Pier Writes <<最好>> , Enter XKJ

<<最好>> was written in 2003, the night I asked my girl-friend to be erm, my girl-friend. I can't really write a song if I am not feeling anything. To me songs are about memories. And this was my memory of that moment of ecstasy. You can tell by the childishness of the lyrics. If it sounds kinda like a Jason-Mraz rip-off, that's because it is. I was listening to Jason Mraz's stellar first album at that time.

So after I wrote it, I submitted it to a local song-writing competition called <<心情容器>> and it got into the semis. Like an idiot I went to this local chinese pop pub called Mu Chuan and sang the song. Needless to say, my performance was sub-par compared to the other seasoned people.

Then came along another song-writing competition called <<飞跃时空>>. I submitted this same song again, just trying my luck. Amazingly it was chosen for the semis again. I was kinda afraid (remember I am an introvert) to stand alone on such a big stage, so I decided to get some of my friends into trouble.

Thus our band Xiao Kong Jian (XKJ) was born. It consisted of 2 guitarists (Mun and me) and 1 bass player (Kim). No drummer? Yep we didn't have one. No drummer friends.

So by some stroke of luck, we were chosen for the finals at DBS Auditorium. That was something for me, considering that it was one of my first songs.

In the finals, I sang out of tune , probably because I over-practiced and left my throat sore. Didn't win anything, but whatever we did with this song serves as an unforgettable memory. It was also a time when I was truly enjoying myself with music.

Except when my father told me on the way home that 你唱歌没水准。

That was really a bummer. Coz up till that point I thought I was a not bad singer. Reality bites.

ps. You can hear the actual version of <<最好>> that I sent for the competition in my ReverbNation page.