About Me

Music

I never enjoyed practicing the classical piano pieces my teacher assigned me as a kid. Performing them was fun, but practicing was a drag. I counted down the days until my parents would allow me to quit (which was eight years later).

Then, something magical happened: my newfound freedom to play what I want, when I want, without pressure and assignments from my teacher, opened up a new world for me at the piano. I found myself playing by ear and putting original melodies together. I spent so much more time at the keys than I ever did while taking lessons.

When I graduated high school, I published my first album of fifteen original piano compositions, Piano Action!, inspired by talents like Dustin O’Halloran and Ludovico Einaudi. For fun, I used MySpace (the dominant social network at the time) to casually spread the word about it to fans of other pianists with similar musical styles. Imagine my surprise when the album started selling digitally in countries around the world.

I brought my digital piano with me to university. Playing songs by ear by request was my best party trick. For pocket money, I performed at a couple of banquets, weddings, and shows, but those events were few and far between.

Later on, artists like Little People, Emancipator, Kiasmos, Saltillo, and Niklas Pauschberg inspired me to try my hand at electronic music production — an art at the intersection of music and technology (two of my favorite things). I bought digital audio workstation software called Ableton Live and started playing with it. Some experts spend a lifetime mastering the software and the theory behind arranging, mixing, and sound design — it’s such a deep technical and creative area. This is an area I’d love to spend more time to learn from a professional one day. It’s funny how now that I'm older, I yearn for lessons and guidance from a professional again.

To keep me motivated on my electronic music production learning journey, I challenged myself to produce and publish a new album. After a couple months stumbling around Ableton Live with the help of YouTube tutorials, I finished Momentary Masters and published it on March 20, 2018. It was a blast to work on, and I'm proud of what I was able to put together after a couple months of experimentation and learning. And the learning continues!

Technology

I became interested in technology & computers at a very young age, and that passion has stuck with me my whole life. I got a degree in computer engineering and joined the workforce as a technical product manager at a big tech company. When I’m not making music, I’m likely working on a side project – an app, tool, or website – to simplify my life, automate my home, or to just stay up-to-date on the latest software development trends.