Part II of the interview.  You can find Part I here.

[…and made us realize we can’t and shouldn’t hide the fact we’re Asian] I really respect that.  What has the reception been like within the hip hop entertainment community?

SURPRISE. hahah. We’ve had other artists and djs from radio stations say “I’ve been hearing your songs on the radio and always thought yall might be latino or white maybe… but when i looked yall up on the internet and saw FAR EAST MOVEMENT and yall were Asian i was really surprised.” To us, thats a compliment. it means they felt we sounded authentic to how they hear hip hop music. Hopefully the next time they hear or see an Asian artist it wont be as much of a shock.

[…we’re striving to be an Asian American Brand] How has the support been like from the Asian American community so far, how are you trying to reach out or accomplish this?

The support has been amazing. Just within the growing Asian American entertainment community we’ve been lucky enough meet and become family with some of the most amazing people breaking down doors like Justin Lin, Suchin Pak, Sung Kang, Jin, Brian Tee, Roger Fan, Se7en, DJ Shine (Drunken Tiger), DJ Eman (Power106) and countless other musicians, djs, comedians, actors, directors, journalists, tv personalities, dancers, promoters and executives who have all helped us to the path that we’re on today. And our fans, friends and family are the inspiration and support who have driven us to never give up when doors don’t seem to open as fast as we’d like them to. Our first event ever was MOVEMENTALITY, the charity show we talked about earlier. We pride ourselves in doing as many charity shows, high school, college and community shows as we can, especially with the youth, so that we may reach out to the next generation and give back the love the community has shown us. We’ve started working with an assistant superintendant named Diann from a high school district in Sacramento to reach out to students and inspire them in the arts. Definitely be on the look out for FM working much more closely with schools in the near future.

Some of your songs are getting radio play across the country.  How did this happen, and what has it done for your visibility?

Working with DJ Virman, who has been in radio for over 10 years, has definitely opened our ears to what sound may work for a larger audience like radio.  The first song we got on major radio was “You’ve Got A Friend” featuring Baby Bash and Lil Rob, both legendary Latino artists. We made the track purely off of feeling and one day in rehearsal we decided to play it on the loud speakers. DJ Virman heard it and was like “let me get a copy of that track.” We didn’t think much of it and as a few weeks had passed Virman gets a call from DJ Eman from Power 106 asking what we would think if Baby Bash got on this song. Of coarse we flipped out and said YES. Then a few weeks later Eman calls again and asks if its cool if Lil Rob got on the song. Knowing that he’s one of the most requested artists in LA we said YES. After recording the song we gave the final mix to DJ Eman at Power 106, a few more weeks pass and we get a call telling us to turn on the radio for the New @ 2 Show with Yesi Ortiz and DJ Felli Fel and we hear the instrumental for “You’ve Got A Friend” drop in. It had to be one of the craziest moments in our careers as musicians since we grew up our whole lives listening to Power 106.

That song did wonders for our visibility and credibility as new artists with record labels and execs in the industry, and with new fans… the song made it to #3 on LA’s Top 4 @4 Countdown, was on the Top 8 @ 8 Countdown for over 2 months, was added to main rotation getting spins on other stations nationally, and was one of the top requested songs in Phoenix and LA.
Having that song allowed us to come in to the Power 106 and hand them our new single “LOWRIDIN” at their DJ Mixer meeting. A few days passed after presenting the song, then one day Felli Fel took us aside and told us he actually liked the song. We couldn’t believe it, but for a whole 2 weeks he started off the New @ 2 Show with the song and has consistantly been dropping it in the mix ever since. As “LOWRIDIN” continues to spread with plays on over 14 stations and rising, it has opened many new doors for us than with the previous song, as more and more new people of different races and faces are hitting us up with opportunities to build or to just tell us they dig the track. Some of our older fans say they heard the track on the radio for a week and didn’t even realize it was us until looking it up on the internet. Thank you to everyone requesting it, playing it on your myspaces and websites and helping it to spread further.

How did you get on the Tokyo Drift and Finishing the Game soundtrack (and what’s your relationship with Justin Lin)?

As we were experimenting with new sounds and vibes, we came up with an uptempo/fun song called “Round Round"… purely as an experiment for us to see where we can take our sound. After finishing the song the singer on the track named Storm loved the song and brought it over to the head of Soundtracks and Music Placements at EMI named Oscar. We went to his office and played the song for him and he loved it. Right away he said he wanted to send it to a Wayans Brothers film and the upcoming Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift. Just like the radio placements, we waited over a month for any news and we got a call saying that the song was tested in one of the scenes for FF3 and the director liked it. We then found out the director was Justin Lin who happened to know our manager Carl and our good friend and video director Evan Leong. Both Carl and Evan pressed to make sure the song made the movie, and Carl even took it a step further locking down placement of the song in the official soundtrack and promotion of an official music video for the movie directed by Evan Leong and Justin Lin. After this experience our relationship with Justin Lin grew and lead to him and Evan Leong asking us to do the title song for his independent feature “Finishing The Game” which was an amazing opportunity...and i dont think he knows this but we still get a little nervous being around him just because who he is hahaha. With all that he has done and continues to do he’s one of the most real and supportive people we’ve met in the industry, always fighting to help and put Asian Amercians in the spotlight and as he says “level the playing field”.



5 Comments

Hey I like that they’re working with other Asian groups. This kind of collobaration is needed if Asians are to make it mainstream.

I’m definitely feeling their music. Never really got into the stuff coming from Asia, but between this and Magnetic North, I’m starting to get into the Asian American tunes

Thanks for writing this article. Are there any more parts?

No I believe that’s it. There could be follow-up interviews and posts of course.

Ya i hav met them a bunch of times they r so cool i luv there sound n i hope 2 do a track wit dem someday!