(Marie Claire #227, Mar 2012)
With his guitar on, William Wei sings smoothly. On the other hand, he is shy and introvert in private. Ideas keep running through his mind back and forth. His green life is on the track. He knows better than anyone else that what is needed and wanted outside the music world.
In the spacious office of a record company, William Wei came shyly and greeted us. Other than his upcoming full-length movie "The Bird Who Saved The World", he surely is the new prince of love songs of our generation. However, you won't see a thing the prince should have that had added on him.
Cotton T-shirt, simple black backpack, an olive folding umbrella, a pair of worn Nike's. Reminding us of the scientists with glasses and messy hair that keep working and doing experiments, even not having meals and rests, just to achieve satisfying results. He smiled bashfully and told us he really is a homebody; Practicing his guitar, learning how to cook, reading, listening to music. Let's put him as an artistic person, whereas he is so down-to-earth that not the kind of pretentious guy staying in a cafe all day long.
I was stunned when he took out his mobile phone. The colour of the phone fell off and the model is so old that I can’t even recall the name. He said, he doesn’t need a smartphone, as long as the phone is sufficient for a phone call and texts. As for the functions of recording a note, he likes to write the page full on the notebook. “I think a lot before I buy anything, I will keep asking myself what I truly need.”
Clarifying the real needs in life is also part of composing. “I used to think that inspiration comes naturally. However, now music becomes my job, it becomes everyday works for me. I also experienced anxiety when I can’t compose anything for 1 or 2 months. I started to think that I had reach an end of my talent. Then, I read a book titled “Writting Better Lyrics” by Pat Pattson, a professor of music. Now I spent 10 minutes to compose everyday to get myself familiarised with it. William Wei has his very own opinion on musics. He practise a lot and he will also find solutions in books. “Recently I read about Kenny Werner’s, a Jazz pianist, book with title “Effortless Mastery”, musician shouldn’t emphasize too much on whether they make any mistake or how great they can do in a performance, because this is limiting themselves. This theory has helped me much.
He is an ordinary homely person, and weird at the same time. He is bigotry at times. When he can’t write anything out, the first place he will go is second-hand CD shop. “When I don’t have any output, I will go and search for input. Besides from the book, internet, I will also buy CD from CD shop, when you put your CD in a CD player, it’s really different from what you can hear from iTunes. My recent dream is to purchase a CD player (again).”
“Back to Simplicity” of modern living is just like girls go to flea market to buy second-hand clothings. “The second-hand cd shops or book shops are just like a game space, you will never know what people will be sharing, what kind of treasure you will get from here. This is the fun of being passive. Although it’s unknown ahead, but you may be getting very good stuffs, this is very different from those “aggressive promotion” in a book shop.”
He started to make selection (of cd) in the CD shop, forgetting he was still doing a photo shooting. He said excitedly that he found “寶島康樂隊” (taiwanese band)’s old album. Suddenly, William Wei seemed like he fell into Albert Einstein’s crazy time travel of E=mc2, but the weird stubbornness and special talents, is only known by him.
1) Guitar
My first guitar in life. I was in my High School first year. One day, I saw this guitar and a beginner book for learning guitar named “At Your Fingertips”. After that I found out it was a gift of love from my father. I was trying to play a chord, however I failed to play because I was unfamiliar with the finger positions. My father grab it over and play an english classic songs very smoothly, and said, “It’s not difficult!”, he really likes to show off. The Cost Performance Index for this guitar is very high as he used it to compose almost every songs in his debut album until he bought a new guitar as an investment for live house performance before the releasing of album. He still treasure this guitar very much as it had accompanied him in various memorable moment and events.
2) Black Tangerine (David Tao’s album)
An album I listened to during my secondary and high school time. It’s very critical. After listening to this, I found out that even Chinese music can be critical to current affairs. Actually it’s very easy to criticise something now. Chris Martin from Coldplay said: “On the Internet, everybody hates everything” I want to change the word “hate” to “know”, now everybody on internet seems to know everything.
3) Kindle reader
Saw it during my university gathering because one of my fellow classmate of university bought it and I bought it as well for it’s good quality. Why not other tablet? Kindle uses very different material, it uses E-Ink, we can only read it with external source of light. You will feel like you’re reading on paper. My eyes get tired very easily so it suits me well.
4) IPod Touch
I like it for it has many music related APP, such as Garage Band, a very simple application that I always use. All I have to do is to create a few tracks of drum, guitar, vocal to make a song.
5) Diary /Note Book
A habit of mine since I was in Junior High School. As I’m not good in memorizing, especially when I went to University and when I start to work, the diary book became very important. I am someone who likes to do planning, regardless of practising guitar, singing, buying vegetables, I will always give myself a deadline. My mood will be affected if my plans are messed up.
6) “The Great Liar”
It a treasure from second-hand shop. This novel is based on the analysis of current news, which critics the ecology of media at the time of the novel created. As there isn’t any specific temporal logic, I can jump in to read the story anytime. I became a reading material for my toilet time.
7) Kitchen (Home)
I always stay in the kitchen when I feel frustrated. Many inspirations come from this place. From here I get to understand women’s feeling. Aren’t inspiration come from daily life? Sweeping the floor, cooking. Oh.. Recently I read an e-book on Kindle called “5-Minute Recipe”, it’s good for people who rent a suite room.
Translated by: Steffi, Jolene
