Phoenix violin features in new collaboration

The Phoenix violin and Dennis Lau (刘凯彦) are featured in new collaboration music video.

The Kuala Lumpur violinist has joined Hong Kong-based Singaporean singer Hanjin Tan (陳奐仁) on his new song, Marry Me. Hanjin is a musical all-rounder who works as a singer, lyricist, songwriter, composer, record producer and often appears on television as an actor.

The Phoenix is an Alistair Hay Custom Design created in 2016. “After first seeing the Bahamut guitar I built for Wang Leehom, Dennis [Lau] got in touch with me with the idea to build a custom six-string electric violin that could rival the stage presence of the Chinese dragon-shaped electric guitar.

“It was a great idea, but this would be my first ever violin. It took six years of discussions and persuasions before I finally gave in and agreed to build The Phoenix. I had been holding the idea of a violin that would wrap around your body for support, so I suggested making a Phoenix and Dennis agreed that it was a perfect symbol to represent his music and his journey and rebirth as a musician.

“We spent a few months discussing the design and then Dennis travelled all the way from Malaysia to Ireland to have the violin fitted to his body. It was more like tailoring a suit than building an instrument,” said Alistair.

In this quest to find the ultimate violin Dennis travelled from across the world to Donegal and our home county here in Ireland ended up taking centre stage in he music video he recorded during his visit.

The video for Hanjin Tan’s song Marry ME was produced by Mosaic Entertainment Group & Mosaic Movie Productions and directed by Patrick Low, who actually visited us here in Donegal when Dennis came to visit in June, 2016 and directed the video for The Good Fight.

Go to the Alistair Hay Custom Design portfolio section to check out the full specs, photos and more of The Phoenix Violin, and other custom instruments Alistair has made.