Ling's message on the Silver Ash webpage
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To all the friends who are concerned about Silver Ash:
Recently everyone's been complaining about the lack of news about us (really
sorry), so I'll talk about our
latest circumstances here.
Ever since the "can yue ye" live, many changes have happened to the band.
Most significantly, Nancy's
departure to study in Canada was a great loss to the band in every area......but
we all respect Nancy's
decision (though we didn't want him to go). For a person of Nancy's age,
continuing to study and improve
oneself is also a very right choice. There are many paths in life, we wish
Nancy all the best in every path he
takes.
In mid-April, we signed a contract with Screams Records, under Jingwen.
The company's music producer Lu
Bo gave us a lot of help (thanks so much). But because the company has
a fixed plan, things can't happen as
quickly as we would like them to. (please forgive and understand) And looking
at the general recording
industry in the country, our plans are actually considered quite fast.
The company actually planned for us to start recording in end-May; the
CD would then be released in August.
However, since the band is not yet satisfied with our music, and the recording
conditions here are not very
good, we decided to postpone the recording. We are going to make use of
the time now to do new
arrangements and record DEMOs. The company has successfully contacted a
music production house in LA,
and if all goes well, we might head off to LA for recording in end-August
or early September. So the CD might
only be released at the end of the year. But I believe all of you will
forgive us, because we want to give our
best to you. Everone is working very seriously, even though it's just the
DEMO, Lucy's guitar and HONG's
bass had to be re-recorded many tens of times till we're satisfied. And
we've been practising on alternate days
and giving it all we've got, because we don't want to disappoint all of
you.
As there haven't been any major happenings, the official page hasn't been
updated very frequently. That's not
because the people in charge have been lazy...the photos put up this time
were of our test costumes,
everyone chose the style that he liked best. We didn't want to use this
set of photos because they were of
test costumes, but some of them were well-taken, and since the pictures
haven't been updated for very long,
we used those. Even so some friends said it wasn't enough, so we'll have
to put up more, please forgive us if
they're not good.
The costumes for the new image are still being made. Last time, we weren't
satisfied with the costumes due
to lack of time. This time round I talked very carefully with the costume
designer about everything from design
to material (my eyesight has gone blurry from picking material) It will
take a longer time, hope we won't
disappoint you...
The Fans Club registration page has been opened primarily to make estimations
and collect data. When we
get a certain number of people we'll inform everyone about it: how to register
officially, the collection of
membership fees and the services provided. Fans who have already registered,
don't worry, when the Fans
Club is set up we'll inform all of you the first thing.
After the company mailing address was made known, many friends have sent
letters. The company pass
them to us, and we open and read every letter ourselves. We read every
letter carefully, so don't worry about
us not seeing your letters. But the letters are too many and our work is
too heavy, so we are very pressed for
time. (we do recording till really late at night, and on alternate days
we record in the morning and practise in
the afternoons) And there's trying on of makeup and costumes and other
things to do as well. Morever, I hurt
my hand recently and only had the stitches removed a few days ago...so
it's not very possible for me to reply
to your letters. (Some Fans have already prepared the envelope and stamp
for the reply letter, I'm really
touched!!!!) But please try to empathise. Every member reads every letter
and we're really very happy. We
sincerely thank everyone who has written a letter for your encouragement
and support!!! We'll try to reply
some through the Internet. Once again, thank you...
Though we haven't made great progress, but we're all working very hard.
If the costumes can be ready soon,
we'll perform in Beijing at the end of July. The compnay is also actively
cooperating with the Shanghai side, if
all goes well, we'll do a LIVE in Shanghai. When everything's confirmed,
we'll tell you about the times, location
and prices on the official homepage.
P.S. Heard that some people have spreading rumours about us not taking
our music seriously or responsibly.
We cannot accept this!!!!! It's understandable if you say our music is
not good enough or immature, or you
don't like us, but do not insult our attitude towards music!!!! Like any
other band in China, we take our music
very seriously! We chose visual kei because of its beauty and expression,
this doesn't mean that we are
taking shortcuts by counting on our image to hide anything!!!! We are completely
serious about our music! It
may not be good enough because of our age and inexperience, but please
respect our knowledge of our
music as a band. We know what we're doing, if you don't like it don't listen!!!
If some people don't know how to
respect others, then they're not worth respecting!!! I ask these people
to be accountable for what they're
saying in future!!! (I will not take back my words under any circumstances)
sleep-deprived Ling
2001.6.20
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