Translation: Eason Chan Speaks About "Solidays"

Translation to this post.

Just the gist of it.

Part 1:
- Album concept: This new + collections album is a recap of the past 4 years of Eason's relationship with Cineoply Records.
- Album concept: They decided on 2 CDs (30 songs) and 1 DVD.
- DVD: he hopes that the ordering of the MVs are ascending from 2004 to now
- DVD: there will be a "special," which is the 2007 RTHK Music Awards performance (after he was awarded the Media Award) where he performed the 6 King's (Leslie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau, Leon Lai & Alan Tam) songs. During the actual performance Eason forgot some lyrics so they went back to the studio and re-recorded those missed parts.

Part 2:
- CD: Originally they chose 2-3 new songs and were listening to the demos, but they eventually took too long and one of the songs was chosen by someone else, therefore, there were only 2 songs left.
- CD: First new song (歌.頌 Eulogy) is composed/arranged/produced by Carl Wong and lyrics by Lin Xi.
- Song 歌.頌: He had an idea and asked Lin Xi to write lyrics to help him thank/praise all the people who have helped him, trusted him, believed in him, treated him well (producers, engineers, composers, lyrics, arrangers, backstage crew, etc.) these 13 years of his career. Lin Xi then said why don't I write a song to praise all the people who appreciate music instead of just people who have helped you. Eason says that's okay and Lin Xi started to write.
- Song 歌.頌: The song was originally called 歌.頌 - 歌 dot 頌 (which is the final title.) The lyrics ended up not only praising/thanking everyone who appreciates his music, but also praising songs/music itself.
- CD: Second new song (後台 double meaning: Backstage or The People Behind Him/Her) is composed by Adam Diaz, member of the Hong Kong band Dear Jane and lyrics by Wyman Wong.
- Song 後台: Eason had another idea, which was to have a song that speaks about his feelings towards those who have helped him out and worked with him on a personal level, in his music, in his career, everything, for these past 4 years [with Cineoply Records], which he asked Wyman to write. After listening to the song, Wyman said why don't I write about your 後台 (backstage or the people behind him). Wyman has seen a lot of interesting things that have gone on behind-the-scenes with Eason's career these past 4 years (whether it's concerts, smaller shows, meetings, make-up & hair, etc.) and inserted them into the song, but the song eventually came out as praising these behind-the-scenes people. Thanking them from Eason's perspective; showing Eason's appreciation.
- Song 後台: The song is actually from a few years back when Eason bumped into Adam Diaz at an eatery. Eason had always felt that the song sounded good, but they never had the time to work on it, so they left it with Eason and recently they picked it up again and were told that the song is still available for Eason. This is a more uptempo song.
- Song list concept: When arranging the song list, they were still trying to figure out where to place the new songs. Usually the new songs are placed as the beginning tracks of collection albums, but they wanted to be more thoughtful. Since 歌.頌 is a song aimed towards listeners, it's conceivable that when the curtain rises I'll start performing this song and when I'm done, I'll go backstage (後台). Making things interesting, we decided to place the songs at the beginning and the end. The first track on disc 1 would be 歌.頌, a song praising/thanking listeners and the last track on disc 2 would be 後台.

Part 3:
- Album title: A self-made word/slang -- Solidays. Inspired by Wyman when they were talking. When you break it up -- solid days.
- Album title: 'Solidays' is more creative than, lets say, 'Musical Diary of Eason's Music at Cineopy Since 2004.'
- Album photo: The concept of the logo (the album title, logo, Since 2004) was inspired by a logo Eason saw when he was at a Taiwan eatery, which has the restaurant name, logo and Since xxxx.
- Album photo: Again, thanks to Wyman, who thought up of making a school-logo patch instead of photos. Originally, Eason wanted to do a group photo of all the people Eason's worked with these 4 years, but not everyone is still in the same place (as the office has moved), so it would take a lot of time to gather everyone. Eason then wanted to do take a personal photo with everyone he's worked with (instead of a group photo), but again, it would be too time consuming and he's been extremely busy so time is limited.
- Summary: That's basically the concept of the album. He didn't want to just release a collections album just for the sake of releasing a collections album, he wanted to do something more interesting. He understands why his company would need to look at this collections album from a business perspective especially because business is hard to do. As a "partner" in the business with his company he fully understands, however, he cannot just release an album just for the sake of releasing an album. He can't say 48 songs for $48 is totally worth it because worthiness is different for everyone. For example, someone can purchase a piece of cloth for $3,000 and cut it up to make a small handkerchief and say it's worth it. Someone else can purchase a watch for $100,000+ and say it's worth it. While another person will say it's worth it if they can purchase 4 pounds (1,814 grams) of vegetables for $10. Everyone's scale is different and I feel that this album really recaps and captures memories of these past 4 years. It can also be used to reevaluate these past 4 years and see where to go from there.

(* Apologies for the flip-flop of first person & third person narrations.)