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The Unexpurgated interview with Power Station

HI GUYS. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS THAT FANS CAN EXPECT WHEN YOU PERFORM IN SINGAPORE NEXT WEEK? Our good music! Also, it’s a concert, and it’s supposed to be fun. I hope people sing along with us. We have a special guest that’s joining us on stage this time round - S.H.E’s Ella. That is definitely one of the highlights. We’ll be collaborating/singing a song with her. Also, we are honoured that a lot of our songs have appeared on Singaporean dramas so we will pick a few of these songs and perform them in a special segment of our concert. We hope the crowd will be familiar with them, and we’re also going to perform some of our new songs from our new album, which will be released at the end of the month.

HI GUYS. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS THAT FANS CAN EXPECT WHEN YOU PERFORM IN SINGAPORE NEXT WEEK? Our good music! Also, it’s a concert, and it’s supposed to be fun. I hope people sing along with us. We have a special guest that’s joining us on stage this time round - S.H.E’s Ella. That is definitely one of the highlights. We’ll be collaborating/singing a song with her. Also, we are honoured that a lot of our songs have appeared on Singaporean dramas so we will pick a few of these songs and perform them in a special segment of our concert. We hope the crowd will be familiar with them, and we’re also going to perform some of our new songs from our new album, which will be released at the end of the month.

WILL THERE BE ANY DIFFERENCE IN STAGE SETUP? Well, what we wear will be different, it will be brighter and it will stand out more, same goes for the stage. But of course the main point will be our music.

IT’S BEEN FOUR YEARS SINCE YOUR LAST ALBUM, HAS THERE BEEN ANY CHANGES TO YOU AS A GROUP, OR YOUR MUSICAL STYLE SINCE? There’s definitely still some heavy rock influence, but there are a few of our new songs that have a more light, relaxed and romantic feel, so they’re not so hardcore. We hope people can relate to it you know, when they’re in love, or missing people at home, it’s what makes it special.

WHY IS YOUR NEW ALBUM CALLED LIGHT? Well we talked about it, and one of the reasons is because it symbolizes something that is positive, something that everyone feels, unlike darkness. Light can also symbolize some form of dream. We have quite a few song titles with the word “guan” in them, and they’re about believing in yourself and following your dreams.

YOU’RE GOING BACK TO TAIWAN YOUR HOMETOWN IN ABOUT 6 MONTHS, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? We’re very excited. It will also be our first time holding such a big concert there. We’re nervous because we don’t know how many people will actually come down to watch us, but more excited definitely cause it’s the first time we’re doing something so large scale. So we’re really looking forward to that. We’ll be performing all our greatest hits.

YOU’VE NOT PERFORMED IN SINGAPORE FOR 13 YEARS; THE LAST TIME YOU WERE HERE WAS IN THE YEAR 2000, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SAY TO YOUR FANS IN SINGAPORE? Well, fans can look forward to some different types of performances during our concert here. There will be some instrumental change up. There will be some songs that will just be played on the piano or the drums, so that will be pretty different.

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST LESSON YOU’VE LEARNT FROM BEING IN THIS INDUSTRY FOR 16 YEARS? Firstly, we learnt that there are a lot of things that cannot be forced or taken for granted. This industry also requires sacrifice. We started off playing in pubs, literally unknown, and a lot of people who were there were not necessarily there to hear us sing either. What we dreamed of at that time was to be able to perform in front of many more people. And now we are doing that, we are living our dreams. I guess that’s our biggest lesson - knowing that that can happen.

WHO ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE TO COLLABORATE WITH IN THE FUTURE? HAVE YOU COLLABORATED WITH ANY OTHER ARTISTES IN YOUR NEW ALBUM? Well not really collaborations with artistes, but we did engage some famous songwriters to help us with our current album. Working with them is different. You expect a certain type of lyrics because you tell them what you want beforehand, but they always have their own creative ideas, and when the final product is out you can tell from that that they are very experienced. For example, our new song Elena is actually a girl’s name but it means “lover” in Taiwanese slang, so that was pretty clever and something they came up with.

WE ALSO HEARD THAT YOU’RE IN A MOVIE CALLED PIANO TROJAN PLAYING ASSASSINS. DO YOU PLAN TO CONTINUE DOING MOVIES OR CONCENTRATING ON YOUR MUSIC? We’re open to doing movies if there are more opportunities to do so, but of course concentrating on music will be our priority. That’s what we do, and what we’re good at.

WERE YOU EXCITED OR NERVOUS WHILE FILMING THE MOVIE? DO YOU THINK YOU DID WELL? Yes, we were nervous because it was our first time filming a movie so we didn’t really know what to expect. And we were excited too, because we were playing assassins, so there’s an element of coolness to that. We had some fighting scenes too so that was pretty fun.

POWER STATION HAS BEEN AROUND FOR 16 YEARS - DO YOU THINK YOU’VE STILL GOT THE POWER? Truth be told, we are getting old. I mean, of course we’re not that old. But there’s definitely a difference from before, in terms of our performances etc. When we were younger we were just focused on singing, but now, I guess we have more sophisticated and experienced performances. We’ve been in this industry a while and we’ve seen some things. So the way we deliver our songs may perhaps be different. It’s a maturing process for us too.

“SEEN SOME THINGS”? WHAT’S THE MOST EMBARRASSING/AWKWARD THING THAT YOU’VE HEARD FROM THE PUBLIC? Oh, when people ask us if we still think we’re good nowadays. We’ve had most of our performances in China recently, so sometimes our Taiwanese fans ask us if we’re still performing, and that’s a bit awkward. But that’s cause they don’t see us around. But of course we always answer them positively and tell them that we’re still in the industry, and we’re going to release a new album soon. It took about 2 years to work on the album before it was set to be released.

WHY’S THE CREATIVE PROCESS FOR YOU SO LONG THOUGH, CONSIDERING HOW YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUM WAS RELEASED 4 YEARS AGO? There may be a few reasons for this. We work overseas a lot so that could be one. Also, the industry has changed a lot, so it may not be the most ideal environment for us as well. To release an album fast may not be that good too, we wanted to know our songs well and do them well before we released the album.

YOU’VE SUNG A LOT OF THE SONGS FOR SINGAPOREAN DRAMAS, WHICH ONE IS YOUR FAVOURITE, OR WHICH ONE STOOD OUT FOR YOU? It has to be I Can Take It from the show Stepping Out. When we perform in Singapore, we always sing this song because our Singaporean fans love it. And the lyrics are very encouraging. We heard from our colleague that the drama is about overcoming hardships, and we used that to write the lyrics of the song.

Power Station perform on April 6, 8pm, Compass Ballroom @ RWS. There will also be an autograph session at Compass Point, main atrium, April 4, 7pm.

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