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SCMP Reporter

It has been six years since Canto-pop king Jacky Cheung Hok-yau released his last Cantonese album, Life is Like a Dream. The singer of Loving You More Every day and The Goodbye Kiss kept himself busy working on  his stage production  Snow.Wolf.Lake in 2005,  then went on a 105-show world tour   in  2007 and 2008.
In his new release, Private Corner, Cheung brings a new jazz twist to the table.  The singer describes it as a great escape from the stress and frustrations people encounter every day.
But the new release is unlikely to ease tensions  between local broadcaster TVB and local record labels over the  copyright fee dispute.  
Why is it important for you to release a Cantonese album?
I am a Hongkonger and Cantonese is my mother tongue, I know exactly how every word sounds, whereas for certain Putonghua pronunciations I have to check with  native speakers to make sure I say it right. And  my very first song,   Fatherland (1984), was a Cantonese song.
There are certain challenges when singing jazz in Cantonese. How did you overcome this? 
Cantonese is neither as flexible nor as melodic as English or even Putonghua. There are nine tones in Cantonese as opposed to four in Putonghua, so it is  easy  to say something completely different - even a swear word - when you make a small mistake with  Cantonese pronunciation. This  makes it even harder  when singing R&B, jazz or soul, which are more free in spirit.  When we were  working on this album,  we had to make many alterations to make sure the words and music sounded right.
Why a jazz album?
I have longed to do a jazz album but it has never been  the right time to do so. When I listen to jazz music, it makes me feel relaxed. I think  the genre  represents my age and lifestyle now. I wouldn't say this album is an authentic jazz album because honestly I do not know a lot about jazz myself, and  I chose music that I am attracted to. The whole album didn't come into  being until I found this  tune, Stuck On You (1991), by Bobby Caldwell, and we had it rewritten  as a Cantonese song, titled Mini. It was the first song we recorded  and  it dictated the direction for the entire album.
Why has jazz never been that popular in Cantonese music? 
I think most probably it is  a matter of education; people still believe that jazz can only been sung in foreign languages. There are difficulties singing jazz in Cantonese as I explained and I think when there is a new challenge, people tend to stay away from it.  It is always easier to stay in your comfort zone. I am not like that, you never know until you try it yourself. I'm not trying  to break any traditions here, I  just believe that there are jazz tunes that can be sung beautifully in Cantonese.  Also, I don't believe  one formula  works forever. It is pointless to just sit there,  scared of losing your music fans. Things will never happen if you don't give it a try.
You  were around for the good times (the 1980s and 1990s) in the local music industry. What do you think of the scene today? 
Obviously, people are less willing to  pay for music these days. They 'take' it from the internet which is sort of stealing but  it seems people don't mind being thieves.  If we don't stop this, I can only foresee the music industry dying out very soon. In countries such as Japan, physical sales of music have declined just as badly as in Hong Kong, but the Japanese are willing to pay for digital sales which makes up almost 80 per cent of the profits  of the Japanese music industry. If  CDs  are going to be replaced  by some advanced technology, that's fine as long as people are willing to pay for it. The government should take part of the blame for not doing enough to stop this. Parents need to tell their children that it is not right to steal, and the children themselves, how can they not know that they are stealing from someone else's effort? The media should take the responsibility for not respecting music as well.
Do you think the media has been disrespectful to music?
If you look at the local television music shows, they have become something to fill the gaps between other programmes. More singers appear on game shows than on music programmes and  their songs are cut for advert breaks after  the first two lines at live shows. It is hard to  listen to a complete song nowadays; how can people judge if it is good or bad? We have too many music-award presentation events with no standard award-giving mechanism. Some people  are awarded only because of their image or popularity at the time. I  support RTHK's idea of grouping the awards into one central award presentation and then people will have a clearer idea of what good music stands for.
What do you think singers can do to change this?
We, as singers can't walk away without any blame, we have problems, too. We should ask ourselves, are we really giving performances that are up to the standard to make people respect us? But even if we are not that doesn't mean people can steal from us. What I am saying is that we have to make sure we have done our best to give people the best music we can.  If people  choose not to buy our music, that's their choice. I have been through good times in the music business and I want the new generation of singers to know how good it feels to be a singer, and how wonderful it is to be able to sing. Only when the market is good, can good music  then be made.
Which side  are you on in the current copyright fee dispute between TVB and record labels? 
As a singer, I will always stand on the side of the record labels. The broadcaster didn't want to pay more because they have been paying a certain  fee for so many years. The broadcaster is like this giant developer, who wants to buy  farmland to build  expensive residential buildings but it is impossible to compensate the farmers with just the land price. Even the government is paying the  Choi Yuen Tseun villagers a  reasonable sum. We are just demanding  our basic rights.
How important is it to find other channels for singers to promote their music,  using television stations other  than TVB? 
It can only help the music. During the good times  we didn't think about this [appearing on ATV or Cable TV]. Just like you don't look for food if you are not hungry. But we are now; we are actually starving. If we do not want to die, we will have to find new ways to get food. And hopefully Hong Kong will just be the start and  we will change this abnormal music environment in other parts of Asia such as Taiwan and the mainland.  It is my job as a singer to fight for our rights. 
Private Corner is out now




Q&A: Jacky Cheung