Everytime I'd watch the Oscars or Grammys, and the winner of an award would say "I'm so humbled to receive this..." I'd be very confused, and would wonder if the person knew the meaning of the word "humbled". Anyone else ever wonder about this? You'd figure that being humbled means that something happened that really put you in your place, and that in a way you felt embarrassed, and it got rid of your arrogance. Something like that, right?

Well, just a few weeks ago, I launched a Kickstarter Campaign for the very first time. Throughout the last few years, I wondered several times if I should use Kickstarter as a means of raising funds for recording. For one reason or another, I'd always put it off, but if I was being honest w/ myself the reason I didn't gravitate towards the idea was because I was afraid of failing and not reaching my requested goal.

Finally, last month when I felt that it was time to record an album, but realized I had no funds, I was left w/ two choices: 1. Get another job and save money for a few years (and delay my music career by another few years - or... 2. Ask for help

Initially when I discussed the idea of a Kickstarter w/ my friend Mike, I asked if I should set the goal to be 5k. Immediately, I felt like that was a HUGE risk, and if those funds didn't come through, I'd get nothing at all, so.. I'll just ask for 3k. Later on that week, as I started planning everything out, I remembered the words of my Pastor (Peter Ahn) at Metro Community Church: "If you're going to set a goal, you should set one that feels impossible w/o the help of God. Otherwise, you'll think you've done it on your own." You see, the original number I needed wasn't 3k or even 5k. It was something closer to 10k (and then MORE would be needed after that to take care of other post-production and manufacturing costs). So, as I filled out the Kickstarter information, I literally gulped and typed in 10k.

In one week's time, with the help of amazingly generous friends/supporters from all across the US and different parts of the world, we hit that goal - and the pledges are still coming in.

When I sat in my car and realized that we were going to surpass the 10k mark very soon, the first words that came to me were: I'm Humbled.

For the first time, it all came together, and I realized how those words work in this type of context. You see, everyone struggles w/ some form of pride - and for me, one area specifically is in that if someone does something nice for me, I have to repay them w/ something of equal value. If I can't or don't, I feel guilty and even shameful at times.

And so, when I saw the generous support of backers coming in at a rate where I realized I cannot possibly begin to repay everyone's kindness.... I felt small. I felt like I didn't deserve the support, finances, love, and all the kind words that were pouring in.
I was reminded of God's grace, and how I couldn't repay His kindness in my life - and how the only appropriate response to it is to do my best w/ everything I've been given.

So with that, I wanted to say thank you to every single person who prayed for me, posted and re-posted the kickstarter campaign on their facebook pages, twitter, and blogs, and helped fund this project financially through your generosity. Not only am I in debt to you guys, but I simply cannot pay it back. And so, what I'll promise is that I'll do my absolute best work on this album and I really do hope that people will enjoy the album and be blessed it as much as I have been to receive your support.

As of now, we still have 9 days - and so if you'd like to continue supporting please do so by placing a pre-order for an album, or continue sharing this link w/ your friends: http://kck.st/16HjEUJ

You can click on the link below to check out my Kickstarter Page.

Koo Chung - Kickstarter 2013

So thankful for all of you!

Truly Humbled,

Koo

I'm starting to feel like Ted Mosby [How I Met Your Mother], having to tell every little detail of every story until I get to the point, but if you'll indulge me before you click on that YouTube video at the end of this post, here's how it all came to be...

If you've known me for a while, you might have seen a video I posted on Vimeo years ago called "Eat It". It's basically the story of how my wife and I met, and it was what we showed at our wedding reception in lieu of a slideshow (just so you understand the context of it). In this video, if you got through the whole thing, you'll remember that there was a section where I refer to as "moments in your life that were captured on video that make you cringe". And if you skip forward to 4:40 in this video, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

But before we get to that, here's a little more context. Back in Junior High School, there was a genre of music that was introduced to me by my friend Andres that would become "life-changing" :) All of my Junior High and High School friends were obsessed with it, and for some bizarre reason it seemed be especially and almost exclusively popular among Asians (at least from what I could tell) - and that genre.... NEW WAVE. It is all that I ever listened to! (Quick honorable mention to other music that consumed me - The Beatles, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, and Korean Music before it started getting referred to as K-Pop)

Shortly after I got into bands like Erasure and Depeche Mode, I started learning guitar, and at the time, my best friends Joe and Andres were guitar gods to me. If it weren't for those guys, I really might not be playing guitar today at all, so thanks guys! So one day, Andres came over to my house with his guitar for a little 'jam' session, and that "cringe" moment I described above happened. I guess even before Youtube came along, kids were still filming themselves singing not-so-great covers of songs they liked :) Andres was my hero because he knew how to play one of my FAVORITE Erasure songs of all time "A Little Respect". I barely knew any of the chords and strumming pattern, so I just sat there holding the guitar, and sang my new wave loving, adolescent heart out. It wasn't pretty.

Skip forward to just a few weeks ago, when I was hanging out w/ an old high school friend, Key - and we reminisced about all those mixtapes we all used to make for each other, with all our favorite new wave songs. If you were really good, you knew that if you press "pause" in between recording songs, you won't have a clicking noise - and if you timed out the songs carefully you had less than 5 seconds worth of blank space at the end of each side. I'm just gonna say it. I was a mixed tape master.

Years ago, I always told myself that one day, I'd like to record one of those songs just for fun. And that one day, well - it ended up being a random weekday in February of 2013. And when it came down to deciding which song I'd record - I knew without a doubt which one it would have to be.

So kids (the Mosby wrap up), if you work hard, and commit to practicing and honing your craft, you too can one day record a better version of "A Little Respect" than the one you did in high school. :)

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel, and I'll do my best to update as often as I can!

Special thanks to my talented good friend Andy, who worked on this video for me in the midst of his busy schedule! Love ya bro! Check out his VIMEO channel and his BLOG!

For future updates, follow me on TWITTER (@koochung) & "Like" my FACEBOOK PAGE (whatsakoochung)

Thanks for reading!