AmpedAsia.com: Tell us a bit of background about yourself.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Im a singer, producer, dancer, songwriter, born in Montreal, Canada. I’m Vietnamese. I currently live in Toronto.
AmpedAsia.com: You are currently signed to Universal music?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Right now I have a distribution deal with Universal Music. So they will take my album and distribute it into stores for me, but I have to do promotion and handle everything else by myself.
AmpedAsia.com: What was the process like for getting the deal with them?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : I basically just sent in material, and through my management team/Label SAMJAM Ent. They have a distribution deal with Universal, and because my album is a joint venture between my own label (TripleCity Ent.) and SAMJAM, any album that they like from SAMJAM records is automatically distributed by Universal.
AmpedAsia.com: So pretty much the deal is they take a percentage of the album sales?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Yeah, they take a huge percentage out of the album sales and they have almost zero overhead because I had to pay for everything to create the album. However, the advantage is I get my album in a lot more places. So it’s a tradeoff.
If I do well then we can negotiate a bigger percentage for the next album, and they will put more money behind me. But in this day and age, music doesn’t really sell anyway, and I don’t expect it to. Even big stars like Usher have problems selling records. It’s more a visibility/credibility thing vs selling records.
AmpedAsia.com: Sounds good, so how difficult was it to get to that point? Where you’re able to get a distribution deal with Universal?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : It was a lot of work, and my story is a bit complicated, and I don’t know if you wanna get into that.
AmpedAsia.com: I’d love to hear what you can tell me.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : From the beginning I was a science nerd. You know how Asian parents breed you to be, either doctor, lawyer, dentist or you’re nobody. I grew up in a semi-strict traditional household, and I was a nerd growing up. I used to get beat up. I was top of the class, honors, bla la. Steve Urkel? that was me.
I got into breakdancing, because I wanted to be active. Then I started dancing hiphop at 8Count Dance Center, which is a school run by Steve Bolton, who’s the lead choreographer for the new Michael Jackson game from EA, and also the guy behind Blueprint, the first Canadian crew to make it on Americas Best Dance Crew.
I started dancing, then I got into Physical Therapy at McGill (college in Canada), mostly to make my parents happy, and was planning to get into Med School afterwards.
I never really did music growing up at all, and the closest I was to music was dancing.
One day, one of my close friends mike told me he wanted to sing, but he was no good at it. I told him to get vocal lessons. He said no, because singing is a talent you either have or don’t have. I disagreed and promised I would take vocal lessons with him. At the time I was saying that just to try and encourage him, I didn’t have any wish to take vocal lessons.
But in 2006, Mike passed away with cancer. At that moment I decided to take vocal lessons because I promised him.
AmpedAsia.com: How old were you at the time?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Around 21-22.
AmpedAsia.com: Okay.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : After taking vocal lessons, I realized how much I actually enjoyed it. More and more I wanted to try and become an artist.
A few months after that, however, I found I had a tumor in my neck. The doctors said it had hit my vagus nerve, and if I removed it, I would not be able to sing, and I would barely be able to talk.
So I prayed to God, (I’m Christian), and asked him, “If for a second you want me to try singing, if I come out of this operation with my voice, I’m going to do whatever it takes to sing. If not, then I’m just going to stick to being a physical therapist.”
After my operation, I came out and it turned out the doctor’s were wrong. The tumor didn’t hit my vagus nerve, which is a major nerve that regulates the air coming in and out of the voice box. Instead the tumor had hit another nerve that prevented me from sweating on the left side of my face… lol.
AmpedAsia.com: Any idea on how the tumor got there?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Nope. No idea. And basically ever since then, I’ve been pursuing music like crazy.
AmpedAsia.com: Wow. That’s a truly inspiring story, and I really hope that inspires some kids out there that are wanting to be artists but are being held back.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Yeah absolutely.
AmpedAsia.com: Let’s move on then I guess we’ll talk about your music video for “Someone Like You.”
“Someone Like You”
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Okay.
AmpedAsia.com: Is this song the best song on your album?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : No not necessarily, but it’s what I believed to be the most commercial song on the album which is why I chose to make my first music video off this one.
AmpedAsia.com: How were you able to get all the people involved?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Justin Agustin, the music video director, is a childhood friend. I used to see him around and didn’t know he did music videos until i saw one of his early videos on FB. Then i got in contact with him. He recently did a video for Cash Money and he’s doing very well, moving on up.
And as for Stephanie Ly and the other models, one of my good photographer friends named Christian Peterson, shot a lot with models and had a lot of connections in that industry so he contacted Steph Ly for me. Jennifer Nguyen signed on because I’m good friends with her boyfriend.
AmpedAsia.com: Did you have to pay them out of your own wallet?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Yeah, pretty much.
AmpedAsia.com: You made all of that money from physical therapy?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : All the money I make from physiotherapy, I put back into my music career.
AmpedAsia.com: You pretty much had to hustle for a while to save enough right.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Yes. I spent at least around 50,000$ in total so far, $5,000 of that went into the music video.
AmpedAsia.com: That’s incredible. I didn’t realize that it was all you funding this stuff for yourself.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Yeah man. Kids these days think someone’s going to pay for them to be an artist. Once they find out that it’s up to them to promote themselves and fund themselves, they’ve quit trying.
AmpedAsia.com: Has your album hit stores yet?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Not yet. It’s out in Europe though.
AmpedAsia.com: Promotion is all on you as well?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Yes, but with the Internet now its a lot easier to promote yourself and get more visible. My music video has received over 5,000 views on Youtube within a week.
AmpedAsia.com: How do you start earning the money back if its not through music sales?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : After getting visibility, you’ll make money from concerts, merchandise, and sponsors. But to tell you the truth, I don’t really plan to make any money
till about my 3rd album in. For any artist to make any money off when they are just beginning in the music industry is wishful thinking, and only very few artists can do that.
AmpedAsia.com: So that means while you’re working on your music career you also have to keep your day job?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Yes, I work part time, about 30 hours a week.
AmpedAsia.com: What do you do in your free time?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Between physical therapy, vocal lessons, gym, dance classes, songwriting, shows, I barely have a life.
AmpedAsia.com: haha
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : But it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for my future. But oh yeah, I do give myself some time for Starcraft 2.
AmpedAsia.com: Regarding your distribution deal with universal, how selective are these companies when it comes to these deals?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : They are really selective, because it’s a competitive industry, and everyone and their mothers are rapping and singing.
AmpedAsia.com: Yeah definitely.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : A lot of people say they want to be artists, but the minute you tell them you have to pay for it yourself or you have to not drink, smoke, or hit the clubs every weekend, they start to reconsider.
AmpedAsia.com: Yeah I can see that.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Or they do drink, smoke, go clubbing every weekend, and then wonder why no one wants to sign them.
AmpedAsia.com: Now that you’re signed with SAMJAM, got the deal with universal, has your life changed any?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : hmmm…not really. I’ve been doing this music thing seriously since August 2008. Since then I’ve made my album, and released the music video. My lifestyle really hasn’t changed very much.
AmpedAsia.com: Where can we find you online?
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : Catch me at
vinnie.tv, on Facebook, and Twitter.
AmpedAsia.com: Please give your fans a message.
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : To all my potential fans on Amped Asia, I want to tell you guys that whatever dream you guys have, no matter how crazy are far fetched, that it is possible.
With a lot of dedication and drive that is. This is coming from a science nerd who wants to be an asian pop star. Imagine what i told my parents. hahaha.
AmpedAsia.com: hahaha
Vinh “Vinnie” Pham : And how they reacted, YOU WANNA BE WHAT? lol.
AmpedAsia.com: Thanks a lot Vinh! I’m sure you’ve given a lot of inspiration to the many artists out there that want to figure out how to make it in the music industry.
Written by Editorial Staff