Back to the future for Will Pan

Will Pan looks super cool, dressed in black and wearing futuristic sunglasses. The soldier from the future image is for his new album, 808. He has also dyed his hair white, but he says he can't wait to take off his glasses because "there are so many beautiful girls out there and I want to see them clearly".

He is speaking with 100 fans at an event in Beijing to promote his new album. He laughs and jokes, until he talks about his eighth album, at which point, he gets serious.

"When I made the album, I had just turned 30. It's an age for a man to grow up and move on to another stage of life," he says.

He spent nearly two years working on the album and decided to feature one of the greatest inventions of the 1980s, the Roland TR-808 drum machine, hence the album's name.

The new collection of songs features Pan experimenting with retro-electronic sounds, as well as showing off his trademark hip-hop beats. On new songs Wanted and U U U, the thunderous drums cut through the electro haze.

"Every time I've done an album, I feel empty and nervous because I don't want to do the next one. Then I stop and take a break to seek inspiration," Pan says.

"808 was born in the same way. I like hip-hop and electronic music. It was the Roland TR-808 machine that gave birth to lots of superstars back in the 1980s. So I wanted to use it again and see what happened."

He says he had lots of fun making the album, which was the first time he composed nearly all the songs himself.

"I am not a patient person. But I've been doing music for more than 10 years. One of the reasons is that I can always have fun with it," he says.

Born and raised in West Virginia, Pan moved to Taiwan with his family at age 7. He became a TV host at Channel V in Taiwan in 1999 while studying in California. His humorous attitude and interest in hip-hop enabled him to secure a record contract in 2000.

The American-born Chinese quickly rose to fame after releasing his debut album, Gecko Stroll, in 2002.

The following albums, such as Pass Me the Microphone in 2003 and Play It Cool in 2007, gained him more fans, not just in Taiwan, but in Hong Kong and the mainland.

The album 007 became the highest selling album of 2010 on China Mobile's music download channel.

"I know the music industry is moving forward fast, so I always try to do something new and creative," Pan says. "I imagine various roles for each album, such as a kungfu master for the album Wu Ha and a soldier from outer space in 808."

Pan, who admits he is like a kid sometimes, says he has endless strange ideas and has realized these on stage.

At his Beijing concert in 2010, he performed acrobatics, flipping through the air in front of nearly 10,000 fans.

"It was risky, but I like it. I like testing myself and when I make it, I feel satisfied," Pan says.

He has also launched his own fashion brand, NPC (New Project Center) and opened stores in Beijing and Shanghai.

Asking about his next project, Pan says he is thinking of marriage.

"I plan to get married in five years and perhaps become a father," he says. "That will be the biggest achievement of my life beside music."

China Daily

(China Daily 02/26/2011 page11)