Hope for Wedding

Written and Recorded in 1999

First demo recording I made after I was totally liberated from any sense of duty for band or any sort of project but for simply my personal fun purpose in a long time. The first three minute portion was written based on a sketch recording of rough idea I made in the late 1980s, whilst the jam section that follows was written as the recording progressed, which was not recorded in just one go but was rather digitally pieced together what have been recorded bits by bits.

The song section in the beginning is a well-written pop stuff. The continued jam section is designed to express many different aspects of my musical preferences and sources of influence such as Country, Blues, Psychedelic and genuine Rock’N’Roll style. The title was coined from one of my favourite Soft Machine songs – Hope for Happiness – for expressing my bitter sarcasm towards a girl who left my life, in order to destroy my hope for wedding.

You’re My 1988

Written in 1988 / Recorded in 1988 and 1996

I picked up a King Crimson song called I Talked to the Wind to the set list of a live performance scheduled for my band called Flowers’ one day reunion in early November 1988, and rehearsed the song, and some other new materials for the band, for a very brief period. Since the band was a trio, I had to be creative for covering impressive flute and guitar parts in the original as a guitarist of the band. After the reunion thing was done, I wrote a new song based on some ideas I have cultivated from playing the King Crimson thing and added a lyric to dedicate it to someone who acted like a girl of the year in my private life.

The song was later converted to an instrumental tune and the audio track of this tune is mainly taken from that material, except for the guitar solo section in the middle, which is taken from the initial demo recorded in late 1988. 

Sides

Written and Recorded in 2001

The main body of this tune, mainly played by the piano in this demo, was actually based on the idea I wrote and left in the form of rough sketch recording in the late 1980s. Entire arrangement and other additional pieces were all made and written in 2001. With hindsight, the ending piece is irrelevant to proceeding sections and I would like to rather remove it from the final mixing, if any such opportunity was given in the future. The title means almost nothing as always the case for my musical compositions. 

Just a Kiss

Written in 1989 and 1996 / Recorded in 1989, 1996 and 2014

A piece of music I wrote while playing the piano in a bit romantic anxiety at the end of 1989. The initial demo sounded great but was filled with too many voices that easily reminded the strong influence from Todd Rundgren’s Just One Victory.

When it was converted to an instrumental piece, under a new recording scheme in 1996, the arrangement was simplified being requested from the singer of the band then I played with. In the meantime, I newly wrote the strings part that furnishes the guitar solo section in the middle and added it to this second attempt.

For making this video, I combined both demo recordings in order to make the best of them and also added some necessary pieces, which had been omitted from the 1996 work. I know the guitar solo at the ending is too long for entertaining the prospective audience but I just simply wanted to indulge in enjoying the moments I seized once again in a long long time.

Sailing to the Moon – Male House Rock

Written and Recorded in 2001

‘Sailing to the Moon’ was an original tune I wrote in 2001, based on a rough sketch recording of the main chord progression initially made in the late 1980s. I am proud of myself in handling of the initial idea at the composing stage, especially in its complex arrangement, programming of the rhythm machine and professionally balanced mixing of all instruments.

Meanwhile, ‘Male House Rock’ was written as merely a continuous jam section. As its title implies, this was a parody of the Elvis Presley classic, Jailhouse Rock.  

I’d Like to Sing “I Love You”

Written in (1992 and ) 1994 / Recorded in 1996

Initially, this thing was written as a song addressed my then girlfriend. It was not a genuine love song but a sarcastic one and, to be honest, I don’t remember much how I wrote the tune back then. Completed demo recording was first made in 1994, that’s for sure, but later I found a fragmented piece of demo recording of this tune, probably recorded roughly a couple of years earlier. Anyway, neither of these early demos but a revised version I made in 1996 is the one featured in the audio track of this video, with newly captured image of myself miming to the tune in late 2014. I regard this thing as one of my typically well-written pop tunes and hope prospective listeners to just enjoy the music J   

To You

Written and Recorded in 2001

An instrumental tune I wrote mainly to present myself as a lead guitar player in 2001. Nothing more, nothing less, this is such a thing at all. 

Dance Theme

Written in 1993 / Recorded in 1996

This piece of music was first written in 1993, as what was supposed to be the main theme for a conceptual work, which was later abandoned. The concept was to write some variations of this theme track and some went well and others didn’t. The initial demo was made for my band called Culotte for its reference purpose, was slower than what you hear in this video and featured no drum track but the digitally programmed hi-hat part.

For making this video, I compared various available versions including the initial demo mentioned above and its resulted studio recording by Culotte but eventually decided to pick up the latest version I personally made in 1996.

The initial motivation for writing this tune was, to be honest with you, to write something for answering to some inspiration I received from Mariah Carey, especially from her debut single Emotions, which gave me certain new ideas on writing pop materials since I first heard the song aired on radio sometime in mid 1991.