Singer-songwriter Khalil Fong Dai-tung has moved away from the R&B sounds he is known for and infused his new album with blues-rock guitar riffs. The 27-year-old musician named the album 15, the age when he taught himself to play guitar. Something of a wunderkind, Hawaii-born Fong was sending demos to recording companies a year later and was signed to Warner Music Hong Kong when he was 20.
He impressed DJs and music industry executives as a promising newcomer with his 2005 debut album, Soul Boy, although it wasn't a huge commercial successes. But his third album, Wonderland, won him a growing following, especially in Taiwan. In 2009, he was nominated for best singer, composer and arrangement at Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards for Orange Moon.
Fong will embark on a series on concerts in August to promote the new album released last week.
Your new album features a lot of guitar-driven blues-rock. Why did you go down that road?
I was at an award show in Beijing three years ago and, during his acceptance speech, a mainland musician said: 'Khalil Fong, I know you like blues very much.'
I didn't know how to react at the time, but he gave me an idea: why not add some more blues to my music? Blues was what I was playing when I first learned the guitar and it's the origin of soul and R&B, so I kept thinking about that. But it's tricky because blues is not widely accepted in the Chinese music scene.