Author | Yi Qing
Edit | Zhou Yan
In 2017, a brand new music program "Children of Tomorrow" "turned out".
In the middle of that summer, Liao Juntao, who composed and sang original songs such as "Who" and "Station", was eliminated in the "11 into 9" promotion competition because he chose the more popular opponent Mengzikun.
Seeing such a result, the mentor Xue Zhiqian choked up and said, "Liao Juntao, you live like a man. (But) you know, this choice could make you work for another decade. ”
Three years later, when Liao Juntao decided to participate in the "Children of Tomorrow Orchestra Season" again, Zhou Zhennan, a student of "Children of Tomorrow 1", had become the mentor of the show. Fortunately, Liao Juntao's talent was seen by more people in the summer of 2020, and he and Liu Jiong, Ju Yiming, and Halamji formed the orchestra's nap phonograph and won the second official debut.
Today, the nap gramophone has debuted for nearly a year, and Liao Juntao has also debuted for four years, but he still insists on making his own music.
On the last day of July, Yu Shi'er (ID: yuci-er) interviewed Liao Juntao for up to six hours, and really felt his "sense of contrast" between music and life.
Image source: Wow wow wow wow wow
At 8:30 p.m. on July 31, at The Beijing Candy Live House, Liao Juntao performed the final performance of the new album "Love Letters in the Seams".
He took the high-speed train from Wuhan on the same day, arrived at the scene five or six hours early, and waited for a series of work such as rehearsal, makeup and interviews in the not very spacious powder room in the background. Yu Shi'er (ID: yuci-er) had just walked to the backstage when he heard sporadic laughter coming from not far away.
Ju Yiming, a member of the nap gramophone, arrived an hour and a half early, sat in a corner of the backstage, and sang the songs from Liao Juntao's new album.
After a while, people came in batches and batches, including wow staff, private friends, and industry people, such as tour group members Wei Wei and Zhang Yuqi... In the powder room of less than 30 square meters, there is no more "shelter".
Liao Juntao was busy putting on makeup while socializing the whole scene. Even when he was sitting in the corner, he would occasionally interject a few words to keep the field from cooling down.
Less than an hour before playing, Liao Juntao changed into a white suit top and shorts, and cartoon socks painted with blue sky and white clouds were exposed from his ankles. Standing in the narrow and dark corridor, separated by a distance of 20 meters, Liao Juntao recognized Long Dani at a glance and shouted kindly: "Dani, I am going to die of nervousness, like an annual meeting." ”
As soon as the words stopped, there was another burst of laughter.
With only half an hour left before the opening, the staff left the powder room one after another, and the whole space seemed exceptionally quiet. At this time, Liao Juntao did not see the joy he had just had, sitting alone on the black sofa, his hands were tightly together, and he could even see his knuckles white.
His eyes stared at a certain place in a daze, there was no expression, and the whole person's emotions were completely precipitated, like the silence before the opening of the concert, like the moment when the spotlight went out at the end of the curtain, which was a moment when Liao Juntao completely belonged to himself.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="86" > otaku who is good at "social"</h1>
With nearly two hours to go before the show, fans were already lining up outside the venue.
Liao Juntao in the dressing room was very nervous, and the whole person seemed a little stiff and flustered, but he still pretended to be relaxed and grabbed the red envelope with everyone. In the face of the small partner who missed the red envelope and was still outside the situation, he was wearing makeup and laughed in spite of the camera.
After the fans entered the scene one by one, they began to shout slogans: "Liao Liao love songs, Tao Tao is endless", the louder they shouted, and even urged: "Liao Juntao, go to work!" The sound came clearly from the front of the stage to the backstage, and Liao Juntao said with some excitement: "They must not have thought that I would have six minutes to play." ”
He looked forward to every tour, arrived early, auditioned and tuned over and over again during rehearsals, and sang "Like Me" at least three times. The same is true backstage, when there are few people, he hums the new song "Love Letters in the Seam", and he is already nervous enough to forget the words. "Every time I go on stage I'm nervous and I get shaky." Liao Juntao told Yu Thorn Er (ID: yuci-er) frankly.
Liao Juntao consciously is a "numb" person. He couldn't tell the difference between physiological emotions, such as the nervousness at the moment, whether it was because he was too excited or flustered, in short, his heart was beating faster, and he was so excited that he jumped up in the same place.
Image source: Yu Thorn
When it came to the stage, the audience erupted in a long-lost cheer, and Liao Juntao once again used his "Tao-style social skills" - he ridiculed the fans who led the slogan on the spot, "I heard your voice in the background, clearly, you are too powerful." ”
This laughter lasted from the beginning to the end, Liao Juntao's tour successfully captured everyone's hearts, and tomorrow's friends swayed to the music in the audience, until the end, they went backstage together to wait for Liao Juntao.
"Our Farewell Letter" is one of the songs from Liao Juntao's new album, written at the end of the "Children of Tomorrow Orchestra Season". Part of the description of the teenager is written for the drummer Ju Yiming of the phonograph band Nap, who uses lyrics to describe Ju Yiming as a "teenager with the corners of his mouth raised", and part of it is written for other members.
After the tour began, Liao Juntao jumped off the stage and sang with fans all the way, finally handing the microphone to one of the protagonists in the song, Ju Yiming.
In addition to Ju Yiming and Halamji, friends of the Qi Luck Alliance, the Galaxy, and fruit planet who debuted at the same time also came to the scene and stood and listened to the whole song. When Liao Juntao sang this song on stage, the whole candy live house seemed to return to the summer of 2020, and many fans on the stage could not help but wipe their tears.
In the last tour, Liao Juntao also specially called for Zhong Yixuan, a good brother of "Ming 1", hoping that he could achieve good results in "Children of Tomorrow 5", "Don't say it now, I'm afraid I won't have a chance in the future." ”
The staff had never seen him run amok, and in the eyes of everyone, he was always funny, and he hardly showed frustration or sadness. From the first season to the fourth season of "Children of Tomorrow", Liao Juntao rarely shed tears on every public stage, and whenever he choked, he would cover his emotions in a more relaxed way.
He is good at solving a problem in the way of "four or two strokes".
At the beginning of "Children of Tomorrow 1", Liao Juntao, who wore black-rimmed glasses and a black fisherman's hat, sang his own original song "Who", making his mentor Xue Zhiqian shout "Wow", becoming the first person to qualify on the Shengshi Circuit. At that time, Liao Juntao, a vegetarian, became popular with this song "Who", and Yang Mi, the mentor of the beauty track, could not help but praise.
Liao Juntao started the entire summer of 2017 with "Who". But there are still many talents that have not come to the stage, and they left the stage of "Children of Tomorrow 1" in the format stage of "11 into 9" and left his good brothers.
In 2020, he returned to the stage of "Children of Tomorrow 4" again, conquering mentors and contestants with original tracks such as "Bottle and Polisher", "Whispers of Time", and "Don't Talk to Me". At this time, Zhou Zhennan, who was already the mentor of the program, couldn't help but choke: "He should have been seen a long time ago." ”
Speaking of the four years of tempering, Liao Juntao does not care about these past, he does not regret the choices he has made, because "regret is useless, a person always regrets it, he will fall into it, if everything is regretted, the whole person will be stupid." He replied, of course.
He doesn't like to deal with things that can't be changed, and instead of bothering, he should look forward and let things go in a better direction.
After the tour, the music planning staff came backstage to greet him, in addition to praise, several people also reviewed the relevant matters of the new album, Liao Juntao patted everyone's shoulders, and it was a joke in the comfort: "Are you asking me for credit?" ”
Liao Juntao is undoubtedly cheerful, he loves to joke, and even ridiculed his boss Long Dani on the stage as "single", but he is outside the crowd.
In all the noisy background sounds, when the spotlight only hit him, Liao Juntao, who sang, was extremely quiet. Contrary to his social scenes, every song Liao Juntao sang that day was affectionate, restrained, and abstract, but had nothing to do with cheerfulness.
And such a person who can control the whole scene, but privately loves to stay at home and draw a "boundary" with the outside world, which has also become a point of concern for him: "I now feel that my words are a bit repetitive, the reserves are running out, and then I don't have much contact with the outside world." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > music is the only intimate outlet</h1>
In the video shooting of Yu Thorn (ID: yuci-er), Liao Juntao is very able to give variety effects, dares to take his own knife, and uses the words "oil", "sentimentality" and "riot" to himself without hesitation, often letting the staff pinch a handful of sweat for him.
But when it came to the professional field, he became another person, the smile on his face narrowed, and he began to seriously analyze his creative journey.
In his world, entertainment is entertainment, and music is just music.
Time has changed a lot of Liao Juntao, he no longer only pays attention to the volume of a song after the release of a song as before, but lets the music pass his own level first, paying attention to the process to give himself a sense of abundance, "The joy of creation is also very important, I believe that if the work is good, sooner or later it will ferment." "Liao Juntao is very determined.
Letting go of his utilitarian heart, Liao Juntao has used his mind to create over the years.
Instead of satisfying the outside world, it is better to satisfy yourself first. So the song "Love Letters in the Seam" took seven years to complete.
Seven years ago, when he was a "little boy", the chorus of this song existed, but Liao Juntao has never found a matching lead song. It wasn't until 2020 that Liao Juntao wrote the first lyrics of "Love Letters in the Cracks of Time", "I am your forest, the moon, the lake, the glacier, the desert, the swamp." ”
In seven years, the understanding, expectations and expectations of feelings have changed. After integrating his own experience and experience into the song, Liao Juntao felt that it was time to release the song.
Another song, "Happy Holidays," was the last to be included.
The new album was originally going to include the song "I will miss you" by Liao Juntao and Zhong Yixuan, and Liao Juntao felt that fans had heard it and might not be new.
But the "Happy Holidays" in his hand is not complete, in order to better present it in the album, Liao Juntao forced himself to hand over the work that was still called "Stupid Cute Happy" in early June.
After hearing this, the staff who worked together on music album planning felt very surprised and felt that Liao Juntao was becoming more open in music creation.
"It's not the same as the previous style, a very rhythmic song, very suitable for live." It can be clearly seen that he is trying to diversify his ideas on the arrangement, on the one hand, the intention of the lyrics, not as deep as the previous music, on the other hand, his expression is more abundant, in the past, nine of the ten songs were about love, but now there is "Our Farewell Letter" about friendship, and there is a song written for his future granddaughter "Like Me". ”
At the scene, as soon as the prelude to "Happy Holidays" sounded, the audience and friends could not help but follow the rhythm, and now this song has been regarded as a "bungee must listen to" by everyone.
"Bait" is Liao Juntao's favorite song on this new album. The song was inspired by a kind of "miss", he recorded a lot of different people's "I miss you" at the end of "Bait", the sound is not loud, it is hidden in the sound of the instrument, it is a very euphemistic expression, but it makes "missed" more with a sense of struggle and loneliness, and has a power that points directly to people's hearts.
"You hear a lot of people in this song 'I miss you,' but not the 'I miss you' you you want." Liao Juntao explained.
Despite the change in style, fans believe that this is still a typical "Liao-style love song" that can be described by the strange metaphor of "fish bait" to describe all the feelings of missing a person.
Liao Juntao used "dry" to describe this album, and another staff member also agreed: "The last album "Biting off half of the apple" is directly about love, and the songs on that album are actually very bitter. But this new album, I feel his more calm, positive and mature side. ”
When staying at home alone, Liao Juntao usually devotes his time to creation. Before creating, he would drink some wine to make his thinking jump out, write down what he thought of at the time, do not calculate the logic of the thinking, and wait until he is sober, and then select the clip with a flash of inspiration.
Sometimes, in order to write a love song, Liao Juntao will go through the feelings he wants to express in his heart. Although Liao Juntao's lyrics are abstract, they resonate with the audience very highly. No matter what kind of life he has experienced, people can always find a heartfelt blow in his songs. Because it exists, it is real.
Liao Juntao welcomes his friends to party at his house, but he also likes to stay at home and be alone with him. Because of this, Liao Juntao's life still has a bit of mystery, and then writes these mysteries into his music. "But that doesn't stop him from being a real and lovely person." The staff said.
Perhaps music is the only outlet for Liao Juntao's intimate emotions.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="67" How far is the > 10,000-person concert? </h1>
Nowadays, compared with the behavior of fans uniting to hit the list, it has become a more peculiar thing for fans not to take the initiative to hit the list. Compared with the data worker, it is not reduced to a pawn of big data, but it arouses people's curiosity.
Liao Juntao's fans are such a free existence, they are more like traditional music fans, all likes, only related to music.
The number of new albums pre-sold by the agency was initially set at a thousand. Unexpectedly, when this number rose to two thousand, the album could be sold out within two minutes, and even some internal members did not grab it.
The same is true for touring sessions. From Hangzhou and Shanghai to Wuhan and Beijing, even if they stood for nearly two hours, the fans spared no effort to support the whole audience with pink reinforcement sticks. Some fans didn't listen enough after following a few tours and continued to follow.
At the Beijing live scene, there were also fans shouting "plus field", and Liao Juntao jokingly asked the boss "Long Dani" for his opinion. Then everyone gave Liao Juntao a lot of face, and silently shouted the slogan of "Long Dani, Bel Niu".
In the guest cooperation session of the midfield, Liao Juntao invited independent musician Chen Jingfei to leave her time to perform two songs. Chen Jingfei stood on the stage with some embarrassment, and the fans on the stage enthusiastically encouraged Chen Jingfei to sing well, and the scene was very friendly.
During the eight tours, Liao Juntao was most impressed by his deep singing on the stage, and the fans standing in the front row of the stage shouted a "aha" to scare him, "Scared me to death." Liao Juntao said proudly.
Perhaps ashamed to express his feelings about fans, or perhaps "love and kill" is the norm between him and his fans, Liao Juntao told Yu Thorn (ID: yuci-er) with some amusement: "In fact, every time I am very impressed, the fans and friends on the scene are very enthusiastic, everyone is very impressed with the interaction with me, and the level of everyone's singing is really uneven." I was touched by everyone's faces, but they were all very pleasing to the eye. When talking about fans, Liao Juntao showed a cheerful look.
Liao Juntao's songs are also highly sung among friends.
At the beginning of the rehearsal, a few of his friends appeared on the scene, and a few of them stood under the stage, swaying to the melody. Liao Juntao smiled and asked, "Have you been standing without getting tired?" The friends shook their heads and continued to spend rehearsal time with him.
The staff who worked together on music planning liked Liao Juntao's songs very much, and when they knew that there was a tour in Beijing, they came to see it. In the backstage of the crowded powder room, all the "good people" of Liao Juntao are carried, some people like "Bottle and Polisher", some people say that they have the urge to cry after listening to "Station", and some people indulge in the melody of "Who".
Liao Juntao's talent is recognized, and the staff described him as a "talented singer-songwriter". But I also have to admit that he is only one high-singing "hit" from "red".
But Liao Juntao does not take this matter to heart, nor does he create to cater to the market. In the world of music, he is not hurried, has his own track, and the goal is very clear: "Ten thousand people concert." The question and the answer were almost seamless, and the answer seemed to ring in his mind a million times.
Live House is not Liao Juntao's ambition, and there is still an order of "six or seven thousand people" to achieve the goal of "10,000 concerts" in his heart, but Liao Juntao will not give up. One day, he will take his talents and cross the laws of fame in the entertainment industry and stand on a broader stage.
At that time, the concert recorded all traces of Liao Juntao's passing with the world.