I was alone during my first and took 7 hours to complete 2 verses and a chorus. Imagine yourself singing half of ONE song repeatedly for 7 hours in a KTV room. You should've seen the look of the sound engineers and the music producer. From story-telling, relating personal experience to heart-to-heart sharing and drawing on pieces of paper... They looked brain-dead after 7 hours of repeated listening while trying their best to coax me into putting feelings when singing the song with 101 ways.
Prior to that, I was at Nave's place recording a demo and he had also shared how I could improve on singing the song. Apparently, I was too nervous to remember any tips he graciously offered.
After 7 long recording hours, the legitimate song for Cheerful Drumbeat titled Hello Friends was finally completed. Here's how it turned out, from 6:11 onwards:
I only have the production crew to thank for making Hello Friends sound not as bad as I thought it'll be. However, I felt disheartened for a period of time and almost gave up my singing passion. Many a times I feel this same way-- I want to give up, I cannot sing.
But close friends, my mentors & my elders would encourage me to press on, urge me to keep improving and help to look out for more opportunities for me to explore my talents: jamming sessions, performances, singing contests etc.
After 3 years, I'm back to the same studio.
This time round, I'm determined to deliver better quality in terms of my voice and feeling in the song.
I was told that the song would be sung with a group of children and I would play the role of their teacher in the song.
The bubbliness of these 5 kids blew my mind away!
They made the recording looked so easy, so enjoyable, so fun!
There was so much laughter, laughter which made me laughed along with them too; for no reason. It felt warm and sunny when the recording studio is really crampy and cold with this air-con blasting right at you.
On the other hand, the adults looking all solemn and anxious on the outside. When you gather a group of happy & chattering kids together, you'll need to be able to calm them down.
Their singing coach giving the cue. Look how focus the kids are. They are supposed to say "HUR!" at the count of 3.
Meanwhile the happy mothers are busy snapping photos of their children. I'm guessing how proud they feel that their child's singing is going to be telecast on TV soon! I feel proud for them too because they are SOOO GOOD!
My determination and hard work paid of, with the help of all my mentors, my friends and elders for the past 3 years. My recording took only 50minutes this time. It was a one-take recording where I sang the song 3 times. First the entire song, then the song together with the children & finally just the teacher's lines in the song.
The producer was pleased. The crew was happy.
We can all go home in the shortest time possible!
I DID IT!
Can't wait to listen to the final product in September 2012.
Unfortunately, I'm not able to get the full song.
People have been asking for Hello Friends mp3 previously and I truly have to apologise that I do not have the song. Nevertheless, we can always enjoy the show and listen to the song at the same time!
The song title and the drama title shall be disclose later due to privacy issues.
But rest assure that I will tell you in September.
Here's a cheers! to the kids, their parents, the teachers and the recording crew!
IT'S A WRAP!!!
