Five-member band Jet Set Fever performs music spanning from grunge to punk to alternative, and since their founding in 2021 in Federal Way, the group has been playing live and releasing singles, as well as an EP entitled Nothing Tracks.
Jet Set Fever’s co-guitarist is A.L. Truong, a local musician who has explored rock, metal, and hip hop. He grew up hearing a wide range of music at home, including classical, pop, funk, hip hop, rock, and disco, but he admits that his initial favorite was rock guitar.
One of Truong’s earliest memories of music occurred when he was supposed to be watching cartoons on his parents’ television, but instead accidentally saw a performance by the rock band Kiss. “While I was enamored by Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley’s guitar playing, their imagery, stage antics, and energy also drew me in,” Truong remembered. “I wanted to be all of that. I wanted to rock!”
Truong continued to seek out videos of rock music. “Every time I’d see a guitarist shred on TV, I’d see the screaming girls, headbanging guys, and mayhem surrounding it all,” he recounted. Truong received his own guitar at age 13. “I sank hours and hours into learning it, slowly replacing school activities and sports with six strings, a pick, and long hair.”
Then Truong discovered metal. “Its speed, anger, and technicality brought everything I knew about rock before to an 11 via bands such as Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, and Linkin Park,” Truong said. He describes himself as an Asian American youth who was shut out of every group in school for being neither Asian nor white enough and he reports that he channeled his alienation through the metal genre.
By contrast, Truong was drawn to hip hop for its creativity and innovation. “Hip hop has always been in my life through my dad listening to artists like Will Smith or the Black Eyed Peas, or seeing the white kids at my school try to emulate hip hop culture,” Truong explained. He confesses to trying to copy hip hop as well, noting that his attempts were cringeworthy, but he still finds the genre inspiring. “There’s always going to be a new way to make a beat, modulate a sample, or write lyrics from a higher dimension,” he marveled.
Alongside his work in Jet Set Fever, Truong has developed solo output, releasing in 2023 his independent EP Calling Card, an experimental album he recorded with producer Aravind. “It taught us many things about ourselves, music production, and recording in general,” Truong mused, “and we didn’t even scratch the surface.”
Performing the songs from Calling Card live proved to be an ecstatic experience. “I had the opportunity to perform through Mo’ Jam Mondays at the Nectar Lounge,” Truong said. “Chaos ensued with over two hundred people that night. I even had my first out-of-body experience during the first song!”
Since that revelatory evening, Truong has returned his focus to Jet Set Fever, which just released Nothing Tracks on May 8, followed by a performance in Tacoma on June 2. The band has been rehearsing for these events for the past two months. “I’ve been particularly excited to play Wishing Dwell and Resection off of Nothing Tracks,” Truong shared,“ since I was able to address some recent difficult personal events co-writing the lyrics on the former and scream my guts out on the latter as a co-vocalist.”
Throughout this time, Truong has also been involved in local community advocacy in Seattle’s Chinatown International District for the past thirteen years. He has countless memories of events and actions in which he has participated, but one that looms especially large is the Donnie Chin protest in July, 2015, led by the late Uncle Bob Santos.
Truong recalls learning about Chin’s murder while volunteering at Helping Link Một Dấu Nối and was eager to join the protest. “While the murder has still not been solved, which is deeply frustrating, I believe that Uncle Bob’s protest helped bring us all to a point of convergence on the matter and is part of why we continue to tell Mr. Chin’s story while pushing for his case to be solved,” Truong emphasized.
Also meaningful has been Truong’s volunteering to help Mam’s Bookstore owner Sokha Danh bring this new business to fruition. Truong recalls lending a hand with facilitating sales, setting up the store for events, making repairs, and chatting with customers, and says that his time at Mam’s taught him ways to run a business that aid him in managing Jet Set Fever. Truong was also able to connect with Asian American creatives while helping to advocate for a vital Third Place in the CID.
Following Jet Set Fever’s June show, Truong expects to continue balancing his day job with what he calls his three A’s: Art, Advocacy, and Awareness. He asserts that his stage name A.L. Truong represents his two contrasting objectives. “One is a lifetime of personal identity crises, combating the Model Minority Myth, and navigating the emotions of a turbulent youth and transition into adulthood,” Truong specified. “The other is the continual effort to look optimistically to the future in lieu of the cynicism in the world.”
Jet Set Fever performs on June 2 at the Top of Tacoma Bar & Café, 3529 McKinley Avenue, Tacoma.
