How did you guys meet and formed together as a group?

I wrote Monsters Calling Home and wanted to perform the song at an Asian American competition in LA called Kollaboration. I knew John and Daniel from different bands and the rest were friends that I admired their taste in music or just liked it general. We lost to a guy with two yo yo’s and a hip hop track but the response was still positive and so we kept booking gigs and writing more songs together.

Live performance at Balcony TV, “Lying Beast” (Source: Balcony TV YouTube)

What is the songwriting and producing music like? Do you have certain concepts that represent your group?

There are a variety of tastes and interest within the band, but some general themes tend to come from having immigrant parent and being a part of an immigrant subsection of American society. The first album definitely has a lot of stories surrounding folks we know, our own folks and what it means to make a home, what does family mean. We always think of the process like a garden and we all being different ideas and try to allow for them to grow and for everyone to contribute to everything’s that growing.

When you told your parents and family that you want to pursue in music, what was the reaction from them?

It was different for all our parents but definitely the initial reaction is that this wouldn’t be too serious but when we got on TV they were half concerned and half pleasantly surprised. Pursuing music is pretty unstable, especially for a group of six and most immigrant parents left their countries for their kids to have stable, better opportunities. This seemed like a risky step but seeing all of this early success kept their concerns at bay, for now! 

Could you talk about your album and how it came about?

We were always prepping to record our songs properly, so even at the nascent stages of our band – we were practicing recording tracks and videos for any and all of our music. By the time we found our home at Nettwerk and began work with Phil Ek at Avast studios in Seattle – we were pretty excited to make this debut album. This was our first album and we were (and still are) relatively young as a band. It was a huge trial by fire and we learned how much of the recording process can be a mental game and how much we needed each other in getting this done. In a sense, the album is a snapshot of our band last summer, bringing up personal memories for us. Having the album named Run River North not only helps people remember our name 🙂 but it also reminds us of how we want to keep making music that move with intention and force – whether quiet or strong.

Which song would you recommend for first-time listeners and why?  

Lying Beast – we love how it came out on the CD and it does a great job of showcasing the stories, sounds of the band without hitting you over the head.