Oct. 26, 2021
Cy Leo interview
Cy Leo joins me on episode 48. Leo is from Hong Kong, where he started learning to play classical chromatic harmonica from age 6, under the direction of his father, who is an accomplished player himself, having won the ensemble category at the 1997 World Harmonica Championship with his quintet, helping to raise interest in the harmonica throughout Asia. Leo quickly gained recognition in his own right, winning the World Championship youth category at age 15 before taking the adult crown at age...
Cy Leo joins me on episode 48.
Leo is from Hong Kong, where he started learning to play classical chromatic harmonica from age 6, under the direction of his father, who is an accomplished player himself, having won the ensemble category at the 1997 World Harmonica Championship with his quintet, helping to raise interest in the harmonica throughout Asia.
Leo quickly gained recognition in his own right, winning the World Championship youth category at age 15 before taking the adult crown at age 19.
Still only 27, Leo has built on his early success with some notable studio sessions and two albums under his own name. Leo also spent a few years on cruise ships which helped him hone his stagecraft.
Currently living in New York, Leo is studying Jazz Performance at NYU. And watch out on your TV screens for Leo as he is about to audition for America’s Got Talent!
Links:
Leo's website:
https://www.cyleomusic.com/
Kings Harmonica Quintet:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpKi1oSXOlTpHkyWSRzlFsQ
Ginger Muse record label:
https://www.gingermuse.com/
Love of Chromatic Harmonica book:
http://mastersofharmonica.com/slide/love-chromatic-harmonica-5/
Cremona chromatic:
http://www.workshop-cremona.com/service.html
Pollestad chromatic:
http://www.polle.no/munnspi3.html
Microphone:
https://www.lewitt-audio.com/microphones/mtp-live/mtp-740-cm
Videos:
World Championship entry 2013:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq3PuVLxZTM
Playing Flight of the Bumble Bee on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRmk1ZPSjXc
Performing at Chinese New Year celebrations in London:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipOMGDuRNwE&t=170s
Song with Sandy Lam:
https://youtu.be/IaMI0Zb2kKk
Tuition video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQypPEs4ksc
Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com
Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB
Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ
Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/
01:07 - From Hong Kong but now currently in New York
01:18 - Comes from musical family, with a father who plays harmonica
01:30 - Started out learning classical harmonica music
02:14 - Father’s harmonica quintet won a competition at World harmonica festival in 1997, gaining recognition for Asian harmonica
02:33 - Leo grew up to witness this rise in Asian harmonica popularity via father’s quintet
02:59 - Leo started playing harmonica age 6. Father took a photo of him with harmonica day he was born
03:11 - How Leo learnt from the classical chromatic recordings and teacher
04:51 - Hong Kong government started supporting harmonica community due to success at Trossingen, which led other Asian countries to follow their lead
06:03 - Popularity of the harmonica in Asia now, with chromatic being more popular than diatonic, inspired by Tommy Reilly
07:40 - The current harmonica festivals in Asia
09:16 - At 27 years of age, Leo is the youngest interviewee on the podcast so far
09:50 - Leo’s classical training helped develop his amazing technique on the harmonica
11:39 - Leo first tried improvising when put on stage with a blues band at school
14:48 - Has won numerous competitions, which were an important part of his development
17:07 - At what stage did Leo decide to become a full-time musician
18:03 - Spent a lot of time busking while at university
18:25 - Recorded with first well known singer in Asia at age 19
19:00 - Leo spent a few years playing on cruise ships, which helped his stagecraft
23:50 - First album from Leo was Lost In Time in 2019
26:21 - Released a pop single in 2019, I Won’t Let You Go, where Leo sings
28:16 - Angel and Demon album released in 2020, all originals written by Leo about the social movement recently in Hong Kong
32:38 - Released the album Smash Originals on his own label, Ginger Muse, and his need to forge his own path
36:10 - Away single, is a tribute to his recently passed grandmother, which incorporates strings
37:23 - Breathless single is more experimental with the use of effects on the harmonica
38:29 - Recorded with various well known Hong Kong artists
39:22 - Leo’s music has appeared on various commercials in Hong Kong, and some film soundtracks
40:04 - Recently moved to New York to expand his musical horizons, and is studying Jazz Performance at NYU
41:52 - Teaching videos on YouTube and used to run the Hong Kong City University harmonica team, but now wants to focus on being a performer
43:05 - 10 minute question
43:35 - How Leo practises improvisation
44:24 - How Leo approaches composition
45:29 - Cremona chromatic is now instrument of choice
47:44 - Doesn’t do his own harmonica maintenance
48:56 - Plays a 16 hole chromatic since seriously studying jazz
50:12 - Only plays C tuned chromatic
50:24 - Diatonic model of choice
51:29 - Embouchre: demos use of tongue block and pucker for different effects
53:05 - Microphones
53:30 - Effects pedals: has been exploring them recently
55:16 - Uses wireless mic on stage when moving around a lot
55:35 - Future plans
56:18 - Just auditioned for America’s Got Talent TV show
WEBVTT
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See why Leo joins me on episode 48.
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Leo is from Hong Kong where he started learning to play classical chromatic harmonica from age 6 under the direction of his father who is an accomplished player himself having won the ensemble category at the 1997 World Harmonica Championship with his quintet helping to raise interest in the harmonica throughout Asia.
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Leo quickly gained recognition in his own right winning the world championship youth category at age 15 before taking the adult crown at age 19.
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Still only 20 In 1927, Leo was built on his early success with some notable studio sessions and two albums under his own name.
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Leo also spent some time on cruise ships to help him hone his stagecraft.
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Now living in New York, Leo is studying jazz performance at New York University.
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And watch out on your TV screens for Leo as he is about to audition for America's Got Talent.
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So hello CY Leo and welcome to the podcast.
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Hello, thank you for having me.
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It's a real pleasure to have you on.
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So a little bit about your background.
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So you're from Hong Kong originally, but I think you're living in New York now, yeah?
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Yes, that's true.
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What was your music development like in Hong Kong and what got you started playing the harmonica?
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I was born in quite a musical family, especially my dad is also a harmonica player.
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My mother is a French horn player.
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I was highly influenced by my father and both my parents, of course, to get in touch with classical music.
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And more specifically, it was classical harmonica music, as my father is a fan of basically all kinds of classical music, including all the legendary records that were made by players like Tommy Riley, Larry Adler, Sigmund Gruffen, Harmonica Kids, Ella Trios.
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We have all kinds of different records at home.
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So that's the music that I was born and raised listening to.
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And then because my father also has a harmonica quintet called the King's Harmonica
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Quintet.
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Bye.
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The time that I was born, it was basically the time that they were most active as they were preparing for the World Harmonica Festival.
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By that time, it was 1997.
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It was also the first few Asians that has approached to the international harmonica community by that time.
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So it was quite a remarkable time for Asian harmonica community.
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And that's the time that I was born.
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So I witnessed how they have gained recognition in the international harmonica community through a lot of classical harmonica practice.
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And then when I started officially learning it around six years old, I kind of have a pretty clear idea of where I'm headed.
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So I understand, like you say, you started at age six.
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I understand your father took a photograph of you when you were born holding a harmonica.
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Is that right?
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Yes, yes,
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that's right.
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Great.
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So even from birth, you had the harmonica in your hand.
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Of these records that you were listening to, like you say, all the great chromatic play, Is that something you tried to start to learn to play along with when you were that young age?
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I was listening and my first teacher, of course, my father tried to teach me, but then he figures it's not the most ideal way as he's a professional.
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So it would cause harm to the relationship.
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So my teacher is actually my father's teacher as well.
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And the repertoire that he gave me, he introduced to me is also highly influenced by those players.
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So I didn't particularly like play the Spivakovsky harmonica concerto at first you know I didn't have the ability but I was heading that direction through a lot of like some Bach attitudes at the very beginning or you know just playing like the Beethoven like those kind
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of stuff.
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Was the one record that you remember you particularly liked at that age with the harmonica on?
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When I was younger I remember as a family we always travel to different places and we have road trips all the time.
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We would listen to so many harmonica records and I remember sometimes the record by Sigmund Gruven would still come up to my mind like he kind of played some Beatles tributes in in one of the records
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Like you say, you were born at a time when your father and his King's Harmonica Quintet started getting some recognition for the Asian scene.
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So what happened there?
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Did they go over to Europe or was that when some of the Asian festivals started up?
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I think because they won the prizes in the World Harmonica Festival and then in Hong Kong, basically the government was really pleased to hear the news and started giving us a lot of support.
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And also I think that inspired a lot of other countries in Asia about like, I I guess a goal for the harmonists to go for.
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So let's say the Taiwanese players started knowing about the World Harmonica Festival.
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They kind of set it as like the ultimate goal of a harmonist's career or say, you know, pursue.
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And, you know, it happens to Japan as well.
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And it happens to Malaysia, Singapore as well.
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So it was a time when a lot of Asian harmonica community started getting some solid direction where we're heading.
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And because of the place I was born, Hong Kong, it has so much government support since my father's quintet got some recognitions.
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So I felt like the way that I was born and raised and educated and being supported by my environment was very fortunate.
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Like everything was a blessing.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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You were obviously born in the right place at the right time, but I
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hadn't
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put that time with it.
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So in Asia now, the harmonica is a very popular instrument.
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Yeah, I think there's a lots of young people playing harmonica.
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Is that the case?
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Yes.
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In fact, it is still an underrated instrument.
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Most people still recognize it as, you know, one of those toy instruments.
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But we do have a bigger community right now and we do have more and more talented players.
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I would say there are more professional players or at least players at professional standards that has arised since maybe 10 years ago from
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Asia.
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Are there more chromatic players in Asia than maybe than diatonic?
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Because obviously in the Western in Europe and the US.
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Probably most people play the diatonic.
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What's it like in Asia?
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Yes, in fact, we mainly focus on chromatic harmonica.
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For Hong Kong, I know the reason.
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For other countries, I'm not exactly sure.
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But for Hong Kong, because around the 40s, we have a harmonist from Hong Kong who went to the States and to learn from Tommy Raleigh, the legend himself.
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piano plays Thank you.
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That's actually when the harmonica culture started in Hong Kong.
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He came back to Hong Kong and he started bringing the Tommy Raleigh's approach to everyone in Hong Kong.
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He started a harmonica orchestra, an association called the YMCA.
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Since then, we were focusing on classical music and chromatic harmonica.
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It goes all the way back to the 40s or even 30s.
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So what about the festivals?
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So there's two big festivals that I know of in Asia.
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Of course, there's the Asia Pacific and I think the Seoul International Harmonica Festival as well yeah so there are festivals that you've been to you know how long they've been running and they started after like you say Trottingen in the late 90s when your father went over they started after then
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there was one time there was the World Harmonica Festival and then the players from Asia were not pleased by the result of the competition and then they just grouped together representatives from Malaysia from Japan from Hong Kong from Singapore you know these people grouped together and figured oh why not we create one for asia i think that happened around like 20 to 30 years ago and then that happens once every two years the one that happened in hong kong we we have attracted like at least like 3 000 audience throughout the whole festival and then the one that happened in taiwan was huge as well i think the audience was around 3 000 as well which is which is pretty crazy every concert packed and you can see harmonica players in that area all the time like when you in the restaurant like I was listening to harmonica music like every day the harmonica sound just keep running in my head after an entire month because I had too much of the harmonica sound by the festival
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yeah and again is this mainly chromatics or is a big mixture of different sorts of harmonicas
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they do have different categories but then I think most of us focus on the chromatic and also the chord based harmonica ensemble which is one of the strength of Taiwan Malaysia harmonica culture So
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I think, are you 27 years old now, Leo?
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Yes, yes.
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Yeah, so I believe you may well be the youngest person I've had on the podcast.
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Oh, really?
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But by no means does that reflect on your fantastic virtuosity and your technical ability on the harmonic.
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Thank you.
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going back to how you learned like you say you initially had classical lessons but we'll get on to obviously you're you're very interested in pushing the boundaries now and playing different sorts of genres on the on the marmonica but you started off playing classical yeah and i think is that the grounding you think where where you developed your technique where you know you're able to do these amazing things you can on the chromatic
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yes in fact i think my classical training was very very important as my foundation to learn any kind of other genres in my later career because the idea of what music I should play on harmonica was implanted very early by my father's influence.
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So I figured if I'm playing the harmonica, I should be playing the oboe concerto, you know, the double violin concerto by Bach.
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And they would practice all these ensemble strings quartets repertoire written by Sosakovich, Deforshak, Tchaikovsky.
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For me, it is normal to play something like that.
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If I couldn't play it, that means I'm not good enough.
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But I know that is not the case for most players around the world even.
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Because yeah, most people from the Western, I think they started playing the chromatic harmonica because of Toots or Stevie Wonder, most of them.
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Let's say from Asia, most of the players started because of some pop singers.
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We have a guy called Wong Zim in Hong Kong, and he was really influential in the 80s.
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And that's how people usually started.
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They listen to pop music or maybe music in the movie.
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And then they started picking up the harmonica.
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What they really wanted to do at the very beginning was usually something much more simple.
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But then the way I started, I already have a totally different perception of how the harmonica should sound like since I was in my early age.
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So clearly at this age, you're reading the music here.
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So again, we'll get into the different genres that you've got involved of shortly but so at what point did you then sort of start branching away from just reading you know were you trying to improvise and play different sorts of music at an early age too or
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in fact that happens to me at around 15 years old around 16 years old uh there was there was one time my school uh there's a program in my school that we bring different guests to as speakers to share different cultures you know sometimes we have like dancing artists sometimes we have painting artists and That particular time, we have a blues band in the house.
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They ask every class to pick one person who is most musically gifted and then to go on stage.
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There were five of us.
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And then they just give us one scale, which is the blues scale.
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And then they just started playing.
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They just started grooving, playing in shuffles, playing a blues groove underneath.
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And then we had to improvise with that scale one by one.
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I was like, okay, that's cool, but I have no idea how to do it.
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So at first I was just doing like...
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You know, and then eventually I feel like, oh, I think this scale is pretty easy.
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So I just started creating some patterns on the spot, like...
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My other classmates were not as into it.
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They were like, okay, I'm not sure what to do.
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And maybe because harmonica is meant to be so highly related to the blues sound, I think it's a little easier for me because there was like violinist there.
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And then for the harmonica, it just goes well with the band naturally.
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And then the band started encouraging me to do more as my classmates usually just play for maybe like 15 seconds and then they stop.
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And then the band ask me to oh yeah just keep going just keep going so that was the first time I improvised and it was really fun I was exploring like the blues note and now I feel like oh so that's why the blues note come from you know I started thinking
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about it so did this get you interested in blues harmonica because obviously you do play some diatonic don't you and I know it's not your main instrument but you know you do play some diatonic don't you
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yes I do it's just for like almost like a show show instrument for me wow
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Thank you.
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But did you start exploring blues harmonica players at that point?
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Was that part your influence, or did you not really go there?
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I've always been a loyal person, so I discovered this kind of bluesy sound of the harmonica, but then I still wanted to be sticking to my origin, sticking to the chromatic harmonica.
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Even though I was exploring the blues, I was still trying to play it on the chromatic.
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Going a little bit back to the Asian scene and the way that you developed through it, I think there's a culture of competitions, isn't there, in Asia?
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So you've won various competitions from quite a young age, didn't you?
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I think you won your first at the age of 10 at the Asia Pacific Festival.
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Yes.
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Do you remember what you played there?
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Well, I played something like...
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Something like that.
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I
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forgot if it is the right key as well.
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Yeah.
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And then you mentioned Trossingen a few times.
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So you won your first World Harmonica Championships at the age of 19 in Trossingen, yeah?
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My first was 15.
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Was that the classical section or on the chromatic?
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Yes, it was the youth category
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in the classical chromatic.
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Right, the youth category, yeah.
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So was it when you were 19, was that the adult category?
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Yeah.
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Yes, that was the test piece category.
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You won at the Asia Pacific again in 2012.
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So you've won various competitions.
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And again, I think that was part of the development in Asia was I think there is quite a culture of competitions there isn't and that's one of the you know ways that help you develop
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yeah yeah i think the main reason is that in asia we don't really have legends like toots like stevie even when we go way back we don't have legends like lariatla we don't have legends like tom nurali so we're not really educated like the majority of people even the cultured community they have no idea like how a good harmonica player can do so qualification from the western world or you know from a bigger community organization it's really important to for us to prove ourselves to the society of what we're capable of yeah so that's basically why we were competing all the time yeah because we have no way to prove ourselves no other way even we release something and they they would not pay attention to us
00:17:01.380 --> 00:17:14.555
but it's a good way to do it as well it's good motivation to to get a piece up to standard as well isn't it definitely yes so I understand your first degree when you attended university there in Hong Kong was a non-music related degree.
00:17:14.675 --> 00:17:18.940
So what stage did you decide to become a professional musician?
00:17:19.381 --> 00:17:22.844
Well, I've always wanted to be a professional musician.
00:17:23.085 --> 00:17:30.692
But in reality, there's no harmonist that is living a career that I wanted back then in Hong Kong.
00:17:30.952 --> 00:18:10.174
Because most of the harmonists that continue to be a full-time harmonica player would be educators instead of performer or you know live recording players and I love teaching too sometimes but my main goal would be performing recording and composing so you know it is really tough because no one have ever done that before so I choose occupational therapy as my first degree just as my plan B in case I you know I can't survive as a harmonicist eventually I was you know during my university life I was busking a lot I was playing with a bunch of different musicians.
00:18:10.535 --> 00:18:17.482
And I also, you know, during the time, I also won that prize in the World Harmonica Festival, which helps a lot in my career.
00:18:17.522 --> 00:18:20.326
So eventually I got media coverage.
00:18:20.826 --> 00:18:21.988
I was on the news.
00:18:22.107 --> 00:18:23.148
I was on TV.
00:18:23.368 --> 00:18:25.030
You know, people start recognizing me.
00:18:25.530 --> 00:18:31.196
My first recording for a pop singer who is really huge in Asia was when I was 19.
00:18:31.377 --> 00:18:33.680
That was like a semi jazz record.
00:18:33.980 --> 00:18:35.662
What was the name of the recording and the artist?
00:18:35.821 --> 00:18:37.423
The artist is called Sandy Lang.
00:18:37.423 --> 00:18:40.590
Thank
00:18:43.797 --> 00:18:53.758
you.
00:18:55.394 --> 00:18:56.536
So yeah, great.
00:18:56.576 --> 00:18:59.640
So as you're saying, you started getting recognition, you started getting a name.
00:19:00.201 --> 00:19:06.971
I know that another thing which was important in your development was working on cruise ships and playing on cruise ships.
00:19:08.192 --> 00:19:16.486
Okay, that's actually the main reason how I could survive as a full-time harmonist, because I actually got...
00:19:16.738 --> 00:19:20.520
a cold call from the state probably half a year before I graduate.
00:19:20.862 --> 00:19:26.526
And then as there's a cruise agent whose name is David, who was trying to learn the harmonica.
00:19:26.846 --> 00:19:30.650
And then he was reading the book called The Love of the Chromatic Harmonica.
00:19:30.670 --> 00:19:32.912
And I was featured in one of the chapters.
00:19:33.412 --> 00:19:41.960
And he spotted me there and he figured, oh, maybe I can get this kid to perform on the cruise as they were developing the Asian market.
00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:44.662
It was the first few years that they developed it.
00:19:44.862 --> 00:19:46.523
So yeah, I was recruited.
00:19:46.703 --> 00:19:47.765
as the performer.
00:19:48.005 --> 00:19:56.894
And they have booked me for like half a year, different contracts, usually contracts by days, like five to seven days usually.
00:19:56.934 --> 00:19:59.857
And then I was fully booked after my graduation.
00:20:00.018 --> 00:20:02.820
So I was at work right when I graduated.
00:20:03.102 --> 00:20:03.382
Great.
00:20:04.001 --> 00:20:08.247
And I think I've seen that this is where you maybe learned your stagecraft as well.
00:20:08.307 --> 00:20:14.133
You've got a strong element to entertaining when you're playing and that's something you developed when you were working on the cruise ships.
00:20:14.473 --> 00:21:04.807
Yeah, because my agent is a is the world champion of the juggling competition when he was younger he's like a you know cross-genre artist he sings as well he do a little bit of stand-up comedy in his show basically he's like the perfect most ideal guy the cruise ship industry could ever ask for and he was worried that I would be you know too kind of artistic for the cruise industry because there's a culture in cruise performance industry so he basically it gave me a lot of different sections of guidance to guide me through oh how you should talk on stage how you should move on stage to make sure I get a good rating which would be nice for him as well so I get more bookings yeah in that way I was evaluating a lot on how how to present myself
00:21:05.107 --> 00:21:14.377
on stage you sort of dance on stage as well whilst you're playing the chromatic yeah which is which for a chromatic player is probably reasonably unusual so but but good to see you know that entertainment element
00:21:14.698 --> 00:21:17.201
yeah yeah I'm a fan of my Michael Jackson.
00:21:17.221 --> 00:21:21.125
I learned some of the move when I have so much extra time on the cruise.
00:21:21.646 --> 00:21:22.428
Yeah, Michael Jackson.
00:21:22.528 --> 00:21:29.498
I know you did a version of Human Nature, which is a great song, of course, which Miles Davis did on trumpet.
00:21:29.538 --> 00:21:31.921
And then Stevie Wonder did it on harmonica as well, didn't they?
00:21:31.980 --> 00:21:32.561
That's a great one.
00:21:32.582 --> 00:21:34.785
I was delighted to hear you playing the Human Nature.
00:21:48.321 --> 00:21:52.665
So as you say, working on cruise ships got you some paid work here, which was great.
00:21:52.726 --> 00:21:55.407
I think that was hit a little bit when the pandemic arrived, was it?
00:21:55.448 --> 00:21:57.190
You were working on those until the pandemic came.
00:21:57.650 --> 00:21:58.510
Exactly, exactly.
00:21:58.550 --> 00:22:06.518
Actually, before the pandemic, around that time, I was already starting to feel something different about playing on the cruise.
00:22:06.817 --> 00:22:10.401
It was really cool to begin with, playing on the cruise as my career.
00:22:10.421 --> 00:23:39.954
I got to play with tons of musicians, so much experience of short rehearsal time to give up a full show you know I could work on my craft of stage presentation and so and so but then eventually I felt like it's not exactly the career that I should be sticking with especially at that age because in a cruise career even on ships like Royal Caribbean they have like thousand seats for one show if you perform for three nights four nights you're basically performing for four thousand people but I all observed that even I maybe I could make some CD sales but most of the cruise passenger wouldn't follow you after the show you know you're just one of the entertainment the many entertainments that happen on the ship and you know it feels like another dimension almost that you have you know a great audience great crowd great result on the ship once you're back on the land you feel like oh no one knows what you were doing and that you didn't accumulate anything by those except the personal experience you can't accumulate your fans there you don't accumulate your exposure you don't you know you don't you don't accumulate your popularity you know so i feel like at this age i should be exploring something further on the land especially yeah because i feel i felt
00:23:39.974 --> 00:23:54.576
trapped in that career so we'll get on to um some of your your music releases now and i think you've had two albums out and various Lost in Time
00:24:08.513 --> 00:24:14.080
basically my debut project that has a show and the album.
00:24:14.101 --> 00:24:20.369
You know, I actually thought about that concept for five years until I made it happen.
00:24:20.750 --> 00:24:27.278
The concept was that I feel like I need some popular tunes to catch people's attention.
00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:32.726
And also, you know, on the same time, I want the depth in the music.
00:24:32.987 --> 00:24:38.493
So I was working with two really talented arrangers in Hong Kong.
00:24:38.529 --> 00:24:46.616
that had the ability to turn popular tunes into something more complex, probably with the influence of jazz and classical.
00:24:46.896 --> 00:24:51.942
Particularly for this album, I think it's mainly influenced by fusion jazz music.
00:24:52.321 --> 00:24:57.886
There was some complexity in the arrangement, and there are open sections for solos.
00:24:58.186 --> 00:25:07.035
I think that's the first kind of sound that I created, and I want people to perceive me as a cross-genre instrumentalist.
00:25:07.355 --> 00:25:39.173
Yeah, and I mentioned that there's quite a few obviously we've already mentioned human nature that's on this album there's quite a lot of big arrangements isn't there uh on here it's partly sort of semi-orchestral i need what's going on you've got as the soul song so It's kind of quite a heavy rock sort of sound to it, rock guitar.
00:25:39.634 --> 00:25:39.915
Yes.
00:25:40.738 --> 00:25:47.472
Yeah, and you also do Danny Boy, which is obviously traditionally a famous harmonica, well played by harmonica players.
00:25:47.492 --> 00:25:49.096
We're all harmonica fans, so...
00:26:09.634 --> 00:26:29.590
so yeah an interesting choice in there and as you say various um you know sort of cross genre on there are definitely coming through so at this stage then um this was uh 2019 yes or sort of released two years ago yeah and then then between between your next album i certainly saw that you'd released a single as well called i won't let you go was that under your own name or were you performing with someone else there
00:26:30.051 --> 00:26:42.203
so throughout my career i have been exploring a lot like different things there's something on the side i would say uh that single that i'm It is a singer-songwriter project.
00:26:42.384 --> 00:26:43.787
Are you the vocalist on that?
00:26:43.866 --> 00:26:45.930
Yeah, I sang and I wrote the song.
00:26:47.393 --> 00:26:53.943
Yeah.
00:27:00.130 --> 00:27:03.732
And I co-arranged the piece with a producer in Hong Kong.
00:27:04.053 --> 00:27:12.000
As I was exploring, as I was trying to, you know, get harmonica popularized in Hong Kong, I was really trying different ways.
00:27:12.361 --> 00:27:20.007
And I always feel like it's really hard, especially in Hong Kong, to be an instrumentalist because people pay attention more on the lyrics.
00:27:20.327 --> 00:27:26.752
And we, as I said, we don't have legends that exist in our culture, especially as instrumentalists.
00:27:27.093 --> 00:28:01.108
I guess the most popular figures that people know would be Yo and then Yun Di Li and Lang Lang and that's it they don't know anyone else in Hong Kong like for the majority of people so that's why I started trying to explore singing as well because there would be lyrics and there would be the format that people are more comfortable listening to but since it's more like a side project and it's not really financed by anyone but me so I couldn't really keep it going so much.
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