（新加坡）[todayonline] 2009-12-18 from http://rubyurl.com/a2Cd ‘I was self-taught' University's loss was HK music's gain by Christopher Toh HE WEARS geeky glasses, and looks like your brainy classmate who would probably build a reactor in his backyard with two metal plates, a battery and bits of string. But singer Khalil Fong (picture) never made it that far in the world of academia. "I did graduate from high school," he quipped. The award-winning Hong Kong singer was in town a couple of weeks ago for the Music Matters Advertising Forum as a guest speaker to talk about how he got his break in the music business. Interestingly, Khalil might not have been the star he is now. After high school , he sent out his demos to "four or five record labels" to see if they were interested. One of those which replied favourably was Warner. "I felt that I would be comfortable with them, that I would have the freedom I wanted if I worked with them. It was open to consultation," he said. "I think they don't find me too indie. "The alternative was university. "When I deciding to sign with a record company , it was either I sign with Warner or I go to university. And if they said no, we don't want you, then I would have gone to university," he said. Khalil's musical background included "everything from Nick Drake to Led Zeppelin to Taylor Swift" and though he started learning to play an instrument when he was three, the musical polyglot never actually took formal lessons. "I was self-taught. I don't know the technical aspects of music. I can't explain to other musicians in technical terms what to do, so what I do is I record my demos and I let them hear it and go 'Please play this.'" His musical style is predominantly R&B or soul music, but done in Mandarin, and stems from his global identity - he's lived in Hawaii, Shanghai and Hong Kong. "Musically, I was trying to express that in my music." Despite having four albums and numerous awards to his name, the star says he's still not successful. "Commercial success depends on what perspective you look at. Personally, I won't say I'm successful. Success is to be comfortable, and to be satisfied with your work and your life. "For me, being successful is like Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson; that kind of standard. A lot of artistes these days who seem to be successful, to me, are not successful. I'm just a musician trying to do soul music, R&B and trying to make a living. And trying to introduce that to the Asian and Mandarin Chinese market. "Whatever it is, said Khalil, the best advice was to just do it to your best ability. "If you're doing part-time I think that's just for your own enjoyment, for your personal time; a hobby. If you really want to make a living out of it , you have to put your all into it, like any job, and work really hard for it. "So for me, I knew my strength was in music and definitely not in law or being a doctor."If I had gone to school, it would probably have been the Berklee School Of Music, so still something to do with music." PICTURE: http://rubyurl.com/p1gt http://rubyurl.com/t9u5 (Berklee School of Music http://www.berklee.edu/ ) XDDD --

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