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There are two reasons why I covered this song and uploaded this video this week.

Secondly, I am embarking on a journey in learning to mix my vocals and hopefully, produce my music from my home studio.

Following an operation last month, I managed to upgrade my studio space and equipment. This new setup helps me mix my tracks and edit accompanying music videos much faster. I do enjoy making music videos. For me, music is storytelling, and pairing visuals with songs help brings that story to life. Also, this song, even though is not particularly demanding vocally, it requires plenty of emotion. Chester himself was a big advocate of demanding emotional rawness rather than making the vocal sounds polished-especially so with this song that meant so much to him. Whilst I can't sound like Chester, I am trying my best to keep true to his sentiment.

This is my most expensive, most elaborate and most polished production so far, not to mention most time consuming - and it was definitely money and time well spent on my end. What usually took me hours to render now takes just minutes. My investment in a new AKG C114 microphone and some new DAW plugins is already paying off, and I have learned so much about vocal mixing in the past few weeks alone. Not to say there's no room for improvement though because there certainly is much more for me to do and learn.

As my vocal mixing journey continues, I hope I have shown improvement and manage to make Chester proud with this cover. I always try do my best on my projects but this one, this is an extra special one that I just need to get right as much as I can.

💚 MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT & RESOURCES

Mental health is a difficult topic, but it is an important conversation to have. If you or someone you love is hurting, please reach out. I know that Chester himself was open and honest about his mental health struggles.

In the UK:

‪@samaritans‬ Call 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org for free, confidential, 24/7 support.

‪@thecalmzonenet‬ (Campaign Against Living Miserably) - suicide prevention charity that provides life-saving services and practical mental health support to anyone who needs it

‪@ANDYSMANCLUB‬ - a men’s suicide prevention charity, offering free to attend peer-to-peer support groups across the United Kingdom and online

320 Change Direction

Chester's wife, Talinda, co-founded the #320ChangesDirection initiative alongside Give an Hour. You can visit their official hub at https://giveanhour.org/wellnessambass...‍

Play time is over for me, it's time for me to get real!

Previously, I have been learning and experimenting mixing my vocals with a single instrument and I need to progress to mixing my vocal with a full set of instruments. This particular song presents challenges in many front.

First-up, Cantonese is not my first language. Well, I may have dabbled with a little Cantonese growing up but I hardly ever use it these day. I may still remember some of the swear words though! 🤪

Secondly, this song itself challenges my vocal. As a baritone, this song, which is in F major, goes up to A4, which is like the upper-end of range for a baritone like myself. I'm sure if I train hard enough however, I would be able to go even higher, but I'm cool for now. This song is also quite an emotional song so I need to try and capture the emotion from it. That's not difficult however as this song is one that I can relate to, growing up.

On top of that, I had given myself an extra challenge to get even more creative and shoot this music video in a location outside of my home and studio. The title of this song is "Boundless Ocean, Vast Skies", so what better place to shoot a music video than the beautiful and sunny Cornwall. I was lucky that the week I spent there shooting at various locations, I have been blessed with warm, sunny weather, as you will see in the video. Besides, in the original Beyond music video of this song they did shoot by the sea as well.

Some may think that this song is a bit bleak for a warm and sunny spring in Cornwall but this song itself is about "pursuing freedom, maintaining resilience, and holding onto dreams despite facing harsh, cold criticism, indifference, or loneliness", as noted by Google anyway. Besides, as I've mentioned before, the title even mention ocean and skies.

Personally, I would like to think that despite the current state of the world (and weather) looking a little bleak, the future will eventually be sunny and bright - just like the sunny Cornwall.

This music video comes with Cantonese lyrics and English subtitles, so be sure to turn it on if you want to follow what the song is about.