Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
“When you travel, you bring back what you’ve heard and you also take with you what you know,” said musician Charlie Sexton. “There’s this amazing Chinese instrument [sanzian] with a long neck and a little snakeskin body. It’s a three-string instrument and I’m obsessed with it. I’ve heard it being played on the street in various parts of the world, and it has the most beautiful, haunting sound.”
Bon Appetit, Your Majesty is a delicious mashup of sageuk (or historical dramas), time travel, and mukbang. But basing the fictional king on a real-life despot has been controversial.
“When I was five, my mom took me on a bus from San Diego to Key West, Florida, to see my relatives, ” remembered “On and On” singer Stephen Bishop. “Looking back now, with a child of my own, I have no idea how my mom kept me sane with one comic book for almost five days. We did not fly. It was not fun. It was hot and exhausting. So was the ride back.”
“I love walking through a museum, thinking my thoughts, then getting a coffee and working on a song,” said “Hummingbird Highway” singer Dar Williams. “I also love being at home with my guitar and messing around with different chords to jumpstart things. The best is when songs just come up in daily life.”
TWICE’s Chaeyoung talks about her debut solo album, “LIL FANTASY vol.1,” plus writing songs for her fellow introverts, working on the hit “KPop Demon Hunters,” and more. My latest exclusive for Rolling Stone magazine.
Korean Australian singer-songwriter Hannah Bahng delivers a great introspective indie-pop on her “The Misunderstood EP.” My latest Rolling Stone review.
“Beyond the Bar” does such a great job of creating complete characters who don’t need a partner to be whole, leaving viewers satisfied with either choice, because we’re confident they will all be OK.
When “Cobra Kai” actress Alicia Hannah-Kim was asked to help secure a team of western actors to appear in the K-drama “Tempest,” she went to work to assemble a cast that includes well-known actors like John Cho, Spencer Garrett, Michael Gaston, Brooke Smith, Christopher Gorham and Jacob Bertrand. “I think a lot of people think that K-dramas are all romantic love stories, but there are a lot of different genres,” Kim said in a Zoom interview from Los Angeles. “’Tempest’ is an international spy thriller. It’s a very sexy show with a lot of different elements.”
Singer-songwriter Maia Sharp remembers what it was like when she was a struggling musician trying to get gigs. “It was on a Monday night at 10 p.m. at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub in Los Angeles,” Sharp said. “The booker told me I needed to bring 50 people to get called back. I brought 51.”
For my latest Rolling Stone exclusive, I talked to Monsta X to discuss their new album “The X,” celebrating their 10th anniversary, and their place in K-pop.
