Madalynn Wilson
Lantern Staff
After performing in five other countries, singer Khoa Lê has decided to begin his vocal performance education at Butler. The 23-year-old singer from Saigon, Vietnam has already released two albums: Lê Khoa Hát Lê Minh Son and War.
He released his first album, Lê Khoa Hát Lê Minh Son, on June 16, 2018 under his stage name, Lê Khoa. His style was pop mixed with rock and while he ventured into the realm of experimental music with this first album, he did not really dive in until his second album.
War was released in March of this year, but Khoa did not work on it alone. He met Josué Estrada at a jam night he attended in Wichita, and they hit it off immediately. Their first time working together, they came up with the idea for War, and it is quite a stylistic jump from Khoa’s first album.
“War is really experimental’, Khoa said. “We use voice technique to make the sounds of the bamboo, of the tree, of the animals, of the screaming. We use voice to do the technique.”
Although War only has three songs, the artists jump into some pretty deep topics. Khoa does not want the audience to just take what he says at face value. He wants each person who listens to the album to take what he is saying and apply it to something in their life, to connect with it on a personal level.
“The war is happening every day in your mind,” Khoa said. “We named the album War to talk about that, how the Earth was created, the explosion of the Big Bang. The Big Bang happened, and then we have the Earth, which mean when things are opposing, they created a new thing. This is a very large topic and it’s really hard to talk about.”
Khoa and Estrada want to release a deluxe version of War in 2021, but first they need to travel back to Vietnam to record it.
Before War, Khoa travelled the world to perform. He mainly performs in Vietnam, but he traveled to Germany, Japan, Scotland and Singapore for about a month each for his tour. He also performed at the ICT Fest in Wichita in early September.
After Butler, Khoa is looking to further his education at Wichita State University. Beyond that, he wants to further his music career in the United States.
“I really like the United States music industry because they are popular, they have technique, they have soul and they are international,” Khoa said. “I want to be a part of it. I want to be a pop singer and an artist.”