On November 19, 2019, the sky changed in Taipei, and the wind swayed the Linden trees on the side of the road. Looking out from the window of He Le's music office, the sky was a dead gray, and occasionally fallen leaves were pasted on the window glass, and they were immediately swept by the wind to the vast earth.
Someone pushed open the door of the conference room, wearing a pure white sweatshirt with jeans, carrying his own eco-cup, because he was riding a motorcycle and wearing a hard hat, and his hair looked a little messy.
"Hello, I'm Cai Minyou." The signature sunshine smile warms the cold of late autumn.
I suddenly seemed to go back to the autumn of 2006, 19-year-old Cai Minyou launched his first solo creation album "19", the representative work "I can" became a love song on both sides of the strait, Cai Minyou also won the 18th Golden Melody Awards Best Newcomer Award with this album, won the 4th "King of Songs" Taiwan Most Promising Newcomer Award and other awards.
Cai Minyou's first solo album "19" released at the age of 19
"I can, accompany you to the stars, and without further explanation, I will be with you." At the time of writing this song, Cai Minyou was secretly in love with a girl with a very healthy complexion in the next class, and "I Can" was sung by countless lovers, but Cai Minyou never had the opportunity to give it to the girl she loved.
On the music platform, the comments of this song are one mood after another, in which some people write: If people are lonely, listening to any song is like singing themselves.
Suddenly, Cai Minyou, who was born in 1986, has passed the age of standing, but in the conversation and laughter, he still seems to be just a boy, his eyebrows are bright, as if followed by stars, warm like a beam of light. However, when you think he can laugh through the haze, he turns to the gray city behind him.
"I think a lot now, and I dare to release my negative emotions, which used to be relatively simple." Cai Minyou, who has always shown his image of sunshine, said that the new album "Change of Heart" is his metamorphosis.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > senior "small fresh meat"</h1>
The story of the encounter with music also begins with the previous generation. Cai Minyou's mother has always had a dream of being a singer, but her grandfather did not agree to her stepping into this industry, because Taiwan's early entertainment industry was too chaotic.
During a local singing competition, Mom burst into tears on the stage, and Dad saw the news in the newspaper and wrote a letter to comfort her. Back and forth, two people who love music got married, gave birth to 3 children, and trained them to learn violin and piano from an early age.
"The first time I was exposed to music was listening to my mother singing, and I thought singing was fun." At that time, Disney's cartoon "The Little Mermaid" was broadcast on TV, and Cai Minyou, who was about 5 years old, was humming the theme song while wearing shoes in the stairwell. The echo in the stairwell was good, and he also fell in love with the feeling of singing ever since.
Cai Minyou as a child
Everything is between gain and loss, Cai Minyou loves music, and his parents have high hopes for him. But every time she went back to her hometown in Chiayi for the New Year's Festival, when the other children were playing games in the yard, setting off firecrackers, and enjoying a carefree childhood, Cai Minyou could only practice the piano on the side until before eating.
"I haven't really tasted childhood, but because of this kind of practice since I was a child, a lot of things have grown into my bones."
In 2001, 14-year-old Cai Minyou was in junior high school, because he often played and sang in the school's piano room, and his classmates around him knew that he liked to sing, so he secretly helped him sign up for the Luminous Family Singing Competition hosted by UFO Radio Guangyu.
It was also an era when the whole people listened to the radio program, and many people had to listen to the program without sleeping in the middle of the night, or go to sleep with the song. This is actually a large telephone online singing competition, the participants do not have to go to the scene, by phone to participate in the competition, Yang Zongwei, Xu Jiaying, Lu Guangzhong all participated in this competition.
Cai Minyou first won the first place in the quarterly competition, and then won the championship of the annual competition, so he was photographed by the agency and became a signed artist at a young age.
"At that time, the mood was that I felt that I was going to be red, and I wanted to become my idols Jay Chou, Tao Zhe, and Wang Lihong. I also told my classmates everywhere that I was going to be an artist, I was going to be a singer, I was going to be popular. ”
Happiness did not come immediately. "After the first year of publicity with everyone, the whole world knew that I was going to be a singer. The next year they asked me, and I said maybe I wasn't ready. The third year they asked me again, I was a little stressed, and I didn't know why I had to wait so long. By the fourth year, there were some fragments. ”
It was not until 5 years later that Cai Minyou finally released his first album "19", which began his musical path that was both smooth and rebellious. "I, 19, do everything with all my might." This is the opening statement of the MV of "I Can", which is the youth of Cai Minyou and the juvenile era of the last class after the 80s.
Since then, Cai Minyou has launched "Search for Cai Minyou", "Lonely, Okay", "Super Right Brain", "Me and My Brahms", "Change of Heart", 6 albums in 13 years, not prolific, but each one is steady and steady, and there is no lack of novelty and highlights.
Cai Minyou's "Super Right Brain" album cover
But the rebellious thing is that Cai Minyou has never been able to become popular. Maybe you don't necessarily know who Cai Minyou is, but there is always one of his songs that loops through your playlist, "I Can", "Little Obedient", "Lonely, Okay"... "What should I do in the middle of the night, who is lonely around." The mood became so complicated, thinking of her, thinking of her, hating her. ”
Under the smile of the sun, there is loneliness, sensitivity, and often confusion.
"Sometimes I'm on a motorcycle, listening to music, and I accidentally cry." When cai minyou said this, he looked very emotional, but not long after, he was half joking. "When I debuted, the word 'small fresh meat' was not popular, I was the first generation of fresh meat, self-styled 'senior fresh meat'."
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Dark Scorpion"</h1>
When Cai Minyou debuted, he was just in time for the last train of the record industry boom. The whole late 80s and 90s were the golden age of the recording industry, which was also the period of Taiwan's economic take-off.
However, in just 20 years, Taiwan's economic growth has slowed down, the "miracle" is no more, and at the same time, the recording industry has gradually encountered bottlenecks. On the one hand, the recession has reduced consumption power, and on the other hand, the rise of music streaming platforms has lowered the threshold for listening to music, which has also reduced people's consumption of physical records.
On November 30 this year, Taiwan's well-known independent record company "Wind and Sun" announced its closure, and its official website read: "Music is eternal, and the carrier is only a parallel universe." "Standing at the mouth of the wormhole in the digital era, we decided not to remember the past and go straight to the future."
Economy and culture are also closely related, when Jay Chou was red through half the sky, it was the era when Hong Kong and Taiwan pop music was continuously exported to the outside world, but with the rapid growth of the mainland music industry, music gradually became a two-way output, with its own characteristics.
Cai Minyou regarded Jay Chou as a benchmark, but he did not catch up with the golden age of "favorable times and places". At that time, the record company would only release one or two songs, but because they liked the song and the singer, the fans would invest their emotions in buying the entire album and then reading it repeatedly with the lyric book. As a member of the industry, Cai Minyou has seen that glorious era.
"I know that in the era when everyone would follow the album, now is the time when you desperately tell others what to listen to, which is two very different eras." 」
Even if you take the last train, Cai Minyou did not let the external environment affect himself, as long as the music itself is good, there will be various channels to be seen. He insists on doing his best music and adds new elements to each album. And he himself grew up with his own music.
When the first album was released in 2006, he was a 19-year-old purely shy teenager and wrote love songs with the mood of wanting to confess to girls. Because the first album had some achievements, by the second album in 2008, the 21-year-old Cai Minyou began to rampage in the vast world. When the third album "Lonely, Okay" was released in 2009, the teenagers first tasted sorrow, and it turned out that life was so wonderful and so lonely.
In 2010, Cai Minyou joined the army and disappeared from the public eye for a year during the rise of his career. After retiring from the army, Cai Minyou immediately threw himself into the album "Super Right Brain" released in 2012, he insisted on making some newer and cooler electronic music with enthusiasm and ambition, but at that time, Chinese music was still dominated by lyrical songs, and the results of this album were not ideal, which made Cai Minyou somewhat frustrated.
"Later there will be some shadows, Whether I want to choose the market or do what I want to do." This is also a big burden for Cai Minyou when making records, the creative process is always the happiest, but sometimes he will subtly bring this baggage into the creation, which will also bring him obstacles. Cai Minyou did not say some grandiose and beautiful words, and his every answer was sincere and transparent.
Cai Minyou's third album "Lonely, Okay" released in 2009
When the fifth album was released, Cai Minyou was 29 years old, and even though the years had not left any traces on him, that bright smile still hung on his face as clear as ever, but the 30-year-old mark seemed to have been given some social significance to anyone. Cai Minyou began to lose sleep, and the album became introverted.
In "Change of Heart" 4 years later, Cai Minyou actually wrote more than 50 demos, and in the conference room where we interviewed, he showed them to everyone one by one, but they were completely rejected. "They said I didn't write what I wanted to say, and in that moment, I felt like I was losing all my strength."
"At the beginning of the release, I was luckier than many singers of the same period, and I didn't really taste the pain of struggle. But when I was 30 years old, when I found that I didn't have the ability to withstand stress and solve problems, I realized that I was only maturing later than others. ”
After nearly half a year of low tide, Cai Minyou began to rediscover himself step by step, sorting out what he wanted to say, including self-confidence. "Change of Heart" is not the same as previous albums in terms of style, cai Minyou changed the image of the former sunshine boy and transformed into "Dark Scorpion". "I'm originally a Scorpio, Scorpio is just at ease with everything, and this album actually talks about some of the negative emotions I have accumulated."
Cai Minyou's latest album "Change of Heart"
There is a contradiction in Cai Minyou, the contradiction of the boy's transformation into an adult, in the universe of music he can remain simple and pure, but he must come out and face the complex world. He is not very good at hiding himself, he is affectionate when he sings, he talks like a fart, and when he does not speak, he seems to build a high wall next to him.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > unwanted dreams</h1>
The wind outside still had no intention of stopping, and Cai Minyou, who was practicing in the piano room, had already begun to sweat. He is preparing for the Beijing concert on November 24, the first stop on his tour, and it is the first time in so many years that he has gone to the mainland for a solo show.
Song after song was rehearsed, and there was almost no rest all afternoon. When practicing "Lake Berga", Cai Minyou temporarily wanted to join the violin, he got up, the bow was raised, and the beautiful melody was like a sad snake wrapped around the piano room.
For the first special session in the mainland, Cai Minyou felt both excited and unreal, and then he added slightly: "I cherish this opportunity, but also with both expectations and fear of being hurt to meet my fans and friends in Beijing, I have more than two hours to get along with everyone, there is a little feeling of meeting netizens, I am also afraid that the jokes I tell them will not be funny." ”
On the day of the concert, Cai Minyou expressed the same mood after singing the first few songs, saying that he was very nervous and very cautious about this "first time". When the second half of the song gradually became better, he choked up and said that he hoped it would not end, and wanted to sing it all the time in this concert.
On November 24, 2019, Cai Minyou held his first mainland concert in Beijing
There is also a special audience in the audience - mainland singer-songwriter Zheng Xing, who was nominated for the Best Newcomer Award, Album of the Year award and Best Chinese Album at the 29th Golden Melody Awards with the album "Suddenly One Day, I Left Taipei", and also co-created the song "Stop Standing" in "Change of Mind".
Zheng Xing said: "I was very touched when he said this, and I can especially understand his mood. I am both a fan of his and an industry practitioner, and this perspective allows me to better understand his complex emotions. ”
When Cai Minyou released his first album, Zheng Xing, who was still in junior high school, fell in love with this singer. After that, each album of Cai Minyou Zheng Xing will listen, and the song "Luminous Newsletter" even accompanied and encouraged him throughout his junior year of high school.
Until Zheng Xing himself became a professional musician, he did not think that one day he would be able to write songs with Cai Minyou. "Suddenly one day, I left Taipei" made Zheng Xing famous, and at the same time, Cai Minyou also noticed this singer from Yangzhou, and the two met under the introduction of friends and met to create together.
"Maybe I've never met you, like a wandering cloud."
"You know, this lyric is what I really thought at the time, I want to say why I am here, today I actually wrote a song in Cai Minyou's studio." I have always been a fan of his songs, and I also recognize his music and talent, which has led me for so many years, and also made me secretly feel fortunate, fortunately, I have not given up. ”
It is the sympathy between musical talents. For Zheng Xing, Cai Minyou is his role model. For Cai Minyou, after hearing and singing Zheng Xing's "Farewell Practice", he made up his mind to find him to write a song together.
Cai Minyou said: "I think mainland musicians are so romantic, if you want to compare, Taiwanese musicians are more direct. ”
I don't quite understand: "The direct antonym is euphemism, why romance?" ”
"Words like 'Let me hug you and plant a rain' and 'chase the tide, kiss the gravel', this is a combination I can't think of at all, I may be 'good or bad, good or bad, I don't allow you to say badly' this kind of simple words." 」
The process of co-creation was very smooth, Cai Minyou composed the music, Zheng Xing composed the lyrics, and completed the song "Standing Non-Stop" in one afternoon.
After the age of 30, Cai Minyou, who "thinks a lot", still has a stubbornness of a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers in his voice, and in this era of rapid change, he has always maintained a pure heart in creating music, like a boy with a little sillyness, simple and sincere.
Just like the lyrics written by Cai Minyou himself, perhaps not as "romantic" as the mainland singers in his eyes, but what he wrote was what he wanted to say, and those small but sure beautiful and not beautiful.
After the Beijing concert, Cai Minyou returned to the hotel and recalled the scene with his eyes closed. Before singing "I Can", he said he wanted to see the stars, and the fans on the scene really used their mobile phones to let him see a sea of stars. "It's like a dream that doesn't want to end."
This is a beautiful beginning, the boy turned adult Cai Minyou, hoping to see a broader sea of stars in the future. After the interview, I also put on my headphones and fell into his music with stars and seas, sweetness and sorrow.
Author | Jiang Wen
Edit | Li Shaowei
Typography | STAN
Image | Partly from the web
Produced by SouthWind Window New Media