By APA Staff

Korean-American Indie-Rocker veteran discusses politics, Asian American issues, and music with APA.

Indie-music veteran Mike Park is no stranger to pop culture and politics. The Asian Man Records founder and musician has been interested in both for over a decade now, and continues to promote awareness through music. Mike Park started his music career in 1985 during high school in San Jose, California, the heart of the Silicon Valley. He was one of few Asian-American kids at that point, prior to the area's rapid growth in the Asian population. His first band was called Psychiatric Disorder, and early influences of that era for him were punk-rock acts such as Black Flag and Minor Threat. Staying involved in the San Francisco bay area music scene, Mike Park later joined the now-defunct ska-band “Skankin' Pickle,” releasing five full-length albums with them, and touring extensively. In 1996, Park formed Asian Man Records, an independent record label out of his parent's garage near San Jose. The label was based on the model of Washington DC's Dischord Records, attempting to put into practice the ideals and spirit of punk rock.

After initially forming, the label has since expanded to the point of having over 50 bands on its roster, and selling over a million albums. Bands on the label include such indie-rock heavy hitters such as the Alkaline Trio, Lawrence Arms, and Screeching Weasel, among others. But Park still proudly proclaims that the label is still run out of his parents' garage, and refuses any offer from majors to expand his operations further. In conjunction with the record label, Park also incorporated his political activism into his life through forming the 501c non-profit, the Plea for Peace Foundation. The foundation was founded in 1999, and its mission statement is “to promote the ideas of peace through the power of music. The belief that all individuals are created equal and through their efforts, a hope to create a scene of positive minded people to help bring forth action and education in the process of sharing ideas of peace and practical uses of peace in everyday life.” To achieve these goals, the foundation organizes an annual tour, produces benefit CD compilations, and publishes literature promoting their cause. The foundation is supported by activists, musicians, charities, and labels alike.

More recently, Park has focused the efforts of the foundation to open a youth center in San Jose for kids whose interests lie outside of the traditional after-school activities. Despite all his involvement with the label and the foundation, Park still finds time to write and perform music, participating in the music scene instead of solely focusing on the administrative side of things. He has a number of music projects, including his band, The Chinkees (the name is meant as a term of empowerment for the Asian-American community), and his solo work. To promote his second solo album, North Hangook Falling, Park organized a bicycle tour starting in the Pacific Northwest ending in Southern California. Recently, at a one-off solo show at the Knitting Factory's Alterknit Lounge in Hollywood, California, Asia Pacific Arts caught up with Mike Park and asked him to share some thoughts on his new release, Asian Americanism, and other issues. 

-- Larry Kao

Click here to view the interview in Windows Media Player.

Interview with Mike Park

October 20, 2005

Interviewed by Larry Kao

Transcribed by Ana La O'

Video Edit by Ada Tseng

APA: With your songs, you generally write them about different issues -- sometimes they're personal, sometimes they're more broad. How do you come up with what you write about?

MP: When I'm writing songs and interpreting subject matter, it really depends, it can be be anything from writing about past experience or a current events or just about a story that I hear. It really depends, there's not some rule that I go by. It's how it should be written. This latest record that I did write I did make a considerable effort to write about a lot of Asian themes that I grew up with as an Asian American in the United States.

APA: Why did you decide North Hangook instead of North Korea?

MP: Hangook. I used North Hangook because a lot of people would ask a question why would I use Hangook and it would raise questions and therefore I'd be able to explain what the song was about and what the reason was for using that name for a title

APA: In your liner notes, you mentioned that you were going through self-discovery with cultural roots, in regards of the North-South divide. In North Hangook Following, you said that you still weren't fully aware of the situation in its totality. Would you say that you've become more aware writing the album, touring, and doing other things to support it?

MP: Sure. That's the beauty of being able to write songs, is being able to be educated myself about own cultural background. So I'm learning about this something so called forgotten war, learning about the 30th parallel and learning about basically, the genocide happening in the last century especially with family involved.

APA: What are your thoughts regarding the situation with North and South Korea, and how do you think it's being handled by the international community?

MP: Well I think it's a tricky situation. Basically, you're dealing with a truly insane man. There is no rational way to say hey, this is something we can do to improve our relations. There's nothing you can do. We're dealing with a mad man, which is sad especially as a Korean. This is something I hold close to my heart. I don't know what's going to happen. This is a country that has nuclear capabilities. Now as Korean-American living in the United States, watching this unfold and seeing them as one of the countries included in the axis of evil. So what do you do? You just hope and you know in South Korea, all the young people raise our fists in the air and become vocally political about hopefully the unifciation of North and South Korea. I don't see it happening within the next hundred years.

APA: On a different note, your release is on Subsity records, but you have AsiaMan records. Is it a joint release?

MP: AsiaMan is a joint release, but basically it's SubCity doing all the work. The reason I do that is not to intefere with any of the artists on the label. I ran into some conflicts in the past where the band would say, “You're promoting your band, but what about our band?” and I was like okay, I'm not dealing with that anymore. This way I'm in the clear. They deal with my record. I deal with other bands' records.

APA: About your involvement with political activism, shat inspired you to become more involved? What pushed you to be more interested in politics?

MP: I think music had a big part in my involvment in politics. Growing up in a liberal part of Northern California where you get to go to shows and see the Dead Kennedys play in the 80's and see the Rock against Racism shows. It's insane and just a great experience to see that comradery like that, people banded together, the idea of unity. You see the sense of danger, but also the unity. It was very exciting, so I think that was one of the key factors of me wanting to be involved into politics.

APA: For Plea for Peace, you recently completed the bike tour? Are you thinking of doing a longer one in the future?

MP: I definitely don't want to do a longer one. That was long enough, it was over a month and it was like, maddenning at times. I'd like to do it every year and if I did it again, I would start in the Northern part of Oregon and just go to San Francisco and call it a day.

APA: The whole tour was made of non-traditional venues, like backyards and campgrounds. Why did you decide to do it that way, and how was your experience?

MP: We had to do it, there was not other choice. We couldn't ride to the clubs. The clubs were all off the coast. We had to stay on the coast. To play actual venues, it would have been three months of riding just to make it to these places. It's like, well we're just staying in these campgrounds, they're public campgrounds, let's just put them on the website. Kids came to the shows, so it was exciting.

APA: In terms of Plea for Peace, how do you think it's been received by the audience. Do you think a lot of them are going there with like-mindedness? Or not necessarily full awareness, but going in with an open mind, as opposed to people who are just there for the music?

MP: Sure, I think there is a sense of humanity more so than if it was just a regular concert. Though there is defintely apathy at these shows, I think there's no denial the attraction of people going to these shows and talent, if we just had no name people playing these shows, nobody would be there. If it just was Plea for Peace starring John Doe and Joe Schmoe, no one's going to come. I understand that it's the music that attracts the people, but I do feel that they are coming with an open mind.

APA: Do you think they're leaving wiht a greater sense of awareness, or at least a better understanding of things?

MP: I like to hope so. I think that has a lot to do with the musicians if they are able to convey that towards them and leave them with that sense of wow after the show.

APA: Would you say that's also not necessarily just in the Northeast or West Coast, like California, but also the Midwest?

MP: Oh definitely. I think midwest gets a bad rep. It's like, okay, in this country, the coasts are more liberal. The midwest is very divided. There's a lot of people who are like-minded in the midwest with progressive thoughts, especially the kids that come to the shows. The majority are kids with radical thoughts.

APA: With the Plea for Peace Foundation, your'e going to work on the youth center in San Jose. How did that idea come about, what is the current status of it, and what are some of the difficulties you've encountered?

MP: It's going well. The reason we need to to do this is there is this huge city, San Jose, California with no venue for live music for the under 21 audience and that's been ongoing for years. We need to build something and we're going to have it go into effect hopefully by the fall of 2006 and it's just a lot of work, a lot of planning, a lot paper work, a lot of money to be raised, but we will do it.

APA: Also, you collaborated with Collosal. How did that come about, and would you think about touring with them full-on, with a full band?

MP: I'd love to tour with the band, it's just very expensive. That's the problem. I wanted to use Colossal because the hope with this record was to make it sound like it was a band that had been playing together for a number of years, so that's why I used them. It's members who play together and can create a sound that has some sort of continuity. And I love to tour with the whole band, it's just time and money is a big factor.

APA: What are your experiences as an Asian American musician, who has somewhat made it past the Asian American community but still hasn't lost your roots?

MP: Well, you think about as an Asian American musician, who do we have to look to? I can't think of more than a handful of Asian Ameircan musicians. If you look on mainstream music, where is the popstar? It doesn't exist. You have the Karen O's who are half  Korean, but their face isn't Asian, so you don't look at them and go “Asian.” You look at them and go “white.” So it doesn't exist, I don't know whose fault it is. A lot it I blame on corporate music. They don't want to invest the money in it because there's no history of making one and Asian kids have nothing to look up to. There's no role model. That's why I feel there's a lack of Asian musicians playing music. For myself, I'm just one of many small artists who happen to be Asian-American. I just choose to write songs that have to deal with me and I'm an Asian American. It comes through the music and the lyrics.

APA: Do you see yourself as a role model for the Asian American community?

MP: I definitely do. No matter what if even if I didn't, I would be because I am someone who is touring and is out there. I'm very aware of who I am and very proud to push the fact that I am Asian American and an musician. I'm ready to share that with other Asian Americans.

APA: How do you feel about the multi-culturalism at your shows, because even you are an Asian American singing about Asian American issues, the audience is predominantly white...

MP: It's interesting to me, part of me gets a little depressed to be honest. I wish there was more support from the Asian community. I've done shows that have been done at Asian American festivals, which are great, but you know, I don't know what to say. It's not something I'm pursuing like “why aren't Asian Americans coming to my shows?”  I have no control over that. The ones that do come, if they get something out of it, that's great. If not, that's fine too, I'm playing music for everyone. It just happens to be that I'm Asian American.

APA: What are your plans for the future?

MP: So much to do coming up. I'm leaving next month for Europe. I go from November 10th to December 2nd. I get back to Europe January 10th go to the 24th and then from there, I have nothing planned after that. I do a lot of one-offs, college shows, but I really don't know how much time I can invest because a lot of next year, I going be involved in getting Plea for Peace ready. 

Published: Thursday, November 3, 2005