By APA Staff

Singer-Songwriter-Producer Ken Oak seems to be able to do it all. With strong-willed passion, a unique flair for musical innovation, and hair that never fails, he's ready to knock your momma's socks off with his debut album, Half-Step. Not to mention he can rock both the cello and the electric guitar with the same finesse as a man who woos two women at once. Oh Yeah, baby.

With spiky, gelled-up hair and donning a jean jacket on the cover of his End Credits EP, Ken Oak looks like a pop star ready to be born. However, images on CD covers are two-dimensional and Oak is a musician of multiple facets. Being equally deft at both the cello and guitar, he harbors a unique sound that can be described as an aural blend and layering of folk, rock, pop, and classical elements. Ken is so well-trained in classical music that he can easily kick ass in any trivia competition, going head-to-head with ivory-towered musicologists. And he can rock.

Having recently performed at L.A.'s Tofu Festival last July and working on his debut album full-time in the past several months, Oak is ready to display his one-of-a-kind talents to an audience who better be ready for something delightfully different.

Raised in Texas, Ken began playing the cello in the 3rd grade after being recruited by the school music teacher. During his early youth and into high school, Ken honed his cello skills through private instruction and by performing at both school orchestras and private recitals. He also toured various parts of Europe during high school.

He lovingly cradled the cello until the grunge scene of the early '90s, which began in Seattle and spread to all parts of the U.S. like a monolithic musical wave, sweeping Ken and much of America's teenage youth under a crashing swell. He took up the bass and then switched to the guitar, which would in time be his new, six-stringed sweetheart. However, unlike his peers, Ken would later combine rock and pop with a unique style of songwriting, leading into uncharted territory.

After spending a year meandering through the campus of the University of Michigan, Ken transferred to USC to study music. Although it was a time he could be immersed in his true passion, college only musically influenced him by exposing him to what he didn't like. Ken then moved to the D.C. area in the late '90s, where he began exploring his songwriting capabilities. The cello took a backseat as he became obsessed with the guitar. He began playing it recently while the need arose in a D.C. coffee shop. He has been straddling the two instruments since then.

His career soon took off after one of his songs received airplay at a local D.C. radio station and he moved to L.A. in early 2003 to record his EP. Music from his EP End Credits--which showcases Oak's unique style and his ability to write reflective lyrics with a quirky touch--has been plugged on the MTV show Surf Girls, WB's High School Reunion, and the sports special The Road to Ironman.

Oak's debut album, Half Steps, is a collective of different sounds and styles, containing everything from folksy-pop songs to a classical ballad. Hints of Ken's early musical influences, such as Duran Duran, The Smiths, and his classical music background are evident, but all within the undertones of his own musical style.

In this APA interview conducted by our glorious A/V team, Ken shares his experiences interfacing with the music industry, the oscillating passion he harbors between his two stringed loves, and how the commonalities he shares with Lifehouse go beyond that of recording with the same producer. --Jackie Lam

Oak's album is scheduled to be released September 2004. www.kenoak.net

Interview with Ken Oak
Interviewed by Allan Axibal
Transcribed by Jennifer Chong

APA: Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background.

KO: My name is Ken Oak. I'm a singer-songwriter. I grew up with a cello. I'm a classically trained musician. I got into rock in high school and college. That kind of brought me to here. I got into songwriting in D.C. probably about four or five years ago. It's kind of a long story because there are many chapters but I'm giving you a brief review. I just kept writing and eventually recorded a demo last February. And ever since then--from last February to this February--I guess it's been my actual going forward of it full time. A lot has happened within that past year and I think that that's a good sign.

APA: So you mentioned that you began as a child and then you toured around Europe performing in different concerts. We want to know what it was about Europe that nurtures the art of music better than America can?

KO: I think definitely Europe has a lot more history with music. Well, they are an older country, obviously. All the music that we listen to--the famous composers from Baroque, Classical, and Romantic--they're mostly from Europe. So they have a lot of pride in having that heritage. It's part of the architecture of Europe.

In America, the recognized composers which you would call the classical genre--it's Copland and Schoenberg, these 20th century composers, many that are recognized in typical musical history curriculum. So America just has a little recent chunk of it, but of course America has pop and rock music now. I think especially with classical music, it's going to be more well received in Europe. It just makes sense--it's their music to start with.

APA: You started off as a cellist but then you fell in love with the guitar. What instrument do you prefer?

KO: It's hard to answer that because I got back into playing the cello recently. After high school, I quit like most high school kids. I didn't quit on purpose, but because I was busy playing the guitar and totally getting into different things with music, the cello just kind of took the backburner. I kept the instrument with me but I never picked it up to play it until I was in the D.C. coffeehouse. I was backing up other acoustic acts that wanted a cello player and that's when I realized that I still had the "playing" in me. It just took a matter of time to get it back to where it was.

APA: Which instrument do you enjoy playing more?

KO: That's like, "Do you like your father or your mother more?" [Laughs] It's the guitar though.

APA: Well, let me put it this way: Does a particular instrument give you more freedom to express yourself in music?

KO: Yeah, I think with the cello, it's a very deep and direct expression. It has that one voice. All instruments have a voice, but the cello really has that one voice. Everyone hears the sound and a lot of people are just moved by it simply by the sound--you can play like just one note. So because of that, what you are expressing and playing is a lot deeper because it's coming from a place with no words and going to a place with no words, whereas with a guitar obviously, it's more of an accompanying instrument. You're laying your rhythm, your drums, and bass basically, and you're singing on top of it, but you're singing with words. So, I think with the guitar, it's a totally different kind of expression and that's why it's hard to compare them. With words, it's coming a lot more from the mind and your speaking to minds, whereas with the cello it's more like from the heart to the heart, if that doesn't sound corny. That's kind of what it feels like. It's more emotional, I guess.

APA: Your music has been described as combining "vintage songwriting acumen with modern pop sensibilities." What does that mean?

KO: I actually asked my mastering engineer Stephen Marsh to write a quote about how he felt about working with me because he would say good things. I was basically asking him, "Would you put this on paper?" He emailed me that--that's the beginning of the quote that he wrote. I asked him because he was really articulate. I knew that he would put it in a way that would make sense like in Rolling Stone--you know, not in just any publication. "Vintage songwriting acumen"--he's probably referring to an older school of writing where there weren't as many lyrics. I'm not sure if that's what he's referring to, but I remember that the first time he listened to the demo--before he mastered it--at my last producer's house--Howie Karb--he had mentioned that the songwriting seemed different because there weren't as many words than he had been used to hearing recently.

Stephen Marsh is a master engineer. He was chief master engineer at Sony Music in Santa Monica for eight years. He was the youngest guy to have that position. Recently he left and started Threshold Sound, which is actually just down the road on Cetinela.

If I were to just read it, I would think "vintage songwriting acumen" comes from the folkier side of things, where all you have is your melody and lyrics and your strumming to the same three chords over and over to the whole song. It's totally like the opposite of pop music where you change something every two bars to keep the listener interested. So, it sounds like a good thing to me if you have the older-style lyrics but you're able to package it into this one little nugget of pop.

APA: MTV featured "Wonder" from the End Credits EP on the show Surf Girls and your music has been featured on the NBC sports special The Road to Ironman and the WB's High School Reunion. Tell us about this.

KO: The producer of the End Credits EP, Howard Karp; I originally hooked up with him because he had worked on the last Lifehouse record--they are pretty big. These guys are one of my favorite bands because I think me and the lead singer--I'm going off on a tangent here--have a similar background in that we both grew up playing music in church. Jason Wade, the lead singer of Lifehouse, was a worship leader at the Malibu Vineyard for years before he went into mainstream rock. I don't know if a lot of people that listen to Lifehouse realize that from a worship-leader standpoint or previous church-music-director standpoint, you look at lyrics differently because you're so used to songs being about God since all the songs you grew up playing, singing and loving were about God. At church, you actually sing along--that's another difference. So anyway, Jason Wade was one of the writers out there that I immediately grasped onto because I realized that in most of his songs he is talking about God, even though the majority of people that listen to him will assume that he's writing about a girl.

Howard is an independent producer and one of his big things is to shop music for film and TV supervisors. Howard knows a number of these people (like several hundreds). This is basically the guy that is working on a movie and decides what songs go into it. Howard basically shops music out that he has his name on as a producer. He also has a portion of the songwriting out of the four songs on the EP because of the contract that we had. Anyway, he started shopping my EP out like a month after we recorded. I released it in June, and by July, Surf Girls had used it on their last episode. That was pretty cool just seeing it. I don't have cable so I couldn't watch it live, but I saw a clip online and it was just weird hearing my music playing on the MTV website. It was pretty exciting.

APA: Well, it seems like a lot of your music is gaining publicity by being featured on these MTV shows. Was that the original intention? Did you want to distribute your music via TV?

KO: I think it's the easiest and fastest way, as opposed to mailing stuff out and trying to get people in high places to maybe listen to your CD, which usually they don't. I found that no matter how many times they tell you they are going to listen to it--in person, they seem like they are going to--you can call a week or a month later and they still would not have listened to it. That just shows you that they are really busy, and that's understandable. They won't just take in anything.

I think I'm the same way; I'm picky about what I listen to. I like listening to music that I really like, so to demo something else in, you kind of have to have some credibility or some reason that draws you. But, if you get your song on a movie or TV show, people are already listening to your music regardless. And if they like it, I'm sure they can find a way to get to you. So, it's like having your demo package, but it's a much bigger audience.

APA: Your first full-length album Half-step Down is set to be released in September. How have you been preparing for that?

KO: We've mainly been recording. The EP was released last June, which had four songs on it and those same four songs--we've basically remixed them for the album. It's not like a remix with some rapper that comes in and changes the song completely. It's basically the actual mix of the song--the sounds are eq'ed a little differently. Like, it hits a little bit harder now because it's more like a pop mix as opposed to a standard rock mix. So, the same songs are going to be on there and there are some different parts in them too. I think they are noticeably different. If you heard both versions, you would notice that this one sounds a lot more pop.

In addition to those four songs, we're recording another six to eight songs. One of them is an instrumental track called " Soma" that actually has me playing cello on it and it has all kinds of sounds. This thing is just totally orchestrated out. It's probably one of my favorite tracks on the record because it sounds like a film score. It sounds like if you were to imagine soldiers marching in an Asian country, you would hear this thing playing in the background--that's what I keep picturing when I hear it. But, it will probably end up in some cheesy B-grade movie and I'll take the money for it. I'm just kidding. [Laughs]

APA: As a Korean American, do you find that Korean American people have been extra supportive of your music?

KO: I think Asian Americans generally, not just Korean Americans, have given me a lot of support so far. I guess I should have expected that, but you don't really come in expecting anything. When I started to get more out in the open, the Asian community was really good about spreading it faster, which helped. That, and plus the fact that Asians love computers and they are all online. Spreading things online is faster with Asians, I think. They just love the computers.

APA: It's been a trend to infuse music with political and social messages. For instance, the mainstream-Black Eyed Peas address the need for peace. Do you plan on using your music for any other agendas?

KO: I plan to start an organization that is radical and violent eventually. No, I'm totally kidding. [Laughs] It's like everybody expects that, but you start music because you like it. Like, you might just be a regular, quiet kid in class that just thinks a lot and is out there daydreaming and then you start playing music because then you have a way to express it. Eventually, everybody wants to hear it and so it becomes this communal thing; it becomes a communication as opposed to something that was just for yourself.

I didn't start with an agenda. It feels like at this point, if I were to use music to support any agenda, I don't know if I'd be true to the music that is in me really. I mean, things are going to happen along the way. Like, say I get a single on mainstream radio and I become recognized as the first Asian American frontman in America, I guess by default, it's going to be supporting a lot of agendas. It's not like I have to take them on and have a list right next to me saying I support all these agendas. For right now, I think it [Oak's music] is just going to help people in general within the community without actively doing something.

APA: Is there anything you'd like to accomplish with your music?

KO: I think with any agenda that I may have, it wouldn't be something that went along race lines or religious lines; it would have to do more with relational lines. And by that, I mean breaking down the relationship into its most basic parts, which is communication. For me, this is important because growing up in an Asian family, communication was not always the top priority in these families. A lot of times, it's the last. With my family, I saw it cause certain problems. Growing up as a kid, you trace things that happen back to causes. Eventually I got to the cause--it was communication that lapsed. As I grew older, that was kind of part of me too.

I learned a lot from my parents, but I think I learned a lot just by being in American culture and seeing how people are able to talk to each other between race, age, and gender lines. I realized that's a really strong point that they [Americans] had. In America, communication is open and there is free speech. Maybe I do have a political agenda, I don't know. No, but really, if I did, that would be it--to open up communication lines between different people and even within a family.

APA: Future plans?

KO: Go to Disneyland. [Laughs] Man, I've been so busy with the present that I haven't had time to think about the future. I should just sit back for awhile and think about the future. Well, I think about the future sometimes, but it's the far future, like, "what will the universe look like when we're all gone?" But, that's a little further than what you're asking.

APA: Well, thank you very much Ken.

KO: Thank you. I'll play "End Credits." I guess that's what most people are most familiar with. [Ken begins serenading APA staffers]

Published: Friday, September 3, 2004