Rocketfuel’s Weblog

So Beautiful

shots and Beer

Sam Kang FTW!

(Video of the performance and others…)

Kt213: Hey Sam, give our viewers your 30-second intro!
SK: Haha. Well I am from Southern California and started playing guitar around 11 years ago. I began songwriting around 6 years ago and that has been what I have been focusing on ever since. Right now I’m working on an E.P. that I hope can be finished by the end of this upcoming summer so until then I’m playing a few shows and working with other musicians to get that done.

Kt213: How would you best describe your music?
SK: I’m guessing it would be under r&b/ hip hop but i like the answer my friend gave when he said that it’s just Korean music.

Kt213: Where do you draw inspiration from to keep doing what you love?
SK: That’s tough because I think it can come from anything but I guess it would generally come from the shared experiences I’ve gone through with my friends and family.

Kt213: A lot of people thought you should’ve won in last year’s Kollaboration. Despite the loss, it sounds like you have a lot of support. How do you feel about that?
SK: Kollaboration is such a great channel for helping artists out and regardless of any prizes, it was pretty sweet being part of something that I think will have a historical significance to the Korean American Community in the future.

Kt213: Where can we see more of you? Any future projects you like to share?
SK: As of now, I’m working on putting an album out. It’s going to be more of a compilation of all the songs I’ve been working on these past few years so that should be exciting. As for shows, I don’t have a set place I play at frequently but there will be random shows here and there that I’ll be doing along the way.

Kt213: Sorry for the yearbook question, but where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
SK: Ha ha no way. I totally wished i had this question in my yearbook. I hope that I’m still doing something with music but there is always that getting married and starting a family that I look forward too. Hopefully I can do both ha ha.

Kt213: What are your turn-on’s and turn-off’s?
SK: One of my top qualities in people is honesty. lying is not that way to go. also people who are confident and have good self control, just be cool. And it’s always good to meet someone who can think for themselves without you having to spell it out for them.

Kt213: Where are some of your favorite places to hang out in K-Town?
SK: oh man. The food in k-town is so good that it doesn’t really matter. unless your talking about El Taurino. that place is where its at. i just love being in k-town whether it’s at a bar/club/restaurant. It reminds me of Korea and i feel comfortable minus the k-town girl checking you out for your money ha ha.

Kt213: We thank you for your time Sam, and wish you the best of luck!
SK: for sure. anytime. glad to be off the hot seat!

It was a nice turn out last Friday…….too bad I don’t remember how I fell asleep in my car and Sam’s performance.

http://www.kascon21.com/

3 hours before the big show I filmed Sam Kang, Million Dollar Babies, Quest, and Tier2 practicing on my crappy digital camera. The real performances videos will be all over Youtube soon.

Sooooo…..the show was a complete success. PK worked the crowd into a laughing frenzy and the acts and guest comedians wowed them as well. During the audience participation segments, we had black and white people coming up to perform for prizes. We even had this one black lady pretend that she could sing just so she could come on stage and tell how wonderful the show was. I could clearly see patches of other non-Asian ethnic groups in the audience.

However, I am disappointed in the judges and who they picked as the winners. There were so many talented song writers and musicians, like Sam Kang and Connie Lim, who could have benefited more from winning than a group of dancers.

While I know the show isn’t like Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew, where mistakes hurt the overall point count…the two dance groups that won 1st and tied 2nd, were sloppy. I do admit that they did some exciting dance moves, but overall, they weren’t that great or original as the musicians. Quest, who who tied for 2nd, took a chair flare right out of Project Korea at UK BBoy Championship. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they didn’t try to do too much with it and mess up at the end by bumping into each other.

I saw a bunch of mistakes up close because I was on the back stage watching the show from the side…which kind of sucked because I couldn’t watch how the audience would react to what was on stage. I wasn’t allowed to stand in the back with the rest of the audience. The only reaction I did get a good idea on was when Sam Kang went out to perform.

As Sam came out to meet the audience, all the other performers were commenting that “this guy is really good. ” Then when he started singing the chorus for his song Dreams, all the girls in the audience starting melting loudly. I still think Sam Kang should of won. More so than a group of swing dancers…..swinging to first place.

So many orbs floating around my camera shots…I wonder if they were ghosts.

Performing at Kollaboration 8…and the one I’m hoping will win the judges over and get a mainstream career going.

…I hope this guy takes off after Kollaboration 8.

The Connie Lim Band:

Fronted by Connie Lim and while she plays the piano/keyboard, she has some great live instrumentalists backing up her strong vocals. Of all the pure musician bands, she stood out the most with all the judges. She also writes her own music…actually, quite a lot of the auditioners wrote their own music and that’s very impressive.

This is the song she performed. Has hints of some of Christina Aguilera “Fighter” in there, but the rest is her.

myspace page

Nam Ninja, one of my favorite performers of the night. He’s a mix between Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, with hints of raw talent to blend in with his odd appearance of looking older than he really is.

It was a catchy song, but someone mentioned he used the cords from Radiohead’s “Creep.” I hardly noticed. Listen to “The Poem” on his myspace page. Just ignore the bad recording.

myspace

There was also this one very good solo guitarist. He was so good that all the ladies were swooning over him. His name is Sam Kang…but we all really got lost in his performance. The auditioners had less than 2 minutes to perform, but we let this guy go on until he was done. myspace

Andrew Chiang was really good too….

I felt he was the most natural performer…and looked like one of the doctors from the E.R. show. He’s half Chinese and half something of Hispanic descent…