Tatum Jones - The Love Movement (Interview)

Written by Ricky Kim Wednesday, 22 April 2009 11:57

Tatum Jones (formerly known as “At Last”) was probably among the first Asian American prime time acts when they made their miraculous run on the inaugural season of "America’s Got Talent", the highest rated show of summer 2006. Along the way Tatum Jones has inspired many Korean Americans to pursue their passions. Korean Americans learned that America will vote for you!! The problem is as the major label execs say, “We just don’t know how to market you?”

WTF???

Asians did not move Tatum Jones into the finals, Americans did. Just like the Asian power dance group Jaba Wokees. After being on the verge of stardom, with an impressive run working with top names in the industry the dream quickly became deflated. Tatum Jones would have to drop their famous moniker “At Last” after deciding to part ways with their management who owned the rights to the name. Tatum Jones would have to rebuild and adapt in more ways than one.

Now years removed from their initial run on the major spotlight. Tatum Jones is trying to establish their footing independently. But this time, the group has decided to move forward without pressure, singing purely for the love.

I tell you what after hanging out with Tatum Jones for a couple of evenings; it was like taking a trip down memory lane. Hearing the rehearsals and watching the show, I found myself texting love messages and inexplicably trying to sing post Motown 90’s R&B. You know the good stuff right before the R Kelly era. Keith sweat, New edition, Shai, All for One, Boyz2men…this is the lineage of Tatum Jones updated 2009. That’s right I was brutally destroying some classics! But admit it, back in the day you did it too! How could you not? The songs were too good.

As Hans admits, “it took a lot of work! I was a late bloomer!” He just happened to be one that developed an earnest passion for it and kept it going.

When today we’re consistently being told to bump and grind, Tatum Jones is reminding us to take our time. Be in tune with our emotions and embrace the honesty of relationship that’s been frankly lacking. Remind us how sweet it could be; pushing through your ear some of that world famous Korean romantic drama. I’ve been told by a very sweet black lady friend who sometimes watches Korean romantic dramas (on cable in subtitles), she thinks, “It’s so sweet and innocent, the manner in which relationships are honored and developed in Korea.”

I had to remind her that it’s just a movie; I could point out plenty of subjects to prove otherwise.

I caught Tatum Jones performing at the mint with Craig David when I spoke with an enthusiastic couple Pat and Natasha, who lingered around after Craig David to catch the show. They were pleasantly stoked! I saw Pat even storm the stage during Tatum Jones’s beat box, trip hip hop rendition of jams such as Rihanna’s “Umbrella.” Natasha turned and said to me, “These guys killed Craig David! They are really good!” That’s my boys killing it.

I would say the ratio of women to men were like 8 to 1. Pretty kool. Needless to say I was enjoying myself. And if I had a special somebody it would have been very nice. Really guys you should come out to the next show and give some of their fans attention.
But damn it got me thinking, Tatum Jones must have met a million women. Life is just not fair.

But Asian women, like all women are a fickle creature. We’ll get into that on the interview.

Backing up Tatum Jones was their multi talented producer Peter Hong on the acoustic guitar. I must say he was ripping it up. A very talented guy involved in many emerging projects across fashion, music, and culture. Check out his site www.myninjaclothing.com.

Tatum Jones has performed along such notable acts as Justin Timberlake, Destiny's Child and Boyz II Men. They have been featured on such noted shows as "its Showtime at the Apollo", Ed McMahon's "Next Big Star" and "The Wayne Brady Show". They have guest starred on Nickelodeon's top show, "Drake and Josh", and the number 1 show on ABC Family, "Switched Up.”

Interview with Tatum Jones

Ricky@iChoson: Walking through the halls, I notice so many pictures of women. Then it hit me. Your style of music must have attracted women by the droves
Justin: Good times we’ve had a lot of great fans.
Hans: A lot of good times, a lot of good memories.
Ricky@iChoson: I’m really jealous…
Mike: The experience has been great.
Ricky@iChoson: A little background. I first met Hans and Mike in Berkeley over 14 years ago. Even then they were asking people, “Ricky can you sing? Can you sing?” Naw I can’t sing…little did I know here we are 10 years later reflecting on your amazing journey.
Justin: Haha..You got a nice deep bass voice though man.
Ricky@iChoson: Thank you very much Justin. Can I try out?
Justin: No…
Tatum Jones: hahaaha
Ricky@iChoson: I just want to meet the fans.
Tatum Jones: Hahaha
Ricky@iChoson: Can you guys share your musical backgrounds?
Mike: Sure as for me I was trained with the flute from an early age. I’m grateful for that. Justin is actually classically trained with the piano and violin. His experience gives us that solid musical structure.
Ricky@iChoson: What about you Hans?
Hans: Me I just like to sing man. Sing and dance man.
Justin: Hans grew up on the whole church thing.
Ricky@iChoson: How did you end up hooking up with Hans and Mike?
Justin: That was way later.
Hans: At Last was formed by Ming Na the actress and her husband to form this group to promote Asian male type entertainment. The original At Last group was formed in 2000 with Justin and three other members. One member left and they had an opening, so mike and I auditioned and we both got in from that day on 2001.
Ricky@iChoson: Picked up the Koreanos brother!
Hans: Haha…yeah bbq that up! But even then, when we were together for the first time, without even any practice we just cliqued right away.
Ricky@iChoson: How did you and Mike connect?
Hans: I was friends with Mike’s cousin Daniel. And we had formed this group Four-tay around when we were 17 years old with a couple of other friends. We were wack but we still did it. We were having fun.
Ricky@iChoson: That name was hot. I remember when rapping Four-Tay was blowing up in the bay. How did you get started Justin?
Justin: I started in high school I had my own singing group as well.
Ricky@iChoson: okay in the bay?
Justin: San Jose.
Ricky@iChoson: I like this. This is straight up like Northern Cali representing here.
Tatum Jones: Totally.
Mike: Yeah Nor Cal, especially back in the day, mid-90’s it was all about singing groups. Groups like Kai were really big. Interlude. There was this whole Asian American scene up there.
Ricky@iChoson: Started with the Pilipinos.
Justin: Kai got signed with Geffen and that was really huge. Breaking a lot of Korean-American, Asian-American barriers.
Ricky@iChoson: Some of your greatest moments?
Mike: We were invited to the Kiis FM studios in LA to perform with Rick Deez in the morning. It was surreal, during that show Rick Dees asked us to perform accapella and on the air he invited us to sing at jingle ball with Justin Timberlake, Destiny’s Child, a bunch of A-list performers.
Justin: We actually battled Boyz 2 Men on air in Vegas.
Ricky@iChoson: Really you guys battled? Who won?
Hans: ill give it up to them. They had 3 people we had 5 and they still did better than us
Mike: but they’re the OGs.
Justin: yeah the real OGs
Mike: Probably the highlight of the group was being on America’s got talent 2006. We were auditioning but weren’t really familiar with the show. It was a pilot and it was very strange. On set we saw the most craziest and bizarre get ups. Yeah there was this huge nine foot robot guy. We were like what the hell is this show about?
Hans: Honestly we didn’t even know if we were in the right place.
Justin: We had no idea what this show was about but it was NBC.
Hans: But all of sudden the show got huge and it ended up being like the number one show on NBC that summer.
Ricky@iChoson: So I’m assuming at this point you guys were feeling you guys were going to get your big break.
Hans: Yeah that was the feeling at the time. Yep.
Mike: Round after round. We finally got to the finals and it was huge.
Hans: We were getting so much support. Everyone at home in northern Cali was representing. Everyone at my mom’s church was voting it was amazing.
Mike: We didn’t win but what was bigger was the exposure we got through youtube. It became like a huge youtube thing.
Justin: yeah it was just so inspiring.
Ricky@iChoson: Maybe that’s the cool part about it; getting kids out there to dream about pursuing their goals. You guys probably inspired a lot of kids without even really knowing.
Hans: Yeah didn’t even really think about that.
Ricky@iChoson: You guys broke barriers! But I also know there were a lot of disappointments as well.
Mike: After receiving all the exposure it was disappointing that there was very little label interest.
Justin: Then we had some internal problems with management, one guy quit. Yeah it was a rough patch for us. But overall, you have to just appreciate every experience. You’re going to have your highs and lows.
Hans: we had hit the wall. You know we had met with a lot of record executives and they all pretty much said the same thing. They didn’t know how to market us.
Ricky@iChoson: That’s kinda of odd? Weren’t everyday Americans voting for you guys on the show? It wasn’t because of Asian voters you guys made it to the finals.
Hans: Also I think at that point the music industry was changing.
Ricky@iChoson: Right. So how does Tatum Jones fit into the puzzle?
Hans: I think we’re strategizing not to put the huge pressure of having to make it big. Now I think we’re focusing more in our niche markets rather going after the big contract. I think that’s the transition.
Justin: Hopefully most of our fans make the transition with us.
Mike: I think for the most part, our fans understand what had happened and found Tatum Jones.
Ricky@iChoson: Moving forward how is dating as Tatum Jones? Generally speaking, Korean or Asian women have the stereotype of wanting men with stability. They would rather date the banker vs. the struggling artist.
Hans: It’s true; obviously you can’t say all Asian women. But I think a lot of women not just Asian American. You know when your 23, 24 at that age you think about it but it’s not that much of a reality but later as things involve some things get more important.
Justin: As an Asian of course I want stability, a secure job source of income, but I think in order to do something like this you really have to not care about certain things, you have to really want to live your life as an artist. But in the end I think everyone wants to see a plan. If you’re really into something, sometimes that passion can be as attractive as a banker into his corporate life making hell of money.
Ricky@iChoson: So I guess meeting girls and getting dates is not the problem. But as you get closer some of the issues come to bear.
Hans: At first all my exes never really hated until it was seemed like I wasn’t doing all I could
Justin: Of course it’s really exciting at first. You’re in the industry and such. But it’s like a double edged sword.
Hans: It’s really give or take no matter what. If you do this you can’t have a normal life.
Mike: You have to know whatcha really want.
Ricky@iChoson: the new EP is called the love movement what’s that all about?
Mike: For us we’re an R&B group. Not too many pure R&B groups are out there.
Justin: Its mostly hip hop based.
Hans: For awhile Hip Hop ruled everything.
Ricky@iChoson:Its not really that sexually overt R&B that’s out there these days. Like I want to suck on your tits and stuff you balls deep in the bathroom of the club.
Tatum Jones: haha
Ricky@iChoson: it’s the R&B of the golden age.
Mike: The post Motown age. The 90’s that’s our roots.
Justin: They really thought about love and the true challenges in the relationship.
Ricky@iChoson: Right before R Kelly
Mike: Yeah that’s when the game changed.
Ricky@iChoson: it’s nice to know that you guys are sticking to your roots.
Justin: We’re really not that type though. I mean we’ve written stuff like that too but it’s not really us. It comes across like that too when we perform.
Ricky@iChoson: Any last comments to any kids out there trying to do what you guys are doing?
Mike: Have a plan. Look at it in the long term. Be real and honest with the sacrifices you are going to have to make.

You can check their music out and support their new EP “The Love Movement” on www.tatumjonesmusic.com and myspace.com/tatumjonesmusic.