SHOW writer Luis A. Quibranza III drops by Richard Poon’s soundcheck before the singer’s concert. Here are 26, random cool things about the singer to coincide with Sun.Star Cebu’s 26th anniversary. Lensman Arni Aclao documents the interview.
Poon’s croon will make girls swoon.
In a nutshell, Richard Poon is a rising star in the national music industry. His Big Band arrangements of contemporary hits, like Beyonce’s Irreplacable, Rihanna’s Umbrella, Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls, Avril Lavigne’s Complicated, Flo Rida’s Low, and other pop tunes, are a sure hit among his younger fans.
To his credit, he has recorded and released his first solo album I’ll Take Care Of You early this year. It sold over 12,500 units by August, thus earning him a Certified Gold Award from MCA Music Philippines given during ABS-CBN’s ASAP ‘08 show. Richard’s first album contains livelier takes on classic ‘50s “standards”. Here’s a quick run down of facts about the talented singer:
Age: “Old enough to fall in love,” he said.
Roots: The Korean/Taiwanese/Filipino was born in Makati, Metro Manila.
Parents: His father is Robert Poon, and his mother’s name is Eva Huang.
Like mother: If you think Richard’s good, wait ‘til you read about his mom. Eva is an opera singer in Taiwan and has 10
Chinese/Taiwanese albums under her belt.
In the genes: Richard believes he got his gifts from his mom.
Big break: Richard thinks he got his big break in the music industry when his album came out January this year.
“Siguro yung lumabas yung album this year, January sa ASAP, it’s called I’ll Take Care Of You CD from MCA, nag- gold na rin siya this August—I think that’s my first big break, yung lumabas ako sa ASAP. And then they got me to regularly guest, “ Richard shares.
The latest: Richard Poon performed in a full concert last Nov. 22 in SM City Cebu, Cinema 2. The show also featured special guest Sitti.
Instrumental leanings: Besides clutching the microphone and displaying an impressive vocal timbre, Richard is also guitarist and a bassist, and musically arranges the songs he performs.
Writing talent: Songwriting is also one of the guy’s stronger assets. Besides writing songs for himself he’s wrote a song for a movie Piolo Pascual and Regine Velasquez did.
Shining moment: Poon composed a song in Piolo’s album Timeless, and another one for Charlie Green (Britain’s Got Talent contestant). And then, he also wrote the original Filipino soundtrack for Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson’s My Girl.
What’s in the closet: If one day we find ourselves in Richard’s room and snoop around his closet, he says we’ll probably find “a lot of coats” since his genre requires him to be in such manner of dressing most of the time.
Websites: YouTube and Richardpoonmusic.multiply.com are his favorite websites. The latter he checks once a week and sees to it that he replies to messages personally.
Movies: He loves The Dark Knight.
Clueless about: “Twilight? Sorry, ha. Ano yun?”
Sweat deal: Richard loves to run up and down the hardcourt, just like his dad, who is a basketball player.
Food preferences: He claims that he can eat anything. But, for the record, he loves to eat fish. And he’d probably take a cup of tea over coffee anytime.
Fave musicians: He cites Sting, Harry Connick and Michael Sembello as his favorite musicians.
Hideaway: Serene places tickle Richard’s fancy. He used to love Boracay.
Meet and greet: The celebrities he’d like to meet in person are US President Barack Obama, John Maxwell, Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey.
Pet peeve: Hearing wrong chords. He attributes this to his sharp-sense of hearing. But he claims this works for him as well
as it helps him make his music excellent.
Fashion: If he’s not wearing a coat and tie while performing onstage, he prefers to dress down in a casual manner.
Apparently his manager hates it.
Biggest experience: He considers his concerts in the Music Museum, Megamall, Olongapo Convention Center and Fil-Am as his biggest concert experiences so far.
Soul power: He doesn’t label himself as religious, but he sees himself as spiritual. He states the two as different things.
Books: A self-confessed bookworm, Richard devours leadership-themed books authored by names like John Maxwell and Bill Hybels.
What inspires him: “Love! Of course love!” He answers with confidence.
How does he inspire others? “Siguro sa music, I make sure I have to internalize every song. So pag- happy, dapat happy rin ang tao. If I sing a slow song dapat, gusto ko, sorry ah, gusto ko naiiyak yung tao.
“If I see people crying that means I did the hurtful song right,” he cracks a bit of humor as the interview ends on a cool note.
Album update: Sorry folks, no Christmas album for 2008. His second album is coming out in February and a scheduled Christmas CD for 2009 is a most probable project.
