Far East Movement ¬Spreading the Movement¬ from the US to Asia and back

A quick listen to this hip hop group and an Asian face is the last thing that would enter your mind. Far East Movement is a refreshing and rising Asian American group which has an amazing sound of hip hop, rock and alternative influences. They have quickly become one of the most successful unsigned breakout bands of 2006 earning a “Featured Artist” award on Myspace and a TRL mention…A quick listen to this hip hop group and an Asian face is the last thing that would enter your mind. Far East Movement is a refreshing and rising Asian American group which has an amazing sound of hip hop, rock and alternative influences. They have quickly become one of the most successful unsigned breakout bands of 2006 earning a “Featured Artist” award on Myspace and a TRL mention on MTV. Their latest single “Round Round’ was featured on the “Fast and Furious:Tokyo Drift” soundtrack which sold over 20,000 copies its first week. Far East Movement’s following begins in the United States and Asia with a global “movement” filled with packed venues all over the world! Join Asiance as they interview the Far East Movement boys who are not only a talented group of musicians but also a group of nice guys with big hearts just trying to represent.

ASIANCE: What ethnicity are each of you?

Kev Nish – Chinese/ Japanese
Prohgress – Korean
J-Spliff – Korean

ASIANCE: What about your educational background?

Kev Nish – Santa Monica College
Prohgress – UCLA Grad, Loyola Law School
J-Spliff – Santa Monica College

ASIANCE: How did you guys get together?

FM: We all knew each other during high school just hanging around Koreatown, LA. We started recording tracks at Kev’s apartment and pushing our songs on the internet through a site called Aznraps.com, a community for up-and-coming asian rappers to gain exposure and receive feed back. We decided to take it a step further and promote our own shows, figuring that we can’t just hide behind a computer and that we have to be exposed to the Los Angeles music scene first hand. That led us to our first major event called “Movementality”, a show in K-town L.A. benefiting a local drug rehabilitation center and bring light to live performances to the community in Koreatown. While organizing the event we met our manager Carl Choi who was the CEO of a premiere grass roots marketing and events company called Climaxglobal. He shared the same vision we did which was to create a face for Asian Americans in entertainment and together we’ve been building as a team ever since.

Far East Movement

ASIANCE: Are people ever surprised to see that you are ASIAN? Any incident stick out in your mind?

FM: All the time! It was actually a positive experience though. We had a show at the House of Blues in Hollywood opening for Jon-B along with Jin the Emcee and Domino, and after our set we were constantly being approached by African American audience members on how shocked they were that we were Asian and rocked it harder than the rap performances before us. I guess their expectation level was representative on how people in America view Asians as a whole in media, either as a submissive soft-spoken male or a ridiculous stereotypical comedian such as Mr. Hung. We felt that they were almost proud to see people of another race represent the art and meet they’re standards.

ASIANCE: Did your parents freak out that you went into music or even hip-hop?

Kev Nish – Being 4th generation Chinese and 4th generation Japanese, I never felt the pressure of “typical Asian parents.” My parents were very open to letting me do what my heart desired and following my dreams. Even though they were both UCLA graduates themselves, they never forced education on me, so when I dropped out of high school as a junior I wasn’t scared of going home and having someone yell at me! Hahaha My parents and my grandma would always tell me that I can choose to do whatever I want in life and as long as I give it 100% heart and effort, they will always support my decisions. My family is now my biggest fan club! Hahha . They constantly keep updated on our website and even check the myspace and xanga page!

Prohgress – My parents never took what I was doing seriously until this year. Even though they are musicians themselves, they always called my music “a hobby” because they always expected me to become a lawyer. So they definitely didn’t know how to deal with me after I dropped out of law school this year. I love my parents and I want to make them proud, but this was a critical year where I had to make that choice. After all, my dad was the one who told me that a person would only be truly successful in something if he/she focuses all his/her energy into it. I know that if I tried to juggle the music and law for another two years, I would fail on both ends.

I understand that my parents only want what’s best for me and they see the law as the safest route to my success. If anything though, their expectations are what drive me to work even harder in music, so I can walk into family dinners and still see my parents with their heads held high.

J-Spliff- My parents have yet to find out.

ASIANCE: What is your favorite song?

Kev Nish – Guns n Roses – Patience
Prohgress- Outkast- Bombs Over Baghdad
J-Spliff- Tupac- Dear Mama

ASIANCE: How do you guys come up with your songs and raps? For example, Round Round is there anyone in particular who gets around? Ha! You don’t have to answer that!

Prohgress: WE ALL GET AROUND!! To spread the movement that is!!!
The song “Round Round’ is about traveling around the globe representing YOU, keeping things positive and reaching as many people around round the world as you can! That’s why we opened the track with the grimy-est verse to grab the listeners attention that we’re not just some goodie goodie positive rappers, but we’re real dudes.

Far East Movement

Kev nish: As far as how we come up with the music the ideas always start with an emotion that was inspired by our everyday life. For instance, one day last year I was at a GlamLA Party in Hollywood, and I met this girl outside the club who was crying. I talked to her for almost an hour that night about her problems and mine and how lonely and empty we feel sometimes… even to the point where we’ve wanted to take our own life, and as we were walking back to the club she says to me “smile, even if u don’t mean it because everyone is watching and we don’t want them thinking we’re unhappy”. Everyone is experienced having to smile when they don’t feel like it, and smiling does not always represent happiness. That affected me so much I went home the next day and wrote the concept for the song on our album called ‘Smile’ featuring Ken Oak that we just finished shooting a music video for. We try n represent Asian Americans the best we can by writing songs EVERYONE can relate to no matter race, age or gender.

FM: Every concept is organic, after the concept is put on the drawing board we find or make the right beat that stays true to the vibe and feel of what we want to say. Once we get that beat, we’ll sit in the studio for hours and hours writing our verses until we find a way to say what we want while complementing each other. A lot of thought goes into the verses, as simple and easy as they might sound. When we first started making music and rhyming, we were into and influenced by big vocabulary complex raps and political messages, but our ultimate goal as the Far*East Movement was to changes peoples perspectives of Asians in global media, so we studied the music that is easily accepted all over the world, mainstream top 40 pop. We studied the melodies, song structure and the way a message and feeling can be conveyed to the listener using less words. After studying that formula, we go back to our roots like the rawness of the 80’s LA rock scene or the organic hip-hop movement of the 90’s and mix all those elements to write our verses and hooks.

ASIANCE: What is the most bizarre thing that ever happened to you while you were performing?

FM: During one of our first shows ever in Koreatown, the full sound system cut out. So we came down to the dance floor, had people gather around us like a break dance circle, and we started rapping out our set accapella.

ASIANCE: What is the naughtiest thing that has happened? You have to answer that!

FM: Well, besides leaving the club with 3 girls a night after every show and loading up on every drug man has discovered, we’re pretty tame JUST KIDDIN!! We have had random encounters with awesome females and we drink and party just like any other group of guys in their twenties. One thing we’ve learned being in this growing industry is that there are a lot of temptations. We’re building a family, and because the Asian community is small we treat everyone we meet as a new family member in order to keep this movement strong and undeniable. This far east movement into media is fairly new in comparison to Caucasians and African Americans in entertainment, which means the community can only go in one of two directions, UP or Down.. LETS GROW UP!

ASIANCE: Who has a girlfriend?

FM: We’re all single! this job is life consuming, just like having a woman.

ASIANCE: Who is your ultimate girl?

Kev Nish – My ultimate girl is a girl who can understand her man without having to try. This girl has a beautiful smile and is comfortable with herself enough to open her heart fully to the one she loves, but is able to keep that heart exclusive. Her intelligence doesn’t have to come from a degree, but she does need to be intelligent and aware. She has to have a presence that startles me and makes me nervous, so that when I look into her eyes I forget about everything in this world but her.

Far East Movement

Prohgress- I’m looking for someone who inspires me. A girl who has her own goals and aspirations who I can grow with. Like we said, this job is life-consuming and I need someone who I can enjoy quality time with but gives me the time and space necessary to concentrate fully on my work.

J-Spliff – I’m like any other guy that likes the outer appearance of a girl. But besides the looks, my dream girl will need to have lots of patience and trust. She also must be very confident in herself to know that she is the only one. Just being an overall good person is all I need.

ASIANCE: Who/What group would you like to work or tour with?

FM: Our dream tour would be a “Movementality Tour’ featuring the Far*East Movement, Dj Virman, DJ Quickie, DJ Coke-e, Durtee 3, Lyrics Born, Jin the Emcee, Chan, Monroe St, At Last, Vudoo Soul, Ken Oak Band, Q-York, Jimmy Boi, Burning Tree Project and anyone else changing the way people view Asian Americans.

ASIANCE: Anything you want to say to Asian Americans?

FM: BE YOURSELF! and be proud to be yourself. The differences in different human beings is a beautiful thing. Every human looks the same compared to ROBOTS so stop hating on each other and say F*CK THE ROBOTS!

For more listening myspace.com/fareastmovement and www.fareastmovement.com.