Today we’d like to introduce you to Tre Pham.
Hi Tre, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started playing guitar when I was six years old because my mom said drums weren’t as popular. My first real band started with Blue Tongue, which began with the sole purpose of dominating our high school Battle of the Bands when I was about fourteen. About eight years, seven drummers and one bassist later, Blue Tongue has evolved from high school garage rock band doing their best Led Zeppelin impression to a tight psychedelic funk rock trio, with which I’ve managed to play most of my favorite stages in town.
Blue Tongue, plus a thousand other bands I’ve been fortunate enough to play with throughout the years, has helped me to abandon all college debt dreams and service industry jobs and make a living entirely from music before I was legally able to drink.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Having almost zero formal music education aside from three years of high school classical guitar has forced me to be relentlessly persistent and creative to get the gigs I need, especially considering my youth relative to my colleagues.
When I teach private music lessons, I have to compete with all the university educated music majors over ten years older my senior, being closer to the age of my students than their parents. For session work, I knew I wouldn’t be able to support myself solely as a guitarist, guitar not in nearly as much demand as bass, so I taught myself to play bass, to the point where no one has suspected I’m a dirty guitarist playing imposter. My first gig as a sound guy was for a local bar band (thanks Morningstar, for not asking too many questions), where my only sound experience was messing around in my high school’s AV room studio and memorizing the user manual for the sound system the night before.
Now I’ve been fortunate enough to keep my calendar full (pre-pandemic) with a variety of session guitar and bass work, sound, recording and mixing gigs, and teaching.
On top of being woefully uneducated, I was pretty broke because I could never take night shifts or weekend shifts in the restaurants I worked in to make time for whatever gigs I might come across. And for the longest time, I biked or bussed to so many gigs anytime my girlfriend Dalynn was unavailable, showing up to far too many auditions, rehearsals and gigs soaked in sweat with all my gear strapped to my salty body. I think the only reason I’ve been able to afford this borderline masochistic lifestyle is because I have virtually no other nonmusic expenses except for all the food I eat.
Now I’m proud to say I can eat out more than twice a month without bursting into a nervous sweat.
Being so young and uneducated, I attribute much of my “success” to never saying no to any kind of gig in the beginning and being very frugal. I don’t drink or smoke or anything, which instead allows me to waste my money on expensive music gear.
Regarding Blue Tongue, one of our biggest hurdles has been finding a permanent drummer for longer than a year or so, having gone through about six other drummers before we were fortunate enough to have found our guy in Mike Krieger, formerly of the Matters, and who currently also plays with GrooveThink, and Shadow Ministry. One of the reasons it’s been so difficult to release more original music is that Mike is too damn good and we keep having to re-record old songs with him.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Before anything, I’d say I’m still a guitarist first. In an ideal world, performing and recording Blue Tongue is 80% of the work I need to do to survive, but until then, I’m also a session bassist, music instructor, live sound and recording engineer, mixer and producer. I think the thing that allows me to work so well in all these positions is being on all sides of the music production world. As a guitarist, my knowledge of bass and the absolute most basic understanding of drums helps me be creative in incorporating the groove of a rhythm section in my playing, which is important when playing in a trio like Blue Tongue. Being an experienced bassist helps be my absolute funkiest when I guitar for Blue Tongue and every other project I collaborate with.
When I perform live, I’m aware of all the things I can do to make things easier for the sound engineer, and when I do sound work I am aware of what an artist needs to perform their best, and the same carries over into a studio setting.
Outside of musician-related things, I am also a personal trainer, very casually amateur stunt performer/martial artist, and personal chef.
Honestly being strong and in shape is probably what got me a lot of gigs I was severely underqualified for because I could move amps and speakers faster than everyone else, on top of conditioning my body to handle successive 12 hour gig days of sound work, performing, etc.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
There are only two trends I can hope for. The first being, a resurgence of funk and disco sensibilities in popular music, especially in regards to slap bass and intricate funk guitar parts.
The second and most personal to me is a rise in Asian representation in a larger variety of music. I remember once, I was playing bass in a blues rock trio at a restaurant in Austin, and after the set, a Korean American man remarked to me how refreshing it was to see an Asian guy in a non EDM setting. My hope is that is ceases to be the case. My hope is for when people consider people of color in the music industry, that Asians aren’t completely ignored in the discussion. There are so many talented Asian performers in Western rock, metal, funk, soul, blues and even country that are largely forgotten.
I’ve been fortunate to play and work with such artists like the Slants, an all Asian activist dance rock band, and the immensely talented Korean American soul singer Jae Jin, each doing their part to put our people on the forefront of the music scene. On the highest level, we have groups like Silk Sonic with Bruno Mars being half Filipino and Anderson .Paak being a quarter Korean. H.E.R. just won a Grammy as a half Filipina and Jacob Collier as a quarter Chinese.
I believe Asians will slowly evolve from being boxed in as a the token, virtuosic child prodigy as actual respected, influential artists. I know in my town, we have a long ways to go with meaningful representation, but I can see a change on the horizon for the better.
Contact Info:
- Email: bluetonguemusic@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.bluetonguetheband.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluetonguetheband/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueTongueTheBand/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCax7gFcB–wq0mXXCzUaiw
Image Credits
Christopher De La Rosa Miriam Rice Daniel Cavazos
