David Wong, a passionate, pop/rock violinist I discovered on YouTube, is beginning to gain more recognition for his talent as his fan continues to increase. This after videos of him playing a beat on the violin with rapper Matteo Borja rapping in Spanish and his “Get Lucky“ violin loop went viral.
David Wong started playing violin at 4 and was trained via the Suzuki method which emphasized learning pieces by ear. This allowed him to develop his ear at a young age, which helped him as he started creating YouTube violin cover videos. He only really started YouTubing after college and it helped him realize that he wanted to have a career playing the violin. As he gradually started performing more pop music and collaborating with other musicians, he saw his passion in creating violin renditions of hit music and bringing a different sound to the table.
David has begun to branch out more, and is also having more fun with it. You can see this as he covered one of his biggest inspirations, the English Rock band ‘Muse.” He admires their theatrics and Matt Bellamy’s abilities to play guitar/piano at such a high level while singing simultaneously. Hearing Bellamy’s Rachmaninoff/Chopin inspired melodies and harmonic progressions really resonate with his classically influenced roots. If he had the chance to play one song with Muse, he said, “It’d be Newborn. I love jamming on it and the solos are a blast to play!”
How did David Wong get big on youtube?
David has created many Violin covers of various popular songs, with a number of them gaining traction from being heard on Reddit. He also recently performed with Scott Bradlee and Postmodern Jukebox, a band who performs retro covers of top 40 hits, on Good Morning America.
When asked what led you to making covers on YouTube. David Wong said that he saw other people doing it, and eventually decided, “I can totally do that too!”, a thought which provokes many to their luck on one of the largest music platforms of today. Even though David Wong himself thinks that YouTube is a wonderful platform for musicians, he still believes that nothing beats a live performance. This has also caused him to look to USTREAM, a live online streaming channel, as well as performing live for local audiences in Long Island and New York City.
Fellow YouTube musicians, 2Cellos, that went from doing YouTube videos to doing many large live performances, which caught David Wong’s eye. He stated that, “They did it right.” They knew how to use YouTube as a platform to gain the backing they needed to do live shows, like the one he attended just last winter.
Within 5 years David Wong hopes that he can make living from the violin alone, doing live performances and maybe even a tour. Surviving on his passion for entertaining people with his music alone would be a dream come true.
When talking to him about his fan base he mentioned that it was pretty cool to have all these people that he does not know personally and has never met saying how much they like his work. It means a lot to him that people are watching and listening to his videos in their free time, simply because they enjoy them and not because he told them to watch. David Wong was also very grateful to his fans for all the sweet comments that he receives on YouTube and Twitter. He says the coolest interaction was with Saul Hudson’s (guitarist, Slash’s, of Guns N’ Roses fame) wife saying, that he loved David’s cover of November Rain.
David Wong’s own dream is to play live at Wembley Arena, after seeing videos of Muse and Queen playing there. He described it as being an epic stage to play since many legendary acts had played there and the crowds were massive and unbelievable. Another ambition he has is to go on a World Tour, going to Belgium for the Beer and Japan for the food and culture, but the main reason is to get out there and make music, explore and entertain people around the world.
Advice he gave to young or new musicians trying to make it is that they should, “Play, play, play!” So in other words practise, practise and more practise! He also said that they should be active on social media to get their name out there and say hi to and get to know those people who really love what they’re doing. As for hotspots, he said, “Twitter’s a good one, but also playing at open mics and getting use to performing live will help them for the future.” He also said it’s always good idea to have a degree as a safety net to fall back on.
“Performing is my passion.” That is the end note in which David Wong finished on.
More about David Wong:
Website: http://www.davidwongviolin.com
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/electricviolin
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/dieselchew137
Twitter: https://twitter.com/The_David_Wong
Edited by: David Wong himself 😉
Elizabeth Han Hopkins 