It’s no wonder that Clara C’s last show of her Shakin’ Off Silence tour sold out. Doors opened at 5:30 p.m. and a large crowd filled up NYC’s Highline Ballroom in under 10 minutes. The show didn’t start until 6:30 p.m. and fans were eager to spot a glimpse of Clara C, shouting, “Is that Clara?! Where’s Clara?” Fans chatted about her as if they knew her personally, asking each other whether or not they had watched her newest YouTube videos, commenting on their favorite ones. The lights dimmed, and the show’s emcees—The Jubilee Project—introduced themselves and the opening acts.

Eric, Jason, and Eddie of The Jubilee Project

The Jubilee Project, made up of Jason, Eddie, and Eric, produce and direct videos for a good cause. The group was inspired by the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti and began fundraising through their videos. The Jubilee Project’s mission statement: to make entertaining videos that will empower, enable, and inspire others to do good as well.

Wanted Ashiqz, the winners of Kollaboration NY 6, stormed the stage with their signature hip-hop/Bollywood meshed dance style to popular songs by Eminem, and Beyonce, including a tribute to Michael Jackson. Their performance ended as a voice-over thanked the group’s greatest inspiration—Bollywood.

Mree (left), Travis Graham of New Heights (right)

Next up was the 18-year-old indie folk singer/songwriter sensation, Mree. The crowd swayed in awe to Mree’s angelic voice as she played songs off of her new album, Grow. Mree has previously been proclaimed as a “web sensation,” and her single, “Against the Current,” was selected by YouTube artist, David Choi, to be featured on YouTube’s homepage.

After Mree, the action-packed music video for New Heights’ latest song featuring Clara C, “Take Me On,” started rolling—the crowd immediately recognized it and began singing along, cheering as Clara C unexpectedly pulled out a large machine gun in one of the scenes, shooting in slow motion. The band materialized and played tracks off their album, Something to Believe In. During their last song, the lead vocalist, Travis, climbed off-stage onto a fan’s shoulders and the two unsteadily ventured into the sea of people.

Clara C

At long last, the crowd went wild as Clara C walked out, wide-eyed with the biggest smile on her face, surprised at the amount of people that came to see her perform. Clara was a natural onstage, even with slight microphone issues; she cracked jokes, took her shoes off to play the piano, and showed off her amazing instrumental skills. Throughout the show, Clara had an ecstatic look on her face, shouting, “Wow, I can hear you guys singing!” She made it all look so easy, and she genuinely connected with the audience.

Before the concert, Korean Beacon got a chance to sit down with Clara C to talk about her Shakin’ Off Silence tour experience, her creative process, working with Dumbfoundead and Jay Park, pre-show rituals, and why she decided to no longer be a “closet musician.”

How has the touring experience been so far? Was it everything you expected it to be?

Touring has been absolutely, positively, unbelievably amazing because we have sold out every venue and that in itself is amazing. It’s also been good because typically I just play gigs by myself but this time I have my band traveling with me. If my band can’t make it, we have New Heights backing me and New Heights is like family to me, they’re like my brothers. It’s like being on a road trip indefinitely.

Yeah, I mean there were some curve balls thrown—I learned that you can plan all you want and things don’t always pan out. But everything has exceeded my expectations.

What is your creative process like when writing songs, and where do you pull inspiration from?

I tell people I’m still a fledgling song-writer because I’ve only been doing this for a year and a half. When I started, it’s not like I was like, “Yeah, I think I’m going to do this music thing and I hope it works out.” I was just thrown into the pit and I hit the ground running. You can’t pass an opportunity by. I don’t have a process locked in yet, but typically what ends up happening and what results in my best songs is when I feel a surge of incoming emotion. I sit in front of whatever instrument is closest to me and I vomit my emotions. The vomit is my product (laughs).

What are the five things you can’t live without?

Oh my gosh, let’s see: food—noodles, the interwebs, music, a dog, and God.

Can you tell us what it was like to collaborate with Dumbfoundead and Jay Park?

Ah, come on, they’re family as well. It was funny how that song we did, “Clouds,” came about because we were having lunch, sitting in Dumb’s room and we were like, “Let’s write a song!” We kind of just canoodled through some tracks and we were like, “It should be about sunny days and life. Let’s make an inspiring, feel-good song.” And then we kind of just split without a word into 3 corners of the room, with notepads. We all scribbled for an hour and came back and said, “Okay let’s record this!”

You’re described as a “closet musician.” What was the defining moment for you when you decided to step out into the spotlight?

I think it was at Kollaboration. I’m a closet musician because I’ve loved music since the womb, but I was with some friends who told me not to do music because it was risky and I wouldn’t make it, and that I wasn’t good enough. As a result I stopped believing in myself, you know. But I found a new group of friends and they helped me believe and boosted my confidence, so I came out of the closet. My friends—the good ones—forced me to get on YouTube against my will, and forced me to enter into a bunch of competitions – Kollaboration was the third one. That was at The Shrine where the Emmys were held—I almost kissed the stage as I walked out. I performed “Offbeat,” and when I won I guess something just clicked and solidified. I was like, “Okay, Clara Chung, let’s do this.”

What’s involved in your pre-performance ritual, if any?

Honey-lemon tea and very, very strange vocal exercises, which will color me different in your mind (to get a glimpse, watch Clara’s ‘Mistletoe’ cover). Me and my band will do something like, “1, 2, 3, WE’RE AWESOME!” And I’ll throw up a prayer just to calm me. Sometimes I’ll start warming up because people don’t know this, but I get cooped up in my dressing room for hours. I can’t go outside because there are fans, and I can’t go outside outside because then I have to come back inside through the fans. I just get stuck here, and I have cabin fever, so I end up kind of like jumping-jacking around to get my energy back up.

What has been your most fulfilling experience since going on tour?

I think it might end up happening tonight because this is the last US tour stop. And this is kind of like my feet hitting the trampoline before I take off; the Asia/Australia tour is a huge thing for me, I’ve never even been to either continent. I think tonight at the end of my last song – you know when you have that moment where your eyes get glazed over and wide and you’re like, “Whoa this is happening”? I think that’s going to be tonight, especially in New York, where I was born—I love the vibe, it energizes me.

Clara C is flying to Singapore at the end of this month to kick off her APAC Tour. For full tour dates and ticket info, click here.

Watch Clara & New Heights perform a mashup of “Wake Up in Neverland” + MGMT’s “Kids” @ the Highline:

For more Clara C, follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

[Photos: Mink Choi]

In a weekly series of posts, we will present the Top 5 Most Korean-American cities, selected not only for their numbers, but also for their visibility in mainstream America. Our research was guided by the following criteria: population, famous and/or influential locals, programs, and hotspots.

#4 Seattle, WA

We could begin this post with some witty blurb about Seattle, the rain, and Koreans. Like, “Koreans are raining down on Seattle like wild geese to bank on the good school districts and profitable real estate.” Or maybe even the simpler, “It’s raining Koreans in Seattle!” But let’s just get down to the real nitty-gritty. Here are the main reasons as to why Seattle is #4 on our list of top Korean-American cities.

Numbers

• 52,112 – Seattle metro area (population data compiled using the 2010 Census)

Visibility

• Eugene Cho, a Korean immigrant living in Seattle with his wife and three children, is the founder of Q Café, a neighborhood café and music venue, and the lead pastor and founder of Quest Church. He also co-founded One Day’s Wages—”a new grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty.” Cho’s work with ODW has received widespread media coverage in The New York Times, NPR, The Seattle Times, and other major news publications.
• Matt Kelley, a writer, speaker and communications consultant currently residing in Seoul, founded the Seattle-based MAVIN Foundation—”the nation’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to redefining diversity by celebrating multiracial and transracially adopted youth”—when he was only in his early 20s. And, while he is largely recognized as an advocate for multiracial Americans, he was also the Seoul correspondent for Fridae, Asia’s largest gay and lesbian portal, and, last year, published a poignant piece on his “taboo” love life in South Korea.
• 21-year-old student, poet and organizer, Robin Suhyung Park, battles everyday to break the silence and confront the lack of response/support in her community by openly sharing her experience of being raped by her then boyfriend. She blogs at http://robinisalive.com/ and her first chapbook of poems is available here.

Programs

• The Korean American Historical Society is non-profit organization whose goal is to enrich the lives and experiences of Korean Americans by cataloging and transmitting the history of Korean culture. The KAHS publishes a bi-annual journal called Occasional Papers, conducts interviews with Korean Americans and expatriates, holds seminars and symposia, and also encourages Korean American studies in the world of academia.
• More and more college students are choosing to specialize in Korean studies, but UW’s Center for Korean Studies has always been in the forefront of Korean Studies in the academic world. Former UW professor of Korean History James Palais was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Korean Studies, one of the few peer-reviewed academic journals that cover Korean Studies.
• The Korean Women’s Association (KWA) was established in 1972 as a non-profit organization to aid Korean wives of American servicemen. However, since it has expanded tremendously, its main focus now is providing a wide range of support to over 150,000 individuals of all different nationalities who are in need of help.
• Sahngnoksoo—meaning “evergreen” in English—is a Seattle-based grassroots organization working to “build political power for the self-determination and liberation of Koreans of all identities.”

Hotspots

 
• Revel—featured on our Korean Food USA series last month—offers a fresh modern take on traditional Korean cuisine. The husband-and-wife chef duo, Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi, also own another restaurant in Seattle, Joule, that serves a cross-cultural blend of varying tastes that you’d never expect to combine in one dish.
• Voted ‘America’s Best Food Truck‘ by Good Morning America, Marination Mobile, co-founded by Hawaiian Korean Kamala Saxton, rocks Korean/Hawaiian fusion foods like kalbi tacos, kimchi quesadillas, spam sliders, and kimchi fried rice. After trying LA’s famous Kogi Truck, Kamala and other co-founder Roz Edison wanted to bring the same experience to those living in the Seattle area. And thus, Marination Mobile was born.

• If you’re looking to get your NRB fix, check out Xanadu Karaoke in Lynnwood. Its rooms come in various sizes to accommodate groups of all sizes and are well furnished with big, comfy couches. Drink some beers, pick out your favorite K-pop song, and let the good times roll.
• Open late until 2am, Cockatoo in Federal Way is a great option for those who want to relax on some Hite beer or knock back a couple soju shots. Cockatoo’s menu specializes in yangnyum, or deep-fried chicken, which you can get plain, glazed with a sweet chili sauce, or super spicy. Their happy hour extends from 5-8pm during which you can get $5 fried chicken, ddeokbokki with kimchi, odangtang, and other anju favorites.

Locals

 
• Heartthrob, b-boy extraordinaire and musical artist Park Jaebom, a.k.a Jay Park, was formerly the leader of the K-pop band, 2PM, until his departure in 2009 after a comment on Park’s MySpace was misinterpreted by Korean netizens. Park returned to Seattle, where he was born and raised, to continue working on his music as a solo artist, and released his first mini-album in April 2011, Take a Deeper Look.
  
  
  
  
• Gowe, or Gifted on West East, is a Seattle-reppin’ rapper who was adopted and raised by a Chinese family. Gowe didn’t find out he was adopted until he was 18 years old, and has since wanted to find his biological mother, for whom he wrote the song, “I Wonder.”
• The singing talents of 18-year-old, Erin Kim were mostly unknown until she claimed her victory at last year’s Kollaboration Seattle. Erin will be attending college in Los Angeles where she hopes to continue pursuing her passion for music.
• Other Seattle natives include stand-up comedian Suzanne Park and Chris Kwak of rock band New Heights.

Look out for #3 next week!

UPDATE: Check out our Top 5 Most Korean-American Cities Map!

Melissah Yang and Mink Choi contributed to this post.

Ken Jeong, who plays ‘Mr. Chow’ in both Hangover films, arrived in Seoul earlier this week to promote the release of The Hangover Part II in South Korea.

During the premiere event, Ken Jeong was more than willing to greet fans and pose for the cameras (see publicity shots galore below!). Among the many attendees was Seattle-born pop star Jay Park, who came to meet the actor and support the opening of the film. Yesterday, Jay tweeted: “hang over 2 was DOPE and i met @kenjeong he’s good ppls fo sure~ hangover 2 was so funny~.”

Even when the cameras are not rolling, Ken Jeong never fails to humor his crowd. Fans in Korea are raving about his hilarious character and are anxiously anticipating the film to hit theaters on August 25th.

The many faces of Ken Jeong

Lastly…

Jay Park at the event.

[Photos: Sports Seoul, Yonhap News and Newsen]

Jay Park, the Korean-American kid who once sang in front of thousands of girls in South Korea, has just released a short video of “Nothin’ on You.”  He was formerly of the Korean all boys pop band, 2PM, but he was kicked out and returned to the US.  After hanging out, chillin’ and singing, he did a cover of this song a few months ago and it has since garnered well over 5 million views on YouTube.

Source: AllKpop

Korean-American and former Korean pop singer Jay Park is set to release a single in collaboration with American artists B.o.B.  Jay Park made headlines in the Kpop world when he left the group 2PM in a controversial move.  He moved back to the U.S. and collaborated on some songs which were posted on YouTube.   It looks like someone noticed and now Jay Park is hooking up with B.o.B. who has a few big hits as of late on the airwaves with “Nothin’ On You” and “Airplanes.”    Jay Park is set to sing vocals on “Nothin’ On You.”  So is this the first time a Korean-American is teaming up with a big rapper on a song?  Check out their music below.

Three uniquely talented Korean-American musicians are collaborating for what appears to be for the fun of it.  Jay Park, free-style rapper Dumbfounded, and Clara Chung have gotten together to create a new track that’s to be released on April 23rd.  It’ll be interesting because all three are vastly different in their styles and I’m excited to see how their talents will mash up.  Check it out on April 23rd!

If you haven’t seen Clara Chung, then take a glimpse because you’ll really like her. She was the winner of this year’s Kollaboration in Los Angeles.

Source: AllKpop