Steven Ma Chun Wai 馬浚偉 Fanblog : completed 4/26 4/13/2013 Steven promoting album on DBC

2013/04/13 DBC (Digital Broadcasting Corporation) radio program [大家「真」風騷]
Steven's portion starts at 6:00 @ part 5 into part 6th of the program.

Program archive - only 18 days left to listen link
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This is a much more enjoyable program to listen to than Wong Hei et al's program so I'm going to paraphrase this post first rather than Wong Hei's.

- hosts: Spencer Leung (梁思浩), 陳彥行、Jacqueline Chong (莊思敏), Ben張啟樂

Main host Spencer opens the show introducing himself and his co-hosts. Ms. Chan says cryptically that actually she and Xiao Ma Ge (Steven) have had a past relationship.

salient points
Talk about why he turned from singer to actor. He was planning to quit and had even called up his ex-employee to get back his job. And then Catherine and Tim Gor called him to audition for DOMD1998

- talk about how Catherine Tsang made him audition for Domd1998. There were many people auditioning for the role including Benny Chan. They all took turns auditioning for Emperor Hong Hei and Wai siu bo.

- What? Even tried for Wai Siu Bo, come one, no way ba. At the time, Steven felt he wouldn't be able to do it (cos' he was so green then) but now of course no problem. When he looked at the playback, so cringe-worthy, so no way would he be picked.

- To his dismay soon after his audition Tsang called him up to tell him that Tim Gor had picked him for the role. He came up with all kinds of excuses to get out of it but Catherine was someone you can get pass once her mind is made up, so with much trepidation he, like a good boy, called in for work. And to make it worse it was his first ancient tv series and just his luck a Qing dynasty at that. So the makeover crew not only shaved his head bald but also shaved off much of his eyebrows. lol! And voila, came up with a completely different eyebrow shape that he thought made him look so weird. And the make up artist worked on his whole face like making his already tall nose to look taller. Apparently, it was quite a difficult transition for Steven to go from a singer to a Qing dynasty actor. However, Catherine and Tim gor were right, that series was the starting point of his acting career, and onto being tvb first line actor.

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Talk on indebtedness and gratitude
Spencer: But what I want to say is that based on my knowing them all these years, you were right to trust them. I've said this many times already, if one day just these three words, Tsang lai Zan, asks me to return to tvb to shoot a series, I will return, free of charge.

female voice: Zan jie, you remember that. Don't pay Spencer.

Spencer: Because she is yan si (benefactor) a human debt owe must be paid. So sentiment can't be priced. So both Catherine and Tim gor have this sentiment to call on me to do things for them. Just shoot one series only free of charge.

Steven: Right now I'm negotiating the contract with Catherine (spencer interrupts: You can trust her) Well, what I want to say is to tell her is that Spencer won't ask for payment.

Spencer: She knows.

Steven: Oh, really?

Spencer: I've said many times.

female: should let him shoot a 100 over episode show

Steven: This is truth -- Catherine, Tim gor, and another one -- Uncle Choi to me are my tvb benefactor -- the biggest being Catherine. also need to thank tvb for developing me.

Spencer: So when you see Catherine, tell her that I'll shoot a series for free -- just one. The most difficult debt to repay is yan ching zai -- individual indebtedness, and if you can repay, then you'll do it.

Spencer Leung (梁思浩), 陳彥行、Jacqueline Chong (莊思敏), Ben張啟樂
陳彥行 says that way back when in VOH2 Steven was invited to shoot a few episodes in that series. But Steven says not just a few episodes but actually the concluding season of 40 episodes. 陳彥行’s co-hosts reprimand her for way understating the number of episodes. Guess the few episodes were just with her then? They did have some scenes together but mostly Steven’s scenes were with Linda Chung, so that’s why 陳彥行 forgot.

Talk about milk – to eggs + milk – to protein--to good health – to sports – to badminton = just random chatter

After that digressive chatter, Spencer brings back the topic by asking Steven if this new album constitutes him returning to the music industry. Steven says it can be considered that since his last released album was 10 years ago – year 2003.

Steven says that he was inspired to write his new song ‘An Understanding’ by his friendship with his badminton friends. Moreover, the rhythm of the song – the fast and cheerful beat is a bit of ‘rock’ – can positively affect the listener’s mood.

Steven says he also listens to their radio cos’ it is very convenient with apps in his cellphone. And it is the only program that can be heard all over China. Their talk on air is not filtered at all – everything goes.

Steven says when he listens to their program he thought himself, woah, it’s so unrestrained and liberal and open! As he was listening to it prior he was wondering to himself how come suddenly 陳彥行 become a sex worker? How come he didn't know that? haha!

Spencer teases: You are so genteel, used the phrase "sex worker"?
Steven: Because this is just a show of respect.
Chorus: true true
Steven: Even if you are a sex worker, you still have rights. Moreover, if the society is void of sex workers, the crimes such as rapes or molestation would increase. So we should not look down on any jobs such as the one that was discussed just now. (of Ben having to become a butcher.) So what?

(TN: It was a shocker to hear Steven's opinion on prostitution -- at least it was to me considering Steven's traditional values. But then re-thinking I shouldn't not be surprised by Steven's response to prostitution - after all he did grow up in a seedy neighborhood where prostitution was common and rampant.)

Spencer recalls back to when he and Steven first met – so long ago – when Steven took his first music album to him in the studio. Time truly flies in a blink of an eye.

Steven says 20 years --- wah wah chorus from the rest.
Steven says 1993 someone says Steven sure likes the digit 3.
Steven says not on purpose to get ‘3’.
Spencer says he still remembers the album title is “Fortunate to have met you’. And he wants to use the same words on Steven that he is lucky to have met Steven.

The song “Fortunate to have met you’ is played.

Spencer brings up the mv for that song, and how Steven was all dressed up in a suit. Discussion on his appearance. Steven says he looks like a kid suited in an adult outfit with oversized and spongy shoulder pads, moreover, the jacket was not form fitting either. And the tie was very colorful and flowery. And then Steven described his mushroom hairstyle. Spencer says that was the style then, everybody wore it.

Spencer asks Steven why go back to music esp. since he is doing so well in series? Moreover, singing doesn’t make much money at all. But Steven says that he makes lots of money singing in stage performances.

Spencer says one day he turned on the tv and unexpectedly saw Steven on Taiwan news. Yee? How come Steven in Taiwan tv news? Turn out Spencer watches all kinds of tv news so that he is well prepared with current news for his radio program. Steven is impressed that Spencer even found out about that. (2012 Steven’s US Christmas concert with Peggy Liu)

Turn out Spencer has won big twice on 6-digit lottery wins, and because of his lottery win he is now a very rich man but he tries to steer away from himself and re-focus on Steven.

Steven talks about how looking back he had unwittingly wasted a lot of opportunities given to him by Paco Wong at Warner Music because he wasn’t ready then to be a celebrity singer and because he was rather young then. So now he appreciates and makes go use of every opportunity that comes his way.

His new song is playing.

Steven is well informed of all kinds of news - that he even has the news turned on at home 24 hours. (TN: I can't stand having the tv on for even more than 2 hours let alone 24 hours -- the tv noise will drive me off the wall)

They talk about VOH2 (陳彥行 was in the cast too) and how happy they were shooting the series. The topic turns back to Steven returning to singer status. Steven asserts that all these years he has been singing but mostly themesongs. Spencer says that radio stations very rarely air themesongs so if depend on themesongs, so can't help singers at all. But he has never seen himself as a singer when singing themesongs, more like an artist.

This time around, Steven feels very lucky to have someone (people) investing in his album cos' he himself won't have the money to.

A female voice observes that the demo cd is produced by Siu Ma Production Studio. Steven says that the preparation for the album started end of last year, and the investment budget is quite high. He is very thankful that there are investors sponsoring this project.

Spencer says that within the country, only the very famous superstars have production studios such as Fan Bing Bing, etc etc and Siu Ma Production Studio. Steven quips his is just a workplace office compare to the those mentioned. The English name for it is 'workshop' 'studio' no -- 'office' more likely. So not so pressure.

Play the tvb themesong "Sweetness in the salt"

Talk about why he turned from singer to actor. He was planning to quit and had even called up his ex-employee to get back his job. And then Catherine and Uncle Tim called him to audition for DOMD1998

- talk about how Catherine Tsang made him audition for Domd1998. There were many people auditioning for the role including Benny Chan.

- To his dismay soon after his audition Tsang called him up to tell him that Tim Gor had picked him for the role. He came up with all kinds of excuses to get out of it but Catherine was someone you can get pass once her mind is made up, so with much trepidation he, like a good boy, called in for work. And to make it worse it was his first ancient tv series and just his luck a Qing dynasty at that. So the makeover crew not only shaved his head bald but also shaved off much of his eyebrows. lol! And voila, came up with a completely different eyebrow shape that he thought made him look so weird. And the make up artist worked on his whole face like making his already tall nose to look taller. Apparently, it was quite a difficult transition for Steven to go from a singer to a Qing dynasty actor. However, Catherine and Tim gor were right, that series was the starting point of his acting career, and onto being tvb first line actor.