Swan Song R&D 4 – Expansion of Radio and further research

This blogpost will be separated into two parts, talking about the admin stuff on the project so far and then go into a song that I found very helpful in terms of developing the project.

For the residency with resonance extra, I will in return do four broadcasts with them during the two weeks time. During that time I will present music, do live performances and invite people for live sessions to introduce their work. This will all be a an opportunity to expand my work and disclose my project to an audience through radio. I am planning to introduce my work, and to share my progress within these broadcast to document my collaboration with the station.

For the four broadcasts, I am thinking of doing the first one and the last one on my own, focusing on my project, with sharing excerpt of work in progress, share sound and music that shaped my piece, and some live improvisational performances as research and development. This will be a new way for me to document my working and expand my project in a more public way. Compare to writing on my blog, I will have to consider how to deliver my work in progress with people, in a comprehensible fashion. But also how would an aural, sonic documentation affect my way of working? This will most certainly be very interesting.

For the two broadcasts in the middle, I will be inviting people (mostly my friends) to perform or do the show with me, in an attempt to open up the conversation with more than myself to expand the things I have been thinking but also celebrate the people that don’t usually get exposures on air. It is certain not often that I get air time like this with so much freedom, so I would like cherish them by sharing it with people that are in my life influencing my work.

It is very exciting to have that much time to share what I want to say and put out in the world. But also it comes with a responsibility. What perspective do I take, what things to highlight, these will all affect people view on especially Hong Kong since my project is based on it. It is important that while I have my fun, to keep the my depiction of my culture and heritage in an honest and true way.

In the coming week, I will be very busy preparing for my time in Resonance. I will have to record sound assets that I need for my time there, mainly the synthesiser bit which I can do at home. So that I can focus on working with the amazing space but not on my synth. I can also start editing sections of songs so I can have things to work in the studio. I will also have to confirm with people that I wanted to collaborate with in the broadcasts to make sure everything has a plan.

Another collaboration is a photo shoot for the project. For future publication, I would like to have done shoot in the space if I were to release the project online and streaming platforms. And to build a portfolio for future, to build a presence as an artist, I felt it is important to do this during the two weeks as the studio is such an important part to how the project will sound. For the shoot I am again collaborating with Sannica who currently studies at CSM, she has helped me with the Elephant Song shoot and a few other projects and she understood my standpoint as she is also from Hong Kong. I felt it is important sometimes working on sensitive topics it is best to find the right person to work with, someone who can understand how to communicate delicately through their work. While I love working with people from my heritage, I also try not to do that often, so that it doesn’t become an echo chamber where everyone just agrees, but also especially with asian communities I’ve seen, a pity party.

The second part of the blogpost is a study into this video my flatmate Tata found in an exhibition he recently went to in Hong Kong.

This is a protest song by a construction worker Bill. It is about how important his job is and how it has been affected by corrupted businesses. They are very hardworking people, they don’t complain a lot, and they are proud of what they do to support their family. In recently years because of how few people go into the industry, the pay has become better than for a university graduates, though they are still underrepresented by their union, and benefits not being covered or protected by the law.

The song interests me more about its use of voice, and how it represents the environment these workers live in. There are no musical arrangement except for the melody being sung by the worker Bill, maybe he is not very well trained in music, which is understandable and very logical. Yet at the same time the song works so well on delivering its message about the sticky situation these workers found themselves in in 2007. Somehow when I hear the song, I can immediately imagine the workers in a construction site, the way they look, they things they wear, and the mannerism of them. Everything is so real, just by the one singing voice. It is masculine, it is demanding something, but it is also not aggressive. You can hear the years of smoking, the things he’s been through working on sites, and the struggle within.

This is the perfect example of someone utilising their voice to create an image. It is also simple as that to paint a picture. I feel very inadequate in telling-stories with my voice, maybe I feel there is no true story to tell. This lack of confidence in myself has stopped me last year in the summer term to go for what I wanted to do at the time. I felt trapped at the time, with expectations on myself to create something that means something, that has value; which completely stopped myself from being creative. I hope this feeling would change with time, maybe it will just be a patch of a dry spell. But it obviously entailed a bigger insecurity inside me.

To avoid going too deep into it, what I wanted to do is that I will just do it. To trust myself through working unconsciously. To put down the things I am researching on and just go with what I wanted to sing out loud. To just write songs that I feel at the moment. And trust it will turn out ok.

I think this week is going to be tough, but I would love to go for it and just write. And maybe stop on researching outwards but to work on my own for now, to actualise my ideas for a bit. There is a point where you’ve done too much research.