Returning to the Greater Toronto Area and to the stage is Jerald Chan who is a singer that is part of the Hong Kong musical duo Swing (formerly Snowman). For the 2016 Taste of Asia festival, Jerald Chan returns to the stage to perform after two years away from the spotlight. What a better place to make his return than the Taste of Asia festival as his performance will be the first time he’s performed in the Greater Toronto Area, despite growing up there.
Before Jerald Chan became a musical sensation, he moved to Toronto as a child and he lived there until he graduated from York University. Growing up, Jerald had a passion for music but it wasn’t until high school that he realized that he could do something more with his music. “It came easy to me,” Jerald said when asked about his defining moment of clarity, “In music class I was one of the best in the class. It just came naturally to me.” Creating music, the improvisation behind it, was something Jerald always gravitated towards. If a piece of music was playing, even if Jerald wasn’t familiar with the tune, he could turn it around and make something out of it by improvising. “I found it a lot of fun,” Jerald gushed about why he loved improvising with music, “it came very natural to me.” Jerald loves that musical scenario so much that when the scenario presents itself to him, that’s when he feels the most comfortable. “One of the most comfortable environments is when I’m performing and I’m improvising,” Jerald started, “the spotlight is on me and I’m required to sing something spontaneously, that’s when I’m most comfortable.” That is truly a gift to strive through improvisation, it knocks the saying ‘practice makes perfect’ out of the water.
With his love for music fully realized, Jerald continued to York University to study music technology which enhanced his love for the musical arts. At first, it didn’t click for Jerald but he ended up expanding his repertoire because of it by studying Indian rhythm, old school electronic music, contemporary composition and he even joined the university choir. Fortunately for Jerald, he found his calling in third year, “That’s when computer sequencing, composing, and writing music on the computer, using the computer as a recording studio, that’s when it started to take off.” Jerald explained in regards to why third year was so important, “I was really into that. I found myself making music with the computer. And later digital and audio, I found that to be a lot of fun.” Jerald prefers the new school way in regards to creating music because of the freedom it gives to a musician. “You could always undo,” Jerald stated. He likes the fact that with the new technology, he could always revisit a part of a song and tinker with it while the old school approach with music doesn’t give the same amount of freedom in that regard. Despite his love for the new technology, Jerald finds that it actually makes the process longer. “If you’re just working on one task then it’s 100 times quicker. The reason why it takes longer is because it opens up so many doors, so many possibilities.” Jerald clarified, “There’s just so many combinations of things that you could do with the technology that you end up spending ten times the amount of time that you would spend.”
With his wide range of musical study, Jerald’s musical inspirations could be found all over the spectrum. Musicians like Incognito, Foul Play, Fourplay, Rush, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince are some sources of inspiration. A constant inspiration that Jerald had at a young age was his father (an alumni from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston), who was an active song scorer and producer in Hong Kong during the 1980s. “Very early on I would listen to him transcribe songs,” Jerald reminisced when he thought of his father, “I would just sit there and listen to him transcribe.”
In 1997, Jerald Chan returned to Hong Kong, where he met Eric Kwok in an office. They hit it off from the start and decided to meet up again a few days later at a local dumpling shop. After their dumpling treat, they jammed out in Eric’s homemade recording studio. “We couldn’t stop laughing, we had so much in common,” Jerald recalled about meeting Eric, “it just clicked. It was magic for us.” And this was the start for Jerald and Eric’s musical duo as they found that they not only had different skill sets but they also complimented each other. It didn’t hurt that they had lots of fun too when creating music together.
While Jerald and Eric created music magic together, coming up with a name for their duo wasn’t as easy. Naming themselves was a task that they didn’t like. “We just randomly picked two names and we could not decide,” Jerald explained as he laughed at the memory. The choices were between buzz and snowman. They just couldn’t decide though they knew that they wanted the name to reflect the positive vibe their music gave off. In the end, Jerald and Eric left the choice to a panhandler who flipped a coin for them. “We never saw that panhandler ever again,” he added afterwards. Who would have thought that a game of heads and tails was how their duo became Snowman.
Snowman was signed to label EEI in 1999 and their first album Snowman was released. One song from the album that translates into ‘Beginning to End’ holds a special place in Jerald’s heart as he believes it to be his best written song ever. “It has a double sentimental reason,” Jerald commented before he went to explain why that was. Shortly after the demo was made for ‘Beginning to End’, Jerald met his wife. They dated for a month before they were separated for a year when she went to study abroad in New York. Though they were apart, she listened to that song every day. It was a song that he later sang at their wedding. “It was a very special year and that song was the theme song of that year,” Jerald summarized after explaining how the song articulates the struggles Snowman faced at that time of uncertainty in their lives.
Anyways, unfortunately for Snowman, the EEI label closed a year later, forcing Snowman to look for another record company. Thankfully within that same year, they were signed to EEG but Snowman had to change their name.
Picking another name was still troubling for Snowman but they had an idea, the new name should start with the letter ‘S’. It turns out that Jerald’s love for golf is what led them to the new name of Swing. Since then, all of their albums have been released under their new name.
Overall, Swing released a total of eight albums; “Swing” (2000), “On Fire” (2001), “For Sale” (2001) and their ‘best of’ collection was released under their album “Swing Swang Swung” (2001). They disbanded in 2002 but they reunited in 2009 when they released three more albums together; “武當” (2009), “電” (2010) and “Swing到盡” (2011).
Throughout their career, Swing worked with many other musicians (like Eason Chan, Jacky Cheung and Cass Phang to name a few).
When Swing was disbanded from 2002-2009, Jerald produced for the recording company Silly Things (which had artists Juno Mak and Yan Ng). “Those few years were amazing,” Jerald praised with glee, “I wouldn’t change a single thing.” Jerald believed that his time as a performer and as a recording artist helped him tremendously as a producer since it allowed him to better relate and guide the artists he was working with. “I had my struggles in the beginning but I met many, many tremendous people, especially Juno Mak,” Jerald started before mentioning the partnership and friendship that he formed with Juno Mak when they first met back in 2003 (on Juno’s album “Proto”). “I’m still working with Juno as we speak,” Jerald added.
When it comes to creating music, Jerald’s process always includes a reference. “With a completely blank slate, I usually get stuck because it’s too wide open for me,” Jerald explained, “I need some sort of guidance or a focal point.” For Jerald, he would listen to his reference song once and pick out what aspects of the reference he liked. Once done, he packs the reference away and allows for his creativity to transform those pieces into something new. “It would usually take me to wherever and that’s where I’ll go,” Jerald added about his reference fragments. With this method, Jerald always includes his references in the song credits so that listeners know from the beginning just where Jerald’s inspiration stemmed from. “I don’t take anything from that reference song but the vibe,” Jerald added, “I try to use that vibe to inspire me.”
In regards to any future projects, be on the lookout for Jerald’s first Mandarin album that he’s producing himself for an artist he has previously worked with before. It’s a new challenge that Jerald is excited to tackle. It’s in the early stages but be on the lookout.
The next time that Jerald Chan is making an appearance is at the Taste of Asia festival on June 25th 2016 in Markham. He’s expected to perform during the evening concert and he’s not alone. “I’m going to fly my buddy over,” Jerald revealed as well as a mutual friend of theirs also joining in. Both of Jerald’s friends are singers and songwriters from Hong Kong that Jerald has worked with in the past. “I’m really looking forward to that,” Jerald explained about appearing on stage with his two friends, “The three of us being up on stage together, singing and just having fun, that I’m really, really, really looking forward to.” Not only is Jerald excited about the opportunity to perform with his friends but he’s excited to be returning home. “I’m a Torontonian at heart. I’m from there, I grew up there,” Jerald explained, “I used to hang out at Pacific Mall and Market Village.” Jerald’s return will also mark the first time he’s performing in the Greater Toronto Area. “It will be a special homecoming for me,” Jerald added before joking about how he’s nervous to perform in front of his old friends.
It’s a homecoming that is long overdue but Jerald Chan is a performer that needs to be watched as he’ll create magic before your eyes. He has truly followed his dream and he continues to share his talent through the universal language of music.
Jerald Chan's Social Media Contacts: Swing Wikipedia | Jerald's Twitter | Jerald's Instagram
Production Note:
This was published in Volume 12, Issue 4 of AsianWave Magazine.
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