New Music Industry Watch original article, unauthorized refusal to reprint
Author | Nine fish
I shoule be waiting
Waiting for someone new
Even though that it wasn't you
But I know that it's wonderful Incredible Baby irrational
This "Wonderful U" from AGA Jiang Haijia has unconsciously accompanied us for three or four summers, and the massive cover songs, and even the handling of singing instructional videos and English teaching accounts have made "Wonderful U" one of the most widely disseminated original English songs in recent years.
Including this year, Zhang Hanyun's cover of the first stage of "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves" has also further won a large number of fans, and more and more people have begun to have a strong desire to explore the story of this song and its original singer-songwriter, AGA Jiang Haijia, who has just been shortlisted in the 2020 MTV EMA "The Most Popular Artist in Greater China".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > a surprise and a destiny</h1>
When it comes to the popularity of "Wonderful U", AGA describes it as "a surprise", not because of the quality of the song, but simply because "Wonderful U" at that time was just a demo that she had recorded in her bedroom - after all, Demo is a very rudimentary, even oversimplified state for every professional singer-songwriter.
"Because I've had a lot of well-made, well-made songs that haven't been as popular as this song (laughs), I was surprised when I sang this song on the tour stage for the first time and sang with me in the audience."
But in fact, the popularity of "Wonderful U" also shows that AGA transforms the common feelings and emotions of human beings into the foundation of music creation, and the fact that in the face of such sincere musical expression, it does not need too much additional modification to obtain resonance.
From the lyrics of "Wonderful U" alone, it tells the story of a pair of young plum bamboo horses: one day, the girl found that she had a love affair with the boy that surpassed her friend, but she was afraid of destroying the friendship between the two, so she fantasized in her head about a relationship with the boy.
The original version of the song, from the lyrics to the recording, was done by AGA alone, in her words, "this is a 100% AGA work".
That's why, when it realized that Wonderful U was already more popular than its creators, the AGA didn't think it was a bad thing to do, as outside speculation suggested. She feels that for a musician, it is a more natural and reasonable process to be recognized through music, rather than being recognized through some unrelated things, and then discover that this person originally made music.
"Including when I was singing in some places before, I have been singing other people's songs, sometimes I will mix my own originals, but no one has ever asked me about original songs, so from that time on, I hope that one day, my musical works can also be noticed, and knowing my music is much more important for me than knowing me as a person." 」
But on the other hand, the AGA would find it "a surprise" and because she didn't have the basics of the purpose of "creating a song that could become popular," and she said she wouldn't be able to do it if she were asked to write another song now, or a song that would have the same feedback.
That's because, in the process of creation, AGA spends all her time thinking about what form or angle the song should be the best way to convey a message—almost the day before the song's release, she began to think about issues such as the market; and Wonderful U was able to get these results in the most basic and direct demo form, inexplicably with a sense of destiny that was destined in the dark.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > a four-year wait</h1>
This sense of destiny is also reflected in AGA's musical journey along the way.
Whether it is from a young age, without anyone's guidance, you can reproduce the absolute sound of the songs you hear from the radio on the keys, or at the age of 19, you met Shu Wen through the piano teacher and sold your first original , "Better Me", or through a song written to your friend Wu Yufei, you got acquainted with Universal Records.
If you put every important turning point in AGA's life about music into a timeline over the years, this feeling becomes more and more intense, but if you zoom in on the details, you can see that under the level of fate, it is still a person's determination and dedication to a certain goal.
Before becoming a full-time singer-songwriter, AGA worked as a flight attendant for four years to save money in order to study at a music school like Berkeley. When she flew to Beijing, she saw the first snow in her life, so she had the original lyrics of "Better Me".
"Better Me" was also the first demo that AGA gave to Shu Wen, who later became her most important teacher on the road to music. After that, Shuwen asked her to hand over two or three songs to him every week, so for four whole years, she had to complete her job while also handing over songs to the teacher on schedule, and sometimes, she could only sleep for two or three hours a day.
But that was also the four years she hadn't sold a single song.
Many people have given up after reaching this point, but AGA resigned as a flight attendant after thinking about it for more than a year. She lost her steady income overnight and had to take on a lot of music-related jobs, whether it was singing demos to others or recording harmonies.
Since AGA was nine years old, after making that decision about music in the future, every decision she has made since then has been to work hard to get closer to that goal. When Universal asked AGA if she would be interested in being a full-time singer-songwriter, her first thought was: I've been waiting for this question for four years, and I've been preparing for the answer to this question for more than twenty years.
It is precisely because of her own experience that when asked if there is now a right that can change the music industry, AGA chose "zero restrictions": she hopes that all musicians in the world can create music without material restrictions, because she feels that only in this way can creation truly return to creation itself.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > about the identity of the musician, about love</h1>
When AGA first went to the Red Pavilion to see Kaiqi Xue's concert, when the whole audience sang "Better Me" together, she cried in the audience, turned to her mother sitting next to her and said: "I can now say that I am a musician." That was the first time AGA had felt the power of creation so intuitively, and that power was still relevant to herself at that moment.
In addition to "Better Me", AGA has also written "One Man's Monologue" for Eason Chan, "Sky Bridge" for Miriam Yang, "Diamond Life" for Li Keqin, "Hollow Man" for Yan Yan, etc. These works by AGA have a very obvious feature: the fit of the song and the singer himself.
Compared with the form in which the lyrics can be expressed directly through the story of the text, it is actually more difficult for the composer to achieve this fit; before writing a song for each person, AGA will repeatedly listen to the singer's work, find the possibility of the other person's voice from it, and find a voice that she thinks the other party is the best, and then start to create.
Compared with the "bystander Qing" created by others, AGA feels that writing songs for itself is more like a meditative experience, a process of continuous self-excavation: when deciding to express a certain part in the form of music, the most difficult and most needed thing is honesty.
The twists and turns of those dreams, even if they are not smooth, have also become the inspiration for AGA's creation; after the songs have been recognized by more and more fans and all walks of life, she has realized the sense of mission as a musician.
"When I was a flight attendant, when I went to work, I was really tired, and at that time I just relied on the music I liked to continue to live and relax, so I understood the importance of music to the company of people who went to school and worked. This has also become a big motivation for me to create now, because just like before, creating is a self-exploration thing for me, everyone will have many faces, not every side can be bravely shown to others, but when I perceive my frank sharing may make people who hear these music realize that they are not alone. ”
Including her new album "So Called Love Songs", released on September 18, it can also be said that AGA is fulfilling her responsibilities as a singer-songwriter. 2020 is a disaster for the whole world, and she hopes to cheer people up and send warmth through an album about love, which also contains her personal understanding and expectation of "love".
The literal translation of the album title is "the so-called love song", and this "so-called" prefix is also the thing that AGA hopes to convey through this album that "love is not a fixed interpretation", and it should not be a task that needs to be completed with a strong purpose.
Toward the end of the interview, AGA said that if it could, it would still most like to go back to the 80s, an era of music or music from the perspective of both exporters and fans, an era when music lovers would save money to listen to music, and then listen repeatedly, and even study the lyrics word by word.
"There used to be a lot of music with a prelude longer than a minute, or even longer, but now it seems like more than 30 seconds is more (laughs), in fact, in this way, there will be less and less room for the creator to play." 」
To sum up, the biggest difference with the current musical environment is actually the word "patience": AGA sold its first song with ten years of patience, got a universal contract in four years, and will take this patience to be a singer-songwriter in the future.
*The images in this article are from the respondents
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