As a Hawaiian-born Chinese who lived in Shanghai and Guangzhou during his early years, 26-year-old Khalil Fong is a young man with roots as international as his flavour of music. Having being exposed to soul and R&B as a teenager, Fong developed to take on influences from music idols such as Stevie Wonder, Brian McKnight, The Roots, and John Mayer. Fong, who is fluent in English, Putonghua, Shanghainese, and Cantonese, has been praised as a lyricist, performer, composer, and arranger. Despite being signed by Warner Music Hong Kong in 2004, he has only recently sprung to prominence, nabbing Commercial Radio’s 2008 award for Best Male Singer. His fourth album, Orange Moon, is on sale now.

One could say that. My dad is a drummer. He and Eugene [Pao] actually met in Hawaii before I was born. My mom is a part-time lyricist. She helps out with my lyrics sometimes, but she’s really in education. For the last 15 years, she’s been creating curricula in English-language training for kindergarten and primary schools in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Actually, my music is featured in some of her children books.

How did you get your nickname ‘Soulboy’?

[Laughs] I like soul, and I’m not a grown man yet. When I came out with my first album, I wanted something fresh and catchy. So I chose that as my persona. Now the name ‘Soulboy’ is usually associated with my musician credits as an instrumentalist. For writing and arranging credits, I go with Khalil Fong.

Probably. Basically, Orange Moon is my CD for the masses without doing something I wouldn’t want to do. It’s the most easy-listening and commercial friendly of all my releases. It’s my ode to fans. But they can also easily find traces of Motown and my musical influences like Stevie Wonder in the album.

That was unconscious. In fact, I never thought about that. You’re the first one to bring it up. But the scatting on If Love is definitely a conscious tribute to Stevie from his song Sir Duke. Stevie has been my biggest hero because he introduced soul elements to pop.

Sylvain and I met at one of his jazz gigs. I used Sylvain on my first mini-show in 2005 at the Arts Centre. Sylvain also arranged horns for me in the Wonderland album and the current one.

I met Ray Vaughn at one of Soler’s concerts. I saw this black dude playing bass in a rock setting, but his lines were totally soulful. I wondered, ‘Where did this guy come from?’ And he told me he’s from Philly. I was like, ‘jeez, everything I listen to is from Philadelphia!’ From that moment on, I knew I found my real bass guy. Ray contributed to the live, analogue feel that we tried to create in the Orange Moon album. Like Al Green says, you can’t beat the texture and sparks of a live, warm sound.

Henry Chung