New Grammy Winning Arkai Duo: Inside Their Big Win

0:00Archie do how are you guys doing today doing great happy to be here awesome well thanks for joining me so we have Jonathan is it myron that's right and we have Philip as she got she got yep first accent on everything for us all right cool good I'm glad I'm always the last thing it's always a bit of a challenge so that's good easy to easy pronounce so you guys just won the best contemporary instrumental album Grammy this year which is amazing and very very stiff competition in that category a lot a lot of great musicians wait let's talk about how you guys first came together and met I think you went to Julia art is that correct yes right so both Philip and I are classically trained and we went to the Julia school in New York but we actually didn't meet at school I'm a little older than Philip and though we overlap at Julia we didn't meet in the building which is kind of crazy actually because it's a very very small place about 700 students and you're kind of like all

1:00just in the same building and so you're bound to meet one another we didn't meet each other so it took a conference that was hosted at Julia art where we were repping the school and one day after classes there was a party and we had our instruments with us and Philip and I just started to jam and there's a whole room of people so you can imagine like well we were kind of like the DJs that night and so we jammed for over an hour the whole room started singing and dancing to our music and that was the first time that Philip and I really had a profound conversation musical conversation and it was this this magical moment for us when we heard our unique sound and that was kind of the impetus for what archive is today but for some extra context with that story Jonathan says right we just started to jam no one at Julia art jams I was just gonna ask you that it's a classical it's literally a conservatory and everyone at least in

2:03the um classical music division right we're studying primarily to become orchestral players right you're reading from sheet music you're playing the masterworks of Western European literature but you're not learning how to jam and so to find another person who clearly had been on their own exploration outside of school because school wasn't gonna teach us how to jam so someone who had been on that journey and then it was already it was obviously curious about so many other kinds of music and integrating that I think that was the cherry on top that made that meeting so profound and unexpected yeah and it's sort of like a when you it's sort of like dating a little bit you have to try different musical partners the duo thing is a challenge because you have to find people that are on the same page especially in the classical world because we we always think of like the duo classical duo maybe it's violin cello which is what you guys both play but yeah like as you mentioned Julia art is not known for maybe jamming I don't know but how did how did you guys get

3:04there individually like who were some of your early influences that kind of gave you a broader perspective than just classical music yeah great question for me one of my biggest idols is the cellist yo yo ma and I love yo yo because that guy's an incredible classical musician right he plays with orchestra he plays percitals all over the world but he's so much more than a classical musician he's actually like taken upon himself to broaden his musical horizons and I love what yo yo's done to like well collaborate with musicians from all around the world whether it's through his silk road ensemble I thought that was a beautiful thing where you brought together some of the greatest musicians from around the world and they all share the language of music and they create amazing music together that kind of defines boundaries and genres I love yo yo for that I loved his like collaborations with people like James Taylor you know like all these artists from different genres and so yeah I really look to him as as a musical influence but also as a just as a person and what he

4:09represents through his music he's so much larger than music my guy is just incredible humanitarian and the leaders within the the world within the arts yeah I was kind of inspired by there was a whole crop of artists who broke through early beauty writing the days when YouTube was just becoming a thing and some of these pioneers or I would say like the the last generation of pioneers of classical crossover we might call it there was a number of groups groups like two cellos right these two Croatian guys were platinum stadiums of rock fevers the piano guys who were making these cinematic music videos literally piano on top of you know cliff sides and waterfalls the violinist Lindsay Sterling who is playing and dancing acrobatics while she's playing they were right pentatonics right the acapella quintet that was a whole crop of artists who were all kind of coming who were breaking

5:13right as I was in my very formative years and a lot of those people were inspiring in the sense of they opened my ears to more kinds of music that could be made on my instrument because at the same time while I'm studying my concertos and my sonatas right the very classical training I was doing I was inspired by those people to like have my fun on the side with my friends never in my wildest imaginations dreaming that I would one day be able to do that myself it was always kind of like over fun it's cool that that's out there other I have to give them a shout out in an older group is the turtle island spring quartet they're kind of like OGs they've been going since the 70s but using again the string quartet form which I was playing Mozart and Beethoven quartets at the time but taking great quartet form but playing blues jazz Jimmy Hendrix right kind of doing all these different styles at a really high level and so those were

6:15seeds that were planted while I was growing up before I got to Juilliard that again never thought that that would be throughout I would take but they were it was just planting seeds and planting curiosities that were going to come to come to fruition later down the road yeah and those one thing also a lot of the the younger groups you mentioned to have in common is visual the visual aspect making videos and that's something you guys your sound of silence video which for instance which is one of the tracks on the album bright side that you won the Grammy for is such a cool visual you know thing just to see and just to kind of take in talk about that like how important has that been the video aspect with you guys and helping getting your name out there and getting getting seen and heard I think it's been really huge for our brand and our artistic identity but Phillip and I love epic cinematic music and exactly we look to the those incredible videos from well from people like Lindsay Sterling you

7:21know right like the piano guys exactly that and it's just like wow those were strength you know those were like instrumental players that we're going at and doing really really incredible things and so I think we just think of ourselves as maybe the next generation continuing there like it's you know and maybe it's creating our own legacy throughout the process and do our own thing but we love we love our epic films you know well and to kind of to pull it even back before the musical part of it it's because both of us love film to begin with right we love it with Jonathan loves right Sergio Leone right the classics I love my Star Wars and you know kind of like epic sci-fi fantasy and so that language of the visual media which is the worldly living right the world we live in today is it's visuals visuals come with everything and so I think it's just us taking another side of our creative passions because we should say that our videos we basically do it all ourselves we storyboard we script we

8:22make the shock lists we have a videographer obviously who's holding the camera but then we go and edit be color it's a it is a core part of our kind of artistic product we have our hands all over those they're really really special to us well and and along that line this album which I think is your is that you're actually your second full-length album sophomore the one that won the Grammy which is a pretty amazing feat actually to on your second outing so you guys actually self-produced that album is that correct for the most part yeah I mean you know yes we produced we we record mixed the album we did have a few producers that kind of added their special sauce across the album but we yeah we mixed it we had it mastered by someone else but for the most part of saying like yeah 90 95 percent of that album is yeah and it feels it feels really personal talk about doing I know you're primarily you kind of do a mix of covers you mentioned live you do covers and original material but tell me about

9:22that like how do you do you enjoy doing the covers is that something are you guys very particular about what songs you're going to cover I would assume yes but let's talk about that a little bit yeah for sure I mean at on the first level some songs lend themselves to strings more than other songs dry or sometimes you know an audience member will say oh I want you to do this song and it's like that that just won't work I'm sorry but it's been a level beyond that of course we're trying to find songs that both resonate deeply with us that we love but also songs that we feel that we can do justice to them to kind of give them our own spin because we don't want to just you know kick out a oh you know kind of like karaoke right that's just playing these melodies on top like we wanted our sauce on it and so sound of silence from the record is a perfect example right it's a everybody around the world knows that song but hopefully we gave it our own insoluble thumbprints so that that is the archive version of that song yeah I need to do a great job and again like also the video I would really encourage people to check out the video

10:26because it's super cool a lot of candles died for this video do not cry this at home yeah I think that the last time we're going to do that yeah light all the candles um tell me tell me about Grammy night how how exciting was that when you guys actually there or how exciting was that for you oh it was a crazy it was a crazy night it was a crazy week for people who don't know like the Grammys are so much more than just the the one you know the award show it's a whole week festivities um so many events and parties um and it really was an incredible honor to be there you know um we were in a category with some some artists that we we grew up listening to like bailiff lec that guy's a legend you know and so to be in the same category is some of these incredible artists that we are so inspired by was was such an honor in itself um yeah it's it's I mean we think back to the day it's a blur you know it's like you go from one thing to the next but then you're waiting at this very long awards ceremony and we were near the end and so I think

11:27we were like more than three hours into that um that premier cell ceremony and then our you know and I feel like you know with all these things we try our best we put out a good prospectio good album um we feel the love but you don't want to like get too ahead of yourself and so I think the word that we would use is like we were like cautiously optimistic you know if you know we're in a room of giants and so you know we were cautiously optimistic and to hear our name get called I mean they're videos of of our reaction uh it was it's the craziest feeling it's like it's like a bomb goes off it's like there's nothing like it and then we are skipping to the stage and then you know we have to give our speech and you're shaking and you're feeling all these emotions it was it was incredible and then it just yeah what an honor what a privilege and I think for Philip and I we think we're just full of gratitude truly it's like we would not be here without scores of people who have believed in us over the years and that's kind of what we talked about in our acceptance

12:29speech was just like number one our parents who sacrificed so much for us so that we can live a life of possibility um but then so many people who have believed in us for over the years and have lifted us up and so yeah it just did an enormous sense of of gratitude and love uh for for our community yeah and you know and people that they they always see the artists up on stage if they I mean it's amazing too because again like you guys this is your second outing um as an album and you always hear and I've interviewed several people that I've been nominated multiple times and they never win so to actually be able to win the first time out with a nomination is is really it's really an amazing feat um and also too it takes a village as you mentioned you have support from your parents and you know going to schools like Julia art it's not it's not an inexpensive endeavor uh living in New York moving to New York where were you guys actually from originally were you from New York or did you come out there how how did that happen yeah I'm originally from Southern California I need to beach guys oh you know Disneyland is our local landmark I grew up 20

13:36minutes from the park uh but yeah I was born and raised there all the way until I went out to New York for my undergrad degree when I was 18 yet and for me um so I I've kind of lives around the world uh my mom is from Taiwan um it's American I was I born in Taiwan um I moved to the country of Singapore when I was four years old which is a tiny tiny little island country in Southeast Asia right and my mom talked about sacrifice my mom literally moved from me from Singapore it's a Cincinnati Ohio when I was nine years old so that I could study music my parents did long distance for four years so they could study with this great teacher in Cincinnati Ohio and so yeah I I can't believe they did that you know um for me but we might be here without that's amazing yeah and it's awesome I mean the parents' parents love and the fact that they support you guys because as we know being a musician's not the easiest path a lot a lot of parents it's

14:38I don't want to say Asian parents but I'll put Asian fairs that are not going to be they're supportive of music but it's hard and I want you to have a good career and and so that's awesome that they supported you along the way it's it's amazing absolutely yeah if you could give some advice to younger musicians people that because you guys took a path that's not that common in in and the instruments that you play um talk a little bit about that and being willing to explore different genres and be willing to try different things yeah I mean there's so many things that we have learns of long the way a lot of things that in that we wish that we had been curious about or trusted ourselves to explore earlier and so a lot of times when we're working with younger younger creatives younger people it's just to explore your curiosity it's not be afraid of either either like no one else I know is interested in this thing or maybe for people who are very you know achievement focused like I don't see how this curiosity like relates back to my main thing right like for us we're studying classical music at the highest level oh how did that side thing didn't

15:43seem like it was ever going to connect or besides skills that we built up because there's a lot more skills that we have to use than just being great musician skills around management and leadership around technological skills media creation all these things and at the time you don't necessarily see how the thoughts are going to connect but if those things are true to you if that's if there's a curiosity and a passion there just to have the willingness pursue that you time will tell but to have something that is is really true you and deeply passionate about like go for it yeah I'll just add to that and just say that it's okay not to always know where it going to go it's like and and I think it's it's really important to like accept that like for Philip but we're still figuring it out but I think that's just like part of life's journey but if we follow our curiosities and if we lead with courage and perseverance and we really look within and do

16:45things that are authentic to us um I think it leads to great things and like my gosh it took years for our sounds to kind of become what it is today for us to forge the path that we've forged we're still forging it and what I would say is that um especially well I think in the world in general but it's easy to get um kind of I don't want to say intimidated but it is the music world is it's so hard to make it in the music world and if anything we need more artists that are unique who are doing their own things that's what's gonna make you stand out within this incredibly saturated market that we operate within that is I think only going to get more saturated with AI and you know in in the years to come and so it's just like we really need pioneers to wrap they're kind of doing their own thing and so don't be afraid well I think our journey is a testament to that yeah talk talk a little bit about kind of along those same lines talk a

17:48little bit about finding your own voice like because it's it's a challenge for any artist to kind of find your style find your it's obviously too it's a process can you talk a little bit about that yeah I mean both of us again our roots are the roots we came from was in an inch wide and a mile deep right we were very at one at us at one kind of language and in a lot of ways right there there's pros and cons of that right it's like that classical training gave us the technique right it gave us the work ethic that discipline the delayed gratification of right we've been play if we've been playing our instruments for decades before we met each other um but I think it was when both of us were opening ourselves up to more kinds of music not just to like enjoy listening to that's part of it too it's just you don't know but you don't know but then actively taking steps to explore that and to say okay what might my own creative process look like if I started

18:50though dabbling in these other kinds of styles and languages um and so you know a lot of times we think of this like a spoken language right if you go if you're trying to learn a new language the ease the fastest way to learn it is to go and immerse yourself right go to the country where the language is spoken and if you immerse yourself from that right you keep hearing all those new words that sound completely foreign to you when you start eventually right you're going to internalize those and then what happens you're then able to speak that out and so when it comes to finding your own voice at least for us ours is a language of synthesis right we have those classical roots but then it is as we were starting to learn how to speak these new words right oh a little bit of uh kind of rock language a little bit of EDM language a little bit of epic film language and then as we were speaking all these things right suddenly you only like you have to do it and by doing it then we started to discover oh this is how these things come together in a new way

19:52and it just has taken time time and repetition and trying new recipes and um but eventually we landed on it yep and a lot of perseverance i can't say i wonder when you're doing your own thing there will be a lot of people who say oh you should not do that you should do it this way or do that what what where do you belong you're you kept and i would say like yeah maybe that's true but at this same time if you have something that's compelling and unique people will will remember you right and so uh it's it's the blessing and the curse and i would again going back to what i said earlier i would just encourage people to really like to not be afraid of of doing their own thing i really do believe that you have to be a Swiss army knife in this day and age it's you have to like do so much kind of what Philip said earlier like we do so much we we've been managing ourselves to be creating opportunities for ourselves doing your own production doing everything it's kind of like and that's really allowed us to kind of take next steps within our career um to create new opportunities because we were never reliant on other people right and so i think it's like yeah it's like running

20:57a startup it really is it's like you'd have to go out and find either you have to do it yourself you have to go out and build your team you know and and so yeah um with regards to like our brand our identity it's morphed so much over the years um if you listen to our first album crossroads which we released a year and a half ago surprised me to say that's like that album is so much more life explore is worried it like there really isn't a uh we're just we're still trying to find our sound in that album like whenever we listen back um it's literally called crossroads for that reason because it's like where are you know what are we trying to do right side our second album um it's so much more confident and so i do think that a lot happened um between that first album that that second album around like kind of what our sound is going to be and i think for us there was a moment where we realized actually you know what's really beautiful here the secret is kind of the old and the new coming together uh where we honor tradition but we also look ahead

22:01and so what does that look like and so yeah it's it's this like cinematic feast that you know plays homage to our classical roots but also to all the other kinds of music that we love in our own way yeah and it's fun to see the progress and see the growth and like we're always growing you're going to be growing until until the end of time it hopefully right if we're on the right path um what do you guys have coming up are you going to be doing some touring i know you guys have done a lot of touring in the past it's tell me tell me about that and how also how people can find you if they want to check out your tour schedule that kind of stuff uh yeah we're working on a big international tour right now so we will be announcing it uh in yeah soon um but yeah we i think you'll be able to find all that information on our social media at archive music um or on our website archivemusic.com awesome yeah and it's exciting and i i know you guys have worked with a lot of exciting folks and you mentioned Lindsey Stirling uh we have a Cirque du Soleil with David Lachapel

23:02who's a great a great guy great director um thank you so much for joining me i know you guys are very busy and it's exciting it's so exciting to see young young musicians i'm old so i can say but to see like what a great start to your career with coming out of the gate with the with the Grammy win um that that's you know it's really exciting i love what you guys are doing it's innovative it's different i think you definitely have found your voice it's going to continue to grow so it's exciting to see where that's where that's going to go um so everybody please check out bright side the album that you won the Grammy for uh check out the videos on youtube very exciting and you're you're on all the streaming services that we get we all know and love sometimes we love sometimes you know um but uh thank you so much for joining me i real appreciate it guys thank you Darrell it's a pleasure thank you so much