爱华网2014年2月28日，这一天我将永远记住，这一天我儿子的第一张个人专辑发行了，随即这张专辑（好象就是当天）荣获台湾音乐排行榜季军。
James是他香港妈妈和地道英国范儿老爸的爱情结晶，是父母间的沟通桥梁，感情纽带。他的父母虽然来自两个完全不同的世界，个性截然不同，但他们有一个共同的核心理念：所做之事，力求卓越。
James不可能成为一名语言学家，我怀疑这并非他缺乏语言天赋。家庭外出旅游时，为了让他说法语或者任何旅行所在地的语言，我们一直教导他“你可以吃到菜单上任何你能说出名字的食品”，他从来不会因此饿肚子。在韩国生活一年后，他学会了一些韩语。尽管他有一位会说粤语的妈妈，他却一点儿也不会。加上一直在英国长大，普通话对他来说堪称外星语。
James在音乐环绕的氛围中长大，不论是家里，我的办公室里，还是车上，音乐无处不在。由于长期浸润在19世纪30年代到最新发行的各类音乐作品中，他已拥有惊人的包罗万象的音乐品位---甚至已经超越自认足够宽广的我。我们仍继续分享彼此发现的好音乐。
在他的少年时代，James开始对弹唱感兴趣。他得到人生第一把电吉他，第二把，接着一把木吉他，接着……我希望他能给这种昂贵的收藏买份保险，也希望航空公司不要再损坏他的吉他（曾经一把很好的Fender木吉他被损坏--因James没有一下飞机立即检查，航空公司拒绝承担赔偿责任）。后来他有了一套便携式录音装置，这样就能录下那些他在卧室里写的歌。他把这些歌分享给家人或一些朋友们听。
在韩国生活一年后，James回到伦敦。他在一家大型国际金融集团任职并参加了集团内部的精英管培计划，但是James很不喜欢这份工作。他给几家唱片公司寄去自己的音乐作品。华研--东南亚一家大型唱片公司邀请他到台湾并与他签约。James回到伦敦后就整理行囊，带上几把吉他后出发了。小障碍来了：他要用普通话进行交流和表演。 他花了一年的时间学习最基本的普通话。不久，他参加了台湾的电视节目，开始受到关注。随后，他参加了「美国偶像」的中国官方版选秀节目[中国梦之声」。James最终取得第五名的成绩。在中国取得第五名非常了不起，毕竟中国国内市场是美国市场的三倍。「中国梦之声」虽然几乎只在中国播放，但James不断壮大的粉丝团己经通过微博、YOUTUBE及其它平台将节目推出了国界。现在互联网上随处可见当时比赛的视频。
早在梦之声比赛期间我们就开始探寻叫他什么名字比较好，事实证明，“James”这个名字对讲普通话的人来说比较难记，更不用说他的姓氏了。为了在互联网上更加便捷地搜索到他，“James”这个名字需要和其他词组合。经过数月在不同场合试用不同版本的名字组合后，我们决定用“Yang”字。学校放假他到爷爷奶奶家里住的时候曾听过BBCR2 JimmyYoung的节目，现在他们拥有发音相似的名字了，都叫JY。谢天谢地他没有叫托尼黑莓这样的名字。估计只有英国人才会理解我的意思。
2013年10月，James与周慧合唱的歌曲MV首播，在YOUTUBE上大约有346000次的点击浏览量，虽然这无法和JustinBeiber相提并论，但就一首MV而言，取得这样的成绩十分了不起，因为他的目标市场（中国内地观众）是无法登陆YOUTUBE观赏的。http://youtu.be/-AJH6bDAamc
2013年12月，James与好友，著名华语流行歌手倪安东一起坐在酒店的房间里，有人录下了他们悠闲自在的弹唱，歌曲War isOver(the John Lennon 的歌)作为送给安东倪粉丝的圣诞祝福https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j326P9_5UHM.
元旦新年期间，经历了异常忙碌的一年后的James略显疲惫地出现在中国电视荧屏上，他与马来西亚歌手茜拉（我喜欢她的音色）对唱。http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNFZ4xurCAY.之后他去拉斯维加斯参加了特约演出，还在我的家乡吉隆坡担任炎亚纶演唱会的表演嘉宾。看到我的小男孩儿站在那么巨大绚丽的舞台上表演真的是非常地不可思议。中国春节期间他又重返中国电视荧屏。在这期间，他录制了全新的个人专辑，几乎全部都是中文。没过几天他又出发去了澳门。
第一波宣传是“James是谁”的短片https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9HsgR21Yng
专辑的名字是“STAY”，并且开通了新的Facebook粉丝专页https://www.facebook.com/jamesyanghim.
在新专辑发行的前几天推出了新的MV“忘了我是谁” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDDZkfqTDu0
发行后又推出了MV的拍摄花絮http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNedKqGtiWI
在新专辑正式发行的星期五当日，正值台湾的公众假期，马来西亚的MYFM，新加坡的YES933，中国地区的CITYFM各地广播电台都进行了广泛宣传。我想作为艺人他将面临更加辛苦的工作，参加更多的宣传活动。
这张专辑收录了一首James年少时期听过无数次的歌曲。从The Animals的版本到SantaEsmerelda的半迪士高曲风版本，这首歌各种各样不同的版本他都听过。自那之后，他在录音机盛行的年代里还听过好几个古老的BLUES版本。这首歌就是“TheHouse Of The Rising Sun”。
这正是本文取名为“The Note of the Rising Son”的原因。
这是一位深感自豪的父亲对儿子的百般疼爱，因此，我相信各位耐心的读者都会深深地体谅我。
原文如下：
The Note of the Rising Son
28 February 2014 - a day I'll remember - it's theday my son's first album was released and immediately (like thatday) went to number 3 in the Taiwan music charts.
James is a product of his Hong Kong mother and hisvery English father and, as such, has grown up bridging two verydifferent worlds with two very different parents but who both haveone core value: excellence in all they do. As a linguist, James is basically hopeless but Isuspect it's not because he's lacking in aptitude. On familyholidays, to try to get him to speak French or whatever thelanguage was where we were, there was a standard instruction: "youcan have anything on the menu so long as you can say it." He neverwent hungry. later, in Korea for a year, he learned a few words ofKorean. But he speaks no Cantonese despite a Cantonese speakingmother and, having grown up in the UK, Mandarin was an entirelyalien tongue. James grew up with music all around him. It was allover the house, in my office, in the car. And so he was exposed toeverything from the 1930s right up to the latest releases and hedeveloped a remarkably catholic taste - and even went beyond theboundaries of my own extremely wide appreciation. We continue tofeed each other stuff we find. But it was in his teens that James' interest inplaying/singing developed, mostly for his own interest. He got hisfirst electric guitar, then a second, then an acoustic then...well, I just hope he's got what is turning into an expensivecollection insured and that airlines don't break more than theyalready have (a nice Fender acoustic - the airline refused toentertain the claim because he didn't check it as soon as he gotoff the flight). He got a portable studio kit and was able torecord some songs he wrote in his bedroom. He gave copies to familyand a few friends. After his year in Korea, he went back to London andjoined a very selective management training programme with a largeinternational financial services group and hated it. He sent off acouple of his bedroom tracks to a couple of record companies. HIM,a big record company in South East Asia invited him to Taiwan andsigned him. So, after going back to London to, basically, fill up abackpack and collect a couple of guitars, he set off. One smallsnag: he had to communicate and perform in Mandarin. It took a yearto get even the basics right but after a while, he entered a TaiwanTV programme where he was popular and then entered Chinese Idol,the official transfer of e.g. American Idol. He came fifth butfifth in China's a big deal (after all, its domestic market isthree times that of the US version) and, although the show is notwidely broadcast outside China, his growing army of fans pushed itout through Weibu, YouTube and other platforms. There are lots ofvideos all over the web. It was during Chinese Idol that the experimentationwith what to call him started: James isn't an easy word forMandarin speakers, it turns out. And there's zero chance of anyonegetting all the way through his surname. But something more than"James" is needed to help with internet searches. So, after severalmonths of different versions in different places, it seems to havesettled on Yang. So there we have it: after spending schoolholidays at his Grandparents' home with the Jimmy Young showplaying on BBC R2, he ends up as a JY with a similar sounding name.Thank heaven he's not called Tony Blackberry or something. Only theEnglish will understand. |
In October 2013, James's debut release was a duetwith 周蕙 which has 346,000 (ish) views - that's not in the JustinBeiber scale of things but it's very respectable for a video,especially one with a target market that can't watch YouTube. It'sat http://youtu.be/-AJH6bDAamc.
In December, 2013, his pal Anthony Neely, a verypopular Mandarin pop star and James were sitting around in a hotelroom messing around and someone turned a video recorder on: theyplayed Happy Christmas, War is Over (the John Lennon song) and itgot stuck onto Anthony's Christmas message to his fans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j326P9_5UHM.
For (western) new year, James was on nationalChinese TV with a very tired sounding voice after a ridiculouslybusy year: he was singing a duet with Malaysian singer Shila Amzah(love her voice). it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNFZ4xurCAY.Since then he's done gigs in Las Vegas and a guest spot with AaronYan in my home town Kuala Lumpur. It was weird seeing my little boyup there on that great big stage. Then for Chinese New Year he wasback on Chinese national TV. In between, he's recorded the newalbum, almost entirely in Mandarin and in a few days he's off toMacau.
The first promo was called "Who is James?" - that'sat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9HsgR21Yngannouncing the new album "Stay" and came with a new Facebook pageat https://www.facebook.com/jamesyanghim.
A couple of days before the album release, therewas the new video: Forget who I am (楊永聰 [忘了我是誰) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDDZkfqTDu0(addition: since release, there's a "the making of" video athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNedKqGtiWI)
So, when the new album came out on Friday, a publicholiday in Taiwan, it started to get picked up by MY FM inMalaysia, YES933 in Singapore, City FM for China-wide broadcast. Iguess the hard work starts now as PAs and other promo things takeover.
The album includes a song that James heard manytimes when he was young, in lots of different versions ranging fromThe Animals to a long semi-disco version by Santa Esmerelda. Andsince then he's discovered several old blues versions from whenrecordings were novel.It's "The House of the Rising Sun."
And that's why this is "The Note of the RisingSon".
It's an indulgence from a proud father. For that, Itrust I'm forgiven for taking up the time of those who read thisfar.
