Eugene Huang

A Chinese-American raised in both traditions, Eugene had all the trappings of leading a very unmusical life... or so that's the way it was supposed to be. Although clichéd, "black sheep of the family" would describe him best. He's the only musician out of a family of engineers and businessmen & quite frankly, he'd have it no other way.

In his early childhood he noticed his father’s favorite music, Elvis, The Beatles, etc… on the radio. His mom would sing traditional Chinese songs while doing chores around the house. All this would set the stage for Eugene’s musical development.

He was born and raised in Hawaii & later moved to Hong Kong where he lived for four years. It was while he was in Hong Kong that he discovered a band that would leave an everlasting impression on his young mind: Guns N’ Roses. After being exposed to the music & videos of this band, Eugene became possessed with the idea of becoming like his guitar hero of all-time, Slash. It was via this band that Eugene realized how much he loved music and has loved music since his early childhood. Thus came years of practice on the guitar & devotion to studying music.

Fast forward a couple of years: Eugene is attending USC and studying for a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Studio Jazz Guitar. His musical palette has expanded to include various styles of music including jazz, blues, funk, pop, R, hip hop, country, canto pop, j-pop and the list could go on. It is during this time that Eugene had a fateful encounter with top Taiwanese producer/hit maker/artist David Tao. He submitted a demo to David consisting of five original songs, all written, recorded and performed by Eugene himself. David was so impressed by what he heard that he invited Eugene to work for him as his production assistant at his now defunct Shock Studios in Pasadena, CA.

During this time period Eugene honed his craft as a songwriter and learned many production skills. David recognized Eugene’s formidable skills as a guitarist and invited him to play an acoustic guitar solo on his album. That album turned out to be his 2003 smash “Black Tangerine” which topped the charts at number 1 in several Asian countries. Eugene’s acoustic guitar solo can be heard on the song “Twenty-Two” from that album.

He has since graduated & in December of 2004 Eugene was honored with the award of “Best Adult Contemporary Song” from VH-1’s Song Of The Year competition for his epic ballad “The Last Time”.

Most recently in September of 2005 Eugene won the Battle of the Bands contest hosted by local Cantonese radio station KMRB AM 1430. It was the first ever band competition of it’s kind calling on all local Asian bands to come forward and compete. The final round consisted of 10 bands including a professional band that flew all the way from Shenzhen, China to compete. Eugene beat out the other 9 bands to take the “Best Band” award and also the “Best Guitarist” award that night! Eugene has since done several interviews at KMRB AM 1430 and has had many of his songs played on air.

With this considerable momentum behind him, Eugene is poised to be the new face of Asian-fronted bands here in the US. Eugene’s philosophy is to embrace all the elements that make him uniquely Chinese while seamlessly incorporating all the influences of western music which he loves so much. Keep your eye on this exciting new artist!

Eugene is bilingual in English & Cantonese & can speak some Mandarin.