Zengxi Zhao is also the music director of many Hong Kong concerts and the record producer of many Hong Kong singers. He also participated in the film soundtrack and was nominated for the best original film music in the 1998 Hong Kong Film Awards for city of glass and Anna Maddalena. He was also nominated for the best original film music in 1996 Hong Kong Film Awards for Sweet Honey, Mummy Bored and Erotic Men and Women, and won this award for Sweet Honey.
Nowadays, pop music is not as widely known as it used to be. Zengxi Zhao, who entered the music scene at the golden peak, personally experienced the transformation and decline of the music scene from a height, witnessed the fall of the superstar, and was destined to go deeper into the heart than outsiders.
In 2009, Zengxi Zhao, a sheep in the zodiac, made a mistake in the Year of the Ox, and his life and career changed everywhere. Moment, he had planned to switch to administrative management, and made preparations, silently looking forward to meeting people at the right time and place and recreating a superstar. When the audience decided that the low-key Zengxi Zhao stayed in yesterday's glory, he suddenly made a high-profile appearance on the stage of Super Voices, spewing out the producer's cold-blooded harsh comments and fighting to the death with the contestants. Producer-style comments won a lot of applause and surged in popularity among the people. Originally, it was to collect talents. Who knows that before idolize was successful, Zengxi Zhao himself seemed to become a star, playing the piano at a super giant concert.
1997 won the Best Original Music Award at the 6th Hong Kong Film Awards for "Sweet Honey", and for the first time in the same year, he acted as a conductor for the original musical Snow Wolf Lake, which shook the Chinese region. In 2005 and 2006, he produced a series of concert halls for Hacken Lee, which was an unprecedented record production for local live singing, broadcasting and video, and caused great repercussions both inside and outside the industry. He loves classical music and orchestral music, and has planned many concerts for Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and pop singers, such as Wang Leehom (2008) and Ce Tian (2007). In recent years, he is mainly engaged in behind-the-scenes production work such as concert music director and dubbing.
"Who won the rookie championship after Eason? I have no impression at all. " Regarding the music competition, Zengxi Zhao said with a little emotion: "Lv Fang, Liang Hanwen, Xu Zhian, Sammi Cheng ... Many singers I have worked for are from singing competitions, so I will definitely agree that singing competitions are the place to create superstars. But looking back over the past ten years, the function of singing competition has completely lost, and superstars like Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung have never appeared again. The watershed should appear in Eason Chan. Who won the rookie championship after Eason? I have no impression at all. "
In Zengxi Zhao's position, it is common to be invited as a judge of a singing contest, but he never imagined that the judge of Super Girl is also one of the "performers". "At first, I thought Super Loud was just a big singing contest. I didn't know it needed such a high profile! I once told the director that I was not good at talking in front of the camera. They asked me to treat the scene as a recording studio and criticize it from the perspective of daily producers. " As a result, Zengxi Zhao's harsh comments on the contestants were very popular, and then he found that the Hong Kong music scene was full of hope. "In recent years, the mediocrity of singer qualification has been well known. To tell you the truth, I'm really a little depressed. I didn't expect to see many young players in the competition, and their level was extremely high. I am completely different before and after I took the stage! " Zengxi Zhao's eyes sparkled and she was very excited to share it. At this moment, he should agree that publicity is worthwhile. He studied at St Joseph's English College with excellent academic qualifications, and got 2A 1B3C in HKCEE. In the eyes of his father who is engaged in cloth trade, Zengxi Zhao is naturally the best candidate to succeed him. Unfortunately, in the fifth year of middle school, his father died of illness. Zengxi Zhao is completely controlled by unruly artistic cells. "After I was sad, I suddenly found that no one could take care of me, and playing music was even crazier." Hold concerts in succession, four or five times a year; Concerts, big or small, are full; Zengxi Zhao, rich or poor, even performed at a premium. Playing music became his main job. "
Later, a friend took part in a singing contest. Zengxi Zhao was only a backup singer, but he didn't know that the unintentional drama was released again. "My friend took part in the rookie contest and chose" Victims "sung by the Cultural Society. At that time, there was no karaoke accompaniment, and my friend's pianist didn't understand English music, so he asked me for help. Finally, his audition became my audition. After playing, Li Xiaotian came over and asked, "Are you interested in being my production assistant?" Of course I said yes! "The more important reason is that after my father died, my mother was under great pressure to take care of seven sisters and brothers. In the past, I was often the only man who gave orders, but today I suddenly felt my commitment as a man. " After finishing Secondary Seven, some people are willing to hire. They can help share their families and do what they like. Why not kill two birds with one stone? "For example, in an unopposed competition, Zengxi Zhao successfully entered the business world." I know my mother doesn't like my business, but she also earnestly asked,' How many Gu Jiahui are there in this business?' But all I knew at the time was that I was the only one competing. "More than 20 years ago, the monthly salary of a new production assistant was only 2,000 yuan, which was lower than that of an office assistant with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan. Not everyone can stand the challenge of low wages, but Zengxi Zhao accepted it without hesitation. From the bottom, he copied music, copied demo and delivered music for the lyricist. At first glance, what he did was an inconspicuous grassroots process. " Today is different from the past. I hired some young assistants. I asked them if they really liked music before, and then warned that it was a job with extremely inconsistent income and pay. They always say yes first, but no one can get over it. "
Willing to stick to your post brings endless opportunities. Zengxi Zhao said that opportunities are everywhere, and people often have the courage to seize them: "The first time I attended a concert, I sang for Anita Mui. After singing for two years, suddenly someone asked me if I could play the keyboard. Play! Have you ever played? No, no problem. I went back to practice. how much is it? Never mind, just think about it. The first person who asked me to play was Du, who played for a concert in Tsim Sha Tsui Haicheng nightclub.
More boldly, 1997, Jacky Cheung called and asked him if he wanted to command. Again, I agreed without thinking. I hope you have enough courage to try, and I have enough courage to do it. Becoming a conductor was my dream goal when I was 30 years old, but unfortunately I never had time to force me to learn. Since someone gave me a chance, there is no reason not to do it. As I had no contact with the command work at all, I immediately called Ye Yongshi for help. After eight classes, I made forty-two Snow Wolf Lakes at a time, and finally there was no big mistake, which coincidentally fulfilled Leslie Cheung's statement that I was in my early thirties! "
Zengxi Zhao deconstructed his analysis of the past and came to the conclusion that this life has benefited him a lot: "When the opportunity is in front of you, don't count on it, just seize it boldly. I became the concert music director only because I dared to grasp the opportunity of' greater than your ability'. Even if it is a leapfrog challenge, I will leap forward, even if I am afraid of being overwhelmed. " "Arranger" is one of Zengxi Zhao's identities. From the 1980s, when adapted songs prevailed, Hull entered the 1990s, when the original flavor was emphasized, and the definition of arranger changed greatly. Zengxi Zhao said: "When I first started my career, the music scene was flooded with adapted songs. My brother Mei Jie Allen mostly covered popular songs from Britain, South Korea and Japan. As for the situation of buying copyright, for example, if Japan sells you the copyright of a song, it is only the right to use it, and they will not release the background music of the song itself. Therefore, Hong Kong needs to find someone to rewrite the song word by word and then re-record the background music of the song. This almost plagiarized action is' arrangement', that is,' transcription', which was a very common practice in Hong Kong at that time. The word composer comes from classical music, composition and orchestration, which are basically simultaneous processes. Nowadays, original music is popular, and the distinction between arrangement and composition of popular music is very clear. Composers can be pure melody writers, and the demo they provide may be as simple as playing the background on the piano, and they need to rely on arrangement to enrich the music. This is the job of arranging music. At the concert, when we want to give the song a brand-new style and feeling, the arranger will re-edit the music melody, which is also called arranger. There is no doubt that writing original songs requires more creation. "
"For example, the wildflowers in Sandy Lam, no one will cover them, and no one has the courage." Any work related to the media is tiring. The night before the visit, Zengxi Zhao worked overtime until late at night, but now he is full of energy and there is no trace of time on his face. However, he looks in his forties and early thirties. "I don't need to travel and recharge, and I don't rely on crazy consumption to relieve stress. As long as you find something you love, stick to it and don't feel hard, you won't be disabled, you won't be old, and it's fun to work. That kind of satisfaction is the best moisturizer. " Therefore, Zengxi Zhao asked us to prepare a piano for him in advance, so that he could feel the unique texture of the grand piano in his work. He didn't take the piano test for TEM-8, but played the tune of his daughter's TEM-8 piano test and said, "I studied half classical music and half pop music, so I didn't teach her myself. My son wanted to learn flute at first, but the boy held the flute in a strange way, so he was asked to play the clarinet. He 18 years old, 6 feet tall, is studying music at Baptist University. We often joke that he can form a group of three people. " Superstar, maybe find it at home.
Zengxi Zhao said that with the arrival of the era of original music, the market demand increased greatly, and a large number of composers were created at one time, which indirectly formed the era of K songs. "Looking back now, 80% of the original songs are actually K songs. At that time, even before Lei Songde started writing songs, karaoke culture was brewing. The collision between the two created the local K-song writing tide. The so-called K songs are actually written for the public to sing, not for the public. " Zengxi Zhao, an authority figure, is not sure whether this is right or wrong, but he is absolutely sure that he will resist singing karaoke again. "Anyone can sing karaoke songs. There is no difference between singer A and singer B, and the identity of the singer is irrelevant. As for songs for people to listen to, the relationship between songs and singers is tailor-made, which is the only way and idea of singing, and the style, route and soundtrack of songs are derived. Only certain people can sing can produce chemical effects. For example, no one will cover the wild flowers in Sandy Lam, and no one has the courage. " Zengxi Zhao talked with relish that year, and suddenly he talked about the fun brought by new technology. There are fewer and fewer pop songs that can really catch on. The sales volume of records dropped from 400,000 in the heyday of the 1980s to 50,000 today, which is very rare. It is not easy for the music industry. We can see that Zengxi Zhao's work scope has changed from arranger, producer and concert music director. "My work is passive in nature. I don't have much work involved in composing music, and I like to feel the atmosphere of the venue with a group of people more and more, so I especially like to hold concerts. Even the record work in recent years is related to concerts, such as the Golden Sound Auditorium in Cai Qin and the Auditorium in Hacken Lee. "
Zengxi Zhao said that even if he changes jobs as a concert producer, his workload will not necessarily increase significantly. Holding a concert in the Red Pavilion is a milestone in the singer's career. To tell the truth, there are only a few people who can sing. The quality of singers determines the number of concert venues. Newcomers who are a little famous now will go to the Red Pavilion, but they should also understand that once they hit the rocks in the Red Pavilion, they will be sentenced out immediately. You want the audience to spend three hours with you, you'd better impress me, otherwise no one wants to watch you or buy your records.
Many years ago, a male singer who almost became king was a classic example. Obviously, the records sold well, and the popularity dropped immediately after the concert. For example, a female singer who soared a lot a few years ago sold 20,000 records, but suddenly gave six concerts in the Red Pavilion. The number of articles is easy to calculate. The sales volume is 20,000, which is the sum of the number of people in the two Red Pavilion concerts. Two concerts are more than enough to satisfy fans, and the response must be good. If the company is too greedy and holds six performances, that is, all four performances are non-fan audiences, and may be impatient after listening to two or three familiar songs, and the singer's live appeal is not mature, then the audience will leave a bad impression in three hours, and these 40,000 performances will become a "poor reputation communication group", which will usually be quite destructive.