Contributed by Reynard Cheok
TRACY: 40 ON HORIZON, YP Low, THE STRAITS TIME, TGIF, November 6 1992
Mannequin or music-maker? Tracy Huang's trademark good looks adorn all her album covers. Her ethereal image conveys a woman who is born to be put on a pedestal.
Yet the moment she steps into the Straits Times photo studio, she spots a drooping drape (to be used as a backdrop) right away, and plants her heels onto a nearby stool to set it right.
You cannot get more down to earth than that. There are no superstar airs as she quips: "Gosh aren't things coming apart at our national paper1"
As the photographer sets up the lighting, Tracy lights up a Virginia Slims cigarette and reflects on a career which has spanned 23 years and over 40 albums.
"The woman behind the album cover?" she asks. "On the one hand I can be an all-night party animal, on the other, I have been know to stay home alone for a week, with no desire whatsoever to step outside the door."
She is relaxed and jokes about the reflectors used in the photography session, saying that at her age (39), she needs them.
"It is hard to get away from the fact that I am really selling a consumer product. After slaving for weeks in a studio to get things right, what eventually ends up in the shops is just a piece of plastic casing with my face on it. Who knows, it may be the packaging that sells it after all."
Her latest English album, Traces of Love, is produced by Taiwanese maestro Jonathan Li Zong Sheng (known for his work with Michelle Pan and Sara Chen) and Dick Lee. Of the 10 songs on the album, five are original compositions by Lee.
"You know, there is no greater satisfaction in making music than with people you respect. Jonathan loves to experiment with vocal rhythm. He has a knack for reaching deep into the singer's psyche, and the results often show a perceptiveness which classics are made of.
"Dick is the opposite; he is more instinctive and we can often wrap with just one take. Musically too, Dick is unique in his ability to transcend Eastern and Western styles to come up with his own hybrid."
Approachable and articulate, Tracy gives the impression of someone who does not hesitate to air an opinion. But when asked about the declining popularity of her English albums in Singapore, she chooses to focus on a wider regional perspective, saying that Traces of Love has attracted the attention of the Japanese media.
Although she became prominent in Singapore for her cover versions of English songs in the '70s, it was her Mandarin albums which propelled her career to new heights in the early '80s.
And now Tracy, who set up her own production company, Inner Music, last year, is slowly learning the technical aspects of music-making. "If I could turn back the clock by say, five years, I would like to take up courses in studio production , music-writing etc. it has been quite an uphill process of self-education for me," she says.
She is determined to get there though and now has a habit of composing melodies for any good lines that she comes across in her reading.
The highlight of her career was recording the title track, Burying My Heart, for the award-winning Maggie Cheung movie, Centrestage. "I saw myself as her spokesperson. Ruan Lingyu was accused of adultery but she never had the chance to tell her side of the story. The experience was so emotionally draining that I broke down many times."
It was an introduction to Method acting before the filming of the video for her Mandarin song, Winning you Over, from Loving you from the bottom of my heart album. In the video directed by Wong Kar Wai (Days of being Wild), she plays a drunken, desperate woman opposite Tony Leung Kar Fai.
"The violent despair of the relationship left me numb for almost two weeks. The obssessiveness Wong had with film-making was both intimidating and seductive. He takes you to such incredible realms of imagination, lets the cameras roll on you, and then leaves you to find your own way back."
She does not appear too concerned about hitting the big 40 and shrugs off questions about her secret formula for looking young. "I think travelling to countries with a temperate climate is wonderfully therapeutic for the skin. It allows for the pores to breathe."
Well, it appears that Tracy intends to stay in shape and form for a long time to come.