Overview

WOW! Thank you to everyone who has supported my campaign so far! I am so incredibly grateful and excited to make this album for you. Any further contributions go a long way to get me to Boston and make this album bigger and better than ever. I’ll be able to hone my craft with extra coaching and artist development. Thank you, again, and we can’t wait to make more music!

Hello world! My name is Nathan, and I'm a singer-songwriter here in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, CA.

I have always loved singing and dreamt of being a musician, but my relationship with music has not been an easy one. Throughout college, I faced constant rejection from music groups and musical auditions, being told I wasn’t good enough. Despite these setbacks, I pushed myself to keep practicing, taking voice lessons off campus for all four years and writing my own songs. Singing became more than just a hobby, but a means to understand myself and a tool to stay strong and resilient. 

In my senior year, my musical journey culminated in my one-man thesis show called “Type A,” a musical performance where I took on different Asian American stereotypes to explore my Asian American identity. After the success of my show, and with the support of my friends and mentors both inside and outside the Asian community, I’m ready to take my musical journey to the next level and share these songs with all of you.

The material is ready, and the musicians are waiting -- this Plaid Dog campaign is the final step toward creating my first ever, professionally produced studio album.

This campaign is raising funds for my professionally recorded album with Mike Davidson in Boston, MA. Mike is a Boston-based producer and engineer with 15+ years of experience working with both established and up-and-coming musicians. Together, Mike and I are digging into my original material, writing arrangements, and reaching out to local musicians to bring the songs to life. 

While I haven’t made it to Boston yet due to the current health crisis, I will––and I know this album will be worth the wait! In the meantime, I’ve been able to cover the costs of recording and producing a demo of one song remotely, with the assistance of some pretty amazing technology.

This first song is called “Nihao-dy,” and you can check it out below!

While I’ve been able to fund this inital recording process for "Nihao-dy" on my own, to create an album of songs with full production and studio quality, costs add up quickly. With that said, this campaign can give us a unique opportunity to collaborate and make great art together. Your donation will cover the following costs of my project:

1. Pre-Production: This is where everything starts. Mike and I will start crafting the arrangements for each song slated for the album. We’ll hold rehearsals to fine-tune the songs and arrangements and talk through new and exciting ideas for how to approach the recording process.

2. Recording: This is when we enter the studio and start capturing the music and where the songs become what you'll hear on this album. This campaign will play a huge role in making sure we have enough time to capture great performances for every member of the band.

3. Mixing & Mastering: Each track will get mixed to create the right balance between instruments, texture and color that make up a track. As a final step, the album will be mastered from beginning to end so that the listening experience is cohesive and carefully choreographed from start to finish.

And what will you get for your generosity and support? So many awesome things!

I am so appreciative and grateful for any support you can lend to this campaign. In exchange for your generosity, I've put together a really exciting group of gifts that are available exclusively through your participation in this campaign.

Check out some examples below and a full list to the right!

It's hard to express how much this project would change my life.

Growing up in a low-income, Vietnamese immigrant family, I never thought I could pursue music, especially because there are very few Asian American artists in the mainstream music industry, even today. I could never afford voice lessons, and I told myself being a musician was an impractical dream, so I did my best to repress my love for music throughout most of my childhood. 

Creating my one-man show and performing my own songs made me realize that music was a means to understand myself and connect with others. I still remember some of my classmates telling me how much my show and my music resonated with them and that it helped them realize things about themselves that they hadn’t even thought about.

My songs were catalysts for conversations about what it means to be Asian American and how the limiting stereotypes of Asian Americans as “model minorities,” “angry triggered activists,” or “unfeeling robots” in mainstream media bring more harm than good in their representation. By pursuing this project, I hope that it will help me connect with future collaborators and artists to create more meaningful music and art. It will give me a finished product that I can share with others in the industry to show them my range and experience in singing and song-writing. 

Since graduating college, I have tried to pursue being an independent artist, but I struggled to find the same motivation in recording and producing music on my own. When I think back to my senior thesis show, I’m reminded of how the support of my friends, colleagues, and mentors in my community helped me accomplish it. With the help of Plaid Dog Recording and the support of you all, I want to take my music to a higher level of expertise, share it to a larger audience, and jumpstart my music career.

If you're ready to contribute, just click the "Back This Project" button on the top right of this page! Every little bit counts, and I’m so grateful for all your support.

If you have folks in your network that would be interested in supporting me, please feel free to share this page with them.

Thank you so much for checking out my campaign page. I can't wait to share this music with you.