Lawrence Chang Blog

Hatchback Sphinx: my own Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

2012-01-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

If you were to anthropomorphize a car that you've owned for more than a decade, you'd probably be able to relate to the sentimentality I've been feeling about my first car, which I've been recently contemplating giving up. For many reasons, cars are easy to attach human qualities to, whether it be headlights that look like eyes, grills that look like mouths, wheels that look like hands and feet, or the trust in and dependence on our personal vehicles that take us to where we need to go and protect us from the elements. You see it in the movies all the time -- from Herbie to Knight Rider, Disney's Cars to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang -- automobiles can elicit affection. And over the years, my spruce green, 2009 Mercury Cougar has spent enough quality time with me that it's now hard to give it up. Functionally, the car still gets pretty good gas mileage, the rear seats fold down (I've used it to move six times), and it has a manual transmission that's fun to drive. Beyond that, I have a lot of memories associated with that car.

On the other hand, my car has given me a healthy dose of trouble over the years, and it's increasingly hard to justify the repair costs. Furthermore, throughout the life of my vehicle no one else ever really seemed to liked it -- even my insurance agent is now telling me to get rid of it.

Therein lies my dilemma. And so I decided to write a song about it.

A new take on an old song: Glares and Yells

2011-05-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

I wrote this song a number of years ago for my first album, When So Late Becomes So Early. While I liked the original arrangement, the vocals were a bit washed out and people had a hard time hearing the lyrics. Also, I think the tempo was too slow. So I thought I'd do an all acoustic version with just the guitar, a more sprightly tempo (20% faster), and better vocals.

I wrote this song for people I care deeply about, going through a difficult time. More broadly speaking, the song is for anyone who is struggling with a deeply rooted relationship strained over the years by differences in personality and communication style. The lyrics are below the video.

"Glares and Yells"
by Lawrence Chang

VERSE 1
My eyes resemble yours
you gave me sensitive ears
but we don't see eye to eye
and you can't hear all I hear.

And I know you want what's best for me
and I, what's best for you.
But there's so much pain and misunderstanding
that's so hard to undo.

CHORUS
Words spoken out of love,
heard they're something else.
But we wouldn't be here without love,
fighting with glares and yells.

VERSE 2
I listen to you, I really do.
But I listen to my heart as well.
Some times it's clear I'm as scared as you
when I ponder what these dreams foretell.

But I never dreamed in any nightmare
how far apart we'd grow.
Now the air is so tense between us
there's not a handshake or bye when I go.

CHORUS
Words spoken out of love,
heard they're something else.
But we wouldn't be here without love,
fighting with glares and yells.

BRIDGE
Is there a way besides tragedy
to bridge this gap between us?
Is there a cure besides wanton time
to thaw our hearts with trust?

So that we choose better words.
So that we hear hidden love --
that we speak,
when we speak,
if we speak...
and forgive.

CHORUS
Words spoken out of love,
heard they're something else.
But we wouldn't be here without love,
fighting with glares and yells.

Sun's Rain: a new song about Loss and Hope

2011-04-24T00:59:00.000-07:00

It seems there's been a lot of suffering in the world, recently, from disasters of varying causality and proximity. Like the earthquake in Japan, and so on.

When I was younger, I would only read or experience art and media about disasters that typically struck elsewhere in the world, impacting people I did not know. But every year that goes by, unspeakable suffering has found its way closer and closer, having now touched people that I know well.

This song is dedicated anyone who has ever lost someone close. Every now and then, it rains but the sun is out. This song is for anyone who knows what it's like to feel as though the rain falls only on you, while the rest of the world moves on.

This was not an easy song to write. But making music is an important outlet that helps me reflect, understand, mourn, and express. I set a goal to finish this song by the end of Lent, and so here it is. Happy Easter.

Concert recap: BNL

2011-02-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

It'd been a long while since I'd been to a live concert. Almost long enough that I'd forgotten how a well-crafted show can hold your attention for almost as long as a good play or movie. And certainly long enough that I'd forgotten how it feels to be sitting through the concert and then suddenly hear something so delightful that you and two-and-a-half thousand people get up and start dancing. I understand that BNL is known to put on a particularly good show, so it was fortuitous to have a chance to see them live last year. And disappoint they did not.

I went in to the show remembering that they sang "Pinch Me", one of my favorites, and the song that goes, "It's been, one week since you looked at me.... yah dah dah dee dah dah dee dah yah dah." So it was a pleasant surprise when they brought out "If I had a million dollars", "You run away," and other songs that I knew, but didn't realize that BNL sang. When you hear a song that you haven't even thought of for a decade, but that you heard every day on the radio for an entire summer ten years ago, it's amazing how the mind not only brings back the melody and lyrics, but also other thoughts and feelings that were associated with that song back in the day. That's something that's just so powerful about music.

I left the show better understanding the appeal of the band and why they developed such a following over the years. They alternated between acoustic and electric songs, with each member of the band playing different instruments and singing different harmonies for a variety of arrangements that kept the show fairly dynamic. From barbershop acapella to improvised rap to banjo-driven folk, the band sprinkled novelty numbers around their mainstream hits. I left the Mountain Winery humming and singing their music for the next few days.

No matter how much the world has changed in the way we consume media these days, it's hard to imagine anything that can truly replicate the impact that a successful live show can have for a band. And there's nothing else that inspires a musician to dust off his instrument like attending a live show.

Wake-Up Kiss: a new song about lazy mornings

2011-01-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

The morning is one of my favorite times of the day. I wrote this song when I was traveling to Paris a few years ago, inspired by leisurely mornings in the City of Lights. Although I was in France, the first word in the chorus actually has a Chinese translation I should point out: "Zao an" means "good morning" in Mandarin. Why use Chinese here? Well, my Chinese is not great by any means, but there are certain Chinese phrases that I really got used to saying at home while growing up. And "zao an" was one of them. Also in the chorus, I would have liked to have been able to use the French word, "mademoiselle" (one of the few that I remember from high school French class), but it just didn't work. So combine my limited Chinese with my even more limited French, and this is what you get, "zao an madame."

With regards to the music, I wrote the chords on guitar, first. Then, I wrote the melody with Finale. When I do that, the melody can often be difficult to sing, because I don't pay as much attention as I should to my own singing range when I compose. I had to actually download the MP3 to my phone and learn how to sing the song that way -- and I still don't have it quite right. But I had a day off last week and so I figured I'd give it a go to see if I could get a reasonable take down.

So I went driving around in the afternoon during my daughter's nap and looked for a different spot than last time. Although it was a beautiful day and there were some really scenic possibilities I found, I couldn't quite get far enough away from the road to avoid all of the road noise. So apologies for the sound of cars rumbling by. This was the best take I could get down:

A ukulele version of "Expectant"

2011-01-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

After playing around with my new ukulele for a couple of weeks, I thought it would be fun to use to record a version of "Expectant". I'd always thought that this song should be played with a ukulele because the sound was inspired by Hawaiian music when I wrote it. So on my last day of vacation earlier this week, with my daughter napping in the car, I found a fairly isolated parking lot -- except for the joggers, man talking loudly on his cell phone, planes, and birds swarming around -- and shot the following video.

After much rain over the holidays, I lucked out with some warm afternoon sunlight. While I didn't quite feel like I was back in Maui again, it was nice being outdoors surrounded by nature for this song.

The ukulele was quite convenient to carry around. But I still had some trouble holding the thing when I played, as it kept slipping down on a number of takes. Eventually I was able to find a somewhat comfortable, stable position for it.

It will be fun to try out some other songs that may be well-suited for ukulele as well.

A New Uke for the New Year

2011-01-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas, we took a family vacation to Maui. As is always the case when I visit Hawaii, I got ukulele tunes and all sorts of Hawaiian music stuck in my head, which is such an integral part of the whole experience and part of what makes the islands so relaxing.

As we were leaving, my wife thought it would be fun to buy my daughter a toy ukulele as a souvenir. And I agreed. So we picked one up from downtown Lahaina on our way to the airport. While my daughter loves her little pink uke, at some point I expressed some mild disappointment that the instrument didn't really hold it's tuning very well. So it wasn't really playable as a real instrument. My wife heard this and rectified the situation by surprising me with a ukulele of my own on Christmas morning!

She did a good job finding a solid instrument at a reasonable price. Apparently, the local music store was running low on inventory before the holidays, saying that ukulele's have been pretty popular this season. I wonder how much of the recent surge in popularity has been due to this song?

I love my solid-wood, Kala concert ukulele. I've been playing with it over my Christmas vacation and will hopefully be able to record something soon that I can post. As there are only four strings on a ukulele, the chord formations are fairly easy to learn for a guitarist. What takes the most getting used to is how to hold such a small instrument.

Happy new year!

A 5-piece band performance of "Hello World"

2010-12-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

Earlier this summer, for the first time in awhile I had a chance to play with a band -- albeit just for one performance. The opportunity arose when an invitation went out to a music list I'm on at work, informing us about an upcoming diversity fair that had open performance slots available for musicians. So I signed up on the list, then contacted some other musicians on the list to see if they wanted to collaborate. We met a few times to rehearse, auditioned, then met for a few more practices before performing at the event.

There was some question as to whether my song, "Hello World," qualified for a "diversity" fair. The organizers were looking for more regional or world music, I think. But since the song was based on my daughter's red egg and ginger party, the organizers thought it could work. Here's a video clip of our performance back in June:

The band consisted of Erin Bell on vocals, Pauline Samson on sax, Rushabh Gandhi on bass, Ghan Patel on doumbek, and me on guitar. It was really fun playing with such talented musicians, from practicing with them, to arranging the song, and ultimately performing together. To hear the song take on a new life was also pretty gratifying. The experience definitely made me think further about whether I should focus more on playing in a band again rather than noodling away on my own. When you play in a group, you can complement each other with your various strengths and leverage the resources and talents of the collective group.

It turns out that while the band did meet a couple of times after our performance, before we could really get going again we got derailed. One person left the company, another went on sabbatical, I got pretty busy, and we just ran out of steam. I guess that's one of the challenges of playing in a band -- just being able to stick together and making the schedules work.

Introducing "Hello World", a new song about new beginnings

2010-05-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

With my engineering roots, the phrase, "Hello World" is a very familiar expression of new beginnings. But this song is not about successfully embarking on the mastering of a new programming language. This song was inspired by my daughter's Red Egg and Ginger Party. Roughly a month after her birth, my wife and I followed a Chinese tradition of inviting friends and family over to welcome her into the world -- effectively her "Hello World" moment -- and handing out red eggs for good luck. The day of the party, the weather was gorgeous and my daughter was greeted with such smiles and warmth from people who were close to us, but strangers to her. Still, she must have felt like she was familiar with them in some way. After all, these were people whose voices she heard while in her mother's womb. This song was inspired by what I imagined her thoughts might have been had she been able to verbalize them -- thoughts of wonder and excitement, needs and hope.

Still, when I sat down to write this song, I wanted to broaden the scope a bit more so that it referred to other "Hello World" situations. In particular, I also envisioned a modern day troubadour, traveling the country for the first time, small town to small town, chatting with a coffee shop owner, bar tender or a small audience. It's a romanticized image of the real touring independent singer-songwriters do, to be sure, but one I had much fun playing around with.

Ultimately, whether you're talking about a new baby or a new artist, there are common hopes and desires that I think we all share.

New Song: Henri Rousseau

2010-02-01T00:34:00.000-08:00

This song, "Henri Rousseau," was inspired by my trip to Paris a few years ago. Rousseau was a French painter that I learned about while visiting the Musee d'Orsay. After browsing the work of renown Impressionists, like Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Cezanne, I recall turning the corner on the top floor of the museum and stumbling upon paintings by Rousseau -- who I had never heard of before. Not only did his paintings stand out, but his story was quite engaging, as well. In fact, any of you who maintain an artistic hobby -- or any hobby, for that matter -- on the side of a demanding day job, would probably find some inspiration in Rousseau's biography. A self-taught painter, Rousseau was the son of a plumber and worked regular jobs for much of his life, until he finally started painting seriously at the age of 49. In a previous blog post, I describe in greater detail what this song is about (to me). Take a look at that post if you haven't seen it, yet. And if you have, let me know if you guessed that it was Rousseau that I was writing about.

While I wrote the lyrics for this song a couple of years ago, I didn't write the music until last year. Then, over this past Christmas break, I found a couple of hours to sit down in front of a video camera and record a few of the songs I'd been working on -- including this one.

These days, I don't have much time to set up mics, do a bunch of takes, or do much editing. And I've given up on trying to do anything special with the lighting and backdrop, especially as my make-shift "home studio" has long been converted into my daughter's nursery. But I've continued to write and I've decided that it's been no fun sitting on these songs, waiting to work on an album that may never happen. So I'm going to start putting some more stuff out there, worrying less about the flaws and polish, and just doing what I can with the time that I have. Not unlike what Monsieur Rousseau must have done, I imagine.

Daddy Daycare goes to see Tut

2010-01-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

I started off 2010 with a full week of Daddy Daycare. My daughter and I took walks in the park, a trip to Half Moon Bay, and a visit to the de Young museum to see the King Tut exhibit.

The exhibit was a lofty $27.50 per adult, and, only after buying my ticket did the salesman tell me that strollers were not allowed in. This meant that I had to carry my daughter throughout the exhibit, which he moments prior encouraged us to take our time with and to view each artifact from many different angles in order to truly appreciate what we were seeing. So this was perhaps not the most family-friendly exhibit.

There were other disappointments about the exhibit, as well -- the biggest of which was the anticlimactic final room. The last halls are designed to reflect the four rooms that made up Tutankhamun's tomb. When you get to the final room, you expect to see the casket of Tut himself, or at least a healthy collection of artifacts from his chamber. Instead, you only get a smattering of items and a video projection of Tut's casket. Then, you realize that the images of the casket used in the marketing materials are actually ones of King Tut's ancestors, which you did see in an earlier room. And you also realize that if this was all that the museum was able to get, that the other items in his chamber must either have been really expensive, or simply under laser, lock and key in Egypt somewhere, not to be moved for any old traveling exhibit.

That said, part of the reason that the final room was anticlimactic was that the exhibit does a terrific job building up to the final room. Midway through the exhibit, I had long forgotten the stroller situation. The artifacts were in pristine condition, their arrangement logical and narrative, and the descriptions sufficiently detailed so that you really are drawn into a different time and place.

One of my favorites was a wooden hand-held board/box game that was not much larger than an iPhone or a Nexus One. But you could really imagine a young Tut playing with the intricate pieces to pass time, just as he would play a mobile game today. I do wish that the instructions for the game were included in the description, but they weren't. If I had more time, I might have studied the game a little while longer to see if I could guess at what the game mechanics were like.

I also was impressed by the coffinette for Tut's viscera. You may have seen this in other marketing promotions (and mistaken this for Tut's coffin). But the miniature coffin was partially so intriguing because of its small size and amazing detail. That was definitely worth a look from all angles. The wooden bust of Tut was interesting, as well. You wonder to what extent it reflected his real likeness. Finally, the sheer ritual of amassing such a collection to accompany someone into the after life was fairly thought-provoking as well -- I'm sure there's a song in there some where. So, overall, I do think the exhibit was worth seeing and I would recommend it.

Now, will my daughter remember anything that she saw in the exhibit? While she did stay awake through the whole thing, she seemed to enjoy looking up at the tall ceilings and the lighting more than the ancient artifacts!

Good-bye WordPress, Hello Blogger

2009-11-08T23:38:00.000-08:00

After using WordPress for a couple of years, I've made the switch to Blogger (Full disclosure: I work for the company that owns Blogger). I chose WordPress at first because I liked how customizable it was: the comment field fit the same theme as the rest of the blog, there was no visible header, and I could configure my blog as an artist web site complete with separate pages for my music, bio, videos, and more.

Since then, however, I've gotten much more familiar with Blogger. What finally prompted the switch was the ability to easily add gadgets, like Twitter, YouTube, Friend Connect, and Facebook to my blog. I'm sure I can do this with WordPress, but Blogger just makes it so easy. It was harder for me, personally, to maintain my WordPress blog and to keep it current. And, given some security vulnerabilities of WordPress that others have noted, I decided that I should just let Blogger do the heavy infrastructural lifting for me.

Switching to Blogger was pretty straightforward. The only tricky part was that I had to use an export file conversion utility in order to import my past posts into Blogger. On some posts, there are still some pictures that are missing and that I need to reformat, but otherwise the content has been transferred. With this new blog format, I've added my Twitter feed and links to my YouTube channel and Facebook page so that the content I'm generating on different services is now easily viewable on one site: www.lawrencechang.com.

Finally, I do realize that I've been quiet for much of this year. I'll provide more of an update on a future post.

Is MySpace or Facebook better for musicians?

2009-03-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

I created my own MySpace profile more than a year ago and despite not really doing much with it, I've gotten over 800 profile views. So I've decided to upload a few songs to MySpace to see if the profile views are real and if they'll actually translate into plays of the songs.

Still, I have far more friends on Facebook than MySpace. So, I've also created a Facebook musician page and made the same songs available there. I actually started creating the page many months ago but just didn't publish it. I had wanted to add a music player first so that people could actually listen to songs on the page. However, the Facebook player required me to scan in a legal form of identification and to send that for approval so that Facebook could authenticate whether I really had the rights to upload the songs. This was a bit of a hassle and so for quite some time I just didn't do it. This past weekend, I decided to look at some alternatives and found out that I can use the iLike music player instead. So I created an iLike profile and added the app to my Facebook musician page. The iLike Song player automatically includes links to iTunes so people can buy and download the songs that they like. The iLike Facebook page also automatically searches for related videos on YouTube and invites listeners to suggest videos as well. Pretty cool.

I haven't found a way to link to iTunes from my MySpace profile, yet. It seems that MySpace should allow you to link up to Amazon -- where my songs are also available. But I haven't figured out how to do this. If anyone knows anything about this, let me know.

Creating a separate musician page on Facebook is nice because it splits out friends from fans. While you may want to keep your list of friends on the more personal side, you may be less sensitive about having your fan base grow untethered. There are a couple of drawbacks, though. First, you may discover that you really have absolutely no fans whatsoever and that your friends don't really care for your music. Although this can be somewhat bruising at first, I think it's better to know this now so that you can starting find the people that do care and avoid spamming those that don't. Second, it's awkward to have to add yourself as a fan of yourself, as Facebook encourages you to do. When you do, you basically broadcast to all of your friends that you are a fan of yourself, which just sounds silly. I'd prefer that when you publish your musician page, Facebook would simply send out a status update to your friends that indicates that you've done this -- and include a link to the page so people can check it out.

One thing that I'm particularly unhappy with Facebook, MySpace, and iLike about is that there's no native support for pulling an RSS feed from an external blog and have it automatically populate each profile. I don't want to have to copy blog posts from my blog to each profile. So instead my only recourse was to look for and add third-party RSS readers to the profiles. None of the readers is perfect, but I've found a couple of decent apps that I'm currently using.

In addition to comparing the organic listener growth (if any) from each social network, it'll be interesting to explore and compare the feature sets and usability of each service as well. I'll write more about what I find out in future posts.

Expectant (McKenna's song)

2009-02-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

Regarding the eager expectations and need for more space I alluded to in my last post -- some of you probably knew that I was referring to the fact that my wife and I were expecting. For a while now, we'd been clearing out space for the nursery, researching and buying the baby gear, going to regular doctor's appointments, and so on. Well the big day finally came last week. I'm happy to announce the birth of our daughter, McKenna.

I started writing this song fairly early on in the pregnancy. During the first trimester, we hadn't told a whole lot of people we were expecting, yet. I remember being so excited and just purely happy, but not being able to tell anyone about it. It didn't matter whether someone cut me off on the 101 or if I had a stressful day at work. There was a sense that nothing else mattered -- we were expecting, and within half a year we would be holding our own child. It was like I had a special pair of glasses on that made everything in the world seem brighter and happier. What would these glasses be called? Ironically, "sun" glasses made sense to me, as these would be glasses that would help you see more light and hues -- the good stuff -- from the sun. I liked the divergent meanings of sun glasses and normal sunglasses (which are more appropriately called sun shades, I think) and so the "sun glasses" metaphor used in this song was born.

During the pregnancy, my wife and I would regularly read about the various stages of development of our child. As the pregnancy progressed, we got an increasingly powerful sense that our child was already there with us wherever we would go. We started talking to her, started caressing her by rubbing my wife's belly, and I started singing to her. So when I wrote this song it felt natural to address the song to McKenna while she was still in the womb, to exclaim to her that she was the one that made us expectant, that she was the one that made us feel such happiness. Hence the chorus, "you make me expectant."

Still, I wanted the song to make sense for me to sing to her after she was born, as well. It occurred to me that children can make their parents expectant throughout life, not just in utero. So I created the third verse to address this -- that this state of being expectant is not limited to just nine months, but even beyond that.

As far as the style of the song goes, I've been to Hawaii a couple of times now and each time I've been struck by the joy reflected in the music. And so I wrote something that reminded me of Hawaiian music. Perhaps a future recording of this song should contain a ukulele!

I recorded this song during the last couple of weeks of the pregnancy, when we were waiting for labor to begin. After McKenna was born, I of course sang her this song while trying to calm her down during late night meltdowns. I like to think that she's starting to recognize and respond to the song... at first, I was able to relax her and put her to sleep by the end of the song. But only time will tell. I've noticed that other songs she hears could be having the same effect! As always, give the song a listen and let me know what you think. The pictures in the video were taken the day after she was born, while we were still in the hospital.

Quiet plodding

2009-01-31T09:37:00.000-08:00

Since my last post, so much has happened. The economy took a dive, the elections occurred, the holidays came and went, 2009 kicked off, and our new president took office. My personal life has been tainted with unexpected losses, yet buoyed by eager expectations and anticipation.

Through it all, the writing and music making has been progressing quietly in the background. My home studio has been taken down to make way for additional space that we need, so the recording has come to a halt. But I've managed to find some time to write a couple of new songs and to continue practicing some others. Until I find some where else to set the studio up, I'll keep chipping away on the remaining songs in the works and learning to play them. Then, when I do get the studio set up, hopefully the recording will go much more smoothly. That's the plan, anyway.

Oh and thanks to those of you who sent me feedback on Somethin' American. It's always great to hear insightful comments from you and to feel your continued support!

Somethin' American

2008-10-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

With the Beijing Olympics behind us and the US presidential elections just before us, with the housing market and our once esteemed economy on life support, and with our stature in and policies on world affairs increasingly questioned, we have rarely needed a period of patriotism and focus on unity and commonality as much as we do now.

While I was happy that during this year's summer games the American-beats-Michelle-Kwan incident felt less relevant than ever, I am a little bit discouraged when the US presidential campaigns start to drudge up questions about race and fear of Somethin' Americans.

This song is about the hope that there exists unity in diversity. It's about commonality. The simple things that tie is together. The fact that we live where we do or grew up where we did. Our clothing, our right to vote, the air that we breathe; the fruit, vegetables, and meat that we find in our grocery stores. It's all the same stuff. We may wear it or prepare it differently, but it's the same.

Ironically, the most American I've felt has not been while living in any of the nine states that I've lived in. It's not when I've cast my vote, or paid my taxes. It's when I've traveled abroad to Europe or Asia and have been immersed in other cultures. That's when it becomes plainly obvious. There's never any discussion about whether I'm Somethin' American or not. They just see me -- and treat me -- as American.

There are times when we need to dissect our differences and in doing so realize opportunities to educate, communicate, and progress. There are times when we need to find inspiration in commonality. Now is a time for the latter. Although we can all claim to be Somethin' American, now is the time when we ought all to simply be, American.

Campfire dynamics, Costanoa, plus video update

2008-08-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday and Friday I had the chance to do some light car camping with coworkers at an "eco adventure resort," Costanoa, which is about 24 miles south of Half Moon Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Among any group of people around any campfire, it almost always seems like there's a handful of folks who know how to play a tune on the guitar. How these ax wielders reveal their hidden talents to the group -- or even whether they reveal them at all -- is always an interesting phenomenon to behold.

First, there are those that actually bring their guitars to the campground -- they've learned a few songs, have played mainly in isolation, and recognize an opportunity to perform. Not all of them will actually gather up the courage to take their guitars out of their cars, however. Those that bring their guitars to the campfire and actually take them out of the case will fall into a couple of different categories. Some will play quietly and wait for the attention of the larger group. Others will boldly take charge and start playing a full set. Among those that did not bring a guitar, there are some who will volunteer to play the single song they know... then eek out a few notes that are barely discernible, yet somewhat entertaining. Then there are those that insist they do not play but leave enough hints to suggest that they are holding something back. After some persuading, they reluctantly pick up the guitar and then proceed to play a number that far exceeds expectations.

Regardless, of their personality type and skill level, almost anyone who has played guitar has at one point pondered the allure of strumming a guitar around a campfire for a captive, participative audience that sings along and sways, arms in arms, to Kumbaya or another campfire standard -- although this scenario does not always materialize.

For me, I'm likely to bring my guitar to a campground, but I'm not sure that I know enough cover songs to sufficiently lead an intimate sing along. I do have some covers that I can pull out of my back pocket and I'm more than happy to play my own stuff, if asked, but I probably won't force it on anyone. I often find myself savoring some other opportunities to play. On this trip, I woke up early on Friday morning and, before breakfast, made my way to the beach where I sang and played my backpacker guitar to the crashing waves and serene seaside. Playing by the ocean is one of my favorite places to play.

Finally, I should let you know that I did start the process of recording some video for this blog this month. I set up a video camera and some microphones and did a number of takes. Unfortunately, my home studio has some noise and lighting constraints that limit the amount of time that I can actually record. That said, I've been making some revisions to the way I'm playing and singing this particular song and I'm nearing a good solid take that I'll be able to post soon. Stay tuned!

Album update

2008-07-30T16:15:00.000-07:00

Some of you have been asking me for an update on the new album and it's definitely about time I provided that. When I set out last year to work on it, I was hoping that I would have something out by this fall. With less than a couple of months to go until autumn, however, the feasibility of this happening is dwindling. Between an increasingly demanding job, moving and settling into a new place, and other personal responsibilities, the daily grind has had its foot on the neck of my creative being and has not let up. I am pressing on, though, and I have been playing and writing. Just at a slower pace.

In the mean time, I'm thinking of recording some songs and putting them on YouTube and maybe MySpace. Although the recording quality won't be great, it's much quicker and it'll give you a chance to hear some of the new stuff and new arrangements of the old stuff. It also could be fun to participate a bit more in the growing virtual coffeehouse that YouTube is becoming. So stay tuned!

Wedding profiled by Junebug

2008-06-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

My wife and I recently celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. Around the same time, we were approached by Junebug Weddings -- a wedding blog and planning service based in Seattle -- to have our wedding featured in the "Real Weddings" portion of their blog. After we agreed to do this, they called us up and chatted with us over the phone about the planning of the day, our most prominent memories, and a bit about our story. While we were surprised by some of the details we had forgotten already, we enjoyed the trip down memory lane and the chance to relive our wedding day once again.

Junebug published the post yesterday. You can check out our "real weddings" profile on the Junebug site, as well as our entry on the "what Junebug loves" blog. As you browse through the pictures (photos taken by Joey Hong), note that my wife deserves all the credit for the aesthetic qualities of our wedding -- she did an amazing job planning it. And she looked absolutely stunning walking down the aisle.

I will, however, claim advanced credit for writing a song about our wedding day -- Song #2 on the new album. Although I wrote the song last summer, I haven't recorded it yet... so you'll have to take my word on this for now!

Watching John Mayer perform at a conference

2008-05-31T03:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was at a conference in Orlando. One highlight for me was getting a chance to watch John Mayer perform an acoustic set at the conference with two other guitarists. Ever since I was in Arizona and I'd go to small coffee shops to watch my friends Rick and Steve play intimate acoustic sets, I've liked the sound of just a couple of acoustic guitars on stage. One of the best concerts I've been to was watching Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds in Oakland a few years ago, packing in the coliseum.

Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the hour-long acoustic set by the Mayer trio, I got to watch it from about fifteen feet away. There were over five thousand people at the conference, but not nearly that many turned out for the concert. And the performance took place in a relatively large conference hall with plenty of food and drink to occupy the guests -- many of whom expressed little more than casual curiosity for the live music. So although I was pretty close to the stage, I felt at times like I was watching a local band in a bar where the chatter from the crowd nearly drowns out the music. I've certainly played in that sort of environment before; it was encouraging to see that even guys like Mayer have to play through the chatter every now and then.

The Mayer trio played a mix of his radio hits, a couple of covers, and some bluesy tunes that I hadn't heard before. Tempo-wise the songs were fairly similar -- all pretty upbeat and nothing too slow, probably a good combination for this audience. I also noticed that his lyrics seemed to be a bit more on the wordy side in contrast to someone like Jack Johnson, yet he still makes it work. Interestingly enough, despite Mayer's numerous radio hits the song that drew out the most camera phones and snap shots and cheers may have been the trio's cover of Tom Petty's Free Falling. I wonder if covering songs like this allows Mayer to expand his fan base to new demographics?

I also wonder if popular covers are a testament to the power of well-written songs? While it may take great performers to break hit songs, I think the fact that some songs can grow more and more popular with repeated covers highlights the fundamental importance of composition.

The Seriously Heart Tour 2008

2008-04-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I had a chance to watch an up-and-coming L.A. band, Seriously, perform at Stanford as part of their "Heart Tour" to raise awareness for the dire shortage of bone marrow donors in the U.S. There's a disproportionately miniscule pool of donors for Asian Americans. Organizations like Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches, the Asian American Donor Program (endorsed by Survivor Cook Islands Winner, Yul Kwon), and Cammy Lee Leukemia Foundation are working hard to register new donors and to increase the probability that more Leukemia patients will find matches. Check out any of those links to find out more info.

The band consists of Chris Pham on vocals and acoustic guitar, Alex Yi on electric guitar, Joshua Baek on bass guitar, and Philip Park on Drums and viola. The band is produced by Woody Pak and Gloria Lee, friends of a friend of mine. Woody is the head of Chaos Theory Music and has composed scores for Making Tracks the Musical, the film The Grace Lee Project, and a variety of other TV, film, and recording projects. Gloria is an ethnomusicologist researching Asian American popular music.

Seriously played a couple of sets that ranged from hard-rocking, electric guitar-driven arrangements to mellow acoustic guitar and viola-based combos. For one song about the mechanization of daily life, the band moved around the stage robotically. In another, the guitarist busted a guitar string and the band attempted some jokes. Overall, they seemed like a fun group of guys.

Among the songs I liked the best -- Godspeed Cats and Dogs, and Fireflies. The latter most-likely because it featured acoustic guitar a bit. In fact, in some other songs I wish they would have turned the acoustic guitar up a little bit so that you could hear it better.

Overall it was a fun evening centered around a good cause. At some point during the evening, Yul Kwon even proposed to his girlfriend on stage!

Here's a video of the band playing at Berkeley:

The inspiration for song #6: a French post-impressionist painter

2008-03-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

Is it March already? This year has been speeding by! Seems like just yesterday we were ringing in the new year and 2008 still felt like an awkward date to jot down. Between traveling for my day job and keeping up with life outside of work, I haven't been able to spend nearly as much time on the music as I would have liked. That said, I have managed to get some writing in and you're long overdue for an update.

The main progress I've made has been on writing some new lyrics. I've pretty much finished lyrics for songs #6 and #7 for the new album. For song #6, the lyrics took me much longer to write -- there were a couple of parts I just kept thinking about and coming back to and couldn't get quite right. The ending, for instance, was tough because that's when I wanted to deliver whatever commentary on life that I wanted to make with the song. In this case, I ultimately wanted to submit an answer to the age-old question, "why write?"

Song #6 is actually a bit of an homage to a French post-impressionist painter that I found inspirational during my visit to the Musee d'Orsay last summer. I not only found his work unique and compelling, but I was drawn to the story of his life. In fact, that's one of my favorite aspects of visiting art museums -- they're like gigantic storybooks bursting with drama, characterization, comedy, climactic moments, commentary, and description. I enjoy consuming not only the stories depicted in artwork, but the stories of the artists themselves. So many of them struggle to be able to pursue their creative endeavors, while others are discovered early on and find themselves a patron. What they all have in common, though, is that they made the time in their lives to create art. It's humbling in some ways, yet inspirational in others.

Now, many artists are criticized and ostracized in some way or another. But the reasons for why this occurs vary. In this particular case, I was drawn to the fact that this artist was criticized for being untrained and for painting like a child -- for being amateurish, in fact. He was born into the working class, went to college for something other than art, held a regular job for most of his life, and got a pretty late start on painting. He was different from other painters and didn't always hang out in the same places. He must have encountered the question, "why do you paint?" on numerous occasions. While I certainly didn't read the biographies of all the artists in the museum, I read a number of them and this is one that struck a chord with me. This one stopped me in my tracks. This one sent me through this surrealistic time warp where I imagined shaking hands with this fellow and saying, "hey, I think I know how you feel."

When I sat down to write a song about this, I wasn't sure that I wanted to write about this painter as a role model or a hero -- I'm old enough to know that role models change over time and that there are always things you don't know about them. I also wasn't trying to say that I wanted to be this person or to accomplish the same things in life. I ultimately decided to write about what I admire about him and to conclude with my own thoughts on why I write and why I think he may have continued painting himself.

So that will be song #6.

Actually, I should clarify that these song numbers reflect the order in which they are written, not necessarily the track number that they will get on the album. I don't have all the titles for these songs figured out, yet, so hopefully this will suffice for now.

A note on the Grammys

2008-02-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

I caught some of the Grammys tonight and enjoyed some of the artist pairings and performances: Alicia Keys and John Mayer, Tina Turner and Beyonce, Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang, Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli. Who was the mastermind that devised these pairings, I wonder? Some disappointments for me, though, occurred when Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova got shut out from the various movie-related categories for Once -- a terrific film if you've not seen it. I also would like to have seen Tom Higgenson win Song of the Year for "Hey There Delilah," although Amy Winehouse was certainly a deserving winner. As far as pleasant surprises -- I liked the performance of Leslie Feist, whom I'd never heard of before. Apparently, an iPod nano commercial tipped her song, 1234, which was distributed primarily through digital downloads.

Pacers in Birmingham

2007-12-31T12:22:00.000-08:00

Detroit is a great sports town. From the Tigers to the Wolverines and Spartans, from the Red Wings to the Pistons, the city (and its state) has crowned many a champion in the past couple of decades. My favorite Detroit team when I was a kid was the basketball team -- the Pistons. I played some basketball in junior high and high school and naturally looked up to some of our hometown players, especially Joe Dumars.

Back home in Michigan for the holidays this year, I stopped by a coffee shop in Birmingham with some family last Thursday. And guess who walked in? No, not Joe Dumars. But, a couple of guys who were in town playing against Joe Dumars' Pistons: Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy of the Indiana Pacers. I recognized those guys because they played for the Golden State Warriors for a number of years before they were traded to Indiana.

On our way out, we stopped by and said hello. They were nice enough to take a picture with me and my brother-in-law. It's one thing to watch these guys on TV or from the stands with 20,000 other people. But, they're much more real -- and a bit taller -- when you actually meet them face to face and shake their hands.

Photo in the New York Times

2007-12-20T00:03:00.000-08:00

After a picture of me at a group dinner wound up in the New York Times last month, a few thoughts passed through my mind. At first, I was pleasantly surprised when a friend of mine sent along the email informing me about the article. It's not every day that your picture ends up in the New York Times -- even on their web site. That was a bit of a fun departure from the daily routine.

My second thought was one of gratitude. I'd always been grateful for the unique opportunity to attend MIT. I was never the kid who grew up expecting to go to a school like MIT -- I was the kid that worked really hard to get there, but still felt lucky to get in. And when I did get in, I thought the excitement would be fairly short lived because there was no way I could afford to go. I grew up in metro Detroit and attended a public high school whose lovable-loser teams would get squashed by the prep schools in just about every competitive category -- only, I'm not sure we were that lovable. When I received a letter my freshman year in college telling me that a portion of my financial aid was from the Tang family, I felt gratitude for this man, Jack Tang, whom I didn't even know, for helping me out with my education. And when I finally met the Tang family years later at an alumni dinner in San Francisco, I was again reminded of their immense generosity. I was happy to see this article highlight their philanthropy and encourage a culture of giving among wealthy Chinese-Americans.

My third thought was a reflection on identity. Some times you get a glimpse of how other people see you and when this happens, it can be a bit eye-opening. To be labeled a nameless, "poor Chinese American" in this particular photo is not typically how I'd seen myself. Of course, as a kid I was aware that we didn't take that many family vacations, that we shopped for clothes at discount and thrift stores, that not all my friends worked newspaper routes and jobs at McDonald's to save up money for college. For some reason, though, I never really thought that all of this meant that we were, in effect, poor by some standards. My parents always provided for us, after all, and we never went to bed hungry. For the New York Times to be the one to call us "poor" -- well, that was a bit thought provoking.

Thanksgiving Nephew

2007-11-26T23:20:00.000-08:00

It's great to have some time off for Thanksgiving -- to take a break from work, to spend some time with family, and to write. It's especially enjoyable when you have an opportunity to meet new family members. For me, this Thanksgiving was a chance to meet my very first nephew (or niece for that matter) -- born only about a few weeks ago. A number of my friends have had babies, now, and each time it's always particularly fun to meet the kids the first time. When it's your sibling's turn to experience parenthood, though, it feels a bit different. Maybe it's because you still remember when you were kids yourselves, running around home, playing board games, getting into trouble, and in our case, moving into a new neighborhood every few years. Or, maybe because their kid automagically turns you into an Uncle... just like that. It's unfortunate that not all family got to see the little guy, though. Hopefully they will, soon enough.

I did manage to get some writing in over the holiday. Sitting in a cafe in L.A., I felt the creative vibes of the surrounding music industry as I worked out a melody for Song #5. I also felt the hustle of Black Friday shoppers swirling about -- a very different sort of vibe, but energy nonetheless.

Tony Bennett -- Pop or Jazz?

2007-11-09T23:23:00.000-08:00

Quick, name three songs you know by Tony Bennett. I admit that prior to last week, I probably could not have done that. This week, I have a better chance of being able to do so now that I've seen him perform -- albeit briefly. Tony stopped by my day job last Monday to talk about the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts that he co-founded in 2001. He also sang four songs: They All Laughed, Who Cares?, The Good Life, and I Left My Heart in San Francisco. While his voice is very distinct and identifiable, what struck me most about this particular performance was the interesting subject matter of the tunes. His lyrics not only included references to business and famous cities, but also inventors like the Wright Brothers, Marconi, Whitney, and Edison. Having written songs in the past about technical innovation and the work place, I was inspired to hear some of his songs cover a variety of topics beyond what mainstream music tends to address today. So is he classified as pop or jazz? His songs are listed under both categories on iTunes, while on Wikipedia they call his genre "standards" as well as "traditional pop." Regardless, I may go ahead and search out one of his albums for a more detailed listen. An octogenarian, Tony looked to have an impressive amount of energy and charisma -- another point of inspiration.

Chronicles of a New Album

2007-10-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

The time is appropriate to officially announce that I've begun work on a sophomore album. I learned so much while making When So Late Becomes So Early that I've been itching for quite some time to give it another go.

Why now? Well, first of all, I just finished graduate school this past spring and had some much needed time off this summer. I got a great head start on writing a bunch of new stuff already and I've had so much to write about -- including meeting my lovely wife, our memorable wedding, and more traveling than I'd ever done before.

Second of all, my recent trip to Paris was truly inspirational. Seeing so much art at the Pompidou, Louvre, Orsay, Rodin Gardens, and numerous cathedrals was very rejuvenating. Learning about the artists' stories, subject matters, the plethora of their work, their commentaries and observations of life, connections with audiences, the numerous challenges they faced, and their persistent desire to create an experience -- it was all quite thought-provoking and motivating for me. In addition, having the rare opportunity to write in the beautiful Luxembourg and Tuileries Gardens, in front of Sacre Coeur, and in the Rodin Garden provided the proverbial kick-in-the-behind to get moving.

As far as my time frame, I'm targeting release of the album by the fall of 2008. It may be slow going at times, but I'll do my best to provide a progress report on this blog. Will I be able to stick to this deadline or better yet, beat it? What obstacles will lurk about? Who will lend a helping hand? What shall I name it? Should I listen to the critics or ignore them? Will I be overwhelmed by the daily grind and have my artistic soul crushed by responsibility...?

Wish me luck.

Melody First for the First Time

2007-10-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new song, now, where I'm actually writing the melody, first, and then harmonizing it with chords, second. On When So Late, I always wrote either the chords or the lyrics first, but never the melody first. As a guitarist, chord progressions are the most natural parts to write as they just materialize as I'm noodling around and experimenting with different sounds. Then, once I have lyrics, it's fairly intuitive to stumble across a melody to fit with the progression and that just sounds right. As a result, I suspect that some of my melodies on the first album tended to follow the chord progressions a bit much and were therefore constrained in some ways. Will there be a noticeable difference in my songs if I write the melodies first? I happen to think so... but I guess I'll have to let you guys be the judge of that when you hear the new stuff.

"Matador" and "Dream of All Ages" Caught on Video

2007-10-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

I've added pictures and video from the CD release party to the web site. I don't think any of you have actually seen these videos before, even though they are live recordings of Matador and Dream of All Ages taken at the release party in San Francisco a few years ago. Back then, it was not quite as easy to stream videos of these sizes on a web site. What a difference YouTube makes!

Since the original videos are somewhat dark and grainy, I had to try to lighten them up a bit. In doing so, I also decided to try to make them a tad more interesting by adding television and film effects.

New web site!

2007-10-01T03:51:00.000-07:00

For the first time in a few years, I've made some big changes to my web site. I think the old site was perhaps a bit impersonal and looked somewhat tacky... for those of you who don't remember, it was red and black with various graphics that resembled spotlights. Updates were provided through some rather stodgy press releases. Ugh. What was I thinking?!

Nevertheless, I've now decided to give this blogging format a try. Hopefully this will help me post a bit more regularly and give all of you better updates on what I'm up to with my music. One really cool thing -- if you use an RSS reader, you can easily subscribe to this blog by clicking on the "Posts RSS" link in the left menu bar. You can also subscribe via email by clicking on "Register" below.

Finally, please do submit comments and let me know what you think every now and then!