New Song Drops May 15. Vienna Teng May 15 & 16

Dear loved ones,

The first half of the Show Yourself Residency has been an absolute joy! Thank you everyone who filled Rockwood Music Hall or streamed a show! The second half starts this Sunday, have you gotten your tickets yet???

I’m especially excited for the upcoming shows on Sunday 5/15 (only LIVE tix left) and Monday 5/16 (only STREAMING tix left) which feature Vienna Teng, an artist who I have collaborated with for many years and who has had a profound influence on me as a songwriter, artist, and human being.

Vienna and I met almost 20 yrs ago while playing an open mic at Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View CA. We became mutual fans and friends and I was psyched to meet another AAPI artist, a rare sighting in the singer songwriter circuit at that time. Two weeks later I turned on the tv and saw her performing on David Letterman

Since then we’ve been lucky to play music around the world together. She’s always been an inspiration to me and others as one of the first AAPI artists to break through on the national stage.  Working w her inspired me to #levelup as a songwriter, producer and musician, and showed me how we can integrate art and advocacy with grace and power. Some of my most joyous and most present moments making music were on stage performing with Vienna. I’m so grateful she’ll be sharing her powerful stories at the #ShowYourselfResidency. 

In-person tickets are $35 and online tickets are $20.  VIP add-on options are available for both which include access to a post-show meet-and-greet, mixed/edited video recordings of the show, and more.  100% of ticket sales will benefit The Quiet Voice Fund, again supporting organizations fighting anti-Asian hate and advocating for the AAPI community.  If you’re planning to be in NYC area, I highly recommend grabbing live tickets right away… one of the shows has already sold out!

AS ALWAYS, ALL PATREON MEMBERS GET ACCESS TO ALL STREAMING SHOWS FOR FREE.

Patrons can also get a special VIP package which will include access to the post-show meet and greet live from the Rockwood stage, an official poster signed by all the artists, access to mixed and edited audio/video recordings of each show, a special set of all 4 prints of Ping’s artwork, and handwritten lyrics to my newest single, to be released during the residency!  

BECOME A PATRON TO GAIN ACCESS TO THE PATRON-ONLY STORE.

Recorded and mixed the new song while in NYC for the residency!

If you’ve tuned in to any of the live streams, you know I have also been testing out a brand new song called “Permission” during this residency and I’m very excited to share that on Sunday I will be releasing a special recording of the song ON PATREON featuring guest vocals by Vienna Teng and MILCK! I got the very impractical idea to produce the song while in NYC, so I went to Hive Mind Recording in Brooklyn and laid down my piano and vocal, then got my musician friends from all over the country to send in parts, including a string quartet from Nashville TN! I can’t wait for you to hear it. Here’s a clip of the song from the moment I finished writing it, hours before I performed it at the first #ShowYourselfResidency.  

A bit about the song - As a kid I rarely felt permission to take up space… with my body, my stories, or the sound of my voice. Movies and TV told me I was allowed to be a buddy, a punchline, or a decoration, but there was not enough space for me in the center of the room. I learned to shrink… my voice got quieter, my shoulders folded inward.

I wanted to be a singer for a long time, but my body was so terrified of making any noise, let alone the “wrong” noise, that my throat would literally constrict and physically block sound from coming out as a defense mechanism. My throat was so tight that my voice would crack when I tried to sing, flooding me with even more shame.

I often feel that my path as a singer (a label i still struggle with) has been less about learning new skills and vocal techniques and more about removing these emotional clogs living in my throat and letting the sound come out. I wrote this song for that kid, and anyone waiting for someone to give them permission to take up space.

You don’t have to wait for it to be given.  You have permission.

Become a patreon member to hear the full song. 

#ShowYourselfResidency starts May 2 Live and Streamed from NYC!

For the past six months I’ve been quietly working on what may be my biggest undertaking yet.  It’s taken a lot of planning, calling, emailing, organizing, creating and dreaming, but it’s finally ready to share with you all!

I’m thrilled to present “The Show Yourself Residency, a benefit concert series celebrating AAPI stories!”

The full lineup for the Show Yourself Residency, live and streaming from Rockwood Music Hall in May

For me, this residency is the natural evolution of what we created with the two virtual tours last year.  Each of the four shows will feature three hand picked AAPI musicians from around the country (including musical SHEROES Vienna Teng, MILCK, Raye Zaragoza, and Kaye) following an in-the-round format, with a middle section filled with special guests, interviews and collaborations.  But this time around there will be some major upgrades…

First, of course, is the addition of a real live audience!  These shows will take place at one of my favorite venues on the planet, Rockwood Music Hall in New York City, in front of actual human beings!  They will be streamed  from the stage in real time via a multi-camera feed.  During the “Monster” release show last summer, we figured out a way to allow the Zoom audience to interact with the live audience, opening up a new dimension in the show experience.  The two audiences were able to chat with each other in the room, and it felt more connected than anything we’d done before.  We hope to build on this concept at these shows as well as “beam in” a special mystery guest from somewhere in the world, right into the venue on a projected screen at each show.  You won’t want to miss this!

The second major difference is that instead of producing this by myself again, I have partnered with a talented production team called Keepsake House.  They produced the beautiful event I played last fall in NYC which was so well-run it inspired me to ask them to collaborate on this event.  It feels amazing to have a team helping me co-create this vision into something bigger than I could have done on my own.

I have also commissioned a brilliant visual artist based in Thailand, Ping Hatta, to create a series of original paintings for the event, one for each show.  I came across her work a few months ago and was stunned by the originality and vibrancy of her art and her unique way of representing the human figure.  I was thrilled that she agreed to collaborate with us on this event.  We will auction her original paintings and sell a limited number of prints of each work, with 100% of sales benefitting The Quiet Voice Fund. 

In-person tickets are $35 and online tickets are $20.  VIP add-on options are available for both which include access to a post-show meet-and-greet, mixed/edited video recordings of the show, and more. 100% of ticket sales will benefit The Quiet Voice Fund, again supporting organizations fighting anti-Asian hate and advocating for the AAPI community.  If you’re planning to be in NYC area, I highly recommend grabbing live tickets right away… one of the shows is already almost sold out!

AS ALWAYS, ALL PATREON MEMBERS GET ACCESS TO ALL STREAMING SHOWS FOR FREE.

Patrons can also get a special VIP package which will include access to the post-show meet and greet live from the Rockwood stage, an official poster signed by all the artists, access to mixed and edited audio/video recordings of each show, a special set of all 4 prints of Ping’s artwork, and handwritten lyrics to my newest single, to be released during the residency!  

BECOME A PATRON TO GAIN ACCESS TO THE PATRON-ONLY STORE.

Keepsake House and I have been working hard to make this event something we think will be very special.  We hope you’ll think so too.