On the morning of November 4, Ye Zhao appeared in the recording studio inside BEING.

As soon as she pushed open the door of the recording studio, Mika Kawashima, who was sitting on the sofa, waved her hand lazily at him: "Yo, here it is." ”

"Sister Meixiang?" Ye Zhao was stunned for a moment, "Why are you here?"

Mika Kawashima got up from the couch, "I met Mr. Akashi in the mixing room in Shibuya yesterday, and he told me that you were going to bring a new song to listen to today, so I came over and joined in the fun." ”

"Mika has been looking forward to it since yesterday," Akashi said, "Ye Jun, hurry up and take out the tune." ”

Ye Zhao took out a cassette tape from the pocket of his black motorcycle jacket and handed it to Masao Akashi, "This is the demo of the song." Masao Akashi took the tape, picked up the player on the table, stuffed it in, and pressed the play button.

The music magazine gave Ye Zhao the title of "Fukuyama Masaharu second", in this matter, although there are music related people inside and outside the company who have refuted this, but Ye Zhao himself has nothing to say, because "Rainbow" was originally a song by Masaharu Fukuyama, and Masaharu Fukuyama's personal style is quite obvious, even if it was written ten years later, when his creativity was more mature, the core ingredients inside still did not change. Soon after this incident, Mika Ogawa's scandal struck and drew everyone's attention, and now that the scandal has subsided, the matter has been brought up again, and there is a faint tendency to see him as a B-class person.

In the entertainment industry, once you are crowned with a hat like the second or the successor of so-and-so, if that so-and-so is a person who has retired or passed away, if it is a person who is still struggling on the front line, then it is easy to give the audience a feeling that his skills are inferior to others - if his ability is enough, do he still need to follow the path that others have walked?

Later, Mai Kuraki's debut album was a big hit, but she was crowned by the media with the title of "Hikaru Utada's second", and even triggered a fan war between the two sides. It can be seen from this incident that as an artist, it is very taboo to be haunted by such a statement.

In this context, Ye Zhao's final decision on the new song is not only very different from the folk rock style of his first two singles, but also different from the pop rock produced by the BEING assembly line, and even far from the "Go Wandering" provided to WANDS, the name of this song is "WINTER, AGAIN", which is a single released by RB's top rock band GLAY in 1999.

GLAY this band, due to a variety of reasons, in the future in 2017, compared to those evergreen bands, their sales have been a little unsatisfactory, somewhat giving people a sense of fame, but slowly lack of stamina, even so, they are undoubtedly one of the top bands in the RB pop music scene, in addition to ranking seventh in the RB sales chart with a total sales of nearly 38 million copies, they also held a super concert with a scale of 200,000 people at the peak of their popularity, this record is unprecedented in RB, and it is estimated that there will be no more comers。

Founded in 1988, GLAY was unknown as an underground band until 1994 when it was discovered by the drummer YOSHIKI of the legendary band X-JAPAN.

This "WINTER, AGAIN", as the name suggests, is a winter song, after tasting the sweetness of "Summer", Ye Zhao decided to make a fuss about the weather again and launch a winter song. 1999 was the peak of GLAY's popularity and strength, and this song also showed their outstanding talent, which can be called impeccable in both pop and musicality. This single sold 1.64 million copies that year, beating Ayumi Hamasaki and Hikaru Utada, two super divas, and ranked second on the annual singles chart (in fact, the second place that year should have been Hikaru Utada's "Automatic/time will tell", but because the ORICON chart at that time counted 8CM singles and 12CM singles separately, GLAY won the second place, and by the way, the first place on the annual chart was a children's song).

To use this song, one of the biggest problems that Ye Zhao has to face is that this song is a homesick song written by GLAY, who was born in Hokkaido, and the words "heavy snow" and "hometown" appear many times in the lyrics, and for Ye Zhao, who was born and raised in Yokohama, it is very strange to have this mood, so when he decided to use it, Ye Zhao tried to make a small part of the modification on the basis of the original lyrics, if you don't care about his behavior of copying and changing, this can be regarded as the first time he tried to compose lyrics after being reborn.

Such a good song, even if it is still a simple version that has not been arranged and only uses the guitar as an accompaniment, is enough to shock people. When the song finished playing, there was even a brief silence in the room.

Masao Akashi hesitated for a moment, "Ye Jun, did you really do this?"

"In short, if the teacher compares the music library, he will definitely not find similar songs. ”

"What a good song!" Akashi said, "I didn't expect you to make such a mature song, but it's ridiculous that the media still say that you are 'Fukuyama Masaharu No. 2', with this talent, how can you be the second, if you want to do it, you will be the first." ”

Mika Kawashima joked: "If I didn't know your details, I would have wondered if there was a team of composers behind you, otherwise how could you be so good at everything from folk to pop rock to hard rock?"

Ye Zhao was suddenly a little embarrassed, in a sense, what Mika Kawashima said was the real truth.

"Come on, if you write such a good song, you are willing to sing it for others?" Ye Jun, the main song is here, are you ready for the C/W song?"

Speaking of C/W songs, Ye Zhao suddenly twisted a little. After hesitating for a moment, he took out an audio tape with the label Track1 written on it from the other pocket of his jacket and handed it to Masao Akashi.

Expectant, Masao Akashi shoved the cassette into it, pressed the play button, and ......

First, the climax of a cappella "Don't Admit Defeat", after singing the phrase "chasing unattainable dreams", there are two sounds of hitting the side panels, and then the guitar gradually enters, as if improvising a melody of about a minute and a half, the style of the whole piece is light and powerful, although the lyrics are not filled, but it seems that the creator's positive mood can also be felt.

After the short melody ended, Masao Akashi frowned and did not speak. Instead, Mika Kawashima, who was outspoken, blurted out: "Ye Jun, this song is a bit out of standard." ”

"Sister Meixiang, teacher, is this piece very bad?" That's right, this is a completely original song by Ye Zhao. After being questioned as "Masaharu Fukuyama No. 2", Ye Zhao has been reflecting on his unearned behavior, even if he will not be involved in the plagiarism turmoil, the changeable style of music will soon dispel this doubt, but whenever he thinks that everything he has now is actually stealing other people's achievements, Ye Zhao still feels a feeling that he can't raise his head. So in this "turnaround battle", he wants to come up with his own works no matter what, so that this battle will be more reasonable.

After thinking about it, I found out some half-finished melodies written when I started to learn composition for a while, and finally made such a tune, and the beginning of ZARD's "Don't Admit Defeat" has no strange significance, but I simply feel that this song is more compatible with my current self in terms of background and lyrics.

"Anyway," Masao Akashi scratched his hair, but decided to tell the truth, "First of all, I would like to praise the composition method of this piece of chord arrangement, there are no routine chords, which is quite innovative from this point of view." But compared to the pieces you've made before, it's not a useless piece of garbage, it's still a second-rate piece. ”

Second-rate inferior, this comment is quite unkind, Kawashima Mika glanced at Akashi Masao with some reproach, and comforted: "A singer-songwriter is like this, he may have to write thousands of songs in his life, and no matter how talented a composer is, he can't guarantee that his first capital is a masterpiece, it doesn't matter, Ye Jun." ”

Ye Zhao shook his head, "It's okay, Sister Meixiang." The originally frowning brows also relaxed, and even faintly happy. Second-rate inferior, if it is to evaluate a real singer-songwriter, the other party may turn his face on the spot, even if not, he will be very reluctant, but for Ye Zhao, who is trying to compose for the first time, this is already the highest praise he has received.

Ye Zhao's reaction made Masao Akashi and Mika Kawashima a little confused, and Masao Akashi asked tentatively: "Ye Jun, you don't really plan to use this song as C/W, do you?" If you don't have enough inspiration for a while, you can also pick one from the company's music library." ”

"Teacher, isn't this song so bad that it can't be a C/W?"

"Not really. It's just that there is only such a short melody, and there are no lyrics, even if it is not the main song, it is inevitably a little too perfunctory. ”

"Since it's not too bad to work, then I won't change my mind. Ye Zhao's tone was firm. Seeing this, Masao Akashi was not reluctant, "Forget it, anyway, it's C/W, it doesn't hurt if you want to be willful, I think the main game is so good, and the president of Nagato won't be too embarrassed for you." ”

After getting Akashi Masao's opinion, Ye Zhao took the two more tunes to Nagato Daiyuki. Although Nagato Daiyuki has basically not participated in the production of his songs, at least nominally, Ye Zhao's producer is still Nagato Daiyuki, so his consent must be obtained on the direction of music and some major issues.

Nagato's reaction is similar to that of Masao Akashi, especially with "WINTER, AGAIN" in front of Jewel, track1 feels like it's hard to get into the elegant hall. Fortunately, Nagato Daiyuki did not embarrass him, and when Ye Zhao showed his insistence on using it as a C/W, he acquiesced.

got the customs clearance documents, all the songs were in place, and it was time for Ye Zhao's new single to start recording.