A quiet alleyway in Venice…  Music, lyrics and arrangement by Kennie Ting. Photography by Joe Zandstra, with artwork design by Kennie Ting.

Up until very recently, I thought my lot in life was to be a singer-songwriter and a musical theatre composer (more about this maybe later…)

And so I wrote songs and song cycles, about love and longing, lust and loathing; and set in the many cities I had travelled to.

Some of these I “released” online, others, I never managed to finish.

In 2009, I wrote, composed and arranged a dozen or so songs that would become my second album, of sorts. I never had the chance to seriously record them. Instead, I produced and recorded (in my home studio) a demo of songs that would’ve been part of this album.

And then I moved to London and New York, and I stopped writing and composing.

Except for one occasion: in 2011, when my brother got married, I wrote, composed, arranged, recorded and performed a Chinese song at his wedding – the first Chinese song I had ever written, composed and recorded, but the very last song I would write, even till now.

I haven’t written / composed anything else since then. =(

It’s been more than 7 years.

I don’t know why.

In the spirit of new-old beginnings, I’ve decided I will revisit these songs that I wrote in the course of 2009, for an album I knew I would call THE FACTS OF LIFE.  [While the Chinese song I wrote for my brother’s wedding was never part of this album, I will throw it in too.]

This was meant to be an electro-pop/jazz album; something I had never attempted before, but which I thought would be fun to experiment with. And I was serious enough to even design single covers for each and everyone of these songs, and a cover for the album, that would never be “released”.

In the course of the next 12 months (including this one), I shall revisit and re-arrange / re-master these tracks I had composed, arranged and recorded as a demo in my own makeshift home-studio. And I shall “release” the re-arranged demos of each of these songs, once every month, on this blog.

WHICH, interestingly enough, post-dates the album; since in the course of completing the “album”, I realised that what I really loved was cities. And so I started this blog, Dream Of A City, as an expression of my love for cities and what takes place within them.

This love for cities would take a rather more visual and literary turn, as opposed to the musical…

In hubristic fashion, the blog, Dream Of A City, was named after my first embarrassingly self-indulgent, world-music-inspired “album”, which you might still just about be able to find on Spotify (sigh…).

I’ve always wanted to get back into music.

It’s my first love.

So this is a way back into it, I suppose.  Perhaps by the end of the next 11 months, I would have composed a new track.

Who knows?

In the meantime, here’s the first track of the demo album; a track entitled MAGIC.

It’s unabashedly romantic. Because, if you have been following this blog, you would know that I’m unabashedly, unfashionably and unapologetically romantic.

The Grand Tour of the East! I mean, seriously?

Hahaha…

I’m still searching for that other person who will join me in this unapologetically romantic approach to life and living.

This demo track is best listened to with headphones, with the volume turned up loud.

Enjoy.

But remember that this is just a DEMO.  It’s not perfect.

Someday I will perfect it.

LYRICS:

I believe in magic / Magical experiences / Like dinners in the desert / With only stars above. / I can hear you laughing / ‘Cos I’m so impressionable / Don’t you underrate it / The power of romance. 

Let’s go on a romantic weekend / To Fez or Marrakech / Talk all night in an old riad / With the walls and mirrors crumbling. / Let’s go to Venice, my darling / And find the perfect place / Right by the Grand Canal / We will watch the city passing.

Let’s go see the Taj Mahal / Take walks around its gardens / Who could believe such beauty was created by one man. / Let’s hike the Wall of China / And find the highest tower / We’ll stand in awe up there / For hours and hours and hours and hours. 

I believe in magic / Love a fairy tale come true / Like princes in their castles / Riding snow-white steeds. / I can hear you laughing / ‘Cos I’m just so literal / I say don’t you poke fun at it / The power of romance. 

Let’s go to Cuzco, my darling / We’ll take the Inca Trail / And up on Machu Picchu / We will see the sun rising. 

I believe in magic / It’s not the same as make-believe / There’s nothing too fantastic / About a cabin in the woods. / I can hear you laughing / ‘Cos I’m so impossible / ‘Cos I’m so unfashionably addicted to romance. 

Let’s believe in magic / ‘Cos there’s magic in this world / Like dinners in the desert / With only stars above. / I can hear you laughing / ‘Cos I’m so impressionable / Don’t you underrate it / The power of romance. 

© 2010 / 2018 Kennie Ting. All Rights Reserved.