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Author | Zhao Dazhuo
During the intermission of the 618 gala of an e-commerce platform, the young artists who participated in the performance passed through the backstage channel and greeted Tan Yizhe one by one. Tan Yizhe suddenly realized that he had worked with almost all these artists, Huang Zitao, Li Yuchun, Shang Wenjie, Mao Buyi, Xu Weizhou...
Tan Yizhe and the studio TYZ Music contracted the vast majority of traffic variety shows and traffic artists on the market, which inevitably brought prejudice: as one of the earliest professional musicians who returned from overseas study, Tan Yizhe jumped into the idol market and did not look cool.
"Everyone has a misunderstanding about how to make music for traffic artists." Tan Yizhe said, "If it is a powerful musician helping traffic artists make music, isn't it just raising the quality of music?" ”
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Recently, Tan Yizhe has been running back and forth in Shanghai, Changsha and Wuxi, shuttling between different variety shows and performances.
In the first half of the year, Tan Yizhe and his team have cooperated with the three major video platforms. Youku's "This is Street Dance 3", iQiyi's "I Am a Singer-Songwriter 2", Tencent Video's "Children of Tomorrow 4" have started continuously, and Tan Yizhe has served as the music director.
Tan Yizhe, who came from a professional music school, was not only good at instrumental music, but also played street dance when he was young. He assigned three groups of arrangers to "This Is Hip Hop" and also participated in the music adaptation himself, trying to find some new ways of expressing it.
"I Am a Singer-Songwriter 2" is an original program, in which the band of the studio participated in the whole process, during which the members did nearly ten nucleic acid tests. Through the meticulous design of music, Tan Yizhe strives to use the band to help the stage presentation of each group of artists.
"Children of Tomorrow 4" focuses on the selection of young and up-and-coming bands, which is the fourth collaboration between Tan Yizhe and the program team. He helped these amateur musicians perfect their musical performances, proposing that the band should play well and the stage should be beautiful.
During this period, Tan Yizhe also undertook the farewell concert of Rocket Girl and the music work of some commercial evenings. In less than 20 days, he completed more than 95% of the music adaptation and mixing for an e-commerce platform 618 gala. At present, the work has been arranged to September.
Such a large workload must be supported by a strong team. Tan Yizhe's studio TYZ Music currently has a team of more than 20 people, divided into two groups: band and arranger. The arrangement is mostly experienced post-80s, and the band is mostly post-90s returnees, and the ideas and playing methods are fresher.
Tan Yizhe's studio TYZ Music (courtesy of the interviewee)
Tan Positioned himself as a professional music director, like Quincy Jones serving Michael Jackson, serving artists with his strong technical ability and musical wisdom. He said: "When you are young, you play all the music, and when you are old, you may not play it, and then become an artist." Do what you love. ”
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Tan Yizhe's musical career has been closely related to idols and traffic from the beginning. In 2004, he returned from studying in Canada, just in time for the domestic draft era. Tan Yizhe was also fortunate to be a musician who grew up in the first wave of drafts. He once said, "I grew up with Li Yuchun. ”
Previously, he studied pop music production at a private music school in Toronto, and before that he was a student in the composition department of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. His experience in professional colleges and universities has allowed him to accumulate a solid knowledge of music theory and instrumental music skills.
Even among the first batch of musicians to study pop music overseas, Tan Yizhe's return to China began with the most grassroots musicians and arrangers. He once said that working as a musician in a bar for three or five thousand yuan a month is relatively stable; composing a song for one thousand or two thousand yuan does not necessarily have a job every month.
Zhang Yadong discovered Tan Yizhe's talent, and Tan Yizhe repeatedly mentioned Zhang Yadong as "the most important benefactor who directly promoted me". From 2005 to 2007, he worked as an arranger and producer at Zhang Yadong's label. Zhang Yadong also did not hesitate to promote this junior, introducing his opportunities to cooperate with Li Yuchun, Li Jian, Karen Mok, Na Ying and others.
In the draft era, more than 90% of the songs need to be re-adapted, and the arrangement work is valued. The TV draft revolutionized the income and lifestyle of musicians, musicians and arrangers, including Tan Yizhe. With his professionalism, Tan Yizhe quickly won his position in the industry.
Tan Yizhe (provided by the interviewee)
In 2007, Tan Yizhe made the soundtrack of "Love Call Transfer" and won the youngest arrangement award on the Chinese music charts. Through the introduction of friends, Tan Yizhe met Tan Yonglin. Once, when eating with Tan Yonglin, Principal Tan casually hummed a melody, and Tan Yizhe, who had a heart, recorded it with his mobile phone, and the next day he made arrangements and sent it to Principal Tan. Tan Yonglin was very excited, the song was included in the album, and Tan Yizhe also officially appeared as a producer for the first time.
Since then, Tan Yizhe has been invited to become the album producer of Li Yuchun, Li Jian, Shang Wenjie and others, and has also served as the music director of li Yuchun, Li Jian and other concerts, and has produced songs for many film and television dramas and evening parties. According to the data, Tan Yizhe has been nominated for various music awards 18 times, and won the best arranger and best producer awards 6 times.
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At the time of his career, Tan Yizhe chose to drop everything and go to Los Angeles to learn the latest music methods, and built Studio in the United States, but only waited until the American dream was shattered. From 2014 to 2016, he fell into a period of lows, and even cut off all performances and income for a while.
"There are talented people all over the country." Tan Yizhe finally woke up, "The success of the United States absolutely does not depend on talent, but on family and business operation." ”
He has seen a musician who won a Grammy Award in 2000 and earns millions of dollars a year, and now can only rely on royalties to earn $10,000 a year. He realized that the competition in the United States is too fierce, and unlike China, which has such a large market and so many programs, the substitution of musicians is too great.
He began to think about the direction of his work and where he was going. He visited a series of peers in the United States and found that everyone was very clear about themselves. From his foreign counterparts, he learned that he was more suitable to be a professional music director than an artist.
At the same time, the domestic music market has reached an upward period. Tan yizhe found that he may be missing out on the best music market in the world. He once turned down an offer from a reality show, which later became a hit across the country. What's even more frightening is that he found that domestic post-90s musicians are no longer looking for their own music.
"It's definitely our problem, not keeping up with the times, we're getting old." He said.
Tan Yizhe thought clearly, since the general trend of the market cannot be changed, it is necessary to comply with the needs of the market and serve the hottest and youngest musicians.
Realizing that one's abilities are ultimately limited, he began to look for like-minded musicians to work with, so he had TYZ Music Studios. Tan explained that T stands for Top Talent, Y stands for Young, and Z stands for Zone. The name of the studio also indicates that it is "the strip of the most talented young people".
This time Tan Yizhe made the right judgment, and China has indeed become one of the best music markets in the world.
"Don't brag, several musicians who have won the Grammys in the United States have come to China with me to develop. Because China's music market is good, musicians are also fully respected. Tan Yizhe said.
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Over the past few years, he has cooperated with almost all the traffic stars in China, and Tan Yizhe seems to represent the young and trendy music in China.
Tan Yizhe (web image)
On July 1, Tan Yizhe posted the report card of his studio TYZ Music for the first half of the year, arranging more than 100 songs and performing 16 live band performances, including live performances by idol artists such as Rocket Girl and TFboy. In addition, the studio also undertook the music part of four popular variety shows.
If it weren't for the pandemic, TYZ Music's band would have performed 50 to 60 performances a year, including concerts, music festivals, and variety shows. The arranging team can work between 300 and 600 songs a year. Most of the cooperation partners are active first-line artists or traffic directors. Tan Yizhe was jokingly called "the man who was picked by half of the music circle" by his peers.
"Wang Yuan went to school at the Berkeley Conservatory of Music, and when he came back, he told me that after listening to your songs, he felt that you were in line with international standards. Huang Zitao didn't care much about the band before, and after working with the band of TYZ Music, he especially thanked me and TYZ at the concert, saying that he would not have to dance in the future, and would use the band to perform live. Tan Yizhe said that this subtle impact is not a positive impetus to the music market.
Outside of work, Tan Yizhe occasionally makes a willful gesture for himself in music.
He spent two years making a self-deprecating "no one listens" song for himself, which is "Producer". The song incorporates 9 genres in one go, and uses advanced Modern Chords and Dirty Chords in harmony. He played all the instruments alone and sang in the form of two-dimensional futurevox.
"My original intention is very simple, that is, to make a music like mine, not to ask everyone to understand, only to be cool!" Tan Yizhe said. At the same time, this particularly showy song also fully demonstrates Tan Yizhe's ability to control all aspects of music.
Although he felt that his chances of becoming a singer were unlikely, Tan Yizhe was still thinking about making an album with a completely personal style. "Outside the market, we must fully display our ideas and attitudes." He thought about it and said, "This kind of duplicity is also very much in line with my Gemini personality." ”
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Tan Yizhe and his babies (web image)
New View: Since traffic music now dominates the mainstream, where is the quality of music?
Tan Yizhe: When I came back from studying abroad, after learning various advanced pop music concepts, I helped the talent idols to arrange and produce music, didn't that in itself elevate the quality of music? If the traffic singers do not choose us, the great musicians, but choose people with poor levels, it is to reduce the quality of the music.
Like Peng Fei, the producer of "Calories", he studied jazz violin in Europe and won the Golden Melody Award in Taiwan. He came to do the song of Rocket Girl, and when he shot it, he was different from ordinary people. Doesn't that elevate the quality of the music?
Everyone has a misunderstanding, that is, how to be a traffic singer. Does the music of the traffic singer have to be of no quality?
First of all, there is the fact that we cannot change the status quo of the music market, and we cannot go against the power of the times. The market environment has changed, but the arrangement and production are still in the hands of these high-level people. Even if the music is very bad, out of merit, why don't we help? Don't you want to help raise the bar? Definitely still have to do it.
Newview: Do you position yourself more like a music servicer?
Tan Yizhe: My mentality is to constantly cultivate myself. My idea is very simple, there are two kinds of musicians, one is that they have powerful works, like Li Ronghao, Chang Shilei, they have their own styles, works, songs for others, the style is very distinct. The other is that he has strong technical ability to serve all artists, such as Quincy Jones. I positioned myself as the latter, a professional music director. I'm not an artist, I want to use my wisdom to serve artists, even if they are traffic singers.
New View: When did you realize that you wanted to position yourself in this way?
Tan Yizhe: 2014 to 2016 was my trough. At that time, I was deeply aware of the power of young people's music. I've worked with a lot of successful singers, but then I found that the power of young people is irresistible. There was a talent show that was later on fire that initially asked me to be the music director, but I didn't want to go at that time and lost this opportunity. Later, I found that post-90s musicians, even if they are not popular, do not look for us to make music, and our group of people are old. It was certainly our problem, not keeping up with the times.
Then I reflect on my music and reflect on what kind of person I want to be. Then I thought clearly, that is, to serve the hottest and youngest people. After that, music like TFboy was made by me, and I became the representative of young music.
Xinguan: What about your personal musical pursuits?
Tan Yizhe: I am now in my early 40s, and it is possible that by the time I am in my 50s, I will change and become an artist, and all the commercial work will not be taken. But if I become an artist from the age of 20, I may be stereotyped, it will be difficult to break through, and I will not be able to tolerate and cooperate. When you take the path of affection too early, you are not full.
Play all the music when you're young, maybe stop playing it in middle age, and become an artist again. Do what you love. I'm now a musical showman, and I'm probably only playing three chords by the time I'm 50.
Music from ancient times to the present day has been a life of live performance. Beethoven and Lister's time were all live performances, not recorded. I'm now a professional music director because I love live performances too much.
NewView: How did Tan And TYZ Music win so many partners?
Tan Yizhe: In the past, I relied on arranging works to establish my position, and then I relied on musicality and team professionalism.
The music director doesn't have as many instruments to control the musicians. Quincy Jones would play a dozen instruments. I have a good foundation in instrumental music, which I am confident about, and ordinary people can't compete with me, just talk to the musicians with their mouths, and the musicians will not be convinced.
Now that the producer threshold is getting lower and can be done sitting in front of a computer, the requirements are not as complex as before. But in the scope of professional music directors, we are professional enough, including the posture, state, and even safety of the live musicians to play the piano, I have to consider.
Now the partners are also very good at communicating. I would ask you how you wanted to get it, and the artist would say what he wanted, and I would use my technical ability to make up for your flaws. And like Wang Yuan, they gave it to me, and they felt that I would definitely not make up a work that was sorry for myself.
The same is true of Che Che, the producer of "I Am a Singer-Songwriter 2". In the first rehearsal, he took a look at it and said he was relieved, how do you want to get it. Later, it was also repeated.
Xinguan: Do you think the overall music standard in China is better than before?
Tan Yizhe: I don't think the music market is better, nor worse. The ability to arrange music in many shows now is far beyond the 2000 era, but the level of originality is really not as good as it was then. The musical ability has gone up, but the original level has really not gone up.
Because there are too many commercial adaptations. This is the result of the general environment, and the decisions of investors, program parties, TV stations, network platforms, and audiences cannot be changed by musicians.
Everyone has the impression that the record is exquisite and represents quality. But from another point of view, there is no record, no exquisite original era, the Internet music era is still a group of professional musicians doing things, the times will still choose to leave these people with the best ability.
New View: Do you feel that you can't play your skills to the fullest?
Tan Yizhe: Sometimes there is a little bit of frustration, but it is also adapting to a kind of integration. I have studied and lived in the United States for many years, and I have seen many musicians and producers like this, all scolding the market. Later I thought, why scold?
To balance with the general environment, it is only to some extent. Some jobs, we can play to 80%, but sometimes only play 20% of the space, will feel wronged. Actually the people who pay you are satisfied because they use the best people.
We must distinguish the mentality at work, we are not artists in our work, and we cannot all follow our own standards. Learn to work with different people. It's like the song "XX feat. XX", whoever can work with anyone.
Xinguan: When you return to China, do you feel that musicians are more respected than in the United States?
Tan Yizhe: I think it is better respected, and the income is better than that of the United States, Japan, and Europe. This is not bragging. I've been in the U.S. and I've been in contact with a lot of Grammy musicians, and a few of them have come to China with me.
The Chinese market is large, and the cultural progress is also getting bigger and bigger. China's music market is now the best in the world, and there are many opportunities for musicians.
There are a lot of foreigners in my team right now. There is no shortage of talent in the United States, and the substitution is too great. But in China, as long as you have enough cattle, all the work will come to you.
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