LA-based musician Dawen is one of our favorites, so we were thrilled that he’s the newest guest blogger for our Bands On Tour feature. Learn more about him here and read his past posts from the tour!
At RTHK, ready for the radio interview on the program Naked Lunch
Today is definitely going down as one of the most amazing days of my life. Being back here in Hong Kong, playing a show, and seeing so many old friends and family; feeling overwhelmed is an understatement. First thing, I meet up with James to practice some songs for the RTHK Naked Lunch interview. As there’s no keyboard in the studio we have to rearrange the songs so James can accompany me on acoustic guitar. After going through the tunes a few times we take the train to Kowloon Tong and hop a light bus to get to the studio around 1pm.
RTHK Naked Lunch interview
James and I ready to perform live on the air!
A few minutes before 1:30 we meet Sarah Passmore, the host of Naked Lunch, and the three of us head into the studio. The place looks very old-school with ’70s era microphones and clunky electronics. The interview lasts just under half an hour. Sarah asks me about the American Me Tour, growing up in Hong Kong, and how it feels to be back after so many years. I mention the New York leg, and then I talk about how unique it was being an American growing up in a British school in Hong Kong. “You’re a bit of a global citizen, aren’t you?” Sarah says to me at one point. It’s during this interview that I begin to feel that the whole Hong Kong trip is a big reunion/homecoming/tour wrap-up, all rolled into one. James and I then perform “Wake Up” and “Put Your Swords Down” and it’s definitely a very cool feeling playing live on the air! We wrap up the interview with Sarah playing a few tracks from off my album.
Lang Kwai Fong
Exhausted. The tour and jet-lag finally catching up to me
After finishing the interview we head back to Central. Preston needs help getting all the music equipment set up at the venue. But before we meet up, James and I take a break, stopping by a café in Lang Kwai Fong. Lang Kwai Fong, or LKF, as some call it, has a pretty lively nightlife with a lot of bars and clubs packed into a few blocks. Being there brought back all these high school memories of hanging out with friends on the weekends in this international scene. It was in Lang Kwai that I first learned to drink beer, years before I ever stepped onto a college campus. And it’s here, around 5 pm, in this café in Lang Kwai that I start to feel exhausted. I order a latte to keep me awake. Maybe it has something to do with the warm couches in the café but as soon as I sit down, I do not want to get up. Perhaps the jet-lag is finally catching up to me.
Last minute show prep
Carrying the keyboard ourselves from Preston’s flat to Philia Lounge
I finally muster up the energy to leave the café and James and I head over to Preston’s flat. Preston lives in SoHo, an area just north of Lang Kwai. Since his place is pretty close to the Philia Lounge, the venue where we’re performing, we decide to carry the amps and his keyboard ourselves instead of putting it in a cab. Two trips with the three of us, and we finally get everything there!
James, Me, and Preston outside Philia
We arrive at Philia and get everything set up. Philia is an intimate lounge with a capacity of maybe 60 people max, kinda like some of the venues from the New York leg. James, Preston and I do some last minute rehearsal and I somehow manage to chow on half a sandwich. As there’s some time to kill, I try to squeeze in some quiet time before the show.
Homecoming/Reunion/Showtime
Shot of the crowd @ Philia: people from every part of my life in the same room together
Homecoming/Reunion: Go Shatin College! I love you guys!
Nothing really prepared me for the way I felt performing this show. I do know I managed to take a picture of the crowd on my camera. By the time the show started, I looked out and saw faces of people from different chunks of my life. I saw my high school friends, my church friends, my Northwestern University friends; I even saw someone I used to work with in Chicago – how CRAZY is that?! I saw my mom there, who hadn’t seen me perform in 10 YEARS! (Some of my friends who were there hadn’t even seen each other for just as long.)
It really felt like a dream: people from every part of my life were all in the same room together. Needless to say, I felt pretty sentimental and had an acute sense that this was one of the most special evenings of my entire life. I will remember the love and support I felt tonight in that small room at Philia for as long as I live.
