UNGENERIC Podcast
Get an insight look at the process, motivation, and journey of a creative mind. Brought to you by XZBT Media.
UNGENERIC Podcast
Episode 4: Resilience and Harmony: Ronnie Kendrick's Musical Journey
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In a world where artistic integrity often battles with industry pressures, Ronnie shares his reflections on authenticity and staying true to one's cultural roots. He delves into the importance of self-love and the journey of personal growth, emphasizing that genuine artistry should serve the creator first and foremost. With his upcoming EP on the horizon, Ronnie's dedication to creating meaningful music promises a deeply emotional and resonant experience for listeners. Celebrate with us as Ronnie Kendrick shares his inspiring journey, one filled with resilience, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to his craft.
Life, Music, and Family Journey
Speaker 2all right , we're sitting on the uh little . I always say this like I'm on the fucking casting couch Sitting together this evening with Ronnie Kendrick , the fabulous Ronnie Kendrick , I should say the smooth as silk voice . Ronnie Kendrick , so , singer , songwriter , vocalist , you make all your own music .
Speaker 3Yeah , I do With the help of like , so like , like in my community , like my friends here in orange county and stuff like that I've grown up with , like we thankfully , you know most of them are creatives or artists or musicians and and uh it , I'm blessed for that because you know we're able to come together and do what we love to do . We have something in common to do , which is music , and it all comes , it's all , from authenticity , it's all real and I'm just thankful for that , like I'm thankful for being in a community where I'm from and then people I've known my whole life , basically like my family of brothers , and we just come together and make some music .
Speaker 2So take me back a little bit . Take me back to , like , little ronnie , like how did the music come about ? Where did you grow up ? Like , where did that come ?
Speaker 3about little ronnie man . Little ronnie was little ronnie was a demon . Okay , yeah , a little you know , you know , like , you know , when they say demon time , like he was demon time oh dear , are we the second born ?
Speaker 2are you the second child ?
Speaker 3I was the middle child oh , I see , I called it I was the middle child , I I have a lot of brothers , um . So basically back story like a little history me yes , please go , I have two other brothers I so I have . I have my biological parents , my mom and dad , and there's four of us wait , actually one , two wait my biological mom and dad . It's four of us , but I lost two brothers oh , I'm sorry , yeah , they passed .
Speaker 3So I have one brother passed away in 2008 and then I had a brother I didn't meet . He passed away when he was a baby . He was actually the brother before me .
Speaker 2I'm so sorry .
Speaker 3Yeah , no , and the way I think of it as and I told my mom this too , and she also my mom's very intuitive and spiritual , so I told her his death was sort of like , in hindsight , more of a blessing because there wouldn't be me .
Speaker 3I came right after him yeah my parents would have not tried again , if you know , if he didn't pass basically so um , I am , I would say like oh , I'm thankful , I'm thankful you're gone , man no no , no , no , he knows he , but I I think it's more of a blessing that you , you know in hindsight , like if it wasn't for that incident , you know , I wouldn't be around .
Speaker 3So . But I have four . I have two older brothers , three older brothers actually , and then I have a bunch of half siblings with , like , my dad . So he has , my dad was a little , you know , a little play of play back in the day .
Speaker 2He has a bunch of baby mamas . Oh dear , Was it like hey , uh , this is your baby Really . Oh , no , no , no , legit , legit .
Speaker 3Like yeah like he'd be like uh , and you know , like all that's all that's just put behind us . But back then , you know , I really hold , hold , I really held it against him , even though he didn't , he didn't . I didn't really grow up with him . I grew up with my stepdad okay , and he was my dad , he , he passed away . 2020 it's , it's fine , but he um we're gonna get all misty on the show ronnie , it's gonna , it's gonna I'm five minutes in and I'm already drying up tears .
Speaker 2What is going on ?
Speaker 3There's a positive ending to it all and I feel like that when I get into that later , that all just contributes to my music and my art and how I see , how the perspectives I have in life and how I see life now and what I've the obstacles I've gone through in life to be the person I am .
Speaker 2I was going to say you seem like this little ball of light , like , honestly , you have this just very what's like a , I want to say intoxicating our like addictive personality . You know , it's very , it's very good , very , very good , thank you , I know .
Speaker 3Thank you , I think it's . I'm blessed that , like through whatever I went through growing up and all the trauma I've been through , I still remain to be myself through it all real and um , I think um everyone on my support , my support system , my family , especially um my brothers , my mom , everybody , friends that were there for me through the years and if it wasn't for that , um , a lot of that , a lot of what I went through would have been . I don't know how I would have turned out if it wasn't , if it wasn't for their support , but I support . I greatly appreciate all of them for that .
Speaker 3So um but yeah anyways . Yeah , little ronnie but , little ronnie yeah so when it comes to art and music . I grew up in a musical household .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 3So it started with my , well , it started with my grandpa , and then it basically stems down to like his kids , which are my mom's brothers and sisters and my mom . They all played keys growing up .
Speaker 2Oh , nice Okay .
Speaker 3So my grandpa was amazing at piano . I didn't actually know this until like later on in life .
Speaker 2Oh , really , yeah , so amazing at piano .
Speaker 3I didn't actually know this till like later on in life , oh really . So he didn't share that with you when you're a little , because he I wasn't really close to my grandpa , like he would come like maybe every five years he lives in , well , he lived in the philippines , so , but both my grandparents are in the philippines , so I would only , I would mostly see my grandma more because I was closer , but , um , since they were split , he was more , um , just kind of like distant in a way , but he still would try to be around a lot . Um , yeah , so he was the key player and my mom , uh , basically inherited that like trait about him and she played for the church and and she ended up just kind of teaching me and my brothers how to play a piano too , um , although she got a little impatient , but so yeah , oh , I'm sorry with the demon seed .
Speaker 2Yeah , exactly , I don't know why she did , why she got impatient , no , exactly .
Speaker 3So yeah , she got she literally like , I don't think there was ever a time where she actually like , I mean , there was times where she would sit down with us and teach us , but I think it was a lot of self-learning . Just because she didn't have that patience , she just never really really sat down and taught us . Yeah , so our , our upright piano that was in our living room in anaheim where I grew up uh , was just there , so I , I would just play around and try to learn songs on my own and then , um , yeah , and that's how , like piano we had , I'm filipino , so a lot of karaoke in the household , a lot of karaoke I love it a lot .
Speaker 3So , um , my older brother that passed away , he was an aspiring artist too . So he was . He was a vocalist and he played a little piano , but he was always the one that just had the house bumping because he was just always . He was always singing or having music play and just having music playing all around the house throughout the day and and , uh , whenever he'd sing karaoke , I was very shy , surprisingly enough . Like to sing you ? Yeah , I didn't , I didn't , I didn't , I didn't , I . I actually uh , I was a dancer . I actually like dancing more than I , more than singing . I didn't realize I could sing till I was , I was probably 12 . Okay , yeah , I would say like I didn't think I had like an actual talent I would sing , but I would be like am I actually good at this ?
Speaker 2like you know what sparked that change ?
Speaker 3what was like okay , I'm gonna , I'm gonna sing , I'm gonna do this , I'm gonna actually do this so when my brother passed away , um well , actually no , let's back up a little bit during the time when he'd do like the karaoke stuff , like I would hop in sing . But there was one time we were I don't know where we were coming from , we were driving home somewhere and it was just me and him and um , uh , he turns up the radio and rihanna's playing . I think it's Umbrella . Right .
Speaker 3Yeah , and he starts singing . He's like , he looks my way and he's like come on , sing it . And I'm like , nah , I'm okay , I don't want to sing , I'm cool . And he's like he literally , literally just big brothers me . He's just like sing , right now , you could do it , you could sing , you could sing . And I'm just like , no , no . And then I'm like , ok , fine , so I start singing . He's like yeah , there you go , there you go . You can't sing . And from that moment , hearing him say , just kind of getting that validation from him , like that I can , that I have this talent , like I think from then on , like that's when I started actually taking singing more seriously yeah and um yeah , probably really valued his opinion , being an older brother yeah he already did all that stuff yeah , all
Speaker 3right , well , he said , I can sing yeah , yeah , being someone I really liked up to growing up , just from doing karaoke and seeing him on the stage , his stage presence , just him being like this , he was a superstar in my eyes growing up and , yeah , it was someone I wanted to be at that time and carry on this talent .
Speaker 3When he passed away when he passed away , actually , I kind of stopped singing for a while because it reminded me too much of him and I didn't want to remind my mom too much of him , because when I sang and I looked just like him , everyone would tell me , like you look , you're like his little mini-me growing up . You look , you're like his little , his little mini me growing up . And um , that kind of when , when he passed away , that that made me realize like , okay , I don't want to make people feel sad , so I'm just gonna not sing and just like do my own thing . And I kind of went into a shell and um , yeah and uh . That's when I started getting more into like sports . That's where , like I would , basically that would be an outlet for , like , my aggression growing up .
Speaker 3Yeah , it would be like sports and just competing and kind of just shoving all that trauma back , because I just I was just so like I didn't know how to navigate my emotions growing up and it would all go to just sports and um , just kind of uh getting in trouble getting in trouble yes , so yeah yeah causing a ruckus and I was gonna get there yes but um we know where that's going yeah , you know we're . You know the demon time , the demon time .
Speaker 2I told you the demon time .
Speaker 3Oh yeah , but um , yeah , just looking back at it , like I'm like I've gone through so much , I've um , basically just like but that's
Navigating Music After Loss
Speaker 3tough on kit .
Speaker 2How old were you when he ?
Speaker 3passed away 2008 , so I was 12 yeah , that's huge yeah , kid yeah really huge .
Speaker 2so I mean , he was a huge . How far apart were you guys ? How old was he ? Five years ? Oh geez , he was only 17 . Yeah , 2008 .
Speaker 3That's hard . He'd be 35 right now .
Speaker 2That is so hard .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 2So I mean for you trying to navigate those waters . I mean it had to have been harder . Your mom probably didn't know how to approach that . So then of course you're like , oh , how can I stop this down ? So that was probably your only outlet . Exactly so then how did you come full circle to getting back to music ?
Speaker 3Getting back to music , it's when I picked up a ukulele .
Speaker 1Really yeah , I picked up a ukulele Out of all the instruments ?
Speaker 3Yeah , out of all the instruments . Okay , I need the ukulele story yeah . I have to change gears . I'm crying again , ronnie . Yeah , it was uh . Like you know , I would sing in the shower and everything but , but it but through that time and you know sort of sing , but I would never . I was just . I just didn't want to display it in public or in front of my family members I'll just keep it hidden and sing to myself or in the shower and uh .
Speaker 3But I think when I picked up , when I started picking up instruments again , the ukulele was like the first instrument I started picking up on uh again and I just started playing and it that's due to like . It was like a wave because like at the time , a lot like there was this ukulele , ukulele , ukulele wave , um , and people in school and like my closest friends were I missed that wave , that's okay .
Speaker 2Do you remember that wave ?
Speaker 3no , no , I don't yeah , there was a wave of ukuleles like , yeah , like people everyone I know .
Speaker 2Every one of my band members owns a ukulele . I'm ukulele yeah , and I'm like you have a . Why do you have a ukulele in your trunk ? They're like , oh , everybody has it . I'm like , okay , it's weird .
Speaker 3I guarantee you . I guarantee you if you ask him .
Speaker 2But probably because how old are you ?
Speaker 3I am 29 .
Speaker 2Oh see , yep , Okay , you guys were the ukulele generation , yeah , the ukulele generation .
Speaker 3We were just we like some reason .
Speaker 2That's crazy . All these kids started playing ukulele . What artist was like jamming on a ukulele ?
Speaker 3Well , there was a Filipino artist on YouTube . His name is Jeremy Passion . He actually like was like the pioneers of YouTube for like covers and his cover of I think it was so sick by neo really blew up .
Speaker 2Okay , look it up later . We're gonna link it .
Speaker 3Yeah , link it if you want to do today . We can link today and now . There's a whole history on it . There's a whole history on that . Yeah and um , he pioneered the whole youtube cover world . Yeah , he was one of the one of the people that pioneered it and and it was because he played the ukulele , he played the guitar , played piano very all-around talented musician , um , so at the time , like you know , all these asian kids were just like playing the ukulele , like you know my turn , yeah , and so we , I read , I , I wrote with the asian wave and like and uh , no pun intended , I wrote the asian typhoon I'm not in control it's me , guys .
Speaker 3It's me , cancel me , if anything I did not make the asian pun just so we all know she didn't do it but but yes , that's that , um , that pioneered the whole ukulele wave and at the time it was like 2011 , 2012 , like , I think , my junior year of high school . And then started singing and started playing and started learning songs again and , um , yeah , shout out to my friends that like , basically put it in my hands and were like yo , you need to start , you need to start singing they wanted that for me a lot of them a lot of them really encouraged me to sing , but I was very , like , insecure about it , I was shy about it and I just I had friends that just wanted me to be my authentic self and be that artist I'm meant to be .
Speaker 3So , yeah , that's that's how I got that's coming full circle . That's how I became , that's how I got back into music .
Speaker 2Basically , so nice , um , yeah so then you started writing and everything like yeah , yeah so the in terms of like creating this is so
From Call of Duty to Writing
Speaker 2funny .
Speaker 3But I started actually writing earlier around that time , actually like junior sophomore year and it was . It was the days when , uh , like call of duty was like call of duty , still big , but you know , you remember call of duty like yeah , it's still big , but back then , like around the 2010s , like everyone was fiending for cod , everyone and um and so like I had a group of friends on cod and cod yeah cod , yeah , are on the xbox .
Speaker 3And we I had a group of friends , it was probably like maybe three or four of us , oh , maybe more , and uh , we would have rap battles I love it . You're just on , on our chat like yeah , yeah , literally yeah
Speaker 2yeah , we you're like oh just shoot that guy , sweet , I'm gonna jam a melody in your ear , exactly so we so we literally have our phones with YouTube on .
Speaker 3Yeah , put it . So whoever's not playing , whoever died and is just sitting in the spectator room they call it the spectator room , where it's kind of like purgatory , but for people that are engaged .
Speaker 2Loserville , yeah , Loserville . The Gulag , yeah the .
Speaker 3Gulag . So whoever is spectator bill , they would have the mic , like just put it . Or whoever , whoever was the dj , put the mic against , like the , you know the microphone and then put it against microphone and then they would just play like some type of cypher beat lyric , like cypher instrumental , and then we'd run , we just make a round , it's like all right , who's ?
Speaker 2first . So you're trying to play and you're trying to rap , yeah , yeah trying to rap .
Speaker 3So long story short . That's how I started getting into writing was it wasn't even singing , it was rapping .
Speaker 2Hey , yeah , but I mean it's all intertwined so absolutely , you know music , but I love it I love it . That's crazy , that's crazy I think that is the most interesting . Like how did you get ? Well , I started rapping and fall of duty , that is epic , that's epic I want to hear this on like behind the music . Well , I don't even know if they have vh1 anymore , but you know what I mean . I want to see that on an interview down the road for sure vh1 like , by the way I know right I'm showing my age .
Speaker 3I'm all behind the music . I was on the tail end of that .
Speaker 2I was on the tail and I was sitting there saying the years you graduated high school . I'm like , oh my god , I've been on stage for like 12 years , man . So going back to like your songwriting process , after we got off of call of duty yeah what ?
Speaker 2how did it go from there ? Like , what did you ? Were you like oh shit , I need to start writing stuff on the piano , I need to . How did it all come together to where ? Because I've seen the ronnie now . It's not call of duty , it's much more progressive than that . So how did we get there ?
Speaker 3okay , so , yeah , um , so after Call of Duty . So let's fast forward two years , because between that I was just kind of just practicing and learning how to play the ukulele and the guitar around that time . So that's when I actually first picked up . Yeah , I first picked up guitar like in 2011 , 2012 . And I just started learning and I was more just learning and going on YouTube , you know , searching up a trendy song that is out at the time and I would just learn the song and it would be like something simple , like simple four chord progression . Um , but , um , at that that was at that time .
Speaker 3But like , fast forward to probably second year college , I'd say is when I started really taking writing seriously . And , um , it was because of a good old friend of mine named john , and his producer name is tommy miller and he , that's when he started getting into producing . Nice , he , um , that was like the baby stages of producing and and , uh , he pretty much got me involved in that that time , you know , and he just called me over like hey , like I'm starting to produce and I have no clue what I'm doing , but but I want yeah , come over and let's play some music , you know , let's make something .
Speaker 3And um , there was a lot of hurdles and a lot of learning curves and and uphill battles with it , um , but um , that's when I started writing is when he just like make a simple beat and just shoot it on , like he would text to me and I'll be like , oh yeah , this is sick , this is you made this way . I was like it's my boy and uh and uh , yeah , this is sick , this is sick . You made this what . I was like that's my boy , and yeah
Exploring Creative Writing and Self-Discovery
Speaker 3, and that's when I started . Just kind of that creative boost just started flowing through me at the time , just when I would hear the beat , and I usually like to have a beat first when I write . That's how my creative writing starts , is when a beat is presented and then I write over it , and so that's kind of like my process is was like beat first and then kind of feel it out , kind of make a melody out of it and start writing , and that's how that's how it is , you know .
Speaker 2So , when it comes to like weaving in a theme or weaving in a topic or messages , what type of things do you typically explore in your songs ?
Speaker 3uh , yeah , um it's , it's really moment by moment pieces you know , like , whatever I'm feeling at the moment and if I'm talking to a special someone or if I'm , if I'm feeling stressed , it'd be like an outlet for me and I'd write about why .
Speaker 3You know what , what's what's causing me to be stressed right now , what , what are my stressors and what , what are certain things ? Um , you know that I'm going through right now that I can basically regurgitate on a piece of paper or like on my laptop , you know . So it's all moment by moment basis , like that's . What I love about writing is because you know you could feel this way one day and you could feel this way another day . And yeah , it's just art , you know , it's it . It's as long as you're consistent , but it's not consistent at the same time , the way you're feeling . But as long as you're just writing and just doing it daily , you know you just get better at it and better at it and yeah , so that's basically my process .
Speaker 2So yeah , is there a particular song ? Or , excuse me , is there a particular I'm like a frog in there somewhere a particularly meaningful or personal song you have written ?
Speaker 3yeah , a lot so I'm off .
Speaker 2I need a box of tissues today , just so we know um , oh man well , can I be honest ? No , yeah , yeah , oh , you start now .
Speaker 3Oh yeah .
Speaker 2No .
Speaker 3I've been trying to be honest this whole time . Actually , I've been a phony this whole time . It's the ukulele , it's the ukulele , I knew it .
Speaker 3No , but a lot . Okay , I'm going to get into that later , later . But I say like in terms of , because I lately I've been writing more things about , I'd say like , what I'm more intentional about in life right now . You know , like what I'm growing up , evolving things of that nature , that's things that so , like , we'll get into that later , but that's all going to be part of the premise of my EP . Yeah , that I am working on . Yeah , and it's been a long time . I haven't dropped an EP since 2021 . So it's been about three years now , and so , yeah , back pedal . What I was writing before . It was a lot about heartbreak and love , which is , you know , which is , you know , good things to write about , absolutely , absolutely right . But I'm going more into , like , the growth of myself , finding love in myself , because that's where it all starts . You know , huge , like that's . Those are big things for me , like the growth , the evolution , like why I'm here , uh , why I am the person really deep , yeah , why why I'm here ?
Speaker 2yeah why ?
Speaker 3why I'm here right now . You know like all this is , all these things are , it's all linear in a way where it's like it's all meant to happen and you don't just run into situations just because it's a coincidence . I don't believe anything is a coincidence , to be honest .
Speaker 2Oh no , everything's supposed to happen . Oh , absolutely , I 100% believe that .
Speaker 3But sorry , I go on like tangents .
Speaker 2No , you know what .
Speaker 3You're an artist , though Honestly , like it's all like branches , you can be over here one minute and then next minute .
Speaker 2we're talking about Call of Duty , so you know .
Speaker 3Right .
Speaker 2No , but it's 100% true . I mean , you're you know . Like you said , everything happens for a reason .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 2But finding that reason is also like all of our journeys .
Speaker 3Yeah , so yeah . Or yeah , so yeah , or understanding that journey understand , yeah , big , big understanding the why , or letting go of understanding the why . So I'm happy you're like hitting points right now . They're like we're big in my last ep and then it was a part , it was about my , it was about a heartbreak and um , the ep is called um . Oh , my god , I'm forgetting . Is this 29 ?
Speaker 2He's forgotten the name of his album . Ladies and gentlemen , it's called .
Speaker 3It's called Got Fields question mark and basically I wrote it about someone that I was in love with because , for anyone that knows me , love was never my thing in terms of relationship-wise and obviously I feel like a lot of that and that's something I'm working on with myself right now , because I feel like love . For you to love someone , obviously you have to love yourself as much or even more than your partner .
Speaker 3More More you got to love someone , obviously you have to love yourself as much as you get as much or even more than your partner more you got to love yourself , more you got to be whole with yourself . You got to be , you got to be , you got to let yourself evolve and , throughout that time , find ways in loving yourself , because it's just , you know , that's if you can't be with someone , if you're not fully true to yourself no , because you're looking for them to fulfill something in yourself exactly to fill exactly and if that's your constant battle , then it's never going to win and they're never going to tell you what you need to hear they're never going to be that piece of your puzzle right then when you're full yeah , you can give .
Speaker 2Right , because if you're empty , you're definitely not going to be able to give .
Speaker 3Exactly , and they're going to feel that .
Speaker 2So , welcome back to Dr Phil .
Healing Trauma Through Music
Speaker 3I'm happy you understand that because , there's people out here , I mean , I'm not judging it's perspective or it's an opinion , and people have their right , everyone's different , everyone's different , everyone's different .
Speaker 2Exactly that's what I'm trying to get at , yeah .
Speaker 3And so I feel , or people would say like , oh , like no , you don't have to completely love yourself . That's for someone to fill that void , and it's like I mean like , Then that's where it gets . Yeah .
Speaker 2The relationship gets very needy the relationship . It gets very toxic experience and honestly , I'm , I'm old as shit , babe .
Speaker 3So let me tell you what no one's gonna complete that circle ?
Speaker 2no , the way that you can , exactly , and if you can't go have a meal by yourself and you can't go on adventures by yourself . Then there's issues and maybe a therapist needs to get involved . Shout out to those people that think that they're okay . You keep doing , you boo until you figure out that it's not going to work out .
Speaker 3So yeah , you're doing the work . The meal by yourself actually hit different for me .
Speaker 2And it also I mean unfortunately it comes with age , it comes with experience , it comes with heartbreak yeah you know you have to have heartbreak like you said . It's not coincidence . Everything happens for a reason . You had to have the heartbreak to learn the lesson to know that your capacity to be filled in that's huge . That's full circle so cheers to you because you've taken that next growth step , and maybe time by yourself made you come to that conclusion .
Speaker 3So time , a lot of time , by myself , okay and still spending a lot of time for myself by myself , and that's until I'm ready , until I'm ready , and , and you know I , I try to block out the people like oh bro , like start dating , start , you know , you know get married or something or have kids .
Speaker 2Like always the answer . I would love to know why that's always .
Speaker 3Oh , because the marriage is gonna fix it , yeah , because it's gonna fix it right and then you're just still gonna be depressed and angry because you're married to some person you don't even like that doesn't complete you .
Speaker 2Because you don't complete you , the circle is broken no , the circle just had .
Speaker 3I did write , write a song about a couple years ago , actually produced by well , I partially produced it and we , literally we made this . We made this song the day in one day , we made this song in maybe three hours .
Speaker 2I love that . That's when you know it's a song that just needed to come , needed to go , like I , said it regurgitated , yeah and it was .
Speaker 3It was something that I needed to let like . I said it regurgitated , yeah and it was . It was something that I needed to let let out . I needed to verbalize and music . So it's called one piece and basically my . The first line of it goes please don't come and save me , um , broken down and beat . Uh , I am not whole . Uh , I need to be one piece so yeah , that is perfect and the song is called one piece , so and I need this .
Speaker 2We all need to hear this song . I'll need to hear this song I want to link all of your music . You're on the spotify , correct ? That song is ?
Speaker 3on spotify , but everyone's been asking for it to be on spotify . It's on my reels , though , for uh , for instagram , so it's on there .
Speaker 2I think I've seen that one .
Speaker 3Yeah , it's the one where I'm playing the classical guitar and then it kind of pans out to like my friend who does like . He's just so talented . Shout out to Sabi , he's actually friends with Daryl too .
Speaker 2Oh yeah , he was talking about him too .
Speaker 3Yeah , Sabi with daryl too . Oh yeah , he was talking about , yeah , sabi , sabi , sensei . So he is the man , someone's like . Someone told me one time he's the asian kanye , but like musician , why ? I mean , kanye probably had some musical talents , but musician , wise , music theory , wise , music , intelligence , wise , he , he , he has it all Um . So we , we , we made that beat Um , and then , uh , we had our other friend , ag , hop on it too and it was , it was so fun .
Speaker 3I just love those little studio sessions we have and it's it's just authentic and real and we're just vibing and we're not , you know , because we've been , we've all been in studio sessions where it's like it's just so , it's so fixed in a way where it's like , all right , guys , like once we get in , all right , you're gonna have to get on um , you're gonna get on the panels right away , like it's all business , you know , and no , like we like to vibe first before we create you know , nothing comes out of like a forced session , exactly , but people work through that , people prefer that , and it's like I can't do that , can't , uh-uh , no , can't .
Speaker 2If it's going to be good music , it's got to have an emotion like a feeling , a whole process .
Speaker 3Yeah , feeling a whole process .
Speaker 2Yeah , for sure , 100 , yeah so so we're working on the new ep yeah yeah , when's that ? When do you think ?
Speaker 3taking my time with it . Honestly . Yeah , you know , um can't rush art . I always hear that one . So , um , it's , it's gonna be a very meaningful one for me , a very , very meaningful one . That's why I mean , who knows , maybe I'm gonna want to drop that like sometime this year , like early this year . Um , however , like none of the songs are new , are like not even halfway done yet . But I'm kind of working on . I have like this whole like inventory of songs . You know that like I'm trying to see whether it fits in the ep or not , and then whether I want to create something new for the EP . But it's going to probably be around like seven songs , I'd say that's good .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's a good amount of songs . So how do you go about deciding , like okay , which songs you're like . Okay , this fits in with what I want to do . You decide maybe the title of the album , or you know the arrangement of whatever , or you're just like I , I'm going to throw them all in there .
Speaker 3Uh , if it fits the story . I like that If it fits the story of the EP , because I I honestly like I haven't dropped music in two years and , um , I plan on dropping singles this upcoming year , before I drop the EP , that's good Teasers .
Speaker 3Yeah , little teasers , maybe songs that are part of the EP and some songs that are probably not part of the EP . But I think mainly I want to just take my time with it and see where it goes , because it's going to be very meaningful for me . I think . I'm just like really taking my time with it . So , basically , the premise of the EP is called well , I have two names .
Speaker 3Actually , I don't want to talk about it . I don't want to talk about it , I don't want to reveal it yet , but basically it's really going to be about my support system , my past and people that helped me through my traumas . I'm sort of preaching not preaching , but sort of telling the world like hey , like don't let your traumas define you . Though , at the same time , the world needs this right now , honestly , and I feel like even in my podcast it goes .
Speaker 2We always end up touching on how this world is going through so much trauma and no one's really talking about it or touching on it . And it's such a huge thing , through so much trauma and no one's really talking about it or touching on it , and it's such a huge thing and I feel like um your generation is doing a really good job , about harnessing that and really honing in on repairing all of this damage that all these generations of crap have done to people and how we've , you know , got this generational trauma and we need to heal it all .
Speaker 3So I'm give you guys kudos for doing the work on that , because we all need that yeah , absolutely , and I think like and trauma runs culturally , trauma runs um generationally , trauma runs in different , in different forms . So , um , it runs historically . So I think it's just like I all that , you know , uh , did affect me in life . But I'm at a point in my life where , like , I have to let go . You know you gotta let go at some point . Yeah , you know you gotta let go of the anger , you gotta let go of the sadness , you gotta let go , you gotta let go of all of it because and I'm not saying this in a way like , oh yeah , like it's going to happen overnight . No , it's not . You work on these things . You work on these things . You surround yourself with a support system if you have it , but if you don't , there's people out there that will support you 100% . Yeah , and my day job I deal with a lot of folks that are do a lot of trauma and you do ronnie or do you want to share that ?
Speaker 3yeah , yeah , um , my day job , my nine to five job , I'm , uh , I service the homeless population in orange county and , um , I've been doing well , yeah , so I've been doing that for probably like five years now .
Speaker 2So in what capacity ? What do you do with that ?
Speaker 3So I help folks get connected to resources and mental health , whether it be mental health , substance use resources , if they need assistance with documentation , or getting them assistance with income , if they need income , or like job resources , just any sort of resources they need to help them , help them get back into the community . But our ultimate goal is to house them and , yeah , so we do .
Speaker 2That's huge . Yeah , ronnie , you're like this big ball of light .
Speaker 3I adore you so much and I'm not gonna lie , like it , it , these people can really get on my nerves , but I love in the death and and I and I , yeah , go ahead .
Speaker 2No , no , no , yeah , I think it stems to , like you touched on finding them , um , you know , mental health resources yeah , that's a huge deal yeah is we don't have the systems that we used to have back in the day , thanks to a horrible president way back in the day um that put the kibosh on all of that so you know a lot of these people need that assistance and it's just not there . And if they do get that assistance , it's only for a certain amount of time because there's not the funding for it , so you happen to find that resource .
Speaker 2That's huge . But , I know it's got to be frustrating , because a lot of it is , you know , drug use .
Speaker 3And .
Speaker 2I don't know , but I experienced in Portland these people . I want to live off the grid , bro . I don't want to be told what to do or I don't want the help . It's like cool , well , I don't know . The frustrating part gets in yeah , you have those genuine cases that really want the help .
Speaker 3So yeah , absolutely yeah , You've got a huge challenge . You hit the right . You hit it right on the dot and and you know , but that's where , that's where you have to think , like especially working in , like human services or being a humanitarian , like you have to be , you have , you have to have that mindset where , like , all right , I can't just give up , you know .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 3You know you got to keep got to and obviously you got to keep your cup full .
Speaker 2you know , at the same time , while helping folks , so I hope you're taking a lot of self-care , a lot of taking yourself out to dates , to the movies or to dinner , Absolutely .
Speaker 3Writing lots of music . Yeah , you've got a lot of inspiration . I mean honestly , no , but that all just stems like . I mean like the like . I mean you know people , people judge . You know there's people I hear that will be like , okay , this person's just just a crackhead , you know . But there's layers to that , you know . Yeah , they're , they're . People are like onions , you know , like you gotta peel it , you gotta peel it , continue to peel it until my friend laughs at me because she's like I always think I want to peel back the layers .
Speaker 2I just want to know more you gotta know more .
Speaker 3There's always a story you never know no one just person came from I I told my brother's brother this the other day , or like last week . I'm like it . It's not black and white , it's not . And people there's a story behind why people become addicted or face mental health challenges in life . There's a story behind it Because they don't set out being like I'd like to be a crackhead . Right , that's not their goal in life , right .
Speaker 2Well , maybe there are those cases . There are 99% are not going to be a crackhead , right , that's not their goal in life , right ? Well , maybe there are those cases ?
Speaker 3There are 99% are not going to be like that . No , yeah , absolutely . And you know , I hear stories every day . Yeah . I hear stories every day , you know , and like it puts everything in perspective . You know , I can't just be that , I can't have that mindset where it's like , oh , like , why don't they just go get a job ? Or why can't they just pick themselves up by their bootstraps , like you know yeah , like not everybody's built that way you're addicted to cigarettes like can you ? Can you quit cigarettes ?
Speaker 2yeah , tomorrow would you be able to that little thing ? You're a little vape . Yeah , can you can you .
Speaker 3Can you stop vaping tomorrow ? No , if you can , if you can do that , if that's challenging for you , imagine what they're going through people that are hooked to fentanyl heroin after like years years , years , years of being generational trauma . Yeah , yeah so that and yeah so and , but I actually for maybe , maybe like a year and a half , I took a , I took a break from human services and when I yeah yeah , I went . I went traveling . Yeah , I lived in another country for a little bit Nice , where'd you go . The Philippines .
Speaker 2I love it . Did you go visit your grandparents ?
Speaker 3I visit my whole family . That too is going to be very influential , for my EP too , because it just put perspective into my life about just not taking things for granted . Oh yeah .
Speaker 2Our time is so short .
Speaker 3Yeah , honestly yeah .
Speaker 2Okay , so I want to start .
Speaker 3Go ahead , go ahead .
Speaker 2I should have brought a box of tissues .
Cultural Roots and Musical Growth
Speaker 2I want to know what your mom's reaction was when you started singing . See , I'm already crying . You haven't even said anything yet , but I still want to hear it .
Speaker 3My mom's not the typical Asian mom , like she shows flashes of it , but in terms of being like hard on me , but like yeah , I mean she just was happy I was singing again . She , you know , like she didn't really like display it emotionally too much , but she was just like alright , yeah , you're singing again , cool like , and and from then on , like she's always just been supportive with it yeah , did it kind of set your mind at ease to be like oh okay , this is a good thing yeah , yeah , it's like a traumatic thing that I'm singing yeah , I know it , it it did .
Speaker 3It did ease my mind that you know my mom was okay with me because I think during that time too , she didn't mind me seeing the time when I kind of went on my hiatus with singing . I think that was more my thought process , internalizing like oh , I don't think she'd like , I think this would remind her too much of my brother , but I think she wanted it for me and she wanted something that would remind her of my brother because you know , like that was her favorite , he was was her favorite , he was the oldest , he was the oldest .
Speaker 3We are the favorites , the oldest are the favorites . And let's be real , and I don't , I don't take that , I don't , and I , I'm always like mom , I don't , I don't hold it against you , like , but her answer is always like I love you all differently .
Speaker 2That's always the answer oh , that's a mom , yeah , yeah , that's okay because we do .
Speaker 3We all love our kids differently there is , there is a certain level of .
Speaker 2There is a hierarchy in the in the sibling system well , okay , so it's always the first , because that's who made you a mom . Yeah , that's that's who brought out that in you , like it broke through that dna and it made you a mom . So that always has a little bit more , but we still have all the children , okay , differently , all right . So what has been your biggest challenge you've faced as far as like music and your music career ?
Speaker 3Oh , as far as music , um , I think , just getting through the hurdle of , like I'm still dealing with my like , insecurities of music , like , like you know , am I good enough , like , am I good enough for this ? You know , I ask myself this all the time , like I , I'm , you know , I , I , I don't know what it is . Maybe it's because , like , I've dealt with people that like told me it wasn't good enough , or in the past and just , and I have to get I'm still working on that now . I'm like telling me , I'm really trying to give myself that self-validation where it's like I'm good enough , like I can do this and and um , but I think , like now , I think I'm getting through that hurdle , getting to that challenge right now because I have it was . I think all of it was because I didn't have a direction with my music at the time . It was more just like , oh , like I'm gonna do this , this and that which is which is fine , your style finding my style , yeah , which is which is fine Finding your ?
Speaker 3style , Finding my style . Yeah , you know which is fine ? I you know it's all about finding yourself . It's like your music , is you it ?
Speaker 2is . You know , it's 100% you , your music your art is you .
Speaker 3I'm going to just say art because whether it be music , whether it be dancing , everything is all that is you . It's a little piece of your soul be a big piece of your soul . Maybe it's all you can think about , you know , and so yeah , so it's like finding . I'm also finding myself and I'm finding my musical direction simultaneously . So that's the challenge right now , but it's like I'm finding this , I'm finding it now . I know the direction I want to go to .
Speaker 2So then , on that tip , how do you see your music evolving ? I want to changing and growing in the future .
Speaker 3I think right now it's it's really , it's really geared towards , you know , setting a positive atmosphere and you know , like I help folks physically and in person and I want to , I want to apply that to my music too . I want to . I just want to spread , you know , I want to be real and authentic , tell my story , because I know my story is could be similar to other people's stories as well . Yeah , even though all our stories are different , are different . We all have different paths in life or walks in life , um , but it could be similar and sort of like how you dealt with it and , um , you know , and how to deal with it .
Speaker 3Like I want to , I want to encourage folks that you could get through what you're getting through . You just gotta gotta keep moving , you gotta , you gotta gotta . You gotta let some things go , you gotta let the anger go , you gotta let the sadness go and , uh , that's sort of my that's . That's basically like what I want to do for music now is like really set that mindset for people and , along with , like , the cultural aspect too , I want to involve my culture into it and people dealing with trauma within art , within within my culture too , and and also , it's all , it's just it's so . There's so many dimensions to it because , you know , I'm American but I grew up . You know very Filipino .
Speaker 2Yeah , you got roots yeah .
Speaker 3I have roots and but also there was a time when , like I , became very Americanized and basically self-internalized hate towards my culture . At some point I wouldn't say hate , maybe just like I was ashamed of it , or because you know of racism or internalized racism . Yeah , yeah , don't get your culture Exactly dealing with internalized racism .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , don't get your culture exactly so internalized racism was a big thing and um , but sort of just going back to my country , living there and uh , seeing , really just being humble and now , like I'm I'm like I was ashamed to like even speak the language , but now I'm like relearning the language as well , tagalog and learning my mom's dialect . She speaks four dialects in the philippines . That's amazing , yeah , along with english and um , actually sorry , three dialects plus english , and so I just I am fully immersed in like my culture , but also I want to combine that with my lifestyle here in Orange County . I'm a North OC kid , but like till the day I die , so it's like I want you know , I want to .
Speaker 3I want , I want to . Really , I know there's people out there that that are on the same boat as me in that aspect too , and I just want to touch upon everyone's hearts . But you know like , but in a very specific way too , so you're so passionate about it .
Speaker 2Like you speak with passion about it , you have a lot of conviction with it , so it's going to come across in your music and your music already comes across . Very I could , like I told you when I first met you I could just turn your music on anytime and it's going to change that mood and it's going to shift and it's going to give me that positive vibe so you're onto something .
Speaker 3I can't wait to hear what your new EP sounds like . Thank you so much .
Speaker 2I could talk about music with you all day and you made me tear up like several times what is going on ? I appreciate your time so much and coming to share your journey with us , and I cannot wait to see you back on the stage . Please let us know . When is your next show ? Do you have something coming up ?
Speaker 3Nothing . I just did a recent . I've been doing small gigs here and there , just you know , just to keep myself busy and keep the keep the talents up , and I just just I think right now I'm really focusing , I've turned down , I'm real like I've turned on a lot of opportunities lately to play live because I just want to focus on music and like , like recording and and , uh , really dive in , you know that's really honorable , because a lot of people are just they jump at every opportunity and for you you're like no , I'm really gonna hone in on my craft I'm gonna be real
Celebrating Integrity in Artistry
Speaker 3right now .
Speaker 3I'm not . I'm not an opportunist like I . I'm not like you know , if something big , even if kanye was like a you want to hop on my track like I'd still think about it , you know , know . Yeah , I'd still have . I'd still have , I still would think about it , because I'm like I , I , I hold my . There's so much value to my art , you know , and I , I hold it dearly and and it has to be something meaningful to me .
Speaker 2Integrity is huge , and integrity is what's missing a lot in music these days . Yeah , I think people just want to pump out whatever , whenever , and they're not thinking about the outcome or what it's you know . Is it going to have longevity ? Is it going to be something in the future that you're going to look back and go ? Oh this is really something I should have put out , or is it gonna be something like oh , I just put out some crap and that is your legacy , right and you're thinking about that and that's huge , not a lot of people are doing that , especially a younger generation so good spot on .
Speaker 3Shout out to my friend drew . Actually he's a fellow artist , friend of mine , but also a long time friend , um , but he he basically said like everything you do in terms of art is for you yeah for no one else and if you keep that mentality , you're gonna stick to yourself exactly huge yeah so kudos to you , and it's so good to see you again .
Speaker 2And I can't wait to see you in the future We'll put links to all your socials . I'm sure you got the TikTok and the . Instagram and all that good stuff .
Speaker 3So we'll make sure and put that up there . Thank you guys for watching . Thank you , Ronnie , for being with us .
Speaker 2Thank you so much and take care of .
Speaker 1Tell the truth , I look better on with you . I can't lose when I'm with you , hopping up , snoozing so many . You just don't know Nobody could buy me like you do . I can't lose when I'm with you .