0:00 She met a guy and apparently the dude started trying to get a little rough, right? And my father saw it and intervened. Whoa, that's crazy. That's right. And that was it. Leave her alone. Right. The lady said, "No, how you trans lady? Don't touch. [Music] Welcome back to another episode of Careful Boys. We have with us Mr. Lyrics Born. [Applause] So like one thing that I realized when I was like just looking at your old stuff like LBTV, I saw your wife even back then. Yeah. So how did that like you guys met when you were still in in Davis
0:51 when Okay. So I told you like we all met at the at KDVS at the at the radio station. So, Chief Chief Excl and I had a a radio show for a year or so um at the station and we went into the other rooms and there she was as a volunteer folding up newsletters and putting them stuffing envelopes basically at she was volunteering at the station. One thing led to another you know more details more details. Yeah. What happened? What happened? What happened? I I pursued her probably for a good year. A year. And she would ride by me on a bike. I'd be like, "Hey, how you
1:41 just be like, "Hi." And just keep going. Right. So, I don't know what happened. I don't I don't remember. I mean, we've been together so long and now I don't remember exactly what the turning I know what the turning point was. I remember now. I made her chicken katsu. Wow. No way. Sealed the mother deal. This is delicious. How'd you make it for her? Like you gave it to her in like a to-go thing like when she like a bento box with the metal grapes. A bite bamboo with ribbon. You made the sauce for her. You did the whole made a happy face out of the rice and stuff. Like how'd you get her to like accept it and everything? Um, you know, I I think it's just cuz I'm a pimp, you know. No, no, no. Pops of skills, you know. So, ████ you know, I I grew up
2:31 eating that ████ you know. I just grew up eating that ████ you know. Take the chicken breast, you pound it, you drag it in the egg, then you throw in the flour, then you put in the breadcrumb. Panco. It was really hard to get panco back then. Yeah. Oh, I bet. Yeah, Joe. You know, did you actually have to make it from a bread? You have to dry up the bread and then like make it yourself. Now they got it at Trader Joe's. Now now now ████ regular supermarkets have bro. They have so much ethnic. We got gluten-free pancakes. Back then it was like mining for gold, you know, like and uh she was like, I love this and I love you. No, I'm just kidding. Funny. Food was the turning point. That's cool. Food was a turning point, man. Damn. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. What's her ethnicity? She's Filipino. Yeah.
3:21 Did you uh grow up in NorCal with Austria? It's a win for Brian. So, there's a clear difference between NorCal guys and and Southern California cuz I was like, man, you got a bay vibe to your style and everything. And I was like, and then you went to Davis. I was like, okay, you're from the Bay, but like did you did you know back then that she was a singer? Like, when did she start singing on your tracks? I I Oh, she's a singer. Yeah. So, okay. She's on his like she's vocalist on his album like currently now. So cool. On the main songs. Yeah. So the first I I knew she was a singer but she had never recorded anything before. She's classically trained. So she was like she's trained in opera and um Whoa. You know like a do measo type of lady. Yeah. Like she she went to Rome. She like studied in Rome as you know when we were in college. And she did but she had never recorded
4:12 recorded. Oh okay. I took her to dance, you know, in like 95, I think, and uh I I wrote the chorus and the first thing she did was a song called Balcony Beach. She did the um chorus for Balcony Beach and that came out on the Latics album. So that and that and then we the rest is history, man. I mean, she's been on every album since. And you know, we up until we had children. Well, one child she was touring also. So, yeah, it's been a long time. Does your son go like, "Man, my ████ parents are just singing and ████ all the time. Rapping and singing. Rabbit and singing. Rabbit and singing." You know, for him it's normal. For him, it's normal. You know, it's kind of He went on tour with you. She went on tour. Yeah. She still She still does shows, but
5:05 only if it's like a great destination. You know, she's like New York. I'll be there. New Orleans, I'll be there. Nebraska, I think you got this. You hold it down. You know, that's cool. So, not but truth be told, I have the most fun in Nebraska. So, but you know, cuz she's not there. Oh, I didn't say that. I didn't say that. But how is it working with your wife like for that long? It's great. You know, I mean, she understands me, you know? She unders we have like sort of this shorthand you know in the studio like artistically and you know she's it it's really funny like she's like uh like if if she likes a song she's like okay I'm going to come in and sing on that and I'm like I I didn't ask you to
5:58 I don't need anyone on this I was going to sing on this I'mma put my flavor on configuro like this right she's like I'm going to be on the remix. I'm like, there is no remix, you know, and like there is now. I'm like, okay, babe, sounds good. You know, like, let's hit record. Yeah, you sound great. Oh, yeah. One tip wonder. [Laughter] And then she's like, where's my part? Oh, I didn't make the cut. I got it got erased. My bad. The vinyl ran out of room. Vinyl ran out of room. That's hella funny. 2025. Final's too big. Can't use it. Does your
6:48 Does your son uh want to get into the music, too? Uh I would say he's more of like a hobbyist, you know, when it comes to music. Like he makes beats, you know, he's got his laptop and that's cool. He does this and sometimes he's like, you know, like, "Daddy, come come listen. Tell me what you think." thinking like he'll last my input. Which is pretty cool. That's really cool. And you're like, you're hard to market, man. Like, these beats are trash. If you said that to him, I don't know, son. It's not bad, you know. But this beat sounds Asian. I was hard to market. Your mom's hard to market. You're extra hard to market. How honest are you with your son if he's like making something and you're like you tell him straight up if it needs work or if it needs Well, there's a way to give constructive criticism obviously. So I he if he plays something and it just for if it's not if
7:39 it doesn't like align with my taste. I'm like why don't you try it this way? It might work better if you try it this way. And then he's like okay I'll try it. And then if he likes it that way he'll keep it. If he doesn't like it that way he'll go back to what he was doing. I mean, I think what what I try to tell him is like ultimately my opinion is exactly that. It's just an opinion. You know, this is your music. You're doing what you how whatever it has to align with your sensibilities, you know, not not necessarily mine or anybody any other one person's, you know. So, I think it I get the opportunity to tell him the ████ I wish somebody was there to tell me, you know, and I think that's that's I I really love that, you know. How how old is he?
8:29 15. What kind of music does he mainly make? So, he did like the other day he did like an I'm a piano beat. He did like uh he he can do trap, you know? He he he'll be a to trap is pretty like that's range. Yeah. But that's that's what kids do. They they don't they listen to it and it's like okay you know it's all programmed so it's um and he's just I love watching it you know whether he pursues that or anything else professionally it's I don't I don't care you know it's just kind of like as long as it as long as you are getting something out of it and you know it's it makes you happy cool you broke the Asian cycle You never You never Oh, yeah. That's another thing, too. Like, it was super
9:20 hard in the '9s for Asians to like do anything outside of being a doctor. Yeah. How did that work out? Like, did you did you get disowned? He became Dr. Dre. Yeah. Like he No, he doesn't play me beats and I'm like, hm, not good enough. So, that's where you kept the Asian culture. It's like you still got to be good at it. Yeah. Or like my father used to be like, "No, you know." No, I didn't do that. Is that how your dad was? Oh, yeah. Yeah. He was And my father was a writer. My father was a writer. Yeah. Yeah. He was, you know, he My dad is actually he's from he's Japanese from Japan. And so like he would he wrote he wrote books. He wrote like short stories. Oh, so he was already a creative. He was I feel like um cuz my my dad's a musician, too. And I say like Japanese people don't come to America
10:10 because they're struggling and they're like poor. They come here cuz they're outcasts. They come here cuz they they're being rejected from Japan and then ████ Japanese cuz they're not poor anymore, right? At by the time like you're in the 80s and ████ They're like, "No, we have jobs. We have money, but you're like not really wanted here." And then they come to America to be an artist. Are your are your parents from Japan? Yeah. Yeah. That's accurate for my father. I would say that that's accurate for my father, you know, like his in his I hate saying this man in his village he he was his whole family was doctors, you know, his whole family were doctors. He was the artist. So like Right. So like you're really and and he was married before like my mother was his second marriage. Oh, that's even back
11:01 then you're like what kind of dude is this? Yeah. Rascal, right? Right. And he was a he wanted to be a writer, man. And you know, his whole family will tell you he was crazy. Yeah. Crazy in the sense his choices were crazy, you know. But Okay. When you moved to uh the States, it was just you and your dad. No, it was me and my mother. So they split. So then they split up. and when I was probably one or two, you know, and then I moved with my mother to the United States. She's American. I moved I moved with her to uh first we moved to Utah because her parents were there and then we stayed there for a few years and then I moved to then we moved to California. Okay. So I was born in Japan and we stay I was there till I was about a couple years
11:51 old I think. Yeah. So you were raised single parent household for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. For a off and on for a long time. Yeah. Then did your dad eventually come over to the States? He did, but he he split time between Japan and New York. So, you know, we were we were kind of close, you know. I mean, I I saw him maybe a couple times a year. you know, we talk on the phone a a lot, but um you know, English was not his first language, you know, and so we didn't there was only so much depth that the relationship could have, you know, because we just weren't able to really spend a lot of time together or um have
12:42 conversation as such, you know. Yeah. So, but that was my guy. Did he ever say anything? What would he say about your music and stuff like that? He didn't understand it. When I first when I first played him, I remember this ████ When I first played him my record, you know, we also did cles. I know I'm dating myself here. We made We made a cassle of the record and I played it for him on a Walkman, right? So, it's all fuzzy in those little his headphones. He didn't even know what that was, you know? He's like, "What the hell is this s███?" So, I pressed play and I I He had the earbuds in the the No, no, he had like the orange. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right. Or the the headset. It's all One piece. And I pressed play and he went,
13:35 "Oh s███." And he took it off right away. Too loud. And he put it down. Too much bass. And that was it. Oh ████ dude. He finished. Oh ████ And then he and then ████ dude, I want to quit music if that was me. You know, I was like, oh ████ not exactly the response I was looking for, you know. And then but that, you know, he didn't get it. He didn't get it, you know. And then I even then I would you know I was starting to get all these writeups in Japanese magazine so forth at that time you know when when we started getting momentum and I would show and I would I would um give them to him and he would read them and he go
14:25 okay. It's so Japanese. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Very good. And that was it. Dang. That's pretty good. He put very in there. Yeah. Very good. Is is awesome. Very good. Very good. Spoiler. Spoil. But but you know, he he was also a lot older than my mother. So he when they met, he was like late 40s. She was early 20s, you know, when they met. So he was kind of a a different he was the same age as her father, you know, basically. And I would He's like typical like kind of Japanese dad from that era, you know? You'd ask him questions. I'd be like, "Hey man, I heard you were married before, you know, like I'd ask him ████ like that and he, can you tell me about
15:16 No. All right. I'm like, why man? Tell me. I need to I'm your son. I want to know about your life, bro." And he's like, "You don't need to know." Like, "This is some bullshit." Dang. What the ████ kind of relationship is this, bro? You know, need to know basis, man. Yeah. You That's how That's the type of dude he was. Now, I don't want to paint the wrong picture, though. We we had a we did have a good relationship, but there were certain walls. Yeah. you know, that just you could not penetrate. You know, there was just certain ████ he was just not willing to talk about, you know, that's funny. And uh you know, I remember showing him like when I when I did my first tour in Japan, I was like
16:06 I'm like, I'm out here performing. He's like, "Did you get big money?" And I'm like, "I I think I did. I was pretty good for what?" And I told him and he was like, "No, that is not big money." And I was like, I couldn't ████ win, man. Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't ████ win. But nonetheless, you know, we did have I know this doesn't sound like it, but we had a great relationship. you know, we really did, you know, but there was just certain things. It was generational in my opinion, you know, there were some certain cultural and generational um barriers there that I just I couldn't we couldn't get beyond, you know. Yeah. So, how how did your parents meet? They met
16:56 in Japan. They met in Mexico. So, yeah, they were both on vacation. Wow. Like as single single. So, my mother is from originally she's from Sanford. She's from Tarzana. She's from the San Frernando Valley and she was with some of her college friends on vacation in Mexico. He was on vacation in Mexico and I'm going to get in trouble for a second. She met a guy and apparently the dude started trying to get a little rough, right? And my father saw it and intervened. Whoa. That's tight. That's tight. That's tight. And that was it. You know, she was probably like 20, 21 and he was like 48, something like that. You know, 47, 48. And they started dating. Shortly
17:47 thereafter, they got married. Shortly thereafter, I was born. Leave her alone. The lady said, "No, how you trans lady? That's not how you treat it." Mexico. That'd be crazy. Don't touch Don't touch her. Damn, that's a tight way to meet though. Yeah. So, you know, it's crazy in retrospect. They were only together like four or five years, you know, and then they they remained friends though over the years. He used to tell me, "This is terrible for your mental health as a child, man. This he used to tell me, I never want divorce her. She won't divorce me." That's what my dad said, too. What the
18:37 ████ I'm like, I you know, that's none of my business. Do that info, right? What does your mom say? She's like, I know. He always loved me. I'm like, this is some dysfunctional ████ Like, as an adult now, I see. You know, and why I don't want to know any of this ████ My dad used to tell me and then I would tell my mom. I'm like, "Hey, dad said you're the one that wanted it." And my mom would be like, "Then ask him why is he the one that got the divorce papers sent to my office?" Yeah. And I'm like, "F███, it's just a he said, she said." And now suddenly you're in the weeds. Yeah. I'm like, "F███ this, dude." Yeah, bro. Yeah. I think that's probably both of them get angrier and angrier and then you're like, "F███, I just want to know history. I don't even know y by two people." Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think that's that's one
19:27 thing that as a parent I never do. I do not put my son in between myself or anybody else that I'm having adult problems with because he don't need to know. You don't need to know. That is not big money. Don't touch. Don't touch her. How do you not fall in love after that? No way. I'm in, bro. I just picture your dad as like uh Shredder. [Laughter]
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