Musician Dong Thien Duc and songs that touch listeners' hearts

Currently, Dong Thien Duc is a 'phenomenon' that receives great attention in the music world, famous for many songs that are loved by audiences such as Ai chung tinh duoc mai (Who is loyal to love forever), Ngay mai nguoi ta la chong (Tomorrow people get married), Khoa ly biet (Lost lock), Tat ca or khong la gi ca (All or nothing), Sao cung duoc (Why also)... and has won a number of music awards. Few people know the 'path' that this young man born in 1987, raised in Binh Dinh, currently living in Binh Duong, had to struggle and make efforts to reach today's success. Thanh Nien reporters met and listened to him share.

Have you ever thought that one day everyone will know your music and sing along everywhere in every happy and sad moment of life?

Anyone, before doing anything, has at least once thought about its results. I also thought that one day I would be famous. Actually, I "thought", but before that I didn't have much chance to believe.

Where do you find the story ideas to compose songs that "touch the hearts" of the majority of listeners?

Ideas and emotions always "communicate" with us in the simplest way, such as through books, random emotions, watching movies, and real-life experiences. Emotions come in many forms, and the composer must open his heart to receive a little bit of emotion in order to develop it into a song. I think the more we focus and force ourselves into the framework of a topic, the more we get back a few lines of words thought up from knowledge when analyzing that topic. That way, we will lack emotion. I believe a topic always gives us a lot of emotions to compose.

Musician Dong Thien Duc - middle - received the 2023 Blue Wave Award for Tomorrow People Get Married with singer Thanh Dat - left - and singer Anh Tu

Why did you choose lyrical music, not too youthful but not too "old" and hard to listen to, to shape your composition style?

Actually, I don't choose a "music genre", but what I choose is how to satisfy the audience. In the music profession, my target audience is the "audience", not the "customer". The audience listens to music to soften their emotions. The audience has everything, joy, anger, love, hate, so I always analyze what genre the audience likes to listen to, what style of writing, what topic... and then just serve the audience.

Coming from a technical background, being a programmer, and having opened a web design company, what path led you to become a musician?

In 2008, I opened a website design company. In 2010, I had a traffic accident, it took me almost a year to fix the consequences. And in that year, I lost a lot of customers. I switched to designing websites for artists. Finding a way to contact artists was not difficult, but how to contact them was "as difficult as reaching the sky" because at that time I was nobody and their working hours were different from my working hours. I could not contact them for a long time. I felt like the artist community was separated by an invisible curtain, difficult to approach. I was so angry that I signed up for music school to approach them. Then gradually, I don't remember when I quit programming, and I don't know when I became an artist.

Dong Thien Duc is a judge in a TV game show.

The lyrics in his music are very ordinary but also full of poetry, and many people also say that the beauty of Dong Thien Duc is that "there is poetry in the music", like the lyrics " That day you walked in the rain, but you forgot to lock the door, letting the rain linger and ask, sneaking in to steal the hundred-year contract..." ; or like: " I quickly sold the wings of the cuckoo to exchange for a pair of separation locks, locks of our love...". Perhaps since childhood he was very good at literature?

I love reading books and still maintain that habit until now. Maybe I have gained a lot of knowledge from books, but I dare not say that I am good at literature.

What has the Central region, specifically your hometown Binh Dinh, where you were born and raised, fostered in you, what virtues or aspirations?

I am proud and feel very lucky to be born in a barren land, growing up with the hard-working children of the Central region, inheriting the independence, diligence, and determination of my homeland and the people of the Central region. I have a saying that I always remember in my head as a motivation to overcome all difficulties: "Storms, floods, natural disasters, sun, wind, and floods cannot defeat the determination of our people, these difficulties are nothing to us" .

Not only successful with songs about love, Dong Thien Duc has recently become famous with songs about homeland, country, or family such as Mot vong Viet Nam, Com doan vien … Why did you choose this topic? When writing this topic, did you believe it would be popular?

I am very confident when writing about the topics of homeland, country, people, family… Because I have not exploited this topic much before, so there are many stories to write. The important thing is that the emotions about this topic are always full in me, because of the gratitude as I said above.

To be successful, to be sought after by many singers, and to have songs ordered like now, perhaps few people know the hardships and difficulties you have experienced in your career. Can you share more about this?

Everyone has to stumble a lot to find many opportunities to move forward. Everyone has difficulties, but for me there are many, too many to count. I choose to forget when I can. I don't often talk about difficulties.

When searching for the name Dong Thien Duc on Google, people see images of Dong Thien Duc as a former singer? Is he confident in his singing voice, or was it just a job to make a living in the past?

There are two reasons why I used to sing and release albums. First, I sang to earn money to cover my living expenses. If I sang only to cover my living expenses, I wouldn’t need to release an album. But I made two albums. The reason is because the songs I composed and sold were not bought by anyone. I really value the songs I write, so I never beg, give them away, or discount them… For the songs that no one buys, I record them myself and release albums. They are “homegrown” so I can reduce costs somewhat.

So why did you quit singing and choose to be a musician, behind the success of other singers?

Musicians and singers often go together, but they are completely different in nature. Singers "survive" in appearance and voice. Anyone who is a singer must be very careful. And of course, how can they dare to throw themselves into life to experience emotions like musicians. Therefore, if you decide to pursue a career, you should only choose one of the two as your main career. And I choose writing. Every now and then, if I want to sing, I ask to go out for a day, sing "well" and then come back to write more.

Musician Dong Thien Duc sings in the game show Mysterious Singer

What do you think are the pros and cons of Vietnamese youth music today? One thing you would like to share about Gen Z music today?

The youth music scene in Vietnam is always the most vibrant place. There is always the fire of the young. Many people often confuse "arrogance" with "enthusiasm", so sometimes they have the wrong perception of the young. Young musicians today have enough intelligence, all the necessary conditions to be creative and explode. The future belongs to them, instead of judging right or wrong, I think it's better to see what they are good at and learn from them.

What do you think about composing to order, composing to follow the "trend" or composing based on emotions?

I only accept orders for TV projects, commercials, movies, short films, and music videos. I do not accept orders or trend-based writing. Writing like that, I feel frustrated because I am stuck in a frame and cannot fully express my wishes.

Are you afraid that your music will be out of date and that listeners will "get bored quickly"? And what is your secret to making Dong Thien Duc's music always have a place and position in the hearts of music lovers, or a specific segment or audience that is closely attached?

I am never afraid. Instead of being afraid and coming up with a plan to build my success into a monument, then gradually isolate myself from the audience, I always look for new topics. I appreciate what the audience and life have given me, so I do my job with the most peaceful mindset.

Once I heard him confide that after more than 10 years of wandering in the "promised land" of urban Saigon, he could now feel relieved and put aside his worries about making a living to do what he liked?

This sentence is wrong in the "10 years" part. Dong Thien Duc came to Ho Chi Minh City to start a business in 2006, so it's been almost 20 years of hard work.

Is the work of a musician enough for you to get rich and have a comfortable life? Do you have to worry about your small family and both sets of parents? Your relatives and family in the countryside must be proud of you and sometimes put pressure on you?

I am not rich. I am a "poor household" ( laughs ) . When I pay off my mortgage, and if I am lucky enough to have 10 million left in my pocket, then I will have just escaped poverty. When I first pursued art, what put me under the most pressure was the fierce and sincere opposition from friends, family, relatives, classmates, new acquaintances... Because I had no looks, no finances, no connections, no experience... Everyone was surprised and tried to discourage me when they found out I was pursuing art. So now, everyone is proud of me, I don't feel much pressure.

A song by a famous musician is said to be able to sell for hundreds of millions, or to collaborate to share billions of revenue? In the new era, musicians must also know how to do business with their own brainpower, and cannot just sit around and let others enjoy all the fruits of their labor. Is that true, and what about you?

Actually, sometimes when I'm under pressure, I also want to "wander" once to see if I can find any emotions. But looking at the children, and a hundred other things. There is almost no work that can be "wandered" and solved at the same time, so I stop. I focus on working according to the knowledge I know. The brainpower is mine, I get paid fairly. I'm currently just trying to protect the achievements that are mine and belong to me. As for the music business, that's a different story. It requires projects, human resources, capital... But almost no one who is good at business can also write good music.

What's new in Dong Thien Duc's upcoming work? Will there be any projects or songs that continue to conquer the hearts of the audience like before?

I still write regularly and diligently. After nearly 4 months of putting all my emotions into the script, I have completed the theme song Cha mot doi vi ta for the movie Hai Muoi by director Vu Thanh Vinh (shown in theaters on August 30), starring Quyen Linh, and have just released a song in the series of songs about "la dieu bong" called Lap trang trang phai roi performed by singer Maya... I am very satisfied with every song and the singer who receives the song is also very satisfied. Both of us invest all our effort and time into each product. If the audience now loves Dong Thien Duc's music, they will listen to the new song when they see it, and when the audience listens, they have to think about the song, then I hope to have the opportunity. I really thank the audience for "loving" the name musician Dong Thien Duc in the past time.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhac-si-dong-thien-duc-va-nhung-ca-khuc-cham-tim-nguoi-nghe-185240817213135838.htm