My first job in NYC was playing a gig in the early nineties at CBGBs.
At some point, I had to make a decision: I could practice more and become a really great guitar player or I could work on writing better songs. There are only so many hours in the day, and I found writing songs more fulfilling than working on becoming this virtuoso guitar player.
I play and I’ve played in heavy bands, but when I write for myself, I don’t particularly feel like writing huge rock riffs. It just doesn’t work for me and my voice.
It’s great working with directors and with somebody else’s vision.
I think if you’re able to make the music you want and you can do it in the right kind of context, you don’t have to be a circus ringleader to be successful.
So there was something of a learning curve with doing your own thing and people seeing you outside of the band. I mean, people have never really heard my voice before – or heard a whole record of mine before. So it was a completely new experience.
No, I’ve heard over the years that it’s nice for them to see somebody who’s like, you know, a well-known successful musician who’s Asian. I’ve heard it from a few musicians, too.
I’d like to keep doing film and TV, and I definitely can appreciate a good theme song. If it’s memorable, that’s a great thing.
Yeah, I’m sure there are stereotypes of Asian people.
The band set up in January and just started rehearsing. If there was a song, we’d just rehearse it as a band, and it would get arranged as a band, and it got changed around a lot.
I love a lot of the New York bands, but Patti Smith stands out. I just read ‘Just Kids’ and it’s an inspirational, well-written account of an emerging New York artist in the late seventies.
Even from a listening end now, I’m still completely a fan of music.
And they kind of left to find a guitar player at the very end, so you know, I don’t really take it as any slight that I wasn’t able to play on the record. It’s flattering just to play with them period.
But, yeah, as far as Asian Americans go, I hope they know they can look at me and see that they can do music on their own, within a band or just on their own, and not feel like there’s any barriers. I’ve never felt any particular barriers myself, being who I am.
I’m happy doing different things. Being in a band is great, but being in a band can be difficult sometimes.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago.
I live most of the time in New York now. I have an apartment there.
The music industry is not what it used to be. Being in a good band is great, and I’ve been lucky to be in great bands. I’ve done solo stuff, and that’s been great. I also produce rock bands and I do co-writes, where I write with different singers in bands and songwriters.
If you put all the songs together that I’ve written on band records, and put it up next to my solo record, there’s definitely a different kind of feel than Billy’s songs.
It’s hard enough to make a good song and a good recording of that song. But to try to tailor it to some outside force is just like – It’s never been a factor in what I’ve done or what the band’s done.
It’s much easier to work on other people’s music and play in other people’s bands as a guitar player instead of being the main songwriter and singer. That’s a really big job to do that.