Why I just can't get enough

All of us expats have after-work pastimes and my hobby just happens to be music. Every now and then, when the musical mood grips me, I book a studio, grab some musical friends and record a song. Sometimes we make a video clip too.

My new musical production Wo Jiu Shi Ai Bu Gou (I Just Can't Get Enough Love Video) goes online this week to the world's biggest Internet community. The song is a Chinese cover of Depeche Mode's 1980s classic, I Just Can't Get Enough. Already I've received feedback from Australia's top music critic.

"This is terrible ..." wrote Nui Te Koha from the Sunday Herald Sun, Australia's biggest selling newspaper.

Brilliant. We've landed some press.

Our band's name is Ma Ma Hu Hu, which means mediocre and reflects the average ability of everybody in the band. We are not pros, we are Ma Ma Hu Hu, but we are having a ball in Beijing.

Set against the backdrop of glitz, glamor and boring perfection, our motto is to be ordinary. You don't have to be supermodel to be a real winner in life. Just be yourself.

To launch this song online, I had to get permission from Sony Music's Beijing office last week and the deal was done. They had pictures of their copyrighted songwriters Jay Chou and John Lennon on the wall.

What illustrious company!

I started writing wedding songs about eight years ago, then party songs, and later knocked out a few event songs. I once wrote a song commemorating the retirement of Australia's most famous news anchorman Brian Henderson.

It made a small splash in Sydney, but it was a buzz to hear it on radio.

The key to my minor success may surprise many readers.

I've never make any money from all of this effort. Not a cent.

It is a labor of love. The best things in life always are.

This time I've joined up with a couple of American college kids living in Beijing. Trevor Nichols and Todd Balazovic are members of Ma Ma Hu Hu and we hope our little version of this Brit pop classic - symbolically 2 minutes 0.08 seconds - will let everybody in China know that we just can't get enough of the Beijing people's love.

I know the lyrics sound corny, but this is a pop song, and the dumber the better.

Beijing is undergoing an amazing transformation and the song reflects the city's vibrant mood.

Soon we'll all be catching Olympic Games fever and the song follows that tune.

Todd told me that experiencing China first hand was a lot different to what he learnt in American media.

He believed many Americans will see a very different China during the Olympic Games from what they have read in the newspapers or on TV. How true.

When more people see just how good Beijing really is, they'll sing: I just can't get enough too.

You can check out our song on chinadaily.com today.

(China Daily 06/23/2008 page10)