Singer-songwriter Xiao Ke launches a new album with eye on his 50s, Chen Nan reports.

Ke Zhaolei, who is more famous by his stage name, Xiao Ke, turned 47 in October. But soon after his birthday celebrations with family and friends were over, it struck him that he was approaching 50.

"The idea of getting old shocked me," the singer-songwriter from Beijing says of his thoughts when he took a shower that evening. "I immediately sat down in front of my computer and started to write more songs."

Ke says he finished the main lyrics for nine songs at the time and then contacted his friend, singer Lao Lang, to discuss making a new album, which turned out to be The Celebration of Turning 50.

"I hadn't been excited about releasing a new album for a very long time," Ke adds.

He released his last album, Huo Gai, on which he wrote and performed 15 songs, in 2007.

In The Celebration of Turning 50, which was released on Jan 21, Ke sings with nostalgia about his youth, as well as about his friends and family on such tracks as To Memory, To Parents and To Love. Two paintings by his son and daughter have been used on the new album's cover.

This album also contains the song To Fa Xiao'er (childhood friend), which is about Ke meeting Lao Lang, another singer from Beijing, in the 1990s. It's sung in the Beijing dialect, with humorous lyrics. Ke integrates three folk songs that were popular when he was a teenager into the song.

In 1996 and the year after, Lao Lang and Gao Xiaosong, a songwriter, visited Ke's house frequently, he says.

"We played the guitar, wrote songs and sang together in a room smaller than 10 square meters," Ke says.

To record the new album, Ke got some of his old musician friends together, including Beijing-based Filipino percussionist Dominic Bautista, who played with Ke over 20 years ago, and Chinese bassist Huang Yong, who graduated with a degree in music from Capital Normal University. Ke graduated from the same school with the same degree.

Ke says it was like a reunion with his "brothers" when they recorded the album in Beijing.

He wrote the perspective of a future him taking to present him for the album's last song, A Letter From Myself.

"From the writing to the recording, the whole process was very smooth and I said what I wanted to say through the songs," Ke says, adding that he is all set for his 50th birthday.

Sitting in his studio in Beijing's 798 art zone, the singer-songwriter says he has been working in the music business since his debut, self-titled album was released in 1996.

He is known for his folk-pop songs. He has written for his own past five albums and for other pop stars from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, including the song Because of Love performed by pop diva Faye Wong and Hong Kong singer Eason Chan. One of Ke's famous works is Beijing Welcomes You, a song played to mark the 100-day countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Ke was introduced to music by his parents, who sang and played the trumpet at home. He started learning the piano at age 12, and formed his first band when he was 19. But his father felt more confident about his son's decision to become a professional musician only after hearing Ke sing on the then-popular Chinese TV drama, The Happy Life of Chatter-Box Zhang Damin.

He started writing scripts and songs for musicals and established the Xiao Ke Theater in the 798 art zone 10 years ago.

"The theater is like a Utopia to me. I don't make money from it," Ke says of his theater, where his team has performed about 270 shows to date.

His musical "love trilogy", including Wen Wen De Xing Fu (Stable Happiness) and Deng Ni Ai Wo (Waiting For You to Love Me), is a hit. Ke also performs in his own musicals.

"I like watching the audience to see how intimate my music is. I also like singing with young cast members, who remind me of how beautiful and fun music is."