KENNY ENG

Belly Up Tavern Show

Kenny — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:12:13 +0000

Just wanted to throw out a quick announcement that I’m performing at the Belly Up Tavern on January 29 as a part of an awesome acoustic line-up! Rhyme-slinger Rob Deez will be joining me on stage. The night will also feature performances by Rob Bondurant, Tolan Shaw and Yovee!

I’ve performed on the Belly Up stage many times but this will actually be the first time I get to play my own music, which has been goal of mine since I starting exploring the San Diego music scene. I really hope you can make it out to this show! Purchase tickets here.

A Song A Week

Kenny — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:02:38 +0000

I’ve been calling myself a singer/songwriter for a while now. And as ambiguous and contentious as that label is for many of artists in the music community, it does make one thing undeniably clear- I consider myself to be a person that writes songs and sings. The only problem is that I have a hard time calling myself a songwriter when my output of songs over my (albeit short) career has been dismally small. Sure, I have pages filled with lyrics and chord progressions and I am constantly writing. But to actually finish a song with music, melodies, structure, etc. (or even a sketch of a song) is much more difficult for me, for whatever reason. In the past four years, I’ve compiled an embarrassingly meager repertoire of original music for someone who calls himself a songwriter.

That’s why when my good friend and fellow singer/songwriter Rob Deez posed a song a week songwriting challenge, I whole-heartedly accepted. The terms were simple- write one song a week and post it on your SoundCloud account. We come up with a word and topic for each week and give ourselves a week and a day to produce something. If you fail to produce something, you owe the other person a six-pack of beer. And so we began our songwriting exercise with our good friend Broni joining in at the start and a few other friends like Isaac Cheong and Jon Huse a few weeks later.

Again, this is just a musical exercise. I’m using it as a motivator to complete a song and as a way to focus my inspiration and creativity at will, instead of being totally at the mercy of its spontaneous nature.

If you’re interested in checking out any of the songs I’ve written as a result of this challenge, check out my SoundCloud page.

Unfortunately, I’m not going to post every song I write. I generally know when I have something good enough to share or not. Hopefully, one of the results of this exercise is that I’ll get better at writing songs that I consider “good enough” more quickly and thus, will be able to share more of them! It may take a while, but everything worth recognizing does!

Here’s to becoming a songwriter!

Songs by Local Artists I Want to Cover

Kenny — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 01:22:14 +0000

I played a show at the legendary Java Joe’s in Ocean Beach the other night and was overwhelmed by the amazing talent of the San Diego music scene. There are so many fantastic singer/songwriters here and it’s a shame that more people aren’t exposed to their music. I think Jeffrey Joe said it best when he said, “On a night like tonight, when there are so many wonderful artists performing at the highest levels, it’s amazing that more people don’t know we are here. I just don’t get it.” There are so many songs floating around San Diego that I love and am incredibly jealous of. Songs that I wish I had written so I could sing them every night. It’d take me days to list then all but a few have been standing out to me lately.

So that being said, here are some songs I selfishly want to cover by other San Diego music scene artists.

Haunted- Isaac Cheong
Big Red Lips- Jeffrey Joe
Don’t Mind Me- Aaron Bowen
I’m Gonna Miss Ya Man- Broni
Hey Anna- Carlos Olmeda
This Time Next Year- Dawn Mitschele
The Big Screen- Derrick Oshana

If you feel like checking back, I’ll hopefully update this list periodically.

I hope you go see a show by any of these artists sometime soon. I promise it will be worth it.

The Adult Books TwOUR

Kenny — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 23:39:20 +0000

I’m heading out on the road again! This time, Rob Deez, Broni from Australia, and Isaac Cheong (with special guest Mikael G.K.) will be making our collective ways from San Diego to Denver, CO. You can follow our adventures on twitter: @kennyeng or @adultbookstour

9/12 _ 10:00pm Room 5
143 North La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 938-2504

9/13 _ 6:30pm
SLO Down Pub
1200 East Grand Ave.
Arroyo Grande, CA

9/14 _ 8:00pm
House Concert
Las Vegas, NV
Email info@kennyeng.com for address

9/15 _ 7:00pm
Zion River Resort551 Utah 9
Virgin, UT
(435) 635-8594

9/18 _ 8:00pm
House Concert
Denver, CO
Email info@kennyeng.com for address

9/19
8:00pm
House Concert
Boulder. CO
Email info@kennyeng.com for address

9/21 _ 8:00pm
Sucrée Tea
838 Tri City Center
Redlands, CA
$20

9/22 _ 8:00pm
Java Joe’s
4976 Newport Ave.
San Diego, CA
$5

For more information, visit kennyeng.com/shows. See you out on the road!

Affirmations

Kenny — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:45:26 +0000

I always felt like those ruminations and affirmations of self that people post on Facebook and Twitter in silly fonts and with inspirational backgrounds were just that- cheesy. But lately, I’ve taken to many of them simply because I found myself in a place that was darker and more cynical than I wanted and because I needed frequent reminders that I did not want to be cynical or jaded any more.

So here are some of my favorites, including the blog post that really started this whole excursion. I don’t necessarily subscribe to everything they say let alone practice all of these things. But I’d rather spend my time thinking about them than let myself get caught up in any lingering negativity of my past. I guess I consider them other people’s life lessons that I can learn from if I take them close enough to heart.