Richard Craker on Producing Jolin Tsai's 'Pleasure'
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- Richard Craker spoke at the final conference of the 2026 Golden Melody Festival in Taiwan — a session titled 'Connecting Global Sounds' moderated by Kuang-ping Tso, president of Kouhei Production.
- Craker produced Jolin Tsai's albums "Ugly Beauty" and "Pleasure," with Tsai going on to win Album of the Year for "Pleasure" and Best Mandarin Female Singer at Saturday's ceremony.
- The "Ugly Beauty" sessions at Craker's Karma Studios in Thailand felt like "a musical holiday" of open experimentation, while "Pleasure"'s chorus took longer before clicking in a Los Angeles session with songwriter Ross Golan.
- Craker described Tsai as a perfectionist with a sharp eye for detail, and said what sustains him through long sessions is watching an artist move from merely singing a song to fully inhabiting it.
- His advice to young songwriters borrows from Ed Sheeran: when you first turn on a tap, dirty water comes out before the clean water flows — write badly, write often, trust the good ideas are on the other side.
- On AI, Craker argued technology cannot replicate human connection, emotion, or genuine artistic expression — the things music is ultimately for.
- On Mandopop's global future, Craker pointed to K-pop and Latin music's rises as evidence that breakthrough comes from embracing cultural identity rather than imitating Western sound.
Why it matters: Craker's K-pop and Latin analogy stakes a substantive claim: Mandopop's stalled international crossover isn't a marketing problem but a sonic-identity one — K-pop and Latin broke through by refusing to mimic Western sound. Jolin Tsai's 'Ugly Beauty' and 'Pleasure' wins are held up as proof the model can work in Mandarin.
