From 2007-2016, I released holiday/Christmas albums, but ended up going on a “holiday album hiatus” as I felt that I was racking up too many of these. But starting this year, I’m bringing back the annual tradition, complete with new renditions of Christmas songs and also a few “special gift songs” for your musical stocking!
At the time of this writing – in March 2022 – we may take for granted the notion of live posts via social media. Less than 10 years ago, in 2012-2013, live posts were only just starting to creep into the norm.
I decided to perform some piano solos in the live video setting, knowing the challenge that each performance “was what it was”, without the benefit of overdubs or re-takes. And also, knowing that there was an audience watching, it brought back the aura of my old piano recitals, in which every moment was forever captured for 1) a re-watch some time soon, and 2) for some unknown audience (a future generation watching?) in the future.
But being that live technology on social media was only just starting out, there were limitations in terms of playback quality – both on the video and audio signals. Yet upon rewatching these soon after the performances, I realized that these were moments that I felt should be compiled into an album.
So I did just that – even with the noise artifacts apparent in the audio feed. This amounts to my 2nd “by request” album, as all the songs were indeed requested by various audience members. Was it worth capturing these moments? I think they were, and that’s also for you to decide…
In advance of the re-release of my album David Wu by Request, Vol. 2, I have created this new music video for the track “The Tide is High”. The recording was made in August 2013, while I have added video footage from March 2022 (during my current vacation in Ocean Shores, WA). Check it out:
Rewind the clock to the summer of 2019. My friends Marc and Sarah are getting married in Tacoma, and I show up just seconds before the bridal march begins.
After finding the nearest open seat, the music begins – it’s me! Or a recording of me. And another cool memory made. My cover of this song by The Chainsmokers & Coldplay is, as of this moment, the most recent time I have provided music for any wedding, which used to be more of a constant than an exception.
This single presentation of this recording is accompanied by some cool B-sides from my past that are also wedding-based. On my queue of re-releases is one more vital wedding recording – coming soon.
When I began my Christmas/holiday album series back in 2008, the goal was simply to include some Christmas tunes and then a “rarity” track or two – a “gift” album to help supplement my regular material. This 2011 edition breaks from that formula, providing a full album: 4 holiday tracks and 6 covers, and also a medley performed with my cousin Tim on cello two years earlier at a wedding.
Why did I decide to make this a full-sized album? Thinking back 10 years later, I don’t quite remember. Whatever the case, this hodge-podge of songs somehow works as a holiday album, and it does contain some interesting material.
The cover photo was taken in West Seattle outside the Mission Bar.
In the early 2000s, MySpace was the de facto king of social media. This coincided with a PC that I special-ordered, containing all the best components (at the time) for me to produce music. The first of these releases was this EP.
Prior to production, I blasted out a MySpace blog requesting the ladies to request songs – I would fulfill the first three requests. The requested songs were “Who Knows” by Musiq, which I didn’t know at the time, plus “Can You Stand the Rain” and “Make it Real” which I knew well enough to play.
Of the recordings, “Can You Stand the Rain” received the most “hits”, and I still get good feedback about this.
So here’s a welcome back to this EP, which has seen its existence through MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, and my various website iterations. Years later, there would be a “Volume 2”, and I’ll be re-releasing that soon as well.
11 years have passed since I recorded this album. In that time, I received a 2nd bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, bought a house, etc. A lot of life has happened during that timeframe.
And so looking back on this album, I was in essence a different person, or at least in a different station in life. And not a bad one. It was a prolific period of time for me – I was 32 and ready to take risks and move into bold directions in life and career.
That’s what I hear when I play this album: a person who is yearning to put himself into orbit, somehow and someway.
The real standout track, I feel, is the first one, “Serenity of the 3rd Kind”. This is not related to the Firefly ship, nor is it related to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Rather, it is literally about the state of mind of having found the calm amongst the chaos. And the “3rd kind” is actually a play on words: the semi-improvised song centers on third intervals!
And we’re back! Since 2008, this website has been through quite an evolution. This new version, in my view, will be the best representation of my music career – allowing past, present and future to be showcased.
Take a look around!
It’s a work in progress… At this point, I have only posted one album – Orbiter, my all-original 2010 piano instrumental album. This is intentional; it is re-release season. I will be unveiling several of my past albums between now and the end of December.
Obviously, I have implemented several more “bells and whistles” in this version of the website, but I won’t let that detract from the main focus: the music itself.
Enjoy!
