damnboy!: “I want my listeners to let out a big cry and heal from their traumas”

Interview time! This time, we bring you an amazing artist named damnboy! He is a Vietnamese-French artist who grew up in Hawaii. His music is influenced by his life and the stories are told through his songs. His company describes, “damnboy! is a Billboard charting Vietnamese-American artist from Hawaii who has been recognized for his intricate blend of genres such as Boom Bap, Pop, and Alternative Rock”.

His latest album, “nvr ending UNKNOWN”, delves into themes of heartbreak, betrayal, and loneliness. Through this interview, damnboy! talks all about that and how it come to be. The newest album was released on the 9th of May.

Be sure to check out his music. Also, the interview is below.

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Interview with damnboy!

Please introduce yourself to the HypnoticAsia readers.

My name is damnboy! I’m a Vietnamese-French artist from Hawaii. 

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how growing up in Hawaii influenced your music?

Growing up in Hawaii you get to experience America in a different view. Majority of Hawaii is Asian and we live on an island in the middle of nowhere. I feel like we live in a different American Bubble of our own. We have our own culture. Hawaii is a lot of outdoor life. Growing up it was a lot of beach, basketball and skateboarding, but I did balance that out with a lot of music, video games and anime. Growing up seeing the world differently has made me very open minded to sounds and concepts.

Being a Vietnamese-American artist, how has your cultural heritage shaped your musical journey and style?

I’ve had a very interesting experience with being Vietnamese. I was born and raised most of my life in Hawaii but when I was 7, I moved to Vietnam for 5 years. I kind of got the opposite Vietnamese immigrant experience. I learned a lot about my heritage living in Vietnam. While I am Vietnamese, I never felt like I belonged. I thought I was playing an imposter as a Viet Kieu “Foreigner” in Vietnam who was from Hawaii.

The first time listening to Vietnamese music definitely gave me a more wide open view of world music. Also, in Vietnam we had MTV that only played every Saturday for 2 hours. So I had to find music at the bootleg stores. I went to the bootleg stores and bought all the CDs and DVDs. I had almost every popular musical album when I was younger. I fell in love with singing. I loved pop music but slowly started diving into more things. I think I understand what made a pop song great but being unique is what I learned from living in Vietnam and experiencing my heritage.

Who are some of your biggest musical influences and how have they impacted your sound?

This has always been a hard question for me to answer. I will try and condense my influences haha. So the band that got me learning the guitar, chords and song writing was The Cure. The Cure has a way with creating words within their music. I learned what makes a catchy song sound quirky, or how to make sad lyrics sound happy.

Kanye West gave me the courage to scream my presence into the world. I was very shy growing up and seeing Kanye make a stamp in everything that hes put his mind into has been life changing.

More recently, the past 5 years, I’ve been really inspired by The 1975, Kendrick Lamar, Softcult, Jacob Collier, Joji and more.

When I’m over pop music, I listen to Metal lol.

How did you come up with your stage name, “damnboy!”? Is there a story behind it?

Its a very simple story. I was really into Kendrick Lamar and loved his album “DAMN” and how the word looked on his cover. It felt strong and bold. Also, The Weeknd’s Starboy was killing the radio at the time too. So I basically combined them and added the exclamation mark. What became the deal breaker was that no one had that name. As simple as it sounded, no one had it. Which is really rare nowadays. So I ran with it.

The album, “nvr ending UNKNOWN”, delves into themes of heartbreak, betrayal, and loneliness. Are these based on personal experiences or inspired by other stories?

I’ve had the album title for a long time. I knew that this title and album would be about heartbreak and more. I’ve been dealing with really bad anxiety and depression for more than 12 years. Within those years I’ve had my fair share of learning experiences with love and love lost.

Love Somebody which took 3 years to finish is based on a relationship I had during the pandemic. I found my other half at the time cheating on me. You, Are nvr Here was my calling to God. Questioning where he was when I was drowning in sorrow. Dead Flowers is a song about growing up and seeing that not all your dreams come true and that sometimes your partner can leave you too. So yeah haha I guess they are all real personal traumatic experiences.

What was the most challenging part of creating this album, and how did you overcome it?

The hardest part was starting. The first that started this whole project was She / Her / Hers. The reason why it was so hard was because I wanted to find a sound that was unique and different from what I was doing before and what was going on in general in the landscape of music.

As I was soul searching and Spotify digging, I went back to listen to a lot of 90s-2000s Hip Hop. Rediscovering MF DOOM, Immortal Technique and more. Which also led me to where is boom bap now? I came to the conclusion that there’s not a lot of Pop singing over Boom Bap. Now, I am a singer. I wanted to challenge myself on how to add on and reinvent this genre of Boom Bap. What I was also missing with my music before was showcasing my strong vocal abilities. Idolizing singers like Adele, Sam Smith, and Bruno Mars. I needed ballads. What I discovered is that Boom Bap and Pop Ballads were kinda around the same tempos of low 70 BPM to 90 Something BPM. That idea sparked more song concepts like One Last Time and Dead Flowers.

Your music blends Boom Bap, Pop, and Alternative Rock. How do you go about merging these genres to create your unique sound?

I got my musical start playing with reggae and rock bands. Also, playing the guitar I was learning a lot of Alternative songs. After discovering my new sound with Boom Bap and Pop mix, I had to mix my love for Alternative as well. I love mixing genres.

What message or feeling do you hope listeners take away from “nvr ending UNKNOWN”?

I want my listeners to let out a big cry and heal from their traumas. This album has healed me as I let go. I let go of these songs that I’ve held in. I let go of past relationships that didn’t serve me. Letting go is scary and surprising. Just like the title, you are diving into UNKNOWN territory. Life is full of love and death. It’s nvr ending and a circle of life.

If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

This is another hard question. Ok, so I also write for other artists and I write Kpop and Cpop etc… So I would love to write for all big artists around the world in any genre.

But for damnboy! It’s kind of the same idea haha. 

Now if I had to pick like 10: Kanye West, The 1975, The Cure, Kendrick Lamar, Skrillex, Kings Of Convenience, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Coldplay and Imogen Heap. So much more though.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music? Any hobbies or interests?

When I’m not making music I love to watch movies, cartoons and anime. I love watching combat sports like the UFC or boxing. I love playing with my puppy. I go see as much music concerts as possible. Umm museums. Go eat at restaurants. 

If I’m in Hawaii, its the beach everyday for me.

If you could perform anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

I would love to perform in a stadium in Japan. I love Japan and Japanese culture. I feel like if you play in a stadium in Japan, you made it.

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Connect with damnboy!

• Instagram
• Spotify
• YouTube