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Tenderly Presents Everlasting Love 辛曉琪溫柔演繹永不落幕的愛戀
Sina.com China / 中國新浪網專訪 / Xiao-ying Wu 吳曉穎 / 2002.7.22
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English Translation
A friend told me he liked Winnie Hsin’s album ‘Forever’ very much among latest albums.
A bit surprised, not because I don’t like Winnie, or the album is poor, but I haven’t heard of people mentioning about her for a long time. Winnie could be treated as antique for those teenagers. Not many people thinking of Winnie, just like me. ‘My fans are stable and they keep showing their concern and support.’
After album ‘Woman shouldn’t be hard on woman’, I remembered there were ‘How’ and a compilation ‘Waiting’, something like that. I asked Winnie if she took holiday before ‘Forever’, she corrected patiently, ‘In fact I release one album every year.’
All songs in albums ‘Forever’ and ‘Lovers!’ were cover versions of Korean and Japanese TV drama theme songs. Do they are breakthrough for her? ‘No,’ she explained. ‘It was the idea of my company, as Korean and Japanese TV drama are very popular in these days, and my company thinks that my voice is suitable for presenting the stories of the drama. I did have some hesitation as the market is so poor. I hadn’t thought of having such good outcomes. I appreciated with the decision made by my company. They foresee the market accurately.’
Winnie prefers Japanese TV drama to Korean ones. Like many people, she likes watching Japanese TV drama after ‘Tokyo Love Story’. She watched almost all the drama related to her album ‘Lovers!’. ‘Many people love those theme songs but can’t sing in Japanese. Having this album, they can show their talent in Karaoke.’ She admires the composers of those songs and was glad to sing their pieces. Especially Tshinobu Kubota. ‘I used to listen to his song while driving in America. His songs like sunshine and make people happy. I also like Koji Tamaki. His voice is so sexy, isn’t it?’
The production of the album was not easy. Producer of the two albums is Lee Young Ki from Korea. Every song has new arrangement and lyrics are written from well-known writers. Winnie sings just like her original version. The song ‘Glass’ has high keys but Winnie sings perfectly with her singing skills.
For the album ‘Lovers!’, she found the happiness of singing, it lets producers knowing her again. She can enter into different kinds of stories and styles, and not framing herself. While recording her classic ‘Understanding’, it just brought bitterness to her. ‘I hadn’t recorded a song for three days, line by line, not liked singing.’ From two years ago, the market has become poor and singers gain poor returns. But now, her albums get good results and she is one of the candidates for ‘The Best Female Singers Awards’. She also found her new agent.
Recently Winnie performed in Shanghai China in a music festival. She played the piano in the opening ceremony. The song was ‘A Winter Story’ which is one of the tracks in her album. I remembered her saying, ‘If I didn’t sing, I would still be a piano teacher.’ Her songs and voice do give me an impression of ‘artistic’.
*** Chinese Original
有個朋友告訴我：在近期所出的唱片中，他獨愛辛曉琪的《永遠》。
我聽了有些意外。倒不是不喜歡辛曉琪，也不是覺得《永遠》不好聽，而是因爲很少再聽人提到辛曉琪。在現今十五、六歲的歌迷心目中，曉琪已經可以算作老古董了吧。難得還有人惦著辛曉琪，就象我一樣。也許曉琪說得對：「我的歌迷是很專一的，他們一直都默默地關注著我，支援著我。」
在《女人何苦爲難女人》之後，我依稀記得曉琪還出過一張《怎麽》和一張叫作《守候》的精選集，其他的就沒什麽印象了。所以我問曉琪：是不是在上一張《永遠》之前，她經歷過一段休整期？曉琪倒也沒露出什麽受傷的表情，淡淡地修正我：「其實我每一年都會出一張唱片，一張都沒落下過。」
「上一張《永遠》和這一張《戀人啊》，分別翻唱了一些經典韓劇和日劇的主題曲，對你來說，是不是有一點歌路的調整和尋找新的突破口的意思？」我索性一不做二不休，很直露地問道。
「其實也沒有這麽嚴重啦。」曉琪說：「這個是公司做的企劃案，因爲現在韓劇和日劇挺火的，而且公司也認爲我的聲音挺適合再現這些電視劇的情節，於是就有了這兩張專輯。開始我也有些疑慮，但是覺得現在的唱片市場已經那麽壞了，再壞也壞不到哪里去，不妨去試一試看。沒想到試下來效果還蠻好的，我不禁有些佩服公司的這個點子，他們對市場的把握挺準確的。」
《永遠》和《戀人啊》這兩張專輯是同時開案的，翻唱韓劇主題曲的《永遠》先發，而翻唱相對更熱門的日劇主題曲的《戀人啊》後上市，這也足見專輯的企劃人員對於這兩張唱片的信心。
相對于韓劇，辛曉琪更熱衷於日劇。和我們大多數人一樣，她的日劇之旅也是從《東愛》(東京愛情故事)開始的，專輯裏提到的日劇，她十有八九都看過。她說這張專輯的功效是：「很多人都很喜歡日劇的主題曲，可是不會唱日文，現在有了這張專輯，他們去KTV的時候就可以自己露一手了。」 而對於曉琪來說，錄這張專輯可以唱到她一直十分仰慕的製作人David
Foster、河村隆一、久保田利伸的作品，非常過癮。
那麽這些歌曲中，她最心儀的是哪些作品呢？「久保田利伸。」曉琪說，「我在美國開車，一定要聽他的曲子，他的歌給人一種陽光的感覺，使人心情愉快。還有，我喜歡玉置浩二，他的聲音很性感，你覺得呢？」
別看這是一張翻唱專輯，製作方面可是一點都不含糊。《戀人啊》的製作人由《永遠》的韓籍製作人Lee
Young Ki再度擔當，每一首歌都經過重新編曲，並針對劇情量身邀詞，比如姚謙、姚若龍、易家揚等等，都是大牌來的。其實最令人讚賞的還是辛曉琪的唱，一般重新填詞的作品難免會令人有生硬之感，但是曉琪就有本事把它唱得像是爲自己量身定做的一樣。特別是那首15度音階超高難度的《玻璃》，如果沒有曉琪的柔化，聽起來肯定是十分難受的。
難怪曉琪說，這張《戀人啊》的整個配唱過程是她演唱生涯中最「爽」的一次，——「重新找到唱歌的樂趣，重新找回自己的聲音，重新讓製作人認識我。」據「滾石」的工作人員介紹，這一次曉琪的聲音表現達到了另一個巔峰，她發現原來她可以進入不同的劇情跟曲風，暫時不必再用過去被設限的角色，只是專注地去唱歌，去感受編曲、歌詞。
我不禁有些好奇：「那麽在錄你的成名曲《領悟》時，你的感覺是怎樣的呢？」
「痛苦。」曉琪竟毫不猶豫地說，「從來也沒有一首歌錄了3天，一句一句地錄，一點都不象唱歌了。」「不過那一次技巧絕好的曉琪用了真感情唱，她的回報也是豐厚的。」
既然是說「重新找到唱歌的樂趣」，那麽曉琪唱歌的樂趣是從什麽時候一點一點丟失的呢？
「應該是前兩年吧。市場變得很壞，我們做音樂做得很苦，卻得不到回報，歌唱的樂趣，自然就打了折扣。」
所以我想曉琪現在的快樂應該也和不錯的銷售量有關吧，她以《永遠》再度入圍臺灣金曲獎「最佳女演唱人」；新簽了經紀人公司，生活也開始更忙碌起來。
前不久曉琪應邀參加上海國際音樂節的演出，她在開幕式上用鋼琴演奏一曲《A Winter Story》，也是她專輯中的曲目——《情書》的主題曲。想起曉琪說過的：「如果我不唱歌的話，也許還在教鋼琴吧」，只覺她的歌她的琴聲，更令我有一種「藝術」的感覺，——也許這就是「老古董」和「新新人類」之間的差別了。 |