First of all, I don't like to talk about myself in third person because it feels awkward and fake. So for both my sake and yours, I'll tell you a little about me (in first person, of course).
Unlike most musicians, I hadn't been exposed to music at an early age, unless of course you count about 6 or 7 early. I started learning piano when I was about 5 or 6. I remember going to the local community centre for 15 minutes a week and learning from my teacher. A year later, I began to get lessons from a registered piano teacher and have been with her ever since. I also remember arranging new songs by changing the lyrics, sometimes with my sister. There's this one song (I still have the lyrics) that I changed the lyrics to from a Sears commercial. And then we would put on this ridiculous "show" for our family, complete with seats and everything, and we would sing out our new version on the song. Although my family thought it was utterly stupid, I thought it was a genious idea at the time.
The first song I tried to write was actually something I tried to transcribe. I heard it playing on my older sister's computer one day. It was run on a piano melody and definitely catchy. So I attempted to write it down, not really knowing anything. I would find out later that the song was the Forrest Gump Theme (even though I haven't seen the movie).
Because my family is Asian (and because I'm Asian, I can make fun of myself too), we weren't too concerned about technology. In fact, the first CD I bought was only a few years ago, when I was about 14. It was an S Club CD, entitled Seeing Double. As school and years dragged on, I found myself disliking the songs on the radio. I wanted to write, but I had no idea how. Finally, I finished my first song in my Grade 10 Socials Studies class. I wrote it about this boy that I had fallen for, even though I didn't even know him. And although both the lyrics and music wasn't very good, it was a start.
I started to write different poems, mainly about this boy that I really liked. But during this crush, it made me sad because I realized I could never be with him. Sadness would be my inspiration. In the many problems in my life, I would find a way to write it down. It wasn't until recently that I realized I despised most music on the radio; music was now a breeding ground for untalented wannabes "singing" the same old crap. When I was depressed, I wanted to just listen to a bunch of sad songs, but I could never find any. Even artists that had a few sad songs would also have upbeat ones too, and that didn't help. I vowed that I would be the one to set it straight; I would be the revolution the music industry so sorely needed. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet.
I think I wrote too much. Here, I can sum myself up in a paragraph.
Musical (and existential) 19 year old gay boy from Vancouver wants to change the world with his piano and voice by singing a bunch of sad songs while putting down all artists deemed undeserving to the music industry. Done.
Empty - Aaron Chan
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