Tam Duong

With smokey vocals, influences pulled from jazz and blues, and all of it wrapped in accessible, radio friendly pop, Tam Duong's Pieces of L.A. is instantly addictive. The 7-track EP is the debut release from this young but ambitious singer-songwriter.

The album opens with Writing a Love Song, a delicately poppy track lamenting the inadequacy of lyrics when describing love. However there is no inadequacy in the imperfect rhymes woven throughout the song as it describes the frustrations and limitations of its own efforts.

All that effort is quickly shaken off by the fun, “I care but I don’t” vibe of Bounced Cheque Blues, which is utterly contemporary in theme yet still retains the authenticity of a classic blues track. The 20/20 hindsight of regret draws immediate empathy from anyone who has fallen victim to the pull of plastic money, which, these days, is almost everyone. This sort of mass appeal is at the very heart of the blues, which was and continues to be a genre not about escape, fantasy, or bravado, but simply life as it is. At the song’s midpoint Duong breaks into a guitar solo which would not be out of place in any vintage, smoke-filled, Chicago bar.

The album pulls from jazz in the soft, dreamy Dragons; rock in the more-bitter-than-sweet Black Widow; and traditional music in an unexpected but oddly fitting outro to Kings. Duong successfully taps each of these styles, and his own musical identity seems perfectly at home floating freely in their midst.

At various points on almost every track the lyrics skirt the line between descriptive and wordy, with stray syllables just barely making it into phrases. The closing track, Gum, has a visually evocative hook, but its lyrical namesake seems to stumble onto the beat rather than landing there.

The album as a whole centres largely on the theme of love, whether for a person or a passion. While he openly references his love of music in his lyrics, even a listener ignoring the words would feel it coming through. Pieces of L.A. is a foot put well-forward, to be enjoyed both on its own and as a sign of things to come. - Amy Plachta

Tam Duong is talented.

Don’t believe us? Here’s a freakin‘ music video to go along with just one of the tracks on his new EP album (which, for a short time, can be downloaded for free at http://tamduongmusic.com).

The song is called “Kings.” And let us be clear: it is not a cover. “Kings” is a completely original song written and performed by Tam Duong, along with the rest of the tracks on his EP. And it - The Lion's Den University

Tam Duong didn’t give up his university education to become your average Joe. The 22-year-old Vietnamese-Canadian singer and songwriter from London – who released his first EP entitled Pieces of L.A last month – knows there is fierce competition for independent musicians like himself. But, one thing is for sure, he’s not going to stop his pursuit of happiness until he reaches the top. Not yet.
He’s sitting on the blue couch of my 10th floor apartment, making himself comfortable. His large stature and wide shoulders from years of playing rugby, make the sofa seem smaller than it is. On the coffee table lies a copy of his newly recorded album; the cover depicts colourful artwork designed by his long-time girlfriend and co-songwriter, Cheryl Teoh.
“Pieces of L.A is an allusion to the death of my dream” he says, referring to the broken pieces of the guitar he used to record the album with; he dropped it shortly after the record was completed. “Back in the day it was more like reaching for the stars and I didn’t know anything about the business and where I wanted to go” Duong recalls. “[I was doing it] more out of whim and passion—that intuition, you know? And now that this stage of my life is over, I have this [EP]. It’s that next step where I’m having a better vision of where I want to be”.
Even with a clearer vision, Duong still thinks the soundtrack has yet to prove what he is capable of for his fans.
“I don’t feel that my voice is totally heard on this album. I’m just starting to get used to what my sound is. If you listen to my tracks, every song has a different genre, a different kind of feeling and I’m trying to channel different kinds of artists. I’m not really channelling myself. The new songs that I am currently writing are coming straight from the inside and it’s a lot more like me”.
The singer picked up his first guitar at the age of 16 and considered the first three months to be simultaneously the worst and most rewarding period of his musical career.
When asked if being a musician was always his main goal in life, he answers, “I remember in high school, we had to look up our possible career choices. They made us do a skills test and they would tell us what professions we would be best suited for. And basically everyone thought I was crazy for wanting to become a musician. Even the guidance counsellors tried to talk me out of it,” he says laughing.
In his last year of high school, Duong decided to postpone his university plan and flew to Ecuador in South America to work for a small business company, leaving music aside. “When I went to Ecuador that was when I started coming out of my shell. I played on the radio for the first time and that’s when I told myself that being a musician is what I truly wanted to do”.
Today, the musician is well-known in the London music scene and even won the Best Singer/Songwriter and Artist of the Year at the 2011 London Music Awards.
“I think it was a great thing for me. I started here three years ago, trying to get my name out there, building a fanbase. It was hard winning the competition . I put a lot of focus to try and achieve that,” he admits.
When asked about what differentiates Tam Duong’s music from the lot, Kelvin Oh, a 22-year old university student and fan of the artist, gives his two cents: “[on the Internet], you see people go out there and try to make it big in the music industry and it’s kind of intimidating just knowing that…there are already so many accomplished people out there. The fact that he’s actually sacrificing so much for it, you know that he’s a musician passionate about his music”.
Duong’s music is currently getting radio play on the international level with songs being broadcast as far as Vancouver, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and New York. If that wasn’t enough, he auditioned for Cover Me Canada, a nation-wide reality TV-show. Although, he didn’t make it to the final round, he gained much knowledge and experience from it. Currently, he is participating in Tet’s Got Talent, a local competition organized by the Vietnamese community held in Toronto where he is trying to make a name for himself.
Tam Duong is confident, especially when it comes to his music, and he relentlessly self-promotes his work using social media and word of mouth. “I don’t want to copy styles but I still want to keep that acoustic sound” he says. His music is a medley of genres, incorporating Latin music, blues, jazz and even contemporary music. “For me, I want it to be the full package” he says. His deep and alluring voice is sometimes accompanied by a supporting band, but most of the times he performs solo.
The artist owes much to his Canadian fan-base, but has his eyes set for the City of Angels where he hopes to make it big. “I do plan to travel and live in many countries, but Canada will always be my home”. - Hypegoon

"Tam’s lyrics are thoughtful and thought provoking. His melodies rock the words he writes with sparkling authenticity. Tam has a gentle intensity that allows you to drift away in the stories he tells with his music. He could easily be categorized as a storyteller who sings his stories instead of speaking them, if it were not for the fact that he really can sing and he really can create good music." - LOOK Festival (London, ON)

"Tam's voice is like butter, smooth, always on pitch and his control is incredible. His songwriting is also creative and focused." - 379Collective

"The excitement of being on the verge of releasing an album, along with the very first music video shoot, is clear in the passion behind Tam’s music. His noted influences of artists like John Mayer and Michael Bublé come out clearly not only in his strong vocals, but also in catchy and crisp riffs. The covers he played were flawless, but with his own touch – it never felt like the typical re-hashing of a song, which can often go hand-in-hand with cover songs. If this performance is any indication of the quality of Pieces of LA, the upcoming album, it’s definitely worth checking out." - 106.9 The X