If there’s something that is lacking in Myanmar is the respect for time. I was in the office today when suddenly my phone rang and it was from Ko Nay Oo, the dude who will be in charge of distributing my upcoming album and the dude who got me involved in a collaboration album. So his message was simple. “1pm today, press conference”. I just stood there dumbfounded at how I was treated. I don’t mean to be a diva but I’m sure any person who’s employed or works under constriction of time would find this ultimately absurd. How can you tell someone who’s working in an office to come to a press conference at 1pm for the release of a compilation album you are involved in.
So, I had a bit of a ‘this or that’ moment. The deal is I don’t wanna come across as this dude who goes out from work to other places. I mean, I just feel bad that I’ll be skipping some office hours and this was from 1 to 3 pm. However, the other end of my brain reconnects with the fact that if I do not go to this press conference, my entry to the music industry would be just gone.
I guess this goes for any celebrities who aren’t big yet. We just have to go with the flow and take any opportunities possible. So, I told my supervisor from work that I will be off for two hours for the day and I went back, changed and went to the press conference.
It felt weird though good to be back in such environment. I was greeted warmly by the media and I was treated as one of the professional singers, as opposed to the newbs; I just find it quite weird since I thought I would be sitting with the newbs given I haven’t been in the industry for five years now. So, I had to sit on the podium with two other popular singers, Pho Kar and He Lay and the producer, with microphones in front of us and with the media clicking on their cameras whenever we talked. I was asked by the head of event to give a speech?
Speech? Let alone speech, I didn’t even know that the album was actually released today. So, I talked to He Lay and asked him what he was gonna say. I was kinda glad that I was the second last to talk to the media, which means I could grasp the style of the other three talkers to come up with my own. When He Lay talked, I was kinda amazed at how irrelevance was majorly spotlighted. I mean, he talked about his song in the album. “My song is about a girl…”. Wait a minute, aren’t you supposed to be representing the album as opposed to your song. He spent more time talking about his song than the actual album. The other dude, Pho Kar, was ok but god he was abrupt. When it was my turn, I talked about how I was glad to be in this compilation album and how this album was a comeback for me as well as my first time I’m on a compilation album. I also told them how I was glad to have a chance to do an acoustic track, as opposed to the digitalized tracks that I would normally be working on, given my genre’s pop and given I like being forward when it comes to the style of my music. I guess impromptu does have its ‘up’s after all. Given you did not prepare for it, any level of ‘good response’ seems admirably awesome.
I was also surprised at how I was interviewed by four magazines right after the podium. I tried not to talk that much to them but somehow they kept asking me things and the interview itself went on for at least 8 minutes for each magazine. Yes, I didn’t get a chance to grab my own CD. I kinda like most of the questions they asked and I’m glad I got to give them a proper answer.
I normally get asked this question a lot of times “What is the difference between the music scene in Australia and Myanmar? What did you learn from the scene there?”. Normally, I would just shrug it off by saying I was studying in Australia but this time, I did voice out what I thought about it; how most Australians I ended up with have their own value in the music industry and how mainstream was not really encouraged upon the society and how genres have their own type of audiences, whereas in Myanmar, people just scattered to one mainstream style and go for that.
I kinda like when one dude asked me if the whole album name “Biography” has anything to do with my songs. I did mention that all of the songs are about me. He then joked if people could tell what type of a person I am by listening to my song, to which I said ‘yes’ and that there were hidden messages in all of them. He then asked what my only two English songs were about. I told him how one was about my late dad, to who I owe a song to. He asked me why I didn’t write that in Burmese, to which I answered was because I think in order to come up with a good song with heartfelt lyrics about my dad, I would have to read more Burmese books. He then asked what the other song was about, to which I answered it was for my loved one (partner). He then asked why I wrote it in English, to which I answered it was because I did not want to waste time having to translate every words.
It all went well and I felt welcomed to be back in the game again. On another note, BigSis was back and it felt awesome and great to have a sane person back into my life, not to mention the big fat smile on CuteDork’s face.
So, I had a bit of a ‘this or that’ moment. The deal is I don’t wanna come across as this dude who goes out from work to other places. I mean, I just feel bad that I’ll be skipping some office hours and this was from 1 to 3 pm. However, the other end of my brain reconnects with the fact that if I do not go to this press conference, my entry to the music industry would be just gone.
I guess this goes for any celebrities who aren’t big yet. We just have to go with the flow and take any opportunities possible. So, I told my supervisor from work that I will be off for two hours for the day and I went back, changed and went to the press conference.
It felt weird though good to be back in such environment. I was greeted warmly by the media and I was treated as one of the professional singers, as opposed to the newbs; I just find it quite weird since I thought I would be sitting with the newbs given I haven’t been in the industry for five years now. So, I had to sit on the podium with two other popular singers, Pho Kar and He Lay and the producer, with microphones in front of us and with the media clicking on their cameras whenever we talked. I was asked by the head of event to give a speech?
Speech? Let alone speech, I didn’t even know that the album was actually released today. So, I talked to He Lay and asked him what he was gonna say. I was kinda glad that I was the second last to talk to the media, which means I could grasp the style of the other three talkers to come up with my own. When He Lay talked, I was kinda amazed at how irrelevance was majorly spotlighted. I mean, he talked about his song in the album. “My song is about a girl…”. Wait a minute, aren’t you supposed to be representing the album as opposed to your song. He spent more time talking about his song than the actual album. The other dude, Pho Kar, was ok but god he was abrupt. When it was my turn, I talked about how I was glad to be in this compilation album and how this album was a comeback for me as well as my first time I’m on a compilation album. I also told them how I was glad to have a chance to do an acoustic track, as opposed to the digitalized tracks that I would normally be working on, given my genre’s pop and given I like being forward when it comes to the style of my music. I guess impromptu does have its ‘up’s after all. Given you did not prepare for it, any level of ‘good response’ seems admirably awesome.
I was also surprised at how I was interviewed by four magazines right after the podium. I tried not to talk that much to them but somehow they kept asking me things and the interview itself went on for at least 8 minutes for each magazine. Yes, I didn’t get a chance to grab my own CD. I kinda like most of the questions they asked and I’m glad I got to give them a proper answer.
I normally get asked this question a lot of times “What is the difference between the music scene in Australia and Myanmar? What did you learn from the scene there?”. Normally, I would just shrug it off by saying I was studying in Australia but this time, I did voice out what I thought about it; how most Australians I ended up with have their own value in the music industry and how mainstream was not really encouraged upon the society and how genres have their own type of audiences, whereas in Myanmar, people just scattered to one mainstream style and go for that.
I kinda like when one dude asked me if the whole album name “Biography” has anything to do with my songs. I did mention that all of the songs are about me. He then joked if people could tell what type of a person I am by listening to my song, to which I said ‘yes’ and that there were hidden messages in all of them. He then asked what my only two English songs were about. I told him how one was about my late dad, to who I owe a song to. He asked me why I didn’t write that in Burmese, to which I answered was because I think in order to come up with a good song with heartfelt lyrics about my dad, I would have to read more Burmese books. He then asked what the other song was about, to which I answered it was for my loved one (partner). He then asked why I wrote it in English, to which I answered it was because I did not want to waste time having to translate every words.
It all went well and I felt welcomed to be back in the game again. On another note, BigSis was back and it felt awesome and great to have a sane person back into my life, not to mention the big fat smile on CuteDork’s face.
Listening to: Jay Brennan - Soda shop
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