Text: Muneera Neelofar • Layout: Clara Gan
This tall, dashing heart-throb is How different is the style of
prominent for his ‘chinked-out’
style of music that fuses the often
unheard Chinese aboriginal music
into mainstream hip hop and his
palpable passion for creating
original music. Recently, he has
been busy spreading the message
of conserving the environment
through his latest album, “Gai
Bian Zi Ji” also known as “Change
Me”.
Lee Hom’s campus concert,
was held in conjunction with
the Campus Green Week where
students were encouraged to bring
1kg of their used/old materials in
exchange for the tickets. Lee Hom
had the audience spellbound as
he performed the songs “Wo Men
De Ge”, “Gai Bian Zi Ji” and gave
a short speech on environmental
conservation.
Towards the end of the concert,
he presented souvenirs to his
die-hard fans who had exchanged
more than 10 kg of old materials
for his concert tickets. Lee Hom
gracefully ended the concert by
sharing his experience with his
fans while working on the sets of
Lust, Caution.
Though it was a short concert,
Lee Hom’s fans were extremely
pleased with his performance and
down-to-earth personality.
Lee Hom singing
“Wo Men De Ge”
Read on for an exclusive
interview with Wang Lee Hom!
CATCH! : Tell us more about
your album “Change Me”.
Lee Hom : I’m here in
Singapore this time with
my new album. It’s
called “Change Me”. And it’s
a big change for me as well
— musically and also
conceptually. This time the
concept behind the whole
album is environmental
conservation meets Chinese
pop music.
CATCH_Grp6_01-13.indd 5
Leaf Returns to Roots.
music in this album as compared
to the previous ones?
Style wise, this album is a
departure from what I have
been doing for the last couple of
years, which was the ‘Chinked-
Out’ movement — the Chinese
hip-hop sound that I developed
using Jing ju (Bei Jing Opera) Kun
Qu, and also music of the ethnic
minorities. So you’ll hear in this
album a lot of anachronistic
styles; that is, back in Chinese
culture during that period in
history, people listen to the
popular music of the time of the
art songs and patriotic songs and
also songs from movies which
were into musicals and they’d
have a few songs that would
become hit songs - very
stylistically different from
the pop songs of the day.
But I brought some of
those styles back.
So what is your
favourite song in
“Change Me?”
I love Luo Ye Gui Gen
which means Falling
WANG LEE HOM, recently at NYP to
promote Campus Green Week,
is a talented musician, singer-
songwriter and even actor. CATCH
delves in to find out more…
I do and I drink water out of
It’s something that I had never
written before and it’s definitely
not pop, it’s an art song. It’s just
strings, piano and vocals. I think
it takes you back to the classic
period of the Chinese history.
I also like “Gai Bian Zi Ji”, which
is the title song in ‘Change Me’
because it’s very upbeat and it
tackles the issue of environmental
conservation, but in a very fun,
playful way. And that’s something
I’ve never done before.
So what is your role in creating
awareness about environmental
conservation?
Garbage and waste distribution
is one thing whereas living a life
more consciously
is another
important
thing. Saving
water and
refusing
plastic bags
and using
reusable
chopsticks and
you can bring
them around
with you like
thermos and yeah… I try to do
what I can do.
Your interest in creating
environmental conservation
is commendable. Moving on
to acting, tell us about your
experience working with
Director Ang Lee in Lust,
Caution.
Thank you. It was very
challenging. The director is
extremely demanding, he’s a
serious artiste, he knows exactly
what he’s doing and he has high
expectations of everybody that
he works with. So for me to
be part of that team, it was a
growing experience. I learnt a lot
from Ang. Before I met Ang, I was
just a pure musician. Now, after
I’ve worked with him, I also see
myself as a serious actor and I’m
working hard to bridge this two
arts.
Any plans to take up more acting
roles in the future?
Already there are lots of scripts
being sent to my agent and I’ve
been reading scripts and I really
enjoy that. And I’ve been writing
scripts as well, it’s what I do,
you know, I’m a composer. So
between music and movies I think
I’ll be seeing a lot more of them.
Lee Hom exchanging
pleasantries with his fans
Most importantly, any advise for
aspiring musicians?
For all of you aspiring musicians
in NYP, Jia You (go for it!), best
of luck, be yourselves and work
hard- I’m speaking from personal
experience here. You got to learn
how to play musical instruments,
you got to learn, you got to
record yourself and find out what
your best strengths are and how
to show them to your audiences.
So, best of luck and it can be a
very rewarding experience.
12/10/2007 9:37:56 PM