Old songs of the heart

Singer-songwriter Xiao Ke launches a new album with eye on his 50s, Chen Nan reports.

Ke Zhaolei, who is more famous by his stage name, Xiao Ke, turned 47 in October. But soon after his birthday celebrations with family and friends were over, it struck him that he was approaching 50.

"The idea of getting old shocked me," the singer-songwriter from Beijing says of his thoughts when he took a shower that evening. "I immediately sat down in front of my computer and started to write more songs."

Ke says he finished the main lyrics for nine songs at the time and then contacted his friend, singer Lao Lang, to discuss making a new album, which turned out to be The Celebration of Turning 50.

"I hadn't been excited about releasing a new album for a very long time," Ke adds.

He released his last album, Huo Gai, on which he wrote and performed 15 songs, in 2007.

In The Celebration of Turning 50, which was released on Jan 21, Ke sings with nostalgia about his youth, as well as about his friends and family on such tracks as To Memory, To Parents and To Love. Two paintings by his son and daughter have been used on the new album's cover.

This album also contains the song To Fa Xiao'er (childhood friend), which is about Ke meeting Lao Lang, another singer from Beijing, in the 1990s. It's sung in the Beijing dialect, with humorous lyrics. Ke integrates three folk songs that were popular when he was a teenager into the song.

In 1996 and the year after, Lao Lang and Gao Xiaosong, a songwriter, visited Ke's house frequently, he says.

"We played the guitar, wrote songs and sang together in a room smaller than 10 square meters," Ke says.