The secret to Jolin Tsai‘s most celebrated albums, according to British producer Richard Craker, has less to do with technique than with trust – and a willingness to sit with uncertainty until the music finds its shape.
The final conference of the 2026 Golden Melody Festival in Taiwan, held ahead of the Golden Melody Awards, and moderated by Kuang-ping Tso, president of Kouhei Production, brought Craker – founder of Karma Sounds Ltd. and the producer behind Jolin Tsai’s “Ugly Beauty” and “Pleasure” – into conversation about his international career, his philosophy of creativity, and what it will take for Mandopop to find its footing on the world stage. Tsai would go on to win awards at the ceremony, including Album of the Year for “Pleasure” and Best Mandarin Female Singer on Saturday evening.
During the conference, titled “Connecting Global Sounds: Richard Craker’s Creative Journey from International Markets to Mandopop,” Craker recalled the early songwriting sessions with Jolin’s team at Karma Studios in Thailand as feeling like “a musical holiday” – an open, experimental environment where genres were tried and discarded freely, and where “Ugly Beauty” eventually took shape.
“Pleasure” was more of a challenge. Craker described Tsai as a perfectionist with a sharp eye for detail, so the chorus took longer to complete – it later clicked in a Los Angeles session with songwriter Ross Golan. These types of experiences, he said, are simply what creativity looks like. What sustains him through that process, Craker added, is watching an artist move from merely singing a song to fully inhabiting it.
