Meet Bryce Barsten & Anne Tong | Chinese American Bear (band)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bryce Barsten & Anne Tong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bryce Barsten & Anne Tong, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?

Anne Tong: I was originally born in China, and immigrated to the US when I was 7. My family moved around alot in the US and we lived in many states. I eventually ended up in Spokane, WA, where I met Bryce. I quickly had to learn from a young age how to quickly make friends because we moved so much – I was always the new kid. So to this day, I love meeting new people, going to social events, and love exploring new environments.

Because of my Chinese immigrant upbringing, my parents pounded the idea of financial security, and practicality in me. Their experience was all about survival, so I grew up incredibly adverse to risk and only chose practical career paths. I ended up going to Princeton where I majored in Economics and minored in music, and later got my MBA. So this band was way out of left field for me, and never in my plans. (laughs) Musically, I studied classical piano my entire life up through college.  This band is very different from my training but it’s been amazing to stretch my musical skills in ways I never thought I could.

Bryce Barsten: On the contrary, I grew up in the same farmhouse (a llama farm in Spokane, WA) my whole life. My family was by no means extravagantly wealthy, but we were financially comfortable. My parents always encouraged me to pursue whatever I was excited about, regardless of risk and income potential. Hence why I went to art school in NYC. My Dad has also been a serial entrepreneur his whole life, and so I definitely inherited his excitement and obsession for building things.

My parents ended up getting me a piano teacher when I was 8 after begging them to do so. His name was Jimi Finn, and he definitely laid the foundation for my obsession for writing music . We did these hybrid jazz, classical, and songwriting lessons, which was unusual for a piano teacher. I was most attracted to the songwriting and improvisation aspects. He’d teach me the theory of the song or a chord progression, and then my homework was to write and improvise my own melodies on top. I think he opened up the floodgates to create and improvise musically.  I then started forming bands, and bought my first pair of monitors, an audio interface, and a microphone when I was 14. I started to record music in my parents basement and I’d spend hundreds of hours trying to mix the songs. I had no clue what I was doing!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We are Seattle-based Chinese American Bear, a quirky, experimental mandarin pop-rock duo creating eclectic Chinese/English music. We’ve been described as the wholesome child of Melody’s Echo Chamber, The Flaming Lips, Dusty Springfield, and The Care Bears. We’re also married.

The most important aspect to this project is that we are unafraid to write a song about dumplings, or flying through space eating noodles. And then we do it in Chinese! We aren’t trying to be too serious, or cool, or commercial. It’s fun, and we think people can feel that when they listen, or watch our videos. We’re extremely proud of where we’ve been able to take this band, despite being completely DIY, doing all the production ourselves, and having no outside help from PR, Labels, etc. (other than in China!) We put out our first album this past year, and had some exciting things happen like support from Lauren Laverne of BBC, a feature in VOGUE+ (China), and Spotify Editorial Playlist placement. We also signed with China’s largest indie record label Modern Sky (摩登天空), two publishing deals in the US and Europe, and are working with a booking agent! The growth for Chinese American Bear has felt very organic, which feels like a good sign! In past bands, we’ve always had to constantly pitch our band to labels, booking agents, playlist curators, etc. and had little luck getting responses. With CAB, a lot of opportunities have come our way organically. We’ve also attracted fans in the same way, where people have genuine and immediate reactions to it and it makes them want to comment, or share. And we’re very thankful for that. The biggest lesson we’ve learned is that sometimes the harder you try to make something work, the less well it will work. We put our heart into this band, but we don’t fuss over things, and we have fun.

If there was one thing we wanted the world to know about our story is that we are an extremely unlikely married couple! If we had to guess who our life partner would have been, we wouldn’t have imagined each other. But because we’re so different, we’ve inspired each other to grow in different ways, and have learned a lot from each other. And ultimately even though our interests are different, our values are very similar. And maybe this is reflected within the band, making it an unlikely and unique project. We also both love fart humor!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We’re new to Seattle, but here’s our best:

Start of trip: Bring them to our home studio in Ballard, and record some backup gang vocals for the next Chinese American Bear hit. Unprompted and spontaneous. Make them uncomfortable to loosen everything up.

Coffee in Lower Queen Anne at Caffe Vita, which is also part of KEXP. Walk along the water nearby while sipping coffee and admiring the incredible view of the Cascades. This water walk leads you right to Pike’s Place Market. Get lost walking through all the small alleys, and tunnels. Eat snacks at every small stand. The best being the hidden dumpling house called Seattle Dumpling Co. Have a drink at White Horse Tavern after dark.

Head to the International District to have Hot Pot at Chengdu Memory, or spicy Sichuan food at Chengdu Taste. Then have a Korean Hot Dog right next door for dessert. Then a Boba Tea for post Desert.

Explore Fremont and Ballard during the day, and then Capitol Hill at night.

Our favorite restaurants in Seattle are Kedai Makan, How to Cook a Wolf, and Chengdu Taste,

At some point, go to Fremont Vintage Mall and Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar. Go and thank us later!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shoutout to both of our parents, Modern Sky (摩登天空), and Bryan Coats (our drummer).

Website: https://chineseamericanbear.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chineseamericanbear/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChineseAmericanBear/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf8VMjrjp7hXHD8RjFXoscw

Other: https://lnk.to/chineseamericanbear

Image Credits
Names are in the file name: Rachel Bennett Athena Merry Allison Barr