The 2018 Golden Melody Festival “GMA Talk” series lectures was held at Clapper Studio in Taipei on 18 June, 2018. Khalil Fong shared his insight on music creation, his conceptual outlook on music, and the importance of properly enjoying the music and melody. Fong performed multiple scores including such classic as Change the World, serenaded over 300 people in the audience. Fong also hoped that through the influence of the lecture, everyone could find their own way. Never a proficient public speaker, Fong expressed his anxiety over the upcoming lecture, and the fact that he kept revising the draft over and over until late last night. However, he did state that he felt very confident and secure with Matilda Tao as the host of the event. Fu Music-signed artist Diana Wong was also present at the event, and shared thoughts on her cooperation with Fong. The two then proceed to perform the song Calm, and received thunderous applause from the assembled audience.
Over the course of the 2-hour lecture, Fong explained how the timetable of came writing a song could vary wildly, for example he finished writing This Love in 30 minutes. “The sky, the stars and the universe were all in harmony at the time”, He said. Matilda Tao also jokingly said that should be because Mercury was not in retrograde.
Fong also shared that during the recording session for Paris, he attempted to use better equipment for recording, however none of the recorded sessions was superior to the original demo, consequently that became the final published version. Tao also mentioned that when she first received the draft for Fong’s lecture, there was a sentence stating “before you wrote a good song, there would have been many, many bad ones”, “I guess”, she said jokingly, “I gotta keep writing”. In an attempt to encourage everyone to keep writing songs, Fong cleared the air by saying that not all of them would be bad ones, some of those could still be published after some minor revisions. Diana Wong also took to the stage and shared her experience collaborating with her boss Khalil, as well as an impromptu performance. Tao praised the performance by saying “They say music comforts the soul, I certainly feel comforted.”
Speaking of winning the best male mandarin artist category of the GMA last year, Fong humbly stated that he was both surprised and grateful. As for this year he was happy to see his old friend Jiuhze Li back in the ring, but was also pleasantly surprised and impressed by Xiao Yu’s album, however regardless of who actually won, this bond with the GMA remains unique.
