Sunset to sunrise.
The first image that comes to your mind after hearing the name is perhaps one filled with hope and light. But the time between sunset and sunrise is actually the time filled by darkness, craziness, loneliness, and sadness.
To me, night time is the most miraculous time of a day.
For some, it might be the time of rest.
For some, it might be the time when youth gets wasted.
For some, it is the time to miss the ones you love.
For some, it is the time for self reflection.
And for me, it is all of them.
The initial idea of the album was to record one of the hardest breakups that I have ever had. Yet as this past year progressed and I came to the stage of my life where for the first time, I could not see a clear picture for my future. Without knowing if I was going to become a graduate school student, start working, or return to my home country, this fear for the unknown put me into a stage of constant panic.
What quarantine did for me was that it put me into a long period of self reflection to think about who I really am as a person and what my mindset really is. It was as if I had the first time in my entire life to have a sincere conversation with myself. The result of this conversation was that I went through what I referred to as a form of “self-awakening”. I was able to clearly see my strengths and weaknesses. For the fears that I have always had, I made myself face them and really think about the reasons for which I resisted such things. In the end, the amount of self-affirmation gave me this feeling that I was somehow invincible.
On the other hand, as someone who has been moving around frequently ever since I left my home country, I have seen people constantly come into my life and eventually go out of it. At first, going through these farewells was nothing similar to being easy. Yet as parting ways became a constant thing in my life, I came to the realization that the eventual farewells are unavoidable. What is important is that you have had your time together, have shared the most precious memories, and hope for the next time when you see each other again.
The result of putting all these thoughts together is the finished version of my first album in my music career: SUNSET TO SUNRISE.
The things that I thought about, the feelings that I had, and the conclusions that I made were put into my lyrics for these 8 songs. Using the instrumentals that I purchased from online, I recorded all the songs in my home studio, mixed the recorded versions using Logic Pro X, and spent the rest of the time organizing the entire work before releasing them.
Making music has been one of the many ways that I export my thoughts and feelings since high school. While I always regard it as a hobby and something that I could have fun with, making an entire album gave me the opportunity to realize how much work musicians actually put into their albums.
An album is more than just the artist singing a song. It is the artist using the combination of various tracks to convey a central message to the audience. While achieving such a goal is challenging and requires a significant amount of time and effort, to myself, I have achieved something in my life that I could truly be proud of for the fact that this is a piece of work that records what might end up being one of the most important moments of my life.
I hope you will enjoy it.
1. Until 6:00 AM
2. Come And Go (在路上)
3. Out of Dirt
4. Save your tears
5. Bird
6. The pain, the change, the end
7. South Coast Crows (南港乌鸦)
8. TAKE ME DOWN
9. SUN AND FLOWERS
10. Sunrise to Sunset