Young artist Hoang Son: When the soul resonates with melody

(Baonghean) - "The power of music is unparalleled. It brings people closer together. It blurs the distances and boundaries that everyday life has unintentionally created."

My impression of Hoang Son started from a song. In a music program in Vinh city, the guy with a “sour face” sitting in the band position (playing guitar) was invited to sing. And when Son started singing, I was very surprised: “Dilemma, going back and forth, struggling/ My love, struggling, going back and forth”… (Dilemma – Trinh Cong Son)

Hoang Son sings at a Trinh music night held in Vinh city. Photo: Cao Dong

Surprisingly, not only because that song seems to be less familiar to young people like Son (Son was born in 1989, in Vinh city) and less chosen. Surprisingly, not only because Son's voice is full of emotion. But also because Son sang like a person who has experienced many ups and downs in life. But because Son has mastered his song, with all the sublimity and freedom...

And I, at that time, felt very close to the sadness of the talented musician Trinh Cong Son. Like the “faded gold” that was about to land on my hand. Like the vastness and uncertainty that was spreading before my eyes. Where was the shore, where was the peaceful place? The lyrics, seemingly light, were like lightning, flashing with premonitions of human fate, like the waves crashing and surging.

I don't know if anyone has felt that voice as I do. But, anyway, for an audience (listener), making them feel moved like that is not something every singer can do. Son, is it because you are too young to understand the depths of those feelings, but how can you sing to touch them?

And, from then on, I paid more attention to the guy who often appeared with a guitar bag on his back on many streets of Vinh city. He always looked busy and absorbed. His face always looked “difficult”.

Once you get used to it, it turns out that Son is not as “difficult” as people think. Son is only “old” when singing, but in life, Son is still a “child” as Phuong Linh, Son’s young wife (also a quite prominent young singer on the Nghe music stage with the second prize in the light music category of the “Nghe Voice 2017” contest) commented.

Hoang Son often appears with his guitar. Photo: NVCC

Son excitedly told me about his unique way of coming to music. When he was young, Son did not like music at all, he even…hated it. “I always felt that dancing and singing were somehow effeminate, not manly at all.” At that time, Son was only interested in martial arts, he persistently studied Taekwondo for 10 years. A chance encounter that made Son have a different perspective on music originated from his uncle Tran Khanh.

Although he was an uncle, Tran Khanh was only a few years older than Son. Khanh loved singing and joined the founding of a music group called “Golden Autumn” in Vinh city in the early 2000s while he was in high school. Son’s grandmother, worried that her son would be too absorbed in singing or indulge in useless activities, sent Son along to “take care” of him and report his schedule to her.

At first, he followed because of the “heavy responsibility” of the diplomat. Then, going with the band, watching him practice the guitar and sing, Son fell in love without realizing it. It turned out that music was not like what he thought - Son saw it himself. It was not just about the songs he knew and heard. It had many different genres. It was a whole world filled with light and joy where anyone could find a spiritual support and immerse themselves in it.

And, since then, the 14-year-old boy felt like he had been “discovered”. Deep in his soul, Son always felt like he was singing a joyful melody. Even sadness, Son felt it was “more beautiful” when immersed in music. Son followed him to learn the first notes. “Mr. Khanh was my first teacher, and also the person who inspired me the most” - Son confided.

However, Son knew and loved, but he never thought he would go down that "vague" path. After graduating from high school, Son failed the entrance exam for Law University for 2 years, which was his dream school, but during those seemingly "extra" years, Son turned to music to "stand up" and move on. Son joined a guitar club, played music for organizations, individuals in need, and coffee shops in Vinh.

In 2009, Son studied at the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications at the College of Radio and Television (Ha Nam). During his years of studying here, Son participated in many music competitions, and won a Silver Medal at a music competition in Ha Nam province. Graduating from college in 2012, at the end of that year Son participated in the Vinh City Good Voice and won third prize. Feeling that their son had "encroached" too deeply into the arts, Son's parents (even though they were very fond of singing) advised him to "stop".

Son temporarily stopped his singing career, which at one point he thought he should give up everything to "pursue" it to the end, and went to Hanoi to find a job suitable for his major. After exactly one year, his nostalgia for the stage urged Son to return. This time, Son both participated in shows and studied more to improve his musical skills.

1 year in the countryside was a year Son devoted himself to music. Son and his friends founded and developed the Army band, a band that made an impression on the youth of Vinh city. The band consisted of left-handed "musicians" and "singers", but the desire to stand on stage, the desire to spread the burning love for music were the things this band did and was very successful, and the role of the band leader Hoang Son was quite prominent.

Hoang Son and members of the Army Band. Photo: NVCC

But then, once again, Son decided to take a different path, not to have anything to do with music anymore. Together with his lover (now his wife), the two decided to go to Hanoi to start a career. Son applied for a job in a gold and silver trading company to work in communications, and then, after only a few months, Son returned. It might have been fate, but surely, Son's heart told him to live as himself, to choose a path that made him happy.

This return can be considered a decisive decision for both Son and Phuong Linh. Returning to continue with the band, and building their own plans for new music development. It's risky, but why not, when I still have youth and passion? Son thought so.

Opening a music center, both Son and Phuong Linh started their dream like that to continue to be together with their passion. But, not stopping there, Son had a dream of his own music nights in Vinh, music nights dedicated to friends, condensed audiences, not for business but "to play", to "thank life".

Such music nights were held in Vinh one after another and received the love of many music lovers, such as: “The call of eternity”, “Only regret remains” in memory of musician Nguyen Anh 9, a music night singing about the sea, and a music night “16 years of remembering Trinh Cong Son”…

Returning and organizing "his own" music nights is Hoang Son's wish. Photo: NVCC

“And you see, the power of music is unparalleled. It brings people closer together. It blurs the distances and boundaries that everyday life has unintentionally created. As Trinh said, it is a sword that has been erected in people’s hearts.

Why don't we sit together, in music nights where any of us can be singers, when our souls are singing melodies and then, we look at each other, more tenderly and lovingly?" - Son told me like that, with all honesty and presented his upcoming musical "projects", while his wife Phuong Linh looked at her husband smiling lovingly and trustingly!

I want to say to Son the thanks of an "old" person to the enthusiasm of the young, of an audience to an artist, of a person who wanted to stop and rest but was encouraged, keep going and dream!

I believe that Son has truly returned and is on the right path that he wanted to follow to the end. I believe in the compositions that Son is writing, believe that Son will be successful in composing and singing his own songs. Believe that the students who learn to play the instrument from “Mr. Son” will all have a lesson about passion, about daring to commit and not having regrets.

Thuy Vinh