“American’s Got Talent” At Last

They’ve appeared in concerts with Boys II Men, Justin Timberlake, Ashanti, Destiny’s Child and other huge names. And now, after wooing the nation on FOX reality series *America’s Got Talent*, acapella group At Last is stretching their vocal chords to wow audiences with even more of their talent and passion.

I walked into At Last’s practice studio-slash-apartment and was greeted with a round of hugs and a lot of musical equipment. The space where the three original members of the group, Mike Lee, Hans Cho, and Justin Fong, once lived together had recently been transformed into a practice arena, complete with a wall of mirrors for choreography run-throughs, and lots of free weights for the men’s weight-lifting needs. Newest member, DJ Say now abides there, but the place is in essence the group’s home. “We practice 3 to 4 times a week for about 4 to 5 hours at a time,” Mike explains. DJ adds, “Even in our free time, we love our music so much that we just jam.” The atmosphere in their pad is very chill, but what strikes you most is the sweetness and friendliness of the four heartthrobs. Hans says, “We’re pretty laid back guys but we all have different roles.”

The members jump in to explain that Hans plays the emcee and he is very good at engaging the crowd. DJ is the goofy one who adds some silliness to the group. Justin is the official “heartthrob,” (although most would agree that all of them are heartthrobs), and gives the group soul. And Mike is the one to keep them all in check when anyone is slacking off. DJ calls him “the beef”, and given Mike’s rippling biceps, it’s not surprising. The boys laugh easily and keep conversation lively. And they unabashedly explain their individual quirks. Justin tells me, “Hans is an absolute neat freak! He’s always cleaning and organizing, even *during* rehearsal *while *we’re singing a song. We’ll be rehearsing a set and look around for Hans, and he’ll be dusting the computer or washing the dishes…with the microphone in his hand!” Hans replies that, “Justin is a simple man. He loves music, girls and food and in no particular order. If he doesn’t get his fix of any of these, he can get pretty cranky!” As for the other two members? Justin explains, “Mike is our resident physical education expert. He comes up with a lot of exercises we can do to improve our stamina and strength. But even on his own time he’s obsessed with working out. He even runs to the gym after rehearsals just to hit up the treadmill! Then he runs back home.” That’s how those aforementioned biceps came about. Finally, “DJ loves video games. He’ll challenge me to a Madden game after we finish practice, and he ends up losing almost every time.”

But it isn’t just fun and games; they’re very serious musicians. So Asiance got an exclusive interview and took a deeper look.

ASIANCE: Why the name At Last?

AT LAST: At Last comes from Martin Luther King’s famous speech, “Free At Last.” We’re more than just an R&B group. We like to think we’re contributing to a larger movement that is literally changing the face of the American music scene. Thus, the name “At Last.” I think we’re changing a lot of perceptions and stereotypes while chasing our dreams.

ASIANCE: How long have you been together?

AT LAST: A little over 5 years.

At Last

ASIANCE: How did you guys get together?

AT LAST: Hans and [Mike] have known each other and have been singing together since high school. We moved to LA to pursue a career in music where we met Justin. He was down here attending school at USC and soon we realized we all shared the same passion and taste in music and decided to get together. We then found Eric Zee and Ming Na (of *ER* and *Joy Luck Club*), who we found out always wanted to manage a music act to help make a mark in the American music industry for Asian Americans. Later down the road, we found DJ who had just moved to California from Texas for a job in child care. Because of a recent member loss, At Last was looking for a new flavor, which DJ injected with his addition. The rest is history.

ASIANCE: Speaking of getting together, the question that thousands of girls across the nation want an answer to: Do you guys have girlfriends?

AT LAST: Nope, we’ve all been single for a while.

ASIANCE: What kind of music do you listen to?

AT LAST: A lot of R&B and hip hop. Boys II Men is a huge influence. And all the harmony groups of the 90s.

At Last CD

ASIANCE: Does being an Asian American group affect things at all?

AT LAST: Being Asian definitely affects things. It definitely has its pros and cons. People are not used to seeing Asian Americans sing well. It’s not expected. One of our biggest joys is changing the perception of Asian American males.

ASIANCE: Well, generally the media portrays AA men as unsexy. Do you guys think you are sexy?

AT LAST: We’re bringing sexy back.

ASIANCE: What has been biggest struggle in trying to make it?

AT LAST: There are a lot, but one of the biggest one’s would have to be trying to get major labels to see how marketable an Asian American act could be. We’ve met with labels many times and the reaction is always the same: “We think you guys are great! You guys are so talented. Have you thought about going to Asia?” Or “we love you guys, but we don’t know exactly what to do you with you.” There’s a lot of fear in entertainment, especially in the music industry. It seems like people don’t want to roll the dice on a new group unless they’re looking across the table at a sure thing.

At Last with Boyz II Men

ASIANCE: Other than sing, what else do you guys do for fun?

AT LAST: We’ll go to bars and clubs. We play basketball.

ASIANCE: Any anecdotes from being on *America’s Got Talent*?

AT LAST: On the first episode, as you guys saw, we performed “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone”. We performed, the judges gave us their thoughts, we thanked them and walked off stage. But what you didn’t see was that we actually had a surprise song that we arranged. On the fly that morning, we arranged an acapella version of Brandy’s hit “Have You Ever” and sprung it on the judges as a surprise. After they gave us their criticism, we walked right up to the judges table and serenaded Brandy with one of her own songs. She was totally flustered, but loved every second of it. We thanked them again, I kissed her hand, and we left the stage. They may have cut it out because they didn’t want to give us an unfair advantage, and there might have been some rights issues with the song, but it was a fun little memory. Oh, and Brandy smelled like flowers.

ASIANCE: What are you up to now?

AT LAST: We’ve been back in the studio, recording a couple new songs from the show (*America’s Got Talent*). We will release it on the website hopefully next month.

Michelle is a writer and dreamer at heart. By day she is a television news journalist, but has always wanted to pursue print. She is also a contributing writer to the UNESCO Courier. But she is so excited that Asiance has given her an opportunity to write about issues that affect Asian American Women. Michelle graduated from Stanford in ‘04 with a B.A. in Political science and in ‘05 she finished her M.A. in Media Studies, also at Stanford. She loves food, memoirs, and all things creative. She currently lives in Los Angeles. Check out her MyAsiance page at my.asiancemagazine.com/michelle