A “DUO” Wrap-Up

Several days after his DUO concert series ended, Eason Chan went on the CRHK 903 program Vanila Sky (雲妮鍾情) and discussed the 18 shows with DJ Vani (雲妮). Some interesting, insightful, and special moments discussed are as follows.

(1) What happened to his voice? Steroids?

After the first show, Eason visited a doctor and was told his voice was the way it was because of overuse and not because of a cold (as the media reported). He was given antibiotics and steroid tablets (pills), which is a lot less severe than the steroid injection. He was told to take one steroid tablet per day for 2 days and if he still feels his voice isn’t 70-80%, he can take another tablet. When his voice hits 40% or below, he would then need to go back to the doctor for the steroid injection, but was advised to hold it off until the 16th or 17th show as his body will bloat (a side effect of the injection).

(2) Special thanks to Eric Kwok

Eason knows a lot of people were worried about his voice and he received a lot encouragement from his friends and fans. He wanted to especially thank Eric Kwok for his words of encouragement through an email after he watched 2 shows. Eason says that Eric isn’t someone who will only tell you what’s good (he’ll tell you what isn’t good also), he is extremely insightful and he’ll observe situations and give you his opinion.

The subject: Only if they knew.

A portion of the message: When an artist, athlete, or anyone in general gets hurt, they, themselves, take it the hardest. Yes, on a good day, you are supposed to sing well, but on a bad day, when you are hurt and you are currently last in the race, you continued on and raced to the finish line.

Eason never thought of it in that way, but was deeply touched by Eric’s words.

(3) Fully satisfied with DUO, his voice wasn’t even a factor

Eason knows a lot of people were worried about his voice and he knows some fans were disappointed that his voice was not 100%. However, throughout the 18 shows, Eason was never once disappointed, unhappy or unsatisfied because he was fully satisfied with the production of DUO.

Eason states that because everyone, whether it was the stage crew, the band, the dancers, etc., came together as one, the entire production process was filled with positive energy and happiness. Eason asks Vani, “Do you know how hard it is for a team of people to work together and not have gossip (“si fei”)? If merely one person decided they wanted to be in the center of it all, gossip immediately begins, but there was none of that.” Eason was extremely satisfied that this DUO team worked together for one goal and because everyone was in it together, the state of his voice was never a factor because there was so much positive energy.

Vani analyzes, maybe because one aspect wasn’t going well (Eason’s voice) another came together (the DUO team working well). Eason agreed it might have been just that.

(4) Changing keys to match his voice, not a bad thing at all

In Eric’s email, Eric also praised the switching of keys in each song to match the state of his voice. Eason and Vani go into elaborate discussion about changing keys and moods of songs to match his voice. There were many changes throughout the 18 shows because the state of his voice was different each night.

They further discuss how some people view changing keys as a sign of weakness, but Eason feels that is not the case and he has come out of the 18 shows with much more knowledge. Yes, the original key would probably match the song best, but when you change a key you also change the way you interpret the song, giving it a different mood.

(5) Understands the worries about his voice

Eason understands why people worried about his voice. He recalls when Jacky Cheung did his 100 shows world tour, Eason was in the audience during the HK show where Jacky’s voice wasn’t 100% and when he performed 分手總要在雨天. When Jacky performed the line 但雨點偏偏促使這樣遇見 he gave it his all and you heard his voice almost crack during the two words “peen peen” (偏偏) and as a member as an audience, Eason’s thought was “ouch.” At that point, Eason thought Jacky didn’t need to push it because the audience would love it regardless; Jacky could’ve just brought it back and gave it a subtler sound, but Eason also understood that Jacky wanted to perform at his best and perform it to satisfy fans.

Vani concludes Eason probably isn’t as stubborn when it comes to the aspect of performing it the way fans are used to hearing it. Eason then says it is probably because of the experience watching Jacky’s performance that he learned to hold it back for DUO.

(6) Changes in rundown because he couldn’t remember lyrics

Eason hopes they can do a DUO Tour and it was mentioned that they are considering a Part II of DUO. In either case, especially that latter, there would be changes needed, but it would not be a problem because they had already discussed and practiced a lot of DUO song pairings, but because Eason could not remember the lyrics they were cut them out of the rundown.

It was mentioned that he could’ve used a monitor to display lyrics, but Eason admits that it was never an option due to his stubbornness.

(7) Fans first? No, me first. There is no such thing as absolute fairness.

Vani mentioned that the rundown of DUO consists of a lot of songs Eason likes, Eason says that is true. He elaborates and says a lot of people feel that a concert should be created with “what fans want” being the priority, but for Eason, “what I want” is priority. He feels that if he enjoys his performance, the audience will, in turn, enjoy it.

There was also mention that fans would always complain about something, such as fans that paid good money for good seats didn’t get to see how beautiful the stage was and fans that paid less for seats further away got a better view of the stage, or that different nights had longer or shorter encores. Eason says there is no such thing as absolute fairness. One thing that is never fair to him is that he can never watch himself live.

Eason says the people who got the best view of the stage were the 2 member team who were in charge of recording the making of… (for the DVD) because they were recording from all angles and when Eason saw the pictures afterwards, he even thought the stage was beautiful. There was one shot of the stage where Eason risen up on a small stage and it appears Eason was floating in the middle of air because the black structure that lifted the small stage was on was hidden among the black background.

(8) Live versions of new songs better than recorded versions

Vani mentioned Eason performed two of his new songs (無人之境 and 陀飛輪) off his new EP Time Flies. She and Eason then spoke of the fact that his live performances of those two songs were better than the recorded versions. Vani says it was so emotional that even members of the band were crying after his performances. Eason then says even he cried.

Note: Vani brings up that Eason had said in the past (about two year ago) that he continues to release albums so he can continue to perform live in concert. Vani’s mentioning of Eason’s words references that his goal has been achieved because those live performances are what Eason strives for and not merely the recordings.

(9) Enjoyed DUO much more than Moving On Stage 1

Despite his voice not being in good condition for DUO, Eason says he enjoyed the 18 nights of DUO more than the 16 nights of Moving On Stage, mainly because there was a lot less dancing in DUO so he had more energy. He says that about the 8th show of Moving On Stage 1, he had already changed his mindset entirely because he was exhausted. He fully enjoyed all 18 nights of DUO because he had retained energy through each show, which was also why his voice got better as each night went on.

(10) Special thanks to industry insiders who watched

Eason gives a special thanks to Peter Lam (owner of East Asia Music) because it is said that he does not watch productions of other artists aside from those from his own company. Not only did he watch Eason (who isn’t an artist of his company), he had just gotten off a flight and brought with him coconut and almond bird’s nest for Eason.

He also thanks Sau Gor (Wu Fung), who drove to Hong Kong Coliseum to give Eason words of encouragement those days he did not watch.

Jacky Cheung, who watched every show and had not done such for any artist since he did so for Roman Tam in 1996.

He also thanks other industry insiders who attended, some of which he especially invited and he thanks them for taking their time out: George Lam and his son, Teresa Carpio, Poon Yuen Leung, Terence Hui, among others. Luo Da You who sent a flower basket even though he did not attend. Eddie Ng attended but left after a couple of songs, which Eason attributes to as, “the show wasn’t rock enough.”

(11) The rest of 2010

Eason mentioned there are plans to release 2 EPs this summer and a Mandarin album at the end of the year. Also mentioned was IF they were to tour, there would be changes to the rundown for casino venues since they limit the shows to about 1.5 hours (mentioning the US in reference to those casinos) and there would probably not be much change for a Taiwan show because Taiwan fans want to hear his Cantonese songs. (Is this a hint that the US and Taiwan are stops in the DUO Tour?)

Source: crhk 903 04.12.2010 - 04.15.2010