The Permission Parties: A New Listening & Tasting Experience

Three years after that pesky pandemic cut our dinner series short, I am thrilled to share that we will finally return for a limited 5-night run in May!  To celebrate the release of my newest album Permission, I am embarking on a brand new kind of “tour” called The Permission Parties: a multi-sensory listening and tasting dinner series. Attendees will enjoy six Chinese-inspired dishes I’ve created that share some common emotion with each of the six tracks on the album. I will share a personal story about each course before serving, and then premiere the track while the guests enjoy the dish.  The dinners will take place in Nashville in May as a part of AAPI Heritage month celebrations, and then across 9 other US cities in September and October: Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Houston, Austin, & Dallas. 

Proceeds will benefit groups fighting for AAPI safety and visibility via The Quiet Voice Fund.

GET YOUR NASHVILLE TIX HERE! (5/9-5/13)

Tickets for other cities coming soon. If you’d like to host a future Permission Party please drop me a line at alex@highceilingsmusic.com

More about The Permission Parties: 

The purpose of The Permission Parties is to invest in the idea that everyone has permission to take up space in the world… we don’t need to wait for it to be “given.”  Growing up in the US as a second-generation Chinese American, I rarely felt permission to take up space with my body, my voice, or my stories. Movies and media told me I was allowed to be a buddy, a punchline, or a decoration, but there was not enough space for my story in the center of the room.  By showcasing the emotional stories connecting my music, food, and cultural identity, I hope to empower everyone, especially those on the margins, to feel permission to take up space with their stories.

The inspiration comes from having synesthesia, a condition that mixes up 2 unrelated senses in our brains. This did more than connect colors to letters, numbers, and musical pitches.  It taught me to find connections between seemingly unrelated passions such as food, music, and storytelling, and inspired me to synthesize these disciplines into a holistic artistic event in order to share these connections with others.  

Music making and cooking have always come from the same creative place for me. The same elements that make music endlessly fascinating are also what drive my curiosity in the kitchen; pushing for new sounds/flavors, quiet/loud elements working together, and most of all the emotional message at the core of any creation. The way a kick drum makes my mouth salivate when it sounds just right is the same feeling I’m looking for when seasoning a dish. The way my heart flutters when the string arrangement locks into place is the same as when I taste a new combination of ingredients that really works. I’ve always wanted to express these emotional parallels between food and music somehow.  My hope is that experiencing them together might offer a deeper enjoyment of each.  

You can view a past listening and tasting experience here.
I can’t wait to cook for you all again!

Much love,
Alex Wong and the Angelhouse Family Dinner team

New Solo Album! And tours in the UK, EU, US!

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.

TOUR DATES IN THE UK, EU, US

Right after Texas, I leave for the UK and Europe for two separate tours… First I’ll be playing drums with the truly brilliant Lola Kirke opening for First Aid Kit around the UK, then I will be playing some solo acoustic shows in Europe in some of my favorite cities.  I’d love to hang, EU friends!  It’s been way too long!!

ALEX WONG SOLO ACOUSTIC (EU/US)

THU 12/15/22 - AGNESKLAUSE, KØLN DE (INFO)
FRI 12/16/22 - PILLOWSONG SERIES, STANS CH (TICKETS)
SAT 12/17/22 - HOUSE CONCERT, KARLSRUHE DE (EMAIL TO RSVP)
SUN 12/18/22 - RHO TONEEL THEATER*, NUMANSDORP NE (TICKETS)
MON 12/19/22 - CONCERT ON A BOAT, ROTTERDAM NE (TICKETS)

WED 12/28/22 - FREIGHT AND SALVAGE (SUPPORTING VIENNA TENG), BERKELEY CA (TICKETS)
THU 12/29/22 - FREIGHT AND SALVAGE (SUPPORTING VIENNA TENG), BERKELEY CA (TICKETS)
FRI 1/6/23 - “FROM STORY TO SONG”, NEW YORK NY (CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN)
*w string quartet

Thank you so much for sticking with me to the end.  I’m grateful you’re here.

Much love,

A

Video: NOCTURNE Debut Performance

Hey Team,

A few weeks ago I was asked to perform an original composition at Lockeland Strings, a concert series for composers in East Nashville.  One of the reasons I love living in Nashville right now is the abundance of creative, unconventional concert series being presented all over town, for many different styles of music.  I guess when you fill a town with musicians and artists they will make their own opportunities to express themselves!  

I decided to perform "Nocturne" from my upcoming album (for the first time in public!) and I wanted to share a video of the evening with you guys.  

It was really interesting for me to perform original instrumental music in front of an audience and experience how it felt to be "heard" that way, sharing a piece of myself without using words.  It really inspired me to work on more... wondering, would you guys be interested in an album of instrumental music?

As always, thank you so much for being here.  More very soon...

Much love,

A

Album Listening Party on Tuesday 11/13

Yo team!

Currently driving out of LA back to SF (technically I am sitting while Megan drives).  We had such a great time this past weekend playing some of the most beautiful rooms on this tour... the lovely Swedish American Hall in SF and The Troubadour in LA.  We were humbled and heartened to see so many people come out to enjoy themselves despite the stressful fire situation all around.

I wanted to give you guys the details for tomorrow's patron-only listening party for my new album!  I will be online from 12-2pm PST (PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE FROM ORIGINAL TIME OF 3PM, TO ACCOMMODATE OUR INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS) and broadcasting on FB live via my Artist Page.  At 12pm PST I will post a private SoundCloud link where you can hear the entire album at your own pace.  I decided to do it this way to avoid any potential streaming issues and to allow people to listen to the album at their own pace and go back and listen to songs if they want during the 2 hour window.  It's much easier to pretend you are working at your desk this way as well :)

The link will be active for 2 hours.  During that time, I will be available to chat about anything you want!  Ask me questions about the album, the recording process, the special guests (spoiler alert!), or anything else on your mind.  The chat will be available to the public, but only patrons will get the link to listen to the album.  

I can't wait to hang out with all of you tomorrow!

Much love,

A

Album Update: The Elephant and the Seahorse

Dream Pouches with the logo are available for purchase at shows!

Dear music family,

Happy August!  I know I’ve been a little quiet over here but I promise it’s been for good reason… as of this post, I’m nearly done with all of the recording for the entire album!! I can’t tell you how excited I am to share this music with all of you, and how grateful I am for your presence here every step of this process. Quite simply, this album would never have happened without your incredible support. Thank you thank you thank you!

In the coming weeks we will be making some very big announcements… about an upcoming US/Canada tour (with secret patron-only gifts), about a special cross-disciplinary artist collaboration for the album (that I’m SO FREAKING EXCITED ABOUT), about a patron-only listening party (where I will live-stream the entire finished record only to patrons, straight from my studio), as well as some exciting additions to the Patreon page itself. In other words, shit is about to go down… so get ready!!

But back to the present moment… today I wanted to share a little more insight into what inspired the songs that became this record. I was moved to create this album as a way to deal with my somewhat complicated relationship with my own memory. I’ve always had a deep fear that I’m losing parts of my memory... throughout my life family members, especially my sister, would reminisce about a shared experience we’d had as children… she would recall detailed recollections of events, even ones focused on me, like my own birthday parties… that I would simply have zero memory of. It saddened me that it felt like chunks of my life were simply missing from my own archives.  

At the same time, I would often experience vivid memories of places I’d never been, down to the exact buildings that I would discover later in life. I would have memories of dreams that felt like deja vu, only to have them transpire years later (I have journal entries detailing some of these before they happened). I would have memories from dreams that stuck with me so vividly that years later, it became confusing whether they were from a dream or from waking life. I would also have recurring dreams that would pop up over many years as if urging me to find a deeper meaning in them. 

I was particularly inspired by this episode of Radiolab which talks about what actually happens in our brain when we remember something… conventional wisdom tells us that our memory is like a large filing cabinet where all of our experiences are stored, and when we want to remember something we go to the filing cabinet and retrieve the memory. sometimes we have a hard time finding the file but we still trust that it’s in there... somewhere… 

Well, according to this episode, that idea is basically completely wrong. Through a series of experiments scientists were able to show that when we remember something, we are actually recreating the entire memory from scratch. and every time we recall something, we run the risk of altering, changing, and degrading it slightly. So, counterintuitively, the memories we relive the most are actually the ones that may be the furthest from what really happened. This blew my mind, and made it into one of my upcoming songs, called “It Used To Be A Movie,” which you’ll hear in a few days.  All the songs on this album were written to explore these experiences of memory in one way or another.

When I first started working on the album last fall, I designed a logo for the record, pictured above: an elephant and a seahorse. The elephant’s relationship with memory is perhaps obvious, thanks to their reputation in our popular culture as the reigning champs of all things remember-y. The seahorse, however, was a more oblique reference.  As I was doing some research for some of these songs, I learned about the hippocampus, the part of the brain believed to control emotion, memory, and the automatic nervous system. It got it’s name because it is literally shaped like a tiny seahorse…and the name for the genus for seahorse is, you guessed it, hippocampus.  

I hope this brings an added depth to the experience of this album. Now, go back and listen to all the songs and think about seahorses! And as always, hit me up with any questions or comments about my writing process (or seahorses). Always happy to share.

OH! I almost forgot! We are exactly ONE PATRON AWAY reaching our THIRD MILESTONE GOAL OF 160 PATRONS! That’s freaking huge! So if you know anyone who’s been considering signing up, tell them to just do it already and push us over the edge, for they will be immortalized as a hero in the years to come. In all seriousness, crossing the milestone means that I can afford to buy some much needed equipment to greatly enhance the visual content I post to Patreon. Everybody wins!

You are all the best. Thank you for getting us here. More very soon.

Much love,

AW