Trace Repeat’s Indiegogo Soul Revival

After a month-long online campaign, Kollaboration finalists Trace Repeat recently finished crowdsourcing their debut EP with over $8,000. Along with meeting their initial $5,000 goal, the band will now perform at South By Southwest and produce a behind-the-scenes video of the recording process.

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The six-piece Oakland, California band began two years ago by Zach Hing and Wesley Woo, and was originally a side project for all the members. What began as a cover band of Motown and classics like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and James Brown, Woo said that Trace Repeat began to draw on those influences to write original songs, creating their own style of funk band. In May 2016, the band met Kollaboration San Francisco staff member Lauren Lee and last November, they represented SF as the city finalists at the Kollaboration STAR showcase. Representation in the arts is important to the band, and their multiethnic Asian American identities played a large part in the band’s Indiegogo story.

Zach and Wesley told much of their story in the campaign video, and on page they wrote, “We believe Trace Repeat can affect change in Asian American representation.” As one of the few— and often only— Asian American bands in the Bay Area, Trace Repeat recognizes how important it is to see accurate representation in the media. By focusing their campaign on the mission of empowering their communities, Hing said that this first record just happened to be about Asian American empowerment.

“Us being a practically Asian American band has kind of attracted certain negative connotations from people who see us on stage and don’t really get it,” Wesley said. “I don’t just want to ask people to give money for a record, I want to ask people to give money to a cause that really matters.”

Giving is not without its perks. To fit the band’s throwback aesthetic of older days filled with postcards, polaroids, and typewriters, Trace Repeat’s perks for donors featured a number of those very antiques. For $10 backers got a typewriter-written thank you note, $75 gets an engraved pocket watch, and $200 gets a vintage case made from repurposed suitcases and “comes fully loaded with CDs, stickers, flyers, and other Trace Repeat memorabilia.” And for $1,000 and the chance to “own a piece of the album,” Zach and Wesley are giving away their guitars and bass used to record the album (though no one has claimed it yet.) The band wants their debut EP to recall the days of finding an old-school vinyl gem, and they put a lot of thought into perks to reflect the band. The idea for the actual items came to the them on a road trip.

“We were in a very small car, with no air conditioning, driving through the hottest part of central California,” Wesley adds. “And I personally love collecting vintage things, just weird things no one wants anymore. We wanted to make interesting rewards, so why don’t we find really old stuff and turn it into new stuff.”

With less than 24 hours to go of the campaign and a fully funded studio album on the way, Trace Repeat is most excited for fans to hear the album. Their recording studio, Watershed Sound, has helped the band not feel stressed out about producing the album while they work on mixing the songs. The six songs on the EP are all Trace Repeat originals, familiar to fans who have seen the band perform before, but the EP won’t sound old hat.

“I feel like one thing that’s cool about the album is that the album really is going to be in itself something pretty new,” David Kaiser-Jones, Trace Repeat’s trombone player, said. “They’re going to be something that’s going to be really exciting to share with people.”

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Along with the EP, Trace Repeat is taking their new songs on the road to Austin as one of the band’s stretch goals. David acted as one of the biggest cheerleaders for the band to accept an invitation to play at the Red Gorilla Stage at the Austin, Texas festival after they reached the first stretch goal of $6,000. During their four day stay in Texas they also plan to play for the first time in an Irish pub on St. Patricks Day.

“Guys, we’re gonna learn a Dropkick Murphy’s cover,” Zach said.

With Trace Repeat’s first EP is on the way, the band looks to set themselves apart as a funk band. Zach and Wesley agree that the main focus of the Indiegogo campaign isn’t to compare or compete Trace Repeat to other Asian American groups, but to add the band to the mix of Asian American artists. Wesley says that when Trace Repeats performs, he doesn’t think of the band as making a certain statement about Asian American empowerment when they get on stage. He only sees Trace Repeat as “a really awesome funk band.”

“All we’re saying, and this goes plain and simple in our Indiegogo campaign, is that there’s just not enough of us.” Zach said. “Bands like Run River North and Far East Movement are great; I really, really stand for what they do. It’s that key word— there’s not enough of it. We want it to become something that isn’t the anomaly anymore, we want adequate representation.”

Trace Repeat’s Indiegogo campaign ended February 11 with $8,165 from 194 backers. The album can be expected later in 2017, and Trace Repeat can be seen on their YouTube channel, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Jomin Mujar – The Green Room (Washington DC)

This Green Room session is coming at you all the way from our nation’s capital Washington DC! Kollab DC alum Jomin Mujar is a singer-songwriter hailing from Richmond, Virginia. Let his smooth vocals and acoustic stylings bring a smile to your face today.

Special thanks to the team at Kollaboration DC for assisting with this shoot.

Setlist:
“Extraordinary Beauty”
“Temporary”

Hear more from Jomin on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/ImJominMujar

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Meet the STAR Finalists: Trace Repeat

Kollaboration San Fransico’s Trace Repeat, Wesley Woo and Zach Hing

Wesley— Zach and I started this band two years ago. It started out as a side project, all of us were working on solo stuff and it sort of evolved into a much larger thing over time. It developed from a side thing to a real thing, and now it’s like a seven-piece band. It finally got out of hand after a while.

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How did you find Kollab?

Zach— Well Wesley has kind of known about you guys for a few years now. But if you want to talk about how Trace Repeat got involved, we actually ran into Lauren (Lee) at the Asian Heritage Festival that happens in San Fransisco, back in May. Kollaboration comes around the same circle of people that we all know, like if you’re Asian American making music in the Bay Area then we all know the same artists that are doing all the Asian American music because there not really that many of them. Kollaboration, being a part of that community, was sort of a natural thing that happened.

What does it mean to you and the band that you’ve gotten this far? 

Wesley— It’s kind of ridiculous in a lot of way. I didn’t expect it to happen. We sort of ran into Lauren at the Asian Heritage Festival, and I had done a couple of thing for Kollaboration a while back, I think I auditioned once or twice as a solo act, but I never go that far with it. Then we ran into Lauren and she was like, “I’m doing all these really cool things with Kollaboration and I really want them to hear new music and find new sound.” Well, we’re new sounds. Then it just sort of snowballed into this huge thing and we never expected it.

Zach— In terms of our feelings on the matter, we’re more than excited, we’re really stoked being on board. I think like Wesley said, Kollaboration is sort of exists as that community that we definitely want to be a part of. Getting this far in itself is already a really, really good accomplishment in our book, and I think you guys have been very good about the support and welcoming us with open arms. To have gotten this far in the competition, we couldn’t be happier. So, thank you.

Is Trace Repeat one of the few Asian American bands in San Fransisco?

Wesley— Yeah, always.

Zach— There’s only really three or four of us in the immediate Oakland-San Francisco area, not counting San Jose, but we’re basically it.

Wesley— Especially in regard in finding musicians who really take it seriously, making a career out of it. That’s more difficult to find at all. I feel like I know most of the musicians in San Fransisco, at least the basic singer-songwriter community, and of that community I can count on one hand the Asian Americans who are a part of that.

 

What is the band’s style like?

Wesley— It started out at its very earliest conception as basically a funk band. We were playing a lot of Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, James Brown, a lot of Prince covers. It wasn’t really working well because we weren’t really a cover band, so the covers didn’t sound good. Then we started writing music instead, and the songs took their own shape, and in the end we drew a lot of influence from the songs we were covering. In a round about way, it’s a funk band, but a funk band with a lot of other very random influences.

Why do you think representation in the arts is important?

Zach— I think that representation in the arts is extremely important, especially for Asian Americans. There’s just not as much representation, there’s not a lot of adequate representation. The way Asian Americans have been portrayed in the stereotypical emasculated, work hard, study hard kind of stereotype. I think that to be able to play music or be an artist, to go against the grain and have a shot to show what it really is we’re capable of is extremely important for a lot of people. I think influence and being able to inspire people because you’re a little bit different, at the end of the day gives us a voice and a lot of freedom to  be able to choose our owns ways. Which in a lot of ways is at its core a given right.

Wesley— I think that also touches on one of the big things for why I’ve always found Asian American empowerment to be something to talk about. Especially as a musician, especially as a funk musician. We’re breaking down barriers and we’re breaking down stereotypes and as a musician we’re already breaking down the stereotype of what everyone expects you to be as an Asian American. But at the same time we’re also breaking down another barrier because we’re not playing the same kind of music people are expecting us to play. When you’re Asian American there’s a very specific thing that people are expecting. When we get up on stage, it also speaks volumes about sounding different.

Do you think it’s easier to break stereotypes of Asian Americans in music as a band or on your own?

Wesley— Everything is easier a a band, because with more people in you have a support system. It’s really hard being on your own, making all these decisions, showing up on your own, playing shows and controlling a room. It’s a lot more difficult than when you get up on stage with six other guys that are like you’re best friends in the world. Even if the show sucks, and you have a good time with your friends, when you’re having a good time with your friends that kind of makes the show a good show.

Zach— Speaking to the growth of that, I want to add that as a band it’s definitely easier, but because there are more of you, it gives you a sense of identity. I think that my growth, not just as a musician but as an Asian American socially aware person, has come from playing in communities where you can’t help but be surrounded by like minded individuals. That only helps become who you are. A lot of my Asian American tendencies that I want to are sort of a by-product of the people I’m around.

What’s your advice for people who want to get started but are too scared?

Wesley— Don’t be afraid to fail, that’s really the thing I’ve been thinking about a lot. You’re gonna suck for a long time, that’s fine, it’s fine to suck because everyone sucks in the beginning. That’s kind of what’s fun about it, being bad at what you do for a long time. Then once you are terrible at something for a while, you eventually get pretty good at it and people start to actually dig what you’re doing.

Zach— Share your dreams with people too. That’s an important thing, you’ll find people who want to go on the wild ride with you. I think that only helps you get started a lot more swiftly than if you were to dive into the unknown by yourself.


 

Follow Trace Repeat on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and be sure to see the whole band at their performance at Kollaboration STAR.

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MIXATHON48: MAKING THE ARTS ACCESSIBLE, ONE MIX AT A TIME

For mixathon48’s Operations Lead, Nhan Vu, it’s no secret that gaining success in the music industry is a tough code to crack. “You have to know the right people, equipment costs a lot of money, you need to be part of a record label… There’s a big gap between established artists and people who are just starting out.” So how can one bridge that gap between opportunity and talent in terms of music production? That’s where mixathon48 comes in.

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Founded by Nicholas Yiu and Matt Hong, mixathon48’s core mission is to promote music technology education. Their main event is a hackathon-style “mixathon,” during which participants have 48 hours to fully produce a track from start to finish. “We judge the tracks based on a list of criteria,” Nhan, Operations Lead for mixathon48, explains, “and then from there, we choose the winners and the winners get prizes.”

But mixathon48’s significance lies in more than just its main event: its focus on music production makes the organization a rare presence in the discussion on arts accessibility. “There are a lot of free resources [for music production] out there, but they’re kind of all over the place,” Nhan says. Producing music is a largely self-taught endeavor, one that requires access to expensive tools that are not easy to learn.

What’s more is that many music educators do not reflect multicultural or underserved communities who seek to learn about music. This reproduces a double barrier for many API communities, for whom the arts have often been undermined or ignored. “[For] my family, we don’t really value the arts as a legitimate form of career,” Nhan explains. “I’ve always had a passion for music, but I was always too afraid to go after that because of that fact.” The arts have long been a hard sell in API communities—a fact which contributes to underrepresentation of Asians or Asian-Americans in mainstream media.

The fact, then, that mixathon48 was founded entirely by API community members challenges the problems of inaccessibility and underrepresentation. “Although we don’t specifically target API producers, I think just having our faces out there and people seeing that ‘Hey! These are API people leading this organization’, we’re doing our part—whether it’s directly or indirectly—to making the music industry more diverse.”

Of course, Nhan says that there’s definitely more representation of Asians and Asian-Pacific Islanders in music today than there was in the past. “These days, there are a lot more API musicians, producers, DJs, things like that, a lot more prevalent now,” he notes. “If I was younger, and I saw how a Vietnamese person was a DJ, I definitely [would give] that a shot. But I didn’t see that as a kid, and so growing up I didn’t really see that as a viable option… mixathon48 is about helping people realize [that, and] helping people grow as musicians and as producers.”

And it’s more than just representation within American or U.S.-based communities: mixathon48 has a vast, global reach. Within the past year, mixathon48 has grown rapidly, at an unprecedented pace. “It started off as a contest,” Nhan says. “We’ve been around for a little over a year now, and we’ve had three events… We didn’t really expect that kind of turnout that we’ve had. People from Europe, India, [and] Asia would apply and send in tracks… People from all different parts of the world coming together to make music.”

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At the heart of it all, Nhan knows that music is a universal language—and the inherent inclusivity of music is a component that the organization wants to maintain. “We’re definitely trying to be more inclusive to the global community… How do we be more inclusive? A lot of the vocal stems we provided are all English. So moving forward, how do we be more inclusive of people in other countries?”

As a newly-registered non-profit organization, mixathon48 will continue to ask these kinds of questions to expand their impact beyond the mixathon event. “My vision, personally, [is to create] an online community for early stage music producers,” Nhan states. “We’re still trying to figure out how to do that.”

Undoubtedly, though, the organization will stay true to its core: the passion for how music makes people feel and the hard work required to create it.

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Photos via Mixathon48 FacebookTwitter and mixathon48

Melissa Polinar Loves to Collaborate – Coffee Break w/ Minji Chang

Singer-song writer, Melissa Polinar stops by to tell us some of her fun stories about her spontaneous collaboration and jam session with fellow singer-songwriter, Indie Arie. Her stories continue as she mentions how she got her foot in the business by an unexpected turn in her career.

Hear more from Melissa at https://www.youtube.com/mpolinar

Like what you hear? subscribe to our channel for more live sessions from the Kollaboration Movement!

Credits:
Producers: Minji Chang & Marvin Yueh
Director: Dennis Chang
Camera Operator: Westley Kang & Andrew Kim
Editor: Aubrey Magalang

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Kat McDowell – The Green Room

Kat McDowell joins us for a Green Room session to play a few of her original songs. Born in Japan and raised in New Zealand, Kat’s played professionally in Japan for years before touring the world and setting up base in Los Angeles as an independent artist. Kat’s musical chops and multilingual skills are in full display in this Green Room session and if you like what you hear, check out her YouTube channel where she puts out new content weekly!

Setlist:
“Dianna”
“A Little Rain”

Hear more from Kat on her YouTube channel or at kat-mcdowell.com

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Tim Atlas – The Green Room

Before he blew away Gwen Stefani and Pharrell on The Voice, Tim Atlas wowed the crowd as a finalist at Kollaboration San Francisco. We’re so happy that Tim was able to stop by the Kollaboration Green Room to play a few of his original songs for us! Please enjoy and let us know what you think about his music!

Setlist:
“Ten Goodbyes”
“Seasons”

Hear more from Tim on his YouTube channel

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We Love Big Phony – Coffee Break w/ Minji Chang

On this edition of Kollaboration’s Coffee Break we welcome Bobby Choy aka Big Phony! Bobby is an amazing singer-songwriter who moved to Korea a few years ago to live, play music, and find himself. You might also know him from the webseries turned feature film KTown Cowboys, which he stars in. With a new album in the works, a movie in the theater, and a documentary in the festival circuit, we caught up with him on one of his recent trips to LA to see what’s been up!

Don’t forget to check out the amazing  Green Room live music session he played for us as well as his appearance on the KollabCast.

See more from Big Phony on YouTube

Credits:
Producers: Minji Chang & Marvin Yueh
Director: Dennis Chang
Camera Operator: Emily Koh
Editor: Brianna Kim

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Melissa Polinar – The Green Room

We’re very excited to share with you this special Green Room live music session with the amazing Melissa Polinar! One of the OGs of the YouTube creator revolution, Melissa stopped by the Green Room while in town for a few shows in LA and San Diego to sing a few of her originals for us. Please enjoy!

Setlist:
“Meant to Be”
“Feel’s Like Home”

Hear more from Melissa on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mpolinar

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Big Phony – The Green Room

Big Phony has been busy the last few years living in South Korea, but the singer-songwriter, & K-Town Cowboys star, took some time during his last trip to LA to stop by the Kollaboration Green Room to play a few tunes for us. If you haven’t heard of Big Phony before, you’re in for a treat! Please enjoy as he shares his melancholy songs about loneliness, love, and hope. (warning, some lyrics NSFW)

Setlist:
“Shoot the Sh*t”
“I am F***ed Without You”

Hear more from Big Phony at bigphony.bandcamp.com

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