1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After finishing an album promotion event, Kelly Chen heard from Li Yaming that Huan Yin asked her to audition for a new song.

Of course she was happy about this. Which singer doesn't want to have more songs? Even if Huanyin's songs are not good, she has the right to choose not to use them.

Now she is in Taiwan, so it won’t take much time for her to try out Huan Yin’s new song.

But just when Kelly Chen was about to agree, Li Yaming told her that she needed to go to Yanjing to audition the new song.

"Going to Yanjing?"

Kelly Chen was stunned for a moment. She couldn't understand why she had to go to Yanjing to try out a new song.

Her new album is about to be released. At such a critical juncture, how can she have the time to go to Yanjing?

Moreover, why Yanjing? Isn't Huanyin Company in Taiwan?
It was then that Li Yaming finally revealed, "This new song is the theme song for Zhou Yan's movie."

Upon hearing this, Kelly Chen's attitude changed immediately. Nowadays, Zhou Yan's fame in Hong Kong has long been advanced to the level of a music master. For a newcomer like Kelly Chen, Zhou Yan's name is naturally familiar to her.

As for Zhou Yan's plan to shoot a new movie, Kelly Chen had also heard about it. This matter was reported in the news some time ago and it was quite popular.

Kelly Chen is not a fan of Zhou Yan’s movies, but she has seen the two movies "The Young Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly" and "The Sixth Sense", not to mention the music in these two movies.

She also knew that the interlude of Zhou Yan's new movie was a good opportunity for her.

Therefore, she did not hesitate any longer and asked Li Yaming directly, "When do I need to go to Yanjing?"

"The specific time has not been decided yet, but it should be available in the near future. If you are willing to go, I will discuss the time with Huanyin later. In addition, I also need to discuss this matter with Zhengdong."

Fumao Records is currently only the agent for Kelly Chen's Mandarin albums. If Kelly Chen sings the theme song of Zhou Yan's new movie, there will be no direct benefit to them. Li Yaming will definitely talk to Zhengdong Records to gain more benefits from this matter. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste of time?

Li Yaming did not consider the possibility that Zhengdong Records would not allow Kelly Chen to sing the theme song of Zhou Yan's new movie, because no record company could refuse this.

The fact turned out to be just as Li Yaming expected. After Zhengdong Records learned about this matter, they were very happy and did not set up any obstacles.

At the same time, they also stated that the collaboration between Kelly Chen and Phantom Sound could be carried out through Fumao Records.

In other words, Zhengdong Records gave concessions to Fumao Records.

In fact, this choice is correct, because Kelly Chen is now in the starting and rising stage, and she needs this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. There is no need for them to care about temporary benefits.

As long as Kelly Chen's voice can shine in Zhou Yan's new movie, the profits given up now will be recovered soon.

Soon, the parties reached a consensus.

Kelly Chen put aside her current promotional work and made a quick trip to Yanjing.

……

Zhou Yan had just seen off Kudo Shizuka and Nakamori Akina when Kelly Chen and Wang Lihong arrived in Yanjing.

They had not agreed to come together, but they arrived together by coincidence.

From this time on, Zhou Yan's work really became busy.

Because he was very busy and had no time to waste, Zhou Yan directly asked someone to take them to the recording studio. However, Zhou Yan did not let them go into the same recording studio, but asked them to wait for him in recording studio No. 1 and No. 2 respectively.

Since arriving at the studio, Kelly Chen has been looking around curiously. The studio looks quite old from the outside, but she didn't expect that there is something special inside. She didn't see other rooms, but the No. 1 recording studio where she is is very professional and the equipment is very advanced.

Xiao Lin, her assistant who came to Yanjing with her, was also very moved. "I didn't expect there would be such a professional studio here. The key is that the outside of the studio is too confusing. It looks like a run-down warehouse. I was quite disappointed when I was outside just now."

Her voice wasn't loud, but Xiao Liu, the sound engineer, heard it. Xiao Liu smiled and said, "This was originally a warehouse. It was really run-down before it was converted into a studio. Many people who come here for the first time feel the same as you do."

Kelly Chen asked curiously, "When I passed by Studio 2 just now, I seemed to see someone inside. Are they recording a song?"

Xiao Liu nodded and said, "Yes, we are going to record a new song. There is a new person coming."

"Is it also a theme song for a movie?" Assistant Kobayashi inquired.

"I don't know what they're recording. Studio 2 is not under my control."

Studio No. 2 is going to record "How Long Will I Love You" today. Xiao Liu of course knows about it, but he is tight-lipped and doesn't want to reveal too much.

Assistant Xiao Lin was slightly disappointed to find out nothing, and then asked, "What song are we going to record today? Can you show it to us now?"

Up to now, Kelly Chen doesn’t even know what she is going to record.

Because it was unknown, she had no idea.

She came here this time just for a trial recording, which doesn't mean she will definitely sing this song.

"I don't know about that either." Xiao Liu shook his head again.

This time Xiao Liu really had no idea. He only got the news last night. Today, Studio No. 1 was going to try to record a new song. As for what song they were going to record, he, like Kelly Chen, had no idea at all.

He even has less information than Kelly Chen.

At least Kelly Chen knew that the new song she was going to record today was the theme song in Zhou Yan's new movie.

Seeing that Xiao Liu knew nothing about anything, Kelly Chen and her assistant lost interest in asking him for information.

The three of them had nothing to talk about, so they could only sit in the recording studio, and the atmosphere was quite awkward.

This awkward situation lasted for more than half an hour before Zhou Yan finally pushed the door open.

This was the first time Kelly Chen met Zhou Yan, but she was familiar with his face. When she saw Zhou Yan coming in, she greeted him politely, "Hello, Mr. Zhou."

Zhou Yan glanced at Kelly Chen, smiled and nodded, "Hello, welcome to Yanjing. It's not easy to come here, you must be tired, right?"

“It’s not easy to come here, but I believe it’s all worth it.”

Kelly Chen's Mandarin is not very standard, but there is no obstacle in communication.

"Because the filming will start soon, I'm quite busy with work, so I have to trouble you to come early." Zhou Yan explained briefly, and then handed a sheet of lyrics to Kelly Chen, "Please spend half an hour to look at the score and lyrics of this song. If you don't understand anything, ask me later."

"it is good."

Kelly Chen took the lyrics and music sheet with anticipation, and was about to say something, but then she heard Zhou Yan say, "Okay, then we'll see you in half an hour."

After saying that, Zhou Yan turned around and pushed the door out of Recording Studio No. 1.

Watching Zhou Yan's back disappear at the door, Kelly Chen held the music sheet with a confused expression. From the time Zhou Yan came in to the time he left, was the whole process one minute?
This efficiency is too fast.

However, she only slightly lamented Zhou Yan's style of doing things, and quickly focused her attention on the music score in her hand.

The name of the song was written on the first page of the score. It was an English song. She was not surprised by this because the reason she was able to come and try recording a new song was because she had submitted a demo of an English song before.

Although Kelly Chen often participated in music competitions at a very young age, she did not really receive professional music training, so her ability to read music scores is not very good.

In fact, a singer's ability to read music scores does not have much impact on his or her development. Many singers know nothing about music theory, but they still sing very well, because their musical perception is not weak. As long as a demo is recorded for them, they can sing according to the demo.

No one stipulates that singers must be able to sing as soon as they see the music score.

For most pop singers, the first thing they get is not the sheet music, but a demo of a song. Usually, the song has already been studied in the demo, and the singer only needs to refer to the demo to sing it.

Even some singer-songwriters are not good at music theory. Compared with professional composers, they are more casual when composing songs.

This is not a strange thing. Early folk songs and mountain songs basically had no scores. They were all created freely by folk singers, and their method of creation was to hum based on their own feelings.

Kelly Chen has some knowledge of music theory, but it is not good. At least she can't sing a song just by looking at the score like Celine Dion. She still needs the help of musical instruments to slowly explore.

So when she saw this song, Kelly Chen didn't care about the melody like Celine Dion did, but looked at the lyrics first, because even if she looked at the score, she would not have any impression of the melody in her mind for a while.

In her opinion, it may be easier to find the mood of the song by looking at the lyrics first rather than the music score first.

Sight-singing involves many aspects, such as pitch, rhythm, song style, and the emotions expressed in the song. These all need to be studied. If you don't have a good ability to read music and study, you won't be able to do it well.

After studying the lyrics, Kelly Chen felt that it was good, but she was not amazed, at least not as good as the song "young and beautiful" written by Zhou Yan before.

This song uses the most common words and the expression of emotions is more direct, unlike "young and beautiful" where many lyrics are relatively obscure.

For example "I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid
I have loved you for a thousand years
......"

This sentence is very common in many English songs.

After seeing lyrics like these, Kelly Chen even felt that she could write them herself.

……

After Zhou Yan walked out of Recording Studio No. 1, he went to Recording Studio No. 2.

In recording studio No. 2, Wang Lihong is recording "How Long Will I Love You?"

Because Wang Lihong has had this song for a long time, he is very familiar with it, and Zhou Yan has already given him the general direction before, so he performed quite well. For today's recording, Zhou Yan only needs to correct some details.

When they met again, the relationship between Wang Lihong and Zhou Yan had changed, and now Zhou Yan had become Wang Lihong's boss.

However, Wang Lihong's attitude and feelings towards Zhou Yan did not change because of the change of identity. In his heart, Zhou Yan was still the senior whom he respected, or even his teacher.

Wang Lihong was of course very happy to see Zhou Yan again, but Zhou Yan didn't have time to greet him now. After a brief chat, he started to get into work mode.

I tried it twice with Wang Lihong, and half an hour passed.

Zhou Yan looked at his watch and said to Wang Lihong, "Lihong, think carefully about the questions I just mentioned and give your throat a rest. We will continue later."

After saying that, Zhou Yan turned around and went to Recording Studio No. 1.

After entering the recording studio, Zhou Yan asked, "How about it, can you try to sing it now?"

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Kelly Chen showed an embarrassed look on her face, "I'm not very familiar with this song."

Just now, she spent seven or eight minutes just studying the lyrics. In the next twenty minutes or so, she was also carefully studying the music score, but she still hadn't figured it out.

Zhou Yan saw that Kelly Chen felt a little embarrassed, but he didn't blame her.

This is actually Zhou Yan's own fault. The singers he worked with before all had strong sight-singing abilities, but he forgot that not every singer has good sight-singing abilities.

Zhou Yan said nothing and walked directly to the keyboard, "Let me walk you through it."

Kelly Chen asked in surprise, "Do you want to sing it again?"

"I don't sing, I hum."

Although Zhou Yan didn't sing well, he hummed well. At least he was able to express the pitch, rhythm and emotion of the song. For Kelly Chen, this was enough.

Afterwards Zhou Yan did not waste any time and just played and hummed.

After Zhou Yan hummed a line, Kelly Chen suddenly understood and started singing along.

“heart beats fast
colors and promises”

Originally, when Kelly Chen was groping for the song on her own, she stumbled and did not feel the charm of the song. But now, following Zhou Yan, she sang each note accurately and in the correct rhythm, and the charm of the song suddenly came out.

The one who felt the most deeply was assistant Xiao Lin. When Kelly Chen sang it herself just now, she thought the song was not very good, but now it is completely different. They are completely two different songs.

Especially the chorus part, the lyrics that seemed simple at first sounded so graceful and beautiful at this moment.

When Kelly Chen was trying to figure it out on her own, she felt the music score was very difficult, but after Zhou Yan helped her hum it once, the melody was directly imprinted in her mind and everything became very simple.

This is the case with singers like her. Although her sight-singing ability is not good, she can sing it as long as she hears it once.

By the second time, she could complete it well without Zhou Yan's humming, and added some of her own understanding.

Zhou Yan couldn't help but nod, this song is indeed very suitable for Kelly Chen.

The song "A Thousand Years" is very romantic. Kelly Chen's voice is clear and has a soft and tough feel. It is very visual. The high notes are ethereal and melodious, with a magical feel, which meets Zhou Yan's requirements.

There is a difference in the singing of movie interludes and ordinary songs.

Some singers have very good skills and great voices. They may be able to give very good performances on the stage, but if they are asked to sing interludes, it would be a little lacking.

Many times, when people are watching a movie, they don’t care whether the singer singing the interlude has enough voice tension or whether the scale changes skillfully and naturally.

In fact, as a director, Zhou Yan hopes that the audience will not be overly attracted by the technology reflected in the interludes, but rather immerse themselves in the world woven together by the songs and pictures.

The soundtrack and interludes serve the movie. It is not a good thing if they attract the audience's attention too much.

Kelly Chen's voice and singing style give people a feeling that the pictures are connected to each other. Her voice is the sticking point that connects the pictures. (End of this chapter)