In Taiwan, he's impossible to miss. Having won an award as the best male singer at this year's Golden Melody awards (Taiwan's version of the Grammys), he's been touted as the New King of Chinese Pop.
But to Wang Lee Hom, 23, Asia means work. It's only in Boston--where he studied, and moved to early this year--that he can relax and do his favourite things--walk in parks, attend performances by the Boston Symphonic Orchestra and visit art museums.
"Whenever i'm in Asia, i'm always working," said the Chinese-American who was born in Rochester, New York. Lee Hom is one of those over-achievers you would love to hate. A maths whiz at 11. A prize-winner for his thesis (on religion and life, no less) while in High School. A classically trained musician who writes songs and plays the piano, guitar, violin and drums.
And now a Chinese pop star--and handsome to the boot. Yet he's polite and professional, and has no qualms about telling reporters that he still needs to improve as a musician. He has five albums, recorded while studying at Williams College in Boston.
A graduate student of music at Berklee College in Boston, he has just released his sixth album, Impossible to Miss You. But he wants more. He said: "I want to perform in musicals, maybe act in a few films....it's all a matter of whether i have got the time or not.
He named Taiwnaese director Lee Ang (Sense and Sensibility, Eat Drink Man Woman) as someone he would like to work with. But music will always be his first love. "My training in jazz and classical music has probably influenced my style of music," Lee Hom said in a mix of perfect English and Mandarin. "But i'm not a Westerner coming in with my own brand of music and just singing it in Chinese."
"Chinese music has a style that needs to be learnt." He must have learnt it well. His album sales have been increasing. Revolution, his fifth album, released last year, sold 10,000 copies here. the current album sold 6,000 copies in less than a month. The songs on the album were written after Lee Hom moved to Boston.
"I was in a new city, a new school, I didn't know anyone, and i was living by myself," he said. "It was a good time to get in touch with my feelings. I believe that, as a composer, you have to be sincere."
About Love
"Losing you" and "Have you loved before?" are
songs in his new album that touch on lost love. Was Lee Hom writing
from experience?
All he would say was that he fell for 2 girls while in university: "One relationship was successful and the other was not." It's hard for him to be in a relationship, he said. "I'm always travelling and busy with work....so i've missed quite a few chances," he said, cautioning that he's not one for falling in love at first sight.
"She may be pretty....but i would like to take time to build a relationship."
