Dear loved ones,
I hope you are all doing well and feeling hopeful these days. I’ve got a lot of news I’m really excited to share with you so I’m gonna dispense with the chit chat and get to it. Buckle up…
I’M MAKING A NEW ALBUM!
Can’t believe I am actually typing this… but as I write, I am at the airport on my way to Texas to record my next solo album!!
First, here’s a bit of background about why I am making this album. As a kid I never saw examples of Asian Americans telling their own stories in music, movies and TV, and grew up thinking that a career as an artist just wasn’t a path open to me. My story was one that existed in between two more dominant stories… the “immigrant” and the “American.” I was always trying to shoehorn my experience into one of these and it never quite fit. I never saw the stories of American people who looked like me reflected back in music, movies and TV growing up and believed it wasn’t a story worth telling. I felt compelled to assimilate to American culture to survive yet lived with a constant low level shame for not being “Chinese” enough. When I started exploring this experience in songs and playing them live I realized there were people feeling seen for the first time in this music. I want others to know that their experience is worthy of being reflected back to them in the American songbook and in American culture where they belong.
Straight up, I believe this is one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever attempted and I need your help to bring it to life the best way I know how. If you want to support me and this new album, the most direct way to do this is to BECOME A PATRON. I spent a lot of time creating what I think are meaningful rewards, including a chance to record background vocals on the album itself! Check them out below.
There are a few things that are going to be very different (and honestly a bit terrifying) about how I’m making this album as opposed to any I’ve made in the past.
First, I won’t be self-producing this one. I’ve brought in producer Josh Kaler (Jump Little Children, Frances Cone) to co-produce with me (we also toured the country together on the Elle King/Lola Kirke tour earlier this year) He is one of the most talented and kind people I know and I couldn’t imagine a better collaborator for this journey.
My primary mission for this album, which is sort of a continuation of the last one, is to get rid of any more of my tendencies to hide in my music. This time I’m referring to a tendency to hide SONICALLY. Real talk, in the past I’d never felt confident in my singing enough to truly let my voice be up front and center without supporting/obscuring it with lots of sounds, parts and arrangements, so I’m bringing Josh in to curb any excesses in production and bring out the best in my performances.
Second, I won’t be recording this album at my own studio. I will be traveling to Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, TX, an absolutely magical studio on the southern border (the US/Mexico border literally runs onto the property). There is no cell service there and nothing to distract you for miles and miles. I’ve produced a few projects there including Delta Rae’s latest album and it’s always been my dream to someday record one of my own albums there. I can’t believe it’s finally going to happen and I GET TO BRING ALL OF YOU WITH ME!! More on this below…
Third, the concept of this album extends beyond just music. It is being created in parallel with a tasting menu from my childhood, just like I did with The Elephant and the Seahorse (which sadly got cut short by that pesky pandemic). But this time I am giving myself PERMISSION to dream bigger… my dream is to set up shop in four cities around the US for a week at a time and do several pop up listening tasting dinners, where I share the album and the stories behind each song and their emotional connection to the dishes. ICYMI here is a video and an interview from the last listening tasting experience.
