Most foreigners in Japan could be forgiven for not
knowing of Dick Lee. But throughout Asia, from Thailand to Taipei and, yes, Tokyo, Lee is
as much a star as Madonna or Michael Jackson. At the beginning of the 1990s he was
releasing critically acclaimed albums such as The Mad Chinaman, winning awards and
performing to capacity crowds in every major city across Asia. Lee was making music with a
message and was obsessed with his search to find a sound that was uniquely Asian, that
wasn't simply mimicking Western artists.
Lee remains very philosophical about Asian music, culture and the interaction between the
two. Having lived in Tokyo as an Asian gaijin for six years in the early nineties, Lee
talks perceptively about Japanese pop culture, fashion and music, and its export across
the continent.
"At Sony I'm in charge of ten countries - I travel every week. It's interesting to
see what young people are doing in all these places, and a lot of it is inspired by
Japanese street culture. It's not really Comme des Garcons or Issey Miyake. It's more
secondhand things thrown together - a street and club fashion-inspired subculture.
Japanese culture has evolved to the point where it's very sure of itself.
"Of course a lot of Japanese culture is American, but in Asia we don't see it that
way. It's clean, it's sort of been in the laundry. It's all acceptable to Asian standards
or values. I guess it all started around 1993 with the Harajuku/Shibuya thing. And that
same thing is now happening all over Asia - every city is getting its own Shibuya."
Having dabbled in fashion in his native Singapore, with his own design and retail
businesses, the link between culture and fashion is one Lee follows keenly, an interest
that has also been linked into his music. In many respects Lee feels that Japanese
fashion-conscious street culture is unnecessarily Western.
"It's all superficial. Underneath all the fashion
and the Western look they are all very traditional Japanese, who all can't speak English,
yet they have this very Western attitude. But it is just attitude."
Ironically, says Lee, it is this attitude that has given Japan its appeal across Asia.
"That's one thing that sets Japanese people apart from other Asian countries, that
they all look so cool. This sort of thing goes back a thousand years in Japan: be cool in
appearance but never say anything revealing. And the rest of Asia respects that coolness.
Combine that with the layering of outside cultures, and they've created a look and made it
their own. It's taken a while but they've done it."
Growing up in postwar Singapore, Lee is aware of the stigma Japan has faced, and often
still faces, across the rest of Asia. "I remember my father - whenever we mentioned
anything about Japan or the Japanese we got in trouble. But things aren't like that any
more. The younger generation is more acceptant of Japan. The welcome invasion of Japanese
technology has changed everybody's lives for the better. The current generation is not
fearful of Japan; rather, we're in awe at what Japan has done economically, and that has
also softened our parent's vision of Japan."
Lee is also very respectful of the richness of Japanese culture, its uniqueness and
heritage. "A lot of Asian countries don't really have that deep culture. The Chinese
in China lost it over the last fifty years. In Singapore we are all immigrants. Hong Kong
people really don't feel so Chinese, nor do the Taiwanese. No one really has a strong
sense of identity apart from the Thais and the Japanese. Which is why both cultures are so
dignified."
It is a strength of identity which Lee feels he has himself found after many years and
albums struggling with the concept. "I was really a prisoner of this concept for many
years." These days the new Vice President of A&R for Sony Asia seems a far fly
from being the Mad Chinaman that he was universally known as ten years ago. He is as
chilled as the music on his latest album Transit Lounge, released under the DL Project
moniker. He feels more confident of who and what he is. "That is why you can sense a
difference in the new album." The product is a "candy-coated" easy
listening album, a product of Lee's upbringing in 1960s Singapore listening to the likes
of Mantevani and James Kasse. "I think it's because I'm more confident of myself as
an artist, of who I am, and what I do and being sure that it's Asian. In form it's very
different, but the essence of it is still Asian."
Dick Lee spoke to Charles Spreckley.
DL Project'sTransit Lounge is out now on Sony Music.
Most foreigners in Japan could be forgiven for not
knowing of Dick Lee. But throughout Asia, from Thailand to Taipei and, yes, Tokyo, Lee is
as much a star as Madonna or Michael Jackson. At the beginning of the 1990s he was
releasing critically acclaimed albums such as The Mad Chinaman, winning awards and
performing to capacity crowds in every major city across Asia. Lee was making music with a
message and was obsessed with his search to find a sound that was uniquely Asian, that
wasn't simply mimicking Western artists. 
"It's all superficial. Underneath all the fashion
and the Western look they are all very traditional Japanese, who all can't speak English,
yet they have this very Western attitude. But it is just attitude." 
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