I come from a very musical family - one of my uncles on my mother side of the family is a music professor, a cousin on my dad side holds a PhD in music and nearly every cousin of mine has learn to play one musical instrument or another.

I was involved in choirs from an early age. Before my voice broke, I used to have a clear, high voice. However, being a disruptive little brat that I was, I struggled with the rather regimental format of organized musical practice. For those who grew up in Hong Kong, they'd be able to tell you that a lot of kids from middle-class families in the territory spend their weekends in some kind of extra-curricular activities, usually music classes of one kind or another. Many kids have been, and are still being, forced to attend music lessons ranging from piano, flute, violin, clarinet to trumpet and saxophone. Some lucky kids love them, some don't mind or don't care, but a lot of them hate them. However, for the parents, this is another method of them to gather another 'trophy' at their kids' expense (and their own financial expense). My parents were not like that. My dad didn't mind whether I know music or not (his music taste is rather limited in range but high in quality - Pink Floyd and Kiss were his favorites). My mom was very liberal about it - she'd prefer that I learnt a musical instrument but wouldn't force me to attend classes if I didn't want to. When I was around six years old, she asked if I had a choice to go and learn a musical instrument, what would it be? I guess she was hoping it be something like the violin or the piano, but my answer was drums (not timpani). Woops, no music lessons, then.

My journey in music didn't really take off until I arrived in the UK for boarding school. For a new kid to establish himself in a new environment, I needed something that I could do readily and distinguished myself from the rest. (As if being one of five Oriental kids in a school of nearly 400 was not already so?) Anyway, I joint the school choir. No boys in a co-ed school will volunteer to sing in either sopranos or altos, so tenors it was and my voice was high enough for me to be a 1st tenor. At the same time, I picked up a musical instrument for the first time in my life - a violin. I can't begin to tell you why I chose the violin, but I had a great teacher and spent the next two years having a great time learning the instrument. 

During the summer when I was 15, my voice broke overnight and I returned to school and found that I was struggling with the high notes of the 1st bass. From that time onwards, I was a 2nd bass. From the time I started singing in 2nd bass, I lost interest in the violin. I didn't feel 'as one' with the sound it produced. So I dropped the violin and picked up a cello. Six months later, I dropped the cello and went on to the double bass. Wow! That was an instrument! But I guess playing classical music failed to really ignite my enthusiasm, so I stopped playing the double bass also. Was I wasting my time and my folks' money?

When portable audio tape players, commonly know as 'Walkmans', became cheaply available, I started to listen to music that I liked - mostly 'teenage pop' from various parts of the world - Hong Kong, Japan, the US and the UK. The 'New Romantics' were all the rage. The one part of modern popular music that really fascinated me was the drums. Since I would never be allow to go to drums classes, never mind owning a drum set, I started practicing 'air drums'. Yes, it now sounds like a joke, but it was no joke for me. I knew how a basic drum set was set up, I just didn't know how to play it properly. I practiced on a drum set for the first time when I first got to the school in the UK and I knew straight away I was in love with the drum set. From the age of 16, I was involved in one band or another playing the drums, always borrowing a drum set from somebody. For more details of my passion for the drums and my influences, please refer to the stuff of dreams section.

Although I stopped playing a classical musical instrument, I kept singing in the school choir. After a couple of years of singing as a 2nd bass, I was gaining confidence in my own singing ability. However, singing itself was not fulfilling my musical desire. Around the time that I stopped playing the double bass, I was looking for another instrument that would engage me musically. (The drum set engages me at a technical level.) After completing my 'O' levels, I returned to school and had a new classmate. He started a band and I was drumming for him; he also owned an electric bass, although he was more a rhythm guitarist. Out of curiosity, I picked up the bass a few times and it felt strangely familiar. As a matter of fact, I felt great plugging at that bass, although I have to confess that I didn't have the tiniest clue as to what to do with it. However, after leaving school, I saved up some money from the summer job to buy myself a bass and started learning how to play the instrument.  For more details of my interests in the electric bass, please refer to the stuff of dreams section.

When I got to the final year in the high school, I was selected for the Chamber Choir. With the exception of singing solo, chamber choir is one of the biggest challenge a singer can face. Just like a soloist, singing in a chamber choir means that you'd be on your own for your part of the music - that's it, there's no one to help and there's no place to hide. Not bad for someone who can't read music? That's right, I can't read music. I can play you a C on my bass, I can sing you a bass line from a piece of music, I can count the beats and the rest bars, I can tell you when a part is out of tune, but I can't read music. Music in its written form doesn't seem to make sense to me. I had a rough idea of what the note should be due to practice, but if I was given a new piece to sing or play, I would not be able to do so. But you must be wondering how I managed to learn the violin, cello, double bass and sing in a choir without knowing how to read music. I can't tell you how. When I played or sang something right, it just felt 'right'.

After I left school, I continued to be involved in choir singing. I was part of the Imperial College Choir, again as a 2nd bass, because I couldn't joint the King's College Choir as that choir required new members to pass some tests including music reading. I was involved in several rock bands in my university days and immediately after I left university both as a drummer and a bassist. However, as the dream of creating a band and becoming rich and famous faded and the realization that there're more secured career paths to take, my involvements with bands also faded. However, even after starting to work in investment banking, I was occasionally asked to drum from my friends' bands. The longest stretch was when the drummer one of those bands hurt his hand in a motorcycle accident and I stood in for nearly 6 months.

To this day, I continue to practice my bass and play my air drums. I don't think I can completely remove myself from playing music, I guess it is in my blood. One day, somewhere down the line, I'd be involved again.