[新加坡海峡时报] 2009-6-15 Hong Kong star Khalil Fong is Chinese by birth and African American by music choice. The soft-spoken 26-year-old singer is often compared to Mandarin pop superstars Jay Chou and David Tao, but he insists his inspiration goes further back than the R&B music they inject into their music. 'When people in the Mandopop world start to know more about the different musical genres out there, they'll realise that I am more soul-inclined,' he tells Life! over the phone from Hong Kong in fluent English. 'A lot of people don't know that soul is the root of R&B.'Little surprise then that his debut album released in 2005 was titled Soul Boy, which is also his nickname in the industry. Born in Hawaii, Fong, whose first name he says is Persian for 'friends', moved to China with his family when he was six and back to his hometown Hong Kong at 14. From young, he picked up drumming from his father, a professional drummer. He went on to learn the guitar and the piano in his teens, which led to him composing songs and sending out demos to record labels before he landed a recording contract. He has since released four albums, with the latest, Orange Moon, spending more than 11 weeks in the top 20 of the Taiwan music charts this year. The skinny, geeky chic star, who is never seen without his black-rimmed spectacles, is rumoured to be dating Hong Kong singer-actress Fiona Sit. 1 What inspired you in your latest album Orange Moon? I wanted my fourth album to have an old-school traditional sound, something like the kind of black soul music I grew up listening to. So I did a lot of homework and experimented a lot to create the same kind of early R&B music in my album because it inspired me in my music career. 2 What problems did you face in the recording your latest album? To recreate the kind of old- school soul music was very time- consuming and difficult in Asia because no one here has the experience of doing that in the studio. It is quite common in America but not here. It took us quite a while before we could come up with what I wanted for the album. 3 The Chinese music industry is dominated by commercial pop. How do you ensure that your soul music gets heard? I can only hope that my fans will follow me not because I am an idol, but more because of the soul music I produce. In America and England, soul music is widely known. But in Asia, especially Taiwan and Hong Kong, many people listen to only Mandarin or Cantonese music and shy away from songs sung in other languages. I hope that the people here will be more exposed to different kinds of music. 4 Which singer would you like to work with and why? There are endless possibilities. I would like to work with indie Mandopop newcomer Crowd Lu. I quite like what he is doing and I think it may be possible for us to work together in the future. 5 Speaking of newcomers, you are very close to another rookie singer from Taiwan - Jam Hsiao. Why do the two of you get along so well? We are both people who do not like to talk too much. We prefer listening and we are very much into music. We are both interested in the same things. Jam is a very nice guy and a rather good vocalist. 6 What qualities do you look out for in a woman? I look out for compatible personalities. It is important to find someone whom I am able to trust and who trusts me back - trust is very important. Our views also have to be similar so that we can get along. Both of us have to learn from each other, then we can improve each other's lives. 7 What will you be busy with for the rest of this year? I am starting work on a new album. The contents of my new album are top secret for now, but I can reveal that it will be something along the lines of my latest album, Orange Moon, only even better. Besides that, I also want to go to Singapore for a showcase and I hope to see my fans there soon. 8 Complete this sentence: If I could live my life all over again... I would want to do the same thing and be the same again because making music is what I like to do. [email protected] Orange Moon is out in stores now. --

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