Alan Vuong
Alan Vuong is a 20-year-old artist from Southern California who describes himself as pretty experimental and versatile, falling into the genre of alternative R&B. Music started out as a hobby for him but turned into something more when he began receiving positive feedback. What keeps him going is his passion, curiosity, and desire to learn more about music. Specifically, he said “What keeps me going is my desire to be better than yesterday or even today. I know there’s a lot to learn and a lot of my sound to explore”
When it comes to his inspirations, Alan cites Kobe Bryant, JID, J Cole, Brent Faiyaz, Partynextdoor, Shiloh Dynasty, 2016 Drake, Saba, and Frank Ocean, among many others. Currently in his rotation are Sabrina Claudio, Clams Casino, Spooky Black, Sampha, The Weeknd, and many more.
Alan's creative process varies from song to song. Sometimes, he dreams about making music and wakes up to start working on it. Other times, he gets ideas in the shower or while driving and he starts writing and records immediately after. He also mumbles on the beat until he catches the right flow and if it sounds good he’ll just go from there. Alan is also into recording on his phone just because of the accessibility and how he can do it wherever he is. As for his favorite song right now, he's into NachoThot by $amaad and Red Phone by Saiah Woes.
Although Alan admits to feeling like giving up on music every day, he pushes through for his fans and hopes to inspire the next generation of Asian American artists. On this point, Alan said, “There really isn’t anyone that looks like me & that makes the same type of music as me that I would look up to so I’d hope that I could maybe contribute to be someone to help & inspire the next generation of Asian American artists. This realization came to me sometime last year which made me wanna keep going a little more.” He recognizes he has a decent ear and he knows that not everyone has the opportunity to pursue their passion or dream and he wants to push through to be someone they can look up to and help them chase their own dreams.
When I asked him who his dream collabs were he said, “Working with JID would be a dream come true. Brent Faiyaz is also someone that comes to mind as well & honestly I would just wanna learn from those guys because those guys are super talented. The same goes for guys like Drake or Partynextdoor. I think I could maybe help write for them or something but I honestly don’t even think I’m good enough to get a song with them or anything” Lofty dreams but hey you never know, right place, right time and you could be in the same room as just about anyone in this industry. I think one thing that stood out when speaking to Alan was his humility and his passion to learn more and with those two things, I think Alan could go very far.
As for his goals and plans for the future, Alan is taking things day by day and not putting himself in a box or with certain expectations. He's working on new singles and has plans for an upcoming project, but nothing is set in stone yet.
Alan also wanted to shoutout to 1141 SOUND and storyofarchives.otw