dizzy. I'd rather not.  There's a lot of tension or be in a melting pot of cultures. What makes it worse: my tendency to really want EVERYBODY to like me. People pleaser. I try to be everything and I try to be cool. And usually, it doesn't work. I meant to post about this ages ago, but I was too lazy to unravel all these complicated thoughts. Watching this video today made the tangle of thoughts about identity resurface again....

Well, not exactly jazz. Jazz -tinged gospel?? I feature on the first track and on the last track ( last track is a rerun). I was pretty pleased with my little piano licks. They were tasteful and not out of place. But we so needed a truly 'swing' rhythm section, not attempted swing [which is what I hear most of them time here in Taiwan]. All the tracks feature friends of mine from different churches. Have a listen and enjoy!! 寧靜時分2011-06-23 www.youtube.com ‎1. Without Him: 史茵茵 2. 美麗的夜裡:李匯晴 3. It Is Well with My Soul: 曾増譯+葉賀璞 4. 更新我心意: 古晧 加入粉絲頁： http://www.facebook.com/2010qu iettime 17 hours ago  ·  Unlike  ·   ·  Share You and  70 others  like this. Charles Liu   then I see one that is out of spec. 17 hours ago  ·  Like 邱竟瑋   Oh! Jesus in Jazz! 16 hours ago  ·  Unlike  ·    2 people 許願   值的去聆聽的音樂 8 hours ago  ·  Like Ching-hsiu Wang   Without Him how lost I would ...

Laugh to together with me!! An ode to the boyband era of the 90's. And my favorite boyband.Theo features on guitar again. And this time, my HK singer friend Victor features on vocals. He has lovely crooner's voice, and he's also a foodie like me! (Side note: Vic and Theo both married Taiwanese chicks and settled in Taipei. So did most of my Malaysian muso friends here. Sigh, is there no other way to stay here semi-permanenently?) Anyways, enjoy the vid! It was just a little bit of fun and nostalgia.

A great interview with Sara here . Breathe Again - One of my favourite songs from her "Kaleidescope Heart' album. Lyrics: Car is parked, bags are packed, but what kind of heart doesn't look back At the comfortable glow from the porch, the one I will still call yours? All those words came undone and now I'm not the only one Facing the ghosts that decide if the fire inside still burns All I have, all I need, he's the air I would kill to breathe Holds my love in his hands, still I'm searching for something Out of breath, I am left hoping someday I'll breathe again I'll breathe again Open up next to you and my secrets become your truth And the distance between that was sheltering me comes in full view Hang my head, break my heart built from all I have torn apart And my burden to bear is a love I can't carry anymore All I have, all I need, he's the air I would kill to breathe Holds my love in his hands, still I'm searching fo...

Zhe Xin (Zhe Jin's sister) left a random comment on my page that my voice in Fairy Tale Ending sounded like 順子 unplugged. I chuckled. I've had 順子 comparisons since the day I stepped into Taiwan. One, probably because we both have wide faces. And two, because we have a western jazz/soul approach to our music. What's even more uncanny is that the producer that is working with me now is, ta-da!! the producer who first discovered and developed 順子。 Yea. What a coincidence. 順子 has a gorgeous voice. One of the best vocalists I've heard around. I think her vocals are much better than mine. But I think, for now, that I write more commercially than her. Her stuff, except for the 'radio single' is very very eclectic and weird. Beautifully sung, played and produced. But definitely not easy-listening or 'commercial'. Still, she managed to be quite popular in Taiwan. Hmmm...just a random post.

Fairy Tale Ending ...is my latest youtube video, released 1.5 days ago. So far,  the response to the video and the song has been fairly positive. Quick and direct as well (the quickest I've ever obtained 22 likes on youtube. It is now my highest rated video, even above 慢慢. In 2 days, that's a small achievement). I put in quite a bit of effort in making this video. Firstly, recording with a good camera (thanks Aeon), and then with all the subtitles, the lyrics and splicing.  Of course, my views are just a drop of insignificance in the OCEAN of Youtube. Honestly, I despair of any video of mine ever going viral in a good way sometimes. Youtube is now overloaded with all kinds of people who are sometimes terribly good and sometimes just terrible. I mean, with Youtube stars like David Choi and Clara C having hundreds and thousands of subscribers [or a million of them, like Nigahiga], what are my extremely paltry 300 -1500 views? It's sad. But one must not despise the days of ...

I give myself these 4 years to do a few things. These things are reasonably within my control.  Release 2 Mandarin albums, whether mainstream or indie Release 2 English albums, whether mainstream or indie Write a book of short stories (English) and get published Sign a songwriter publishing deal and sell melodies Learn how to use Logic Pro properly Do the short story/song project with Jasmine Release a music video per album Work towards being a respectable jazz player. Blues, bebop,  Play acoustic guitar to the extent of being able to play for church and for folky songs. Be comfortable on it.  Get a potential mate to date