For Karen Mok, the fun part of career in music is her multiple collaborations
HONG KONG: After 25 years in showbiz, singer Karen Mok is still upbeat about her music projects.
What drives her are collaborations.
Said Karen: “For me, the fun part of making music is to work with different people. They inspire me and broaden my vision.”
She has been prolific in movie projects too.
Who were her best collaborators?
Karen said they include Jackie Chan, Wong Kar-wai and Keanu Reeves.
But she prefers stage performances.
Added Karen: “I belong to the stage, and I could not think of a better way to mark the special year.”
For the 10 new songs in her latest album Halftime, Mok worked with over 20 songwriters and music producers.
Said Karen: “The process of making the album brought back lots of great memories for me and those musicians. And I believe the past 25 years have shaped me into the person I am today.”
Hong Kong-born Karen is of Chinese, Welsh, German and Persian descent.
When she released her debut Canto-pop album, titled Karen, in 1993, she didn’t become an instant hit because music lovers did not immediately take to her husky voice and unconventional looks.
But this didn’t stop her from experimenting . She incorporated traditional Chinese instruments such as guzheng (a traditional Chinese zither-like instrument) into her albums.
As a teen, she had learned to play the musical instrument and continued lessons until she left Hong Kong at 17 to study in Italy and London.
In her English and Mandarin jazz album, Somewhere I Belong ( 2013), Karen showed off her guzheng skills by reworking Eric Clapton’s famous guitar solo in the Beatles classic While My Guitar Gently Weeps.