The Guitar, the Piano and "Hiroshima Love"

(News taken from December 2007)

This year, Jeremy spent his Christmas day (Dec 25/2007) in Hangzhou, China where he was invited to perform at the new 5-star Goethe Hotel. Commenting on his given title of "Prince of Love Songs", he says that he doesn't appreciate this name. He asks, "Why do people always want to see me play the piano? I'm quite good at the guitar too!" Eventhough the plan was for him to play the piano and sing, he still wished that he could play the guitar for his audience. "If someone brought up a guitar, I will sing for them. Or at least let me play the bamboo flute or other flutes." His upcoming plan is to make an Hokkien album.

MY says:
Jeremy, Jeremy, you have to understand where these requests are coming from. The MV for your "Guang Dao Zhi Lian" (Hiroshima Love) shows you playing the piano. You have successfully made that deep impression in your audiences' mind. Everytime your current teenage female fans hear this song, they will envision you playing that piano just like in that MV. They will live with it, eat with it, sleep with it and dream with it until their next target idol appears.

Most teenagers will go through the "idol" phase. This goes for both males as well as females. An idol to a teenager ranges from an imaginary lover, an imaginary older brother/sister or an imaginary friend. They may imagine talking with their idol about their troubles or sharing their dreams, or just being close to them for comfort. An idol's appearance and words will directly influence his or her fans. I remember one veteran actress stating that an idol's words to a teenager can sometimes be stronger than any parent's, teacher's or politican's.

In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong this phase. Some people grow out of it, some stay with it for life, including this "idol" in their daily lives. It is healthy as long as the "imagination" does not go overboard. Many a time, we hear of suicides or depression from fans that find out that their idol is not really the "perfect" person as they have imagined. Learn to accept that your idol is human and don't put on high expectations, with this in mind you'll learn to enjoy every moment of the journey.

Curious of what MY thinks? Well, as for me, it was the guitar playing that lured me to Jeremy's songs. I used to play the guitar during my teenage years, but somehow I managed to discard all my musical knowledge. To be honest, I can't even read music anymore. Don't ask me why, I must have blocked this phase of life out of my mind for some reason. I rarely listen to music, but some things just never disappear -- that little tingle in my heart whenever I hear those guitar strings. I've always admired people who do things themselves, the self-reliant type. Somehow the combination of composing music, songwriting, singing and guitar strings brings to mind the ideal idol. I'm not a rock fan, so eliminate that half of the world. I'm left with this other half which just happens to include Jeremy. Needless to say, my favourite song by Jeremy is "Zui Ren" (Sinner). That short guitar piece just drowns me.


Source of info:
http://ent.ifeng.com/music/mainland/200712/1224_1838_341845.shtml