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Huge Sound, One Asian Dude 🎻 🎸 🎤

Music from a young age

Daniel started playing violin when he was 5 years old, and performed in school orchestra through his middle and high school years. When he reached his university years, he started playing violin in a few rock bands; during this time he also played a lot of acoustic guitar. Throughout his years in college and after he graduated he built up his reputation as a musical performer who could cross many different genres including country, rock, rap, and post hard-core punk. He eventually created a solo performance which was built up from his time performing at open mic night for a few years. He started using a looping pedal after a friend let him borrow a DVD of Howie Day’s “The Madrigals EP”. By this time he was working for a company as a junior engineer for a few years, and after getting enough paid gigs, he quit his job at the end of 2009.

He started traveling a lot during this time; driving all over the west from New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Texas. He was performing as many shows as he could, because he read that the Beatles used to perform over 300 shows a year.

In 2012, he moved to Austin, Texas around this time because it was a big music hub, but soon found out there were no paying gigs (too many musicians.). He only stayed in Austin for a few months before going back on the road, to find more gigs. One of the days he was in Austin; a friend told him they were going to the America’s Got Talent audition at the convention center the next morning. Daniel decided to go too, and was picked to be one of the top 100 acts of Season 7.

America’s Got Talent, wasn’t a great experience for him, but it did get him to Las Vegas for a week. While he was there, he was able to go to a local open mic and do some performing. There was something about Las Vegas that inspired him. Luckily, later in 2012, Daniel got an email about doing a residency at a local casino and hotel in Las Vegas.

The Red Rock Casino and Hotel, was a popular place for the local Las Vegas residents to visit. It was located a good 25 minute drive from the Las Vegas strip, in an area called Summerlin, which is a vibrant suburb of the greater Las Vegas area. After flying to Las Vegas to do an audition for the hotel, he was given the residency at the Onyx Bar every Friday and Saturday night from 6pm to midnight. He started performing at the Red Rock right away, and didn’t even have a place to live for a few weeks.

Soon, there were crowds gathering around the small stage every Friday and Saturday night. This would lead to getting a residency at the Lily Bar and Lounge inside the Bellagio every Tuesday evening. Here he would showcase his one man show for the next few years, which would bring more opportunities all over Las Vegas, and eventually overseas.

One night, after performing at the Lily Bar, he got a business card in his tip jar that said, “If you want to come to Asia, let me know.” It was from the general manager of the Park Hyatt Beijing. This is the start of Daniel’s love of performing and traveling overseas from Singapore, Beijing, Phnom Penh, Perth, Niseko, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and many more.