do you game
do i game uh i do i have time i used to
have more time what did you play when
you
i am kind of a nintendo guy
i've been told i switch yeah okay i've
been told i look like a nintendo guy you
do look like a nintendo guy what does
that mean it means that you look very
cool like a sheltered boy
no actually gaming is like trendy now oh
yeah when did that happen when i started
playing okay okay since i was a kid
[Music]
hello everybody and welcome to taiwan
talk where we share the stories of
taiwanese people living abroad and
people living in taiwan i'm your host
trevor tordemassi and joining us in the
studio today is stephen wrong hello
that's not my name otherwise known as
wrong wrong i'm just kidding i'm just
messing with you because you've been so
worried about my name
i want to make sure i spell it with a
phrase
well you have a long list of things that
you do uh renaissance man of performance
singer actor dancer podcaster dj i guess
i was gonna start out by asking you
about uh your singing um when did you
when did you get started with that um so
i was a biology major in college and
then i was at virginia tech so we had
the massacre of virginia tech right um i
hate calling it that but that that's
what people most people coin it as but
that was in 2006
um so that was a situation that really
made me wake up and i i realized that
life is very short so then i'm i
had always had the dream of singing but
since i lived in virginia i just didn't
really have a platform or stage or even
it didn't really
make sense to me that that would ever
become a reality so i was like i'll just
become a dentist like
you know a good a good old boy and then
uh after that um shooting happened i
woke up and i was like you know like i'm
still young and i really want to try to
sing and before that my singing
experience was really either in the
shower or in the car
okay so yeah yeah i'm about that level
too yeah yeah yeah yeah so
okay you never know the possibilities
are in place you just need a wake-up
call
so then i um traveled to hong kong for a
year and i had relatives there so i i
was there and took lessons for singing
and um then shin guantana like it was
like a very popular singing competition
it was like the american idol of taiwan
for a while i decided to come to taiwan
to try out for that and then um
didn't i made it to like top 50 got
disqualified and then another one so
when you say disqualified that means
you're just like you weren't devoted to
go forward right right right right right
so it's kind of an aggressive word for
well yeah well it's true though and to
me
i think that's like the thing for me is
like i
i thrive
whenever people don't believe in me i
don't know i've i've gone to
like a point in my life where i realized
that i'm used to it like people not
believing that i can do something and
then like a little part of me is always
like who the hell are you to tell me
what to do so then like i work even
harder to
to like do do what i want to do so that
i can prove to myself and also prove to
people who
don't believe that i could do it
yeah with a little bit of spite because
it does feel really nice sometimes to be
like in your face
a healthy amount of spite it's a healthy
amount of spiking the volleyball onto
their side of the court um okay so i
actually want to ask about this uh this
beautiful singing group um there's gotta
be a better name for that choir it's an
acapella group cappella group and it's
called aquapella yeah aqua like awkward
like
okay well for reference it's a singing
group in which you are all uh pretty
pretty great at singing and you make
beautiful music together so you can't
really tell how awkward you are well
one would hope
okay we do i do think we do need to
practice a lot like we're all singers in
our own respect but it's very different
when you're a solo artist versus being
in a group that's acapella um because
it's you have to rely
on your voice and also like the dynamics
and also blending and stuff and all of
us are very like we have our own ways of
singing in our own voices so when you
have to blend those together it can be
quite cacophonous um when you first
start so um yeah it's it's nice it's fun
uh it's we do have performances in
taipei here and there we our next
performance will be
may 13th oh good okay this will be on by
then friday the 13th so then i am making
the theme
last girl slash boy standing so
basically our members and the group like
the audience will be able to vote who
they want like who they think will
live to the end of the show and who
won't or who will get disqualified
against that disqualifies and you can
plug your your dark podcast at the end
of it too right sure that's right
actually
part of the plan
so right um in this group you have uh
people who who audience might recognize
like lara vicki sun uh wang dao one and
uh many others i can't remember
one of it uh yeah there's everyone in it
is amazing echo is our beatboxer i'm
just there to kind of boss people around
i'm like the boss on the bossypants in
it to me it's out of love because i do
believe that we are a group that is
really fun we work really hard uh well
yeah we work really hard and then we
perform and we do these like we don't
make any money but it's just it's fun
it's nice to to be able to have like a
once a week thing where you can get
together and practice and just be
ourselves yeah that's awesome well so
far the title of this episode is awkward
bossypants with a healthy amount of
spite yes
with disqualification
disqualified for a healthy amount of
spite the title is going to get long
like really really long is there a
certain direction you'd like to take
this group creatively in the future with
um the main leader of the group is
actually lara and darwin but right now
both of them are um in china right now
working so i've been kind of like the
like the
foster mom
or dad at the moment
my
my way is like i've been hoping that we
do more philanthropic um like
charitable work so
like for instance the end of last year
we did
an online concert to try to raise money
and funds for uh shelters for dog
shelters
and then we also
sang at a
cafe that is for
for youth who have delinquents i don't
know if that's the right word like they
they have committed crimes before when
they're trying to get back into society
so they have a cafe specifically to help
them so we went and then we taught them
some acapella and they we all sing it
together and that was like super like
touching and that was a really nice
experience so um i've been hoping to do
more events like that well speaking of
making people happy um oh look there's a
dark path leading into a dark forest
here
and um it's you host a podcast you
co-host a podcast called uh anheissan
yes and it's the dark forest yes and
each episode seems to be a narrative um
a story uh if you will uh about the
darker side of humanity right how do you
balance this um where did this come from
for the dark forest the concept that i
had behind it is i really loved the
podcast my favorite murder which is
karen kilgiref and and um georgia heart
it's a really popular true crime
podcasts in america but um i've always
watched true crime documentaries since i
was young like i am obsessed with it i
think the shooting at my school is a big
part of that as well things like that
have always been really interesting to
me just because i do believe in the good
of people but i also am very intrigued
by why certain people
kind of veer off into a path where they
either kill other people or they hurt
other people there has to be a reason
why people are like that for me um my
father was an alcoholic and so i grew up
in a household where my mom was very
very strong and my brother as well and
because we had a very close uh
relationship my mama my brother and i i
was very fortunate to have a good
support system but i know a lot of
people are not that fortunate and a lot
of the people that do end up committing
crimes
did go through a childhood that was very
like scary or they were traumatized or
abused and so i kind of just want to
bring that to light because i don't want
people just to think that these
criminals when we see them on the news
it's already too late to save them like
they've already committed the crime so
with this podcast the dark force that
was like my main objective i i want to
tell these stories we tell two cases
each each week and so with each case we
usually try to explore like the reason
behind why it happened and why it
occurred or are there possible ways that
we can prevent it so it takes a lot of
time to research for these cases like
for me each case that i have to research
that takes about five to six hours a
week and then i have to edit the podcast
which takes another seven eight hours a
week so that's 15 hours of non-paid work
but for me like because of like the
interactions with my listeners like i i
think it's worth it like even though if
it i get
two hours of sleep like it's still okay
like i love it yeah the editing the
podcast editing business is almost real
i like want to kill myself like all the
time but i won't because i don't want to
show up in my own pocket
i want to make sure that i stay alive
i shouldn't be laughing at that all
right so um
what are you inappropriately
that's one of the sound levels we tested
for laughing before we started today um
so uh speaking on a few of your other
sort of performance uh aspects of your
life um one of the first times i met you
a few years ago i think it was after
like a red room or something and uh we
were talking about your background you
said you could come to taiwan to try out
acting you said it casually and now
you're an actor so how did that work out
most of the stuff i've been doing so far
is is commercials
so that was how did i get into that was
my manager was like okay well the
singing thing like we don't really have
the budget to release an album for you
so do you want to try acting and i was
like yeah i've always wanted to do that
so she just threw me into these
auditions and i remember the first one i
went to was like for the mrt it was a
good commercial and at that time i
wasn't very confident in my chinese
really so yeah because um it's been an
issue with me in acting even now like i
do have an accent when i speak chinese
and it's very difficult to get rid of
accents but um they like a lot of
directors or producers they might see
that as oh like your chinese is not good
enough
so like being told that a lot especially
when i first got here like it really got
to my head and i was like oh i guess my
chinese does suck and then um i would
just double guess myself but anyway that
audition was really a good way to kind
of get into it because after that the
auditions got a little bit easier like
it wasn't like in a big room with a lot
of people but for the first year of
additions i didn't get any jobs and then
i would always go home and like think
that i was like the worst actor in the
world and just really like had a lot of
self-doubt
and my first commercial like the person
that was casting me like
there was a little
a little misunderstanding before i met
her but on the phone like she like
yelled at me anyway when i did that
edition like my personality like i said
where i'm like i'll show you right so
like after she yelled at me i was like
just kind of like like kind of
internalizing all that anger and then
just like did my performance and then
she was like oh my god that was really
good and then i was like oh really i was
like no one's ever complimented me
before and i ended up getting the job
okay so that was like my first one like
i had to get yelled at to get the job so
after that like now like i get i got
more and more confident like for
instance i had like a commercial for a
fast food chain and then um the the
casting director was like you got to go
home and practice eating like you have
to like look like you really love it
like when you eat you have to smile at
the same time your eyes have to be big
like the picture of everyone eating a
salad ever where they're like
tells the best jokes basically so then i
got a camera and then i just practiced
like eating like hamburgers in front of
the camera and i would just give myself
notes like oh when you're eating this
like what did you do this time or
whatever and like just made those little
changes here and there and i got that
audition so that's dedication to the
craft man well i just really love
hamburger so i think i was basically
doing a self of self mukbang i was like
lying to myself i was like this is for
research but it was just like
eating three hamburgers and for research
yeah so slowly just doing all those
different kinds of commercials and stuff
then now i'm getting you have a punch
card you do 10 commercials you get an
album yeah i hope so okay i mean like i
hope i don't lose that punch card okay
um so you recently interviewed uh the
singer michael bubble michael buble no
one's ever made that joke before i'm
sorry about that i i liked it no keep it
in if i if you edit that out i'm going
to be so angry at you if i edit that out
i'm going to be impressed at my editing
skills
so
so you asked him about the kind of
headspace
he lives in when he's getting ready for
recording a song that sounds happy or
warm or comforting
has your acting experience helped you
get into that headspace
for performances in other aspects of
your life like your musical performance
or even
talking about the darker side of
humanity in a podcast oh that's a really
good question um for me i think acting
comes a little bit more naturally when i
want to get into that headspace i kind
of listened to the words like that scene
last week the other actress when she was
saying these words um
before going in i was like you know when
i when i read a script i don't really
feel anything i'm kind of stoic when it
comes to that and it's kind of something
i'm working on but when i hear it in
real life and when the camera is on me i
kind of those emotions come more
naturally to me i have to hear the audio
that helps me get into the headspace but
prior to it's a little bit difficult for
me to kind of get into the headspace
because i feel like that's more
artificial and so when it comes to
singing it's the same thing for me like
it's a little bit more difficult for me
to get into the headspace until i'm in
the studio and like
really connecting with the song as i'm
seeing it but before that i don't feel
anything
it's kind of weird
yeah sometimes it's like you don't know
what you're going to feel or what
mistakes you're going to make until you
try and then your feet your feedback is
just the the
stumbling blocks along the way that you
won't encounter until you start right um
yeah and then having someone to bounce
off too uh feels pretty good yeah one
thing though i do realize is with
everything that i do whether it's
hosting or
um
singing
uh and acting is i really like to
observe other people when they're
working
because i feel like everyone
no matter who they are like they they
have something great about them and then
like they must love what they're doing
to a certain extent and so if you can
kind of pick and choose like the things
that they do or the things that they do
that you like or don't like and then
kind of apply it to yourself i think
that's like something that i've really
enjoyed doing is like bar
borrowing these pieces and just figuring
out which which ones work for me and
which don't you're also a dj for asia fm
how's that going that's good oh my god
because of that
um a lot of people in taiwan they look
at me they're like oh you're abc so when
i'm like i'm a radio dj they're like oh
at icrt i'm like no not icrit not
because i didn't want to i did audition
but i never heard back but i do think i
sent it to the wrong place so i think
okay
i think rti gets that a lot too so i
think i did send it to the wrong place
because i did meet somebody later down
the road that worked at icrt and i
mentioned it and they were like really
but i'm the one who's like in charge of
getting auditions and never saw yours
like i obviously sent it to the wrong
place but what's meant to be is meant to
be for for me when i applied to this
radio other radio station
it's all in chinese so i really wanted
to prove to myself that i can host
something in chinese so i really wanted
to improve on that in this industry i
think the hardest thing is nobody ever
compliments you
like they just don't most people don't
and you mean like all performance
industries i guess pretty much like i
think people are comments and fans you
get compliments for sure but like the
people above you're like dude you did
your job do the next one sometimes they
don't even say that they're just like
okay on to the next thing so then you're
just stuck there like did i do okay like
you know there's a lot of things for you
to kind of like there's a lot of room
for you to have self-doubt and for me as
someone who wasn't born with a lot of
self-confidence it doesn't come
naturally for me to think that i did
well on something so
i have to make myself feel like i'm
doing like pushing myself because no one
else is going to be there to push you
and i think that's something i i try to
tell people who want to do
this industry is like i i want them to
know like
not you're not going to get the kind of
feedback that you want all the time
you're not going to get the compliments
you're not gonna get the praise so you
just have to believe in your own
performance or or if you really don't
know how to believe in your own
performance you can go back and listen
to your own audio recordings you can go
back and watch your own work you can if
you don't have work yet because you're
starting a new
do stuff with friends like you know like
set up your own like little recording
studio or like shoot your own videos and
then watch yourself and then kind of
study what are the things i like about
it what are the things i don't like
about it and you have to be very honest
with yourself because nobody's really
going to be there to be honest with you
your friends are going to just be like
oh yeah it's great you know and then
you're going to be like the american
idol contestants that go on and then
they're like who like who told them that
they can sing
or who never told them that they weren't
good enough yet you need uh you
definitely need a certain healthy amount
of pickiness of tlt against yourself
that you can um say it's not good enough
yet a little bit of perfectionism goes a
long way yeah um so i mean that is good
advice for young aspiring performers
from the renaissance amanda performance
here stephen wrong rong rong um you can
find him where can people see uh more of
the stuff you make they can go to well
please check out my
true crime podcast
it's called an heisenling and that is on
anywhere that you can listen to podcast
and then if you want to just kind of
follow me i guess you can go to facebook
or
instagram and you just look up
stephen wrong with the ph wrong is
r-o-n-g or you can look up on ig the
wrong one or if trevor wants to put it
the
wrong gun the wrong gun
[Laughter]
yeah so that's where you can find me
okay oh listen to aquapella
yes is that mostly on instagram or do
you guys have a youtube channel or we
don't we need to be better at social
media we're really lazy about it but if
you guys want to come to our show it's
going to be a small riverside in gonguen
um on may 13th on friday the 13th so
all right looking forward to it
thank you and uh once again steven wrong
thank you for listening this has been
taiwan talk see you bye-bye until next
time i'm trevor tordemassi on icrt fm
100