Projects 2005 - C.Y.KONG.com

Overall Comments:

This project has taken up nearly the 1st half of 2005.
Demos were submitted by after Christmas 2004. It's taken them a month to decide which songs they finally wanted. The song ''Circus'' was arranged in late Jan/Feb.
Tracking started around February. I think they started recording vocals in HK during late Feb & March, but apparently Eason had flu and some throat problems. So, only ''Depression/DPS'' & ''Circus'' was sung before April.
April he had some gigs and other stuff to do, and recording didn't took place, but ''Depression/DPS'' was mixed tho.
It was like late April/early May, when I finally received his vocal track(s), and the other 3 songs were then mixed on a 3 day marathon in mid May.

01. 爛 (Shimmer)

Music: C. Y. Kong | Lyrics: 林夕 Lin Xi | Arrange: C. Y. in London

Produced by Alvin Leong
Co-produce/Production Coordinator: Stanley Leung
Arrangement: C.Y. in London
Synths, Cubase, Guitar Programming & PC Manipulation: C.Y. Kong
Drums : Davy Chan
Chorus : Patrick Lui

Music recorded & spiced at 12/46 London by C.Y. in London
Drums recorded at Avon Studios by David Sum
Vocals & Chorus recorded at Avon Studios by Gary Kum
Mixed & Mashed at nOiz by Simon Li

Comments:

This was written over Christmas 2004. Started its life off the intro guitar chord pickings.
Actually the guitar in this song was a sample patch, played notes by notes thru some distortion plug-in (plus later thru Simon's pedals).
I didn't call Ah Yin to replaced the guitar because it's too repetitive and there are many things happening to the guitar that needs to be very precise, like the feedback emulation at the exact beat. If he'd played this, he'll need to have a few pedals and a Whammy, which I know he probably hasn't got.

Originally intended to do in style of recent bands that are very good thru out the past year or so, but I feel that Eason is not a totally rock band person. His ''rock'' side is more like Lenny Kravitz rather than rock band rock. So the rhythm I used was not conventional rock, but instead, it's more like a funky rhythm with busy hi-hats.

Initially drum session was not intended, but there were some confusions and Davy played drums on this track. However, if I use just the live drums, we lose the busy hi-hats. In the end, I have to edit the drums beat by beat, so that each of the live drums and the loops snares would match and get tighter. This song is like 150 bars, about 120 bars has drums... so I was doing nearly 1000 slices/edits on the real drums tracks. Yes... maybe I am too serious.... (!)

The song was designed to be high key. Eason and I had some talks last year, and we agreed that maybe I should do something to help develop his higher voices. But in the end I think he kinda complained this is to high and so difficult.. (sorry, mate!)

We were asked to do a lot of effects for the vocals, but when I chat to Simon on MSN, I felt that it'd be too obvious, if we use many vocals effects.

Poor Simon was mixing this 'til 8am in the morning in HK, while I suddenly realised, we needed an extra track for a reverse reverb effect. In the end we finished like the next day.

Overall, at least I think this has done what I intended it to be - afterall, the music in HK is getting quite boring, I think at least this can help bring in some excitements.

05. 浮誇 (Depression / DPS)

Music: C. Y. Kong | Lyrics: 黃偉文 Wyman Wong | Arrange: C. Y. in London

Produced by Alvin Leong
Co-produce/Production Coordinator: Stanley Leung
Synths, Cubase Programming, Vocoding & PC Manipulation: C.Y. Kong
Drums : Davy Chan
Bass : Sai Wai 細威
Guitar : Ah Yin 亞賢
Chorus : Patrick Lui

Music recorded & spiced at 12/46 London by C.Y. in London
Guitar, Bass & Drums recorded at Avon Studios by David Sum
Vocals & Chorus recorded at Avon Studios by David Sum & Ah Cheung 亞祥
Mixed & Mashed at nOiz by Simon Li

Comments:

This was written the night of April 1st, 2003. It was called Depression in the 1st place.
A feeling of, like I wanted to ask ''why?'' or ''why does one has to commit suicide''. I pictured that you see this spirit of the person somewhere around, and you so wanted to ask him why he's gone, or doesn't he know there're so many people who care for him still. Hence there is this ghostly synth sound in the song.

Eason picked this song quite early in 2004. Actually it was Hilary who heard it first and asked him to have a listen. He liked the key change and the style. We always talked about - this style of arrangement is what C.Y. does instead of oh this sounds very Faye Wong / Leslie Cheung styles - afterall, those Faye/Leslie songs were my songs/arrangements!

So it was not until January 2005 that we started planning on getting this into the studio.
Alvin asked me to change the working title, because he doesn't want to be reminded of the word ''Depression'' so I changed the working title to DPS.

Obviously, they didn't want to go for my original idea about talking to the dead, it's way to heavy. Originally, Eason called me, he was at Beijing at the time, he said he started writing some words for the song. I encouraged him to continue. Wyman was supposed to help him if he gets stuck.
But in the end, I think he just couldn't find the time to finish off what he wrote, so Wyman wrote the final lyrics.
At 1st, I was a little worried/confused, it's totally not what I was thinking of. But afterall, this is gonna be Eason's song, if he can perform and express this well, then it will be quite good.

Alvin & Eason did the vocals, I think, in Late February/early March. They were both ill on and off, and I think Eason wasn't sure about the vocals. I emailed Alvin and said, hey you guys gotta be confident and believe in what you're doing.

After I got the vocals, I added the vocoder. Not a lot of people use vocoders on medium/slow tempo songs these days. I thought it would enhance the mood a lot, and it kinda reminds me of some 70s songs when the vocoder was widely used.

Again, I am quite happy about the results. Again, I think Hong Kong needs more variety in songs/arrangements/productions.

07. 三個人的探戈 (Circus)

Music: Angus Chan | Lyrics: 黃偉文 Wyman Wong | Arrange: C. Y. in London

Produced by Alvin Leong
Co-produce/Production Coordinator: Stanley Leung
Synths, Cubase Programming, Vocoding & PC Manipulation: C.Y. Kong
Chorus : Patrick Lui

Music recorded & spiced at 12/46 London by C.Y. in London
Vocals & Chorus recorded at Avon Studios by David Sum & Ah Cheung 亞祥
Mixed & Mashed at nOiz by Simon Li

Comments:

I first heard the demo of this song over a long distance call from Eason, back in November/December 2004. In January 2005, he and Alvin asked me to do arrangement on this song.

The original demo was done by composer Angus Chan. He also sang some weird Japanese on the demo. I wanted to keep a few things from his original, like the strings and arpeggios, but I always wanted to split the arpeggios up into different tracks, so they can go be panned around in the stereo image.

We called the demo, actually I called it Circus, cos it reminds me of some circus music.
My vision for the arrangement, is actually by using more electronic sounds, I'm trying to make it sounds like a mini circus / music box vision.
Another vision also comes to mind is a part in ''The L Word'' Season2, where Jenny has this vision with her, Shane and Carmen in a circus environment.

Wyman's lyrics talked about 3 people. I think Eason and many people interpret this as 2 men and a woman. I actually don't see it like this. I always feel it is 2 women and a man. OK, so the 2 women are lez or bi...

One thing that I like, when I was listening to the mix at the final stage is, the arpeggio sounds matched the lyrics - the words are like ''you two are going along together so well, where do I stand'', and the music you have 1 arpeggio answering back another, like in a ping-pong delay kind of way.

There's only 1 drawback of this song - that is I can't listen to it too many times, because I got some kinda phobia after listening to the demo for 1000 times. I suppose in the end, the demo's voice got on my nerves... sorry to say that, but it's true.

The key changes at he end was my idea. Not only that I know Eason can create the kind of tension, it can also create a bit more excitement to build up a little climax for the song.

10. 大個女 (Mr Daddy)

Music: C. Y. Kong | Lyrics: 林夕 Lin Xi | Arrange: C. Y. in London

Music recorded & spiced at 12/46 London by C.Y. in London
Guitar, Bass & Drums recorded at Avon Studios by David Sum
Vocals & Chorus recorded at Avon Studios by Gary Kum
Mixed & Mashed at nOiz by Simon Li

Comments:

This was again written around Christmas 2004. I wanted to write a medium rock ballad that has talking vocals in the verses, and then build up as a proper rock ballad. Actually, my original intention wasn't talking, but I have jumps at the end of the lines in the verses.

I have that Glocken/Bell sound quite earlier on and my working title has always been Mr Daddy.
It is like, ''Hey, this Eason, is now a Mr Daddy.''

The song was intended to progress into a proper band sounding rock ballad. I think some people now complain that has ruined the sweet mood. But I don't think that at all.
To me, the song builds up. In the beginning, my visions is talking to a baby girl.
But towards the middle, I have visions that maybe one day the daughter's grown up, running on the beach, or even in an audience seeing daddy Eason performing on stage - hence it's like a rock band ballad.

I digged out my Watkins Copicat Tape Echo machine for this, cos I wanted that 70s and/or John Lennon type very close double-tracking effect on the voice. Simon also used his Roland Space-Echo on the vocals as well.

Watkins Copicat Tape Echo

Another thing I really liked are the chorus that Patrick did on this. He sang them really well and I think really added more warmth to the track.

Originally this song wasn't picked, but they swapped this with another one of my songs, and used this instead. I'm actually glad that they did this song. Maybe people can understand more the lighter side of him, or at least it can create some visions for people to imagine what it might be like when Eason is back home seeing his baby girl.

07. 今天以後 (From Today Onwards)

Original Demo/Working Title: Sugar Stains

Music: C. Y. Kong | Lyrics: Jean Chien 錢文璟 & 洛兵 | Arrangement: C. Y. Kong

Produced by Stanley Leung
Synths & Programming: C.Y. Kong

Comments:

Originally, this was actually written in 2001, a slightly more refined version was done sometimes in late 2002. This recorded version was done around November 2004. My involvement was only up to submitting all the instrumental tracks, and the vocals, mixing and rest of the production was carried out in Beijing. Part of the lyrics from the demo were used in the final. From what I've heard, they didn't want to have the solo guitar (which was in the demo).

10. 誓言的幻境 (Fantasy of Vow)

Original Demo/Working Title: Sadie

Music: C. Y. Kong | Lyrics: 洛兵 | Arrangement: C. Y. Kong

Produced by Stanley Leung
Synths & Programming: C.Y. Kong

Comments:

This was written around early 2002.
I was asked to submit some songs for a china project and this was one of them.
This recorded version was done around November 2004. Again my involvement was only up to submitting all the instrumental tracks, and the vocals, mixing and rest of the production was carried out in Beijing.

07. 面斥不雅 (Fire)

Original Demo/Working Title: Fire

Music & Lyrics: Ivana Wang 王菀之 | Arrangement: C. Y. Kong + Alex Fung

Produced by Alex Fung
Synths & Programming: C.Y. Kong
Additional programming, etc : Alex Fung

Comments:

I started roughly knowing Alexander Fung thru Bo Bo Chan, as he produced for her before. Alex sent me email in August 2005 asking if I'd like to arrange a song for Ivana, and of course I replied yes, cos I think both Alex and Ivana are very talented : )
Originally Alex sent me a demo that was nearly finished - fully arranged and sung. It wasn't bad but they felt that maybe I could do an arrangement that could be more different. I wouldn't say who did the original arrangement, but u can have a listen here.
Then Alex sent me the actual original demo that Ivana did. I felt the first verse is very mysterious, and Ivana's voice really cut thru beautifully. I thought I should keep the same mood in my arrangement. U can listen to an excerpt of Ivana's demo here.

After I did a rough arrangement and countless emails flying across UK and HK, Ivana and Alex both suggested lots of ideas and things for the song. I tried to help put everything in as much as possible, so they can choose what to use and what not to use. So I sent Alex al the tracks and he also programmed a few more things into the song and did the final mix. You can listen below the slight differences. I guess m arrangement was more 'C. Y.' while the final is more 'Alex' : )

Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts)
Original Demo	Excerpt of Finished Mix
Note: The original demo was in a different key. To me, this demo will always be dedicated to Leslie.

2005/04
	Artist: Miriam Yeung 楊千嬅 CD Title: Single Label: EMI Records, Hong Kong
	Tracks: 02. 詭異 (Original Working Title: ''Spooky'')

2005/06
	Artist: Eason Chan 陳奕迅 CD Title: U87 Label: Cinepoly Records / Universal Music, Hong Kong
	Tracks: 01. 爛 (Original Title: ''Shimmer'') 05. 浮誇 (Original Title: ''Depression/DPS'') 07. 三個人的探戈 (Original Title: ''Circus'') [Arrangement only] 10. 大個女 (Original Title: ''Mr. Daddy'')

Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts)
CY's Arrangement Demo	Excerpt of Finished Mix

2005/09
	Artist: Yao Zhang 張瑤 CD Title: 七天 (Seven Days) Label: 世纪星碟, Beijing, China / EMI Records, Hong Kong
	Track: 04. 今天以後 (English Translation: ''From Today Onwards'') 10. 誓言的幻境 (English Translation: ''Fantasy of Vow'')

2005/11
	Artist: Ivana Wang 王菀之 CD Title: I Love My Name Label: Universal Music, Hong Kong
	Track: 04. 面斥不雅 (English Translation: ''Fire'')

Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts)
Original C. Y. Arrangement Demo	Excerpt of Finished Mix

P r o j e c t s / W o r k s 2 0 0 5 Songs/Arrangements/Remixes/Projects since 2005

P r o j e c t s / W o r k s 2 0 0 5
Songs/Arrangements/Remixes/Projects since 2005