lfi. 2002 »
MUSIC
hen you think about mainstream
music, you think of categories.
Country, rock, rap, American teen
idol or sexy Latin sensation—for the
most part, each singer and style comes neatly
packaged complete with a label about what to
expect.
On the other hand, diversity—all that is
gixxl and holy and gay— is not usually the first
aspect of an artist to be mass-marketed in a
music industry fueled by money and appear
ances. However, for all those who doubt main
stream music will ever welcome difference,
take heed, because the industry just met artist
Patricia Ju.
Armed with originality and an insatiable
desire to succeed, this 28-year-old songwriter
is taking on the business and doing it on her
own terms.
"It ain’t every day that a Chinese hutch les
bian decides to go to Nashville to show some
country songs,” wrote Ju in an e-mail to Just
Out. No, it certainly isn’t.
Uncategorically determined
Once a classically trained pianist, songwriter
Patricia Ju now sets her sights on pop stardom
by
C o u r t n e y P er k in s
started, she began playing piano
simply because it was the thing
to do.
More specifically, it was
something that “little Asian
kids” were expected to do. “I was
forced into it, or it was put upon
me as something to make me
more rounded,” Ju says.
The first time she laid her
hands on the keys of a piano at
the age of 5, it was obvious she
had been blessed with an
innate gift.
“Halfway through my first
lesson my teacher ran out shout
u recently returned from Nashville’s Tin Pan
ing, ‘I have a genius, 1 have a
South, the world’s largest annual songwriters genius,’ ” Ju smiles. “My mother
convention, where she pitched tunes, hand
asked her who it was, and she
ed out demos and rubbed elbows with music
said, ‘Your daughter.’ ”
prcxlucers from around the nation. However, the
This gave Ju’s parents the
Portlander is only a little bit country.
opportunity to push her to fur
Self-described as alternative pop rock with
ther her skills as a classical
pianist. A year later, she was
an occasional country, techno or rap cut, Ju’s
music masterfully combines melodic piano
the youngest person at the
ballads with raw vocals and catchy lyrics that
time to be accepted into the
can be Kith sweet
piano program
and haunting. Her
at the Juilliard
School in New
songs tell mostly of
heartbreak,
York.
although her sensi
She studied
tivity to social issues
piano, composi
such as suicide, war
tion and con
ducting for the
and domestic vio
lence cannot be
next 10 years at
ignored. Yet, like
the renowned
her music, which is
academy. In
Portlander Patricia Ju is determined to make it big on her own
both versatile and
—Patricia Ju addition to
notably different
winning a handful of presti
“I tried to write pop songs, but they came
from what’s on radio, Ju refuses to be typecast. gious awards, Ju’s work at Juilliard also land
out more like New Age movie soundtracks
ed her a piano scholarship to University of
“There’s so many categories that I fit into
or something,” Ju says. “I got frustrated that I
Michigan.
couldn’t write...I started analyzing every
that transcend and span into my music," she
says. “I perform and write from how I feel and
song I heard, trying to figure out what made
But the promise of a successful future as a
it tick.”
hope that it will make other people feel excited classical pianist was not enough to keep the
or not alone. All the other categories that I fit
Fed up, Ju abandoned music to pursue a
phenom motivated. Ju saw piano as a chore
rather than a dream. Her real passion and
into aren’t the whole.”
degree in computer science. She went to Rut
gers in New Jersey for two years before launch
interest in music was driven by the desire to
Ju’s musical career didn’t begin devoid of
the stereotypes she now defies. She, too, began
ing a lucrative software consulting company
make rock ’n’ roll.
as a mold.
After two years at Michigan, Ju became dis called MassMind Corporation and moving to
Portland in 1996.
couraged with her training in technical music,
om in Taipei, Taiwan, Ju moved to the
Then a bit over a year ago, Ju took a sab
craving a more contemporary sound. She felt
States with her family as an infant. Though her classical background wasn’t helping her
batical from work in order to focus on music
again. After three years away from it, a
write hit songs.
she says she can’t remember exactly how it
“It ain't every day
that a Chinese
butch lesbian
decides to go to
Nashville to show-
some country songs”
B
breakup with an ex-girlfriend provided a sur
prising cure to her writing woes.
“This is bad, but it was a good thing for my
music," Ju explains. “It was a good
place to start from.
Stuff just
poured out
of me.” She
released her
first EP, Gonna
Bring You Back
to Me.
n addition to
playing Port
land venues,
Ju has discovered
that promoting
^ and coordinating shows is a
^ good way to both satiate her
new hunger for music and get
her name out. Through the
years she has put together as
well as performed in many ben
efit shows all over town for
organizations like KBOO and
the Rock ’n ’ Roll Camp for
Girls. She also worked as a
karaoke disc jockey at the
Egyptian Club for a time.
Now the enterprising artist
is dedicated to performing and
marketing her own music and
to putting together her first
full-length CD, tentatively
titled Covet. Although she
says it can be tight financially,
she has learned to embrace
the life of a struggling artist.
In fact, she couldn’t be hap
pier about it.
Having fought against
other people’s expectations
her entire life, Patricia Ju
refuses to be categorized. Fol
lowing the lead of a lot of
independent artists, she’s making the music
she wants more than concerning herself with
popular success.
Not to say she doesn’t have dreams of
becoming a star. She does, just as long as it’s on
her own terms.
“I want to be like Madonna,” she states
matter-of-factly, “but I don’t want to give my
life up to some amorphous company. That
wouldn’t make me happy.” JH
Visit P atricia J u at www.patricuyu.com. Hear
her music and buy her EP at www.mp3.com.
C ourtney P erkins is a Portland free-lance writer.
■\
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