Altsounds - Altsounds.com Q&A Interview

Priscilla Ahn embarked upon a career the old-fashioned way: she packed her belongings in a car—“two guitars, clothes, and some other junk I really didn't need to bring”—and left her Pennsylvania home for L.A. That she found steady gigs—a supportive circle of fellow artists and a record deal in a relatively short period of time, give or take several months of bad waitressing jobs—will come as no surprise after a single listen to “Dream,” the lilting opening track of A Good Day, her full-length debut. Ahn artfully balances youthful whimsy with grown-up sophistication, and a dollop of humour for good measure.

She got chance to speak to altsounds about performing, her label and instruments. Oh and she has a blackberry by the way.

Altsounds: From what age did you decide you wanted to become a muscian? You started playing at 14 right? But was this forced upon you?

Priscilla Ahn: I didn't really take to being a musician, or singer-songwriter, until I was 18. I'd been playing and writing songs on guitar since I was 14, which I thought was fun, but never thought I could even THINK about making a career out of it....until a college professor gave me the best advice ever, which was to save school for later....and pursue this now.

How, of all the instruments of the world did you learn the Kazoo?

Um....it was lying around my apartment. It was an ex's or something. One of my songs was sort of funny and I thought it could be fun to riff on a kazoo. Playing it is really easy....you just hum.

Was playing on 'Later With Jools' a big step in your career? I can imagine it being quite intimidating

Well, I had some trouble getting over there. My plane from Germany was cancelled, and I almost didn't even make it. So, I think I was just so focused on getting there, that I didn't have that much time to let it all sink in....until I started watching the other performances while the show was taping, and then I was like...."woah...I've never seen anything like this before. I can't believe this is my life right now."

Did you feel the performance went really well?

I think in the end it did. When I first started singing, the whole place started feeding back and all distorted. We actually had to stop the taping and fix it and start over, which actually gave me a moment to settle in right before I played. I watched it on tv and was really happy with it. But I couldn't get over how ripped my arm muscles looked!

Would you describe some of your music as Jazz? After all you are on "The Finest Jazz Since 1939" music label 'Blue Note'.

Haha....yes. I feel like my music is definitely influenced by jazz. I listen to Chet Baker all the time, and Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Tom Jobim....I love the warmth of their vocals, and of course the songs are all just so classic. So I definitely try to emulate that in my writing and performances.

We hear that you experienced some terrible bar jobs, can you go into any detail on these?

I worked at one restaurant for a year. I was a terrible waitress. Plain and simple. And it was really hard for me to not take things personally back then. When people came in all grumpy, I thought they were mad at me. So anyway, dealing with like 60 ornery personalities a day was just physically and emotionally draining for me. I'd come home beat and depressed.

Did you literally pack your bags and leave? Or had you been planning for a long while?

I pretty much made the decision to make the move, and 1 month later left. So there wasn't too much time for planning and packing my life. But enough to feel comfortable and ready for it.

That must have been quite a scary time. Did you know you would succeed after all the hard work?
No. Not at all. But I wasn't scared. I looked at it as an adventure. I was ready for a big change in my life, and some new experiences.

Was this the first year you played Glastonbury?

Yes.

Your funniest moment of the festival?

Some of the bathrooms were just like, stalls. They were open on the top and bottom. So, I saw tons of people ankles and feet, and even underwear pulled down around ankles of people who were obviously taking a dump.

For anyone wanting to do what you did by making it the old fashioned way in the industry. Could you give any helpful advice?

Hmm.....well....I guess what's sort of old fashioned these days is people to people contact. I met so many people when I moved out to L.A., and those friends and even enemies, led me to the right people somehow. And playing out as much as possible in the beginning. Open mics, coffee shops...anywhere to just work on your "craft" as they say, but It’s sort of embarrassing to say myself.

Do you still play open mic nights aswell as your gigs?

No, hehe. I've done my fair share and more of that. And once you start getting actual gigs....you don't do those anymore.

Are you having "a good day" ?

Yes. I'm in the tour van heading up to Santa Barbara for the 2nd show of the U.S. tour. It's warm out, on the road again, and my fiance is coming up the coast with us, which is super fun! He's the best travel buddy.

and can you name ...

A band that has influenced you to do something in the past year

Actually, there's a Korean jazz singer, Young Sun Nah that I saw play at a Jazz festival in Finland. She gave me chills through her whole set. She just sang how she wanted to, sometimes weirdly, but she would sing it with no apologies, which made it sound so not weird at all. Everyone was into it, was comfortable with it. So, now when I sing....I'll do weird stuff sometimes, but with confidence.....it makes me less nervous on stage.

An event that has shocked you in the last year (and not MJ's death)

Who's MJ? just kidding. Actually though, right around the same time of Michael's death.....maybe even the same day, or a day after, I found out that Billy Mays died as well at the age of 50 of some kind of heart thing. But I had just only heard of Billy Mays like, the week before. My little brother was showing me some youtube videos of him....then all of a sudden I find out that he's just passed away!! That was shocking.

The most famous person you have met

Gosh, there are so many............ but I'll go with Willie Nelson.

The best gig you have played / been to in the last year

[Priscilla Ahn] I've had a few gigs that I felt really good about.....but that's sort of boring. The best gig I saw in the last year, was Neil Young at Hyde Park about a month ago. He's my hero, and I've seen him a few times now, but this time he played all of my favorite songs, and he of course killed it....as always.

A hotly tipped artist/band for '09 (apart from yourself obviously)

BRAM

Is there anything else you would like to say?

I just got a blackberry.