Since the release of his first solo album, Shanghai Dream, in 1995, James Li has become an award-winning singer-songwriter known for his artistry and layered musical aesthetics. A lifetime of fascination with music imbues his songs with an eclectic array of jazz, classical, rock and pop influences. His 2022 album of covers, 李泉·室内乐 经典歌曲集 (James Li: Chamber Music Classic Song Collection), reinterprets popular, genre-defining Mandopop songs through the lens of chamber music. “I think that if you want to successfully adapt a classic, it can actually be as challenging and interesting as creating your own song,” Li tells Apple Music. In this exclusive interview, the artist pulls back the curtain on his creative process, transcending gender and recording for Spatial Audio. You chose classical music styles to reinterpret songs on this album. How is that genre significant to you? “I studied classical music as a child and listened to trios, quartets and quintets from a young age. I really like this type of music. It was in middle school that I found a real love for chamber music. Most films at that time had very stylistic soundtracks. Later on, Japanese and European experimental films adopted elements of chamber music. Of course that might have already broken away from traditional classical music but the sense of imagery and place impressed me at that age. I’ve developed an interest in different aspects of chamber music since then.” What was it like to create an album of covers? “This album is firstly about adaption. As a singer-songwriter, I haven’t had the experience of adapting other works before. My previous albums were the result of collecting and organising my own work. At the start, it didn’t occur to me to use classical music in arranging the album. I was feeling a little at a loss because I wanted the record to have something interesting about it. Just covering a song didn’t present enough of a surprise or challenge to make it interesting to me. I only began to get excited when I had the notion to adapt, arrange and perform the tracks using a classical approach. The idea came to me because of the younger students at my alma mater, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, who are excellent composers and arrangers—and they’ve created some great pieces in school and out in the world. It’s a rare opportunity to try something new and to turn what would be a boring cover into an interesting experiment.” How did you choose the songs you adapted? Did take on any special considerations when adapting iconic songs that were previously sung by women? “I only chose songs that moved me, such as ‘爱江山更爱美人’ (‘The Bold and the Beautiful’), ‘我是不是你最疼爱的人’ (‘You Love Me Most of All’) and ‘我可以抱你吗’ (‘Can I Hug You?’). I heard those songs all the time when I was growing up—they’re classics. These three songs were sung by women but I don’t feel any contradiction in how I’ve interpreted them. In fact, over the past few decades of writing songs for other singers, I have worked with more women than men. I’ve contributed to songs for women that I’ve gone back and sung for myself. My view is that anyone—man or woman—singing the same song will have differences in expression, personality and style. The song will have a different flavour but there’s nothing especially difficult about it.” Is there any significance to your choice of songs from the golden era of Chinese pop? “My choice of songs is definitely related to the singers’ era. I chose to cover these songs because they were what influenced me when I was young—a generational thing. We are all born into a certain era, so we all feel a sense of that time, to some extend. How are those songs different from those of today? The environment, lifestyle and form of the era we’re in is different, so the music is quite different as well. The differences in each generation's state of mind, their nature, are also quite obvious. There is no doubt that the pop music that most influenced me was from the innovative period of the ’70 to the ’90s.” How did the way you arrange the songs help you create your own interpretation of the tracks? “I think that if you want to successfully adapt a classic, it can actually be as challenging and interesting as creating your own song, because you want to imbue it with new life but be fair to the song itself in the process. “An adaption should express your own interpretation of the song. It isn’t just about the structure. If it just parrots the original, it won’t be very interesting for the audience. For example, ‘虫儿飞’ (‘Insects Fly’) was originally a nursery rhyme, so it is relatively simple in rhythm and structure. Bringing out this simplicity using a classical style means considering how to break it down to draw out the layers and levels. For example, using two different rhythms and presentations can accentuate the song’s structure and levels but you can’t let it break down into chaos or change it so drastically that it becomes unrecognisable. Your breakthroughs need to be fair to the song. Specialised musical techniques and accumulated listening experience are required to analyse how to develop the song. “‘枯萎’ (‘Wither’) is a song I wrote myself. Because 走钢索的人 (Man on Wire) came out in 2000, the arrangement represents more of a ’90s feeling, as well as the simplicity of youth. For the classical music treatment, we took the arrangement more in the direction of Italian movies from the ’90s and ’00s. I think Italian film music is quite unique and has its own singular beauty. My reason for adapting ‘枯萎’ was to open up aspects that were not explored in the original arrangement and to discover a new sense of beauty. That’s a fair reason for expansion and adaptation, in my opinion. “For a song that’s big and impressive already, like ‘爱江山更爱美人’, how do we break through its existing grandeur? Not by going bigger, I think. Instead, you create a different, more relaxed feeling by interweaving different instruments—woodwind, strings or accordion—to allow an internal looseness to resolve the implications of the song’s original ‘bigness’. “So adaptation is very interesting work. What it all comes down to, though, is starting off by being true to the song.” Was it different working on more recent tracks, like ‘我们’ (‘Us’) from 2018? “I didn’t divide songs by era when selecting them. I didn’t have a specific era in mind for the songs I wanted to adapt. It was purely a question of my own enjoyment of the song—and of course the track’s marketability and audience reception. ‘我们’ came out in the past few years, but it met my ‘standard’ for inclusion: I think it is a good song that provides room for adaptation and expansion. Actually, as far as singing goes, I didn’t make any significant changes—its recency means less room for adaptation than older songs allow. The significance of adapting this song lies in its classic charm that fits well with the feeling of the album. I wanted to express the meaning of the song more fully. That’s the hope I have for this track.” What did recording the album in Spatial Audio bring to the tracks? “Chamber music is recorded with actual instruments, so it’s different from creating, arranging and producing music on computers that’s become widespread in recent years. We recorded simultaneously so all the musicians and singers were in the studio at the same time for a live take of an entire song. This was particularly enjoyable for me, since I studied instrumental music and have always found pleasure in the rush of performing on stage. I did a few recordings like this when I was younger. The first was around 1993–94 when I adapted some of Lo Ta-You’s classics. Of course, that was on a bigger scale than chamber music—it involved 70 or 80 people in cooperation with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. This time it was less than 20 people but felt essentially the same. And I worked with the team from Dolby to give the feeling of a live performance. Of course, I do hope that when conditions allow I can perform in person. That’s what I’m most looking forward to.” What three songs would you recommend in Spatial Audio and why? “It’s really difficult for me to choose three songs. Every track was created and produced through the hard work of the whole team, so there’s no way to say which ones required special effort. In fact, none was easy to make. Which song will the audience enjoy the most? When they’ve had the time and interest to listen to the whole album, they can find their own answer. My suggestion: you can listen to it seriously or as background music—it’s quite good for that. Feel free to follow the track list we’ve prepared for you. After the first three songs, if you’d like to continue listening, then just continue on to tracks four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten. Simple as that!”