HOT LAUNDRY MUSIC

KENRICK PHAN, FOUNDER

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Driven by a lifelong passion for music and film, Kenrick Phan is the founder of Hot Laundry Music; specializing in music supervision and composition for film, television, and more. Born and raised in Southern California, he currently lives with his wife in the neighborhood of Los Feliz in Los Angeles. When not working radio promotion at his current job with Interscope Records, you can find him at his home studio, at the movies, or out exploring his local music scenes.

 

Ever since his first piano lesson at the age of 7, and the time when his father showed him the concert film THE LAST WALTZ for the first time, Kenrick was naturally drawn to the aesthetics of music and film, whether he knew it or not at such a young age. Studying classical piano with his instructor of 11 years (Music Teachers’ Association of California® member, Jennifer Goldin) inspired him to pick up as many instruments that he could get his hands on over the years. Upon completion of the Certificate of Merit® for classical piano studies, Kenrick directed his focus on different styles of music playing drums and guitar in various bands throughout his undergraduate years at the University of California, Santa Barbara. From early punk inspired projects on drums (TSF, The Young Turks), to indie rock bands on guitars and vocal (Nice on Ice, Jacknife Juggernaut), and then onto more experimental, textured and instrumental soundscapes (Hot Wax, Tsavo Lions, and his current untitled solo recordings), Kenrick continues to explore and pursue his curious dedication to the love of music creation. With the addition of film studies courses to his curriculum at UCSB, his eyes opened up to the world of music supervision, and how his two favorite mediums of art could meld together in beautiful ways, elevating both the visuals of film and the sounds of music to something bigger than the sum of their parts. Sound tracking the human experience became an obsession. This is where and when the idea of Hot Laundry Music was born. 

 

In Spike Jonze’s 2002 film ADAPTATION, Brian Cox has a poignant scene where he explains to a wannabe screenwriter that as long as you “wow them in the end, you will have yourself a film”. Kenrick took this sentiment to heart, as all his favorite films are the ones with the most perfectly placed musical numbers playing out during their finales. ADAPTATION’s very own culminating time lapse scene with The Turtles’ “Happy Together”, FIGHT CLUB’s exploding climax with the Pixies “Where Is My Mind”, RUSHMORE’s slow motion dance number to the Faces’ “Ooh La La”, and WILD AT HEART’s crooning ‘go-get-the-girl’ final scene with Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender”; it’s these moments that we are hit with that feeling when we walk out of the theater or sit silently in reflection as the credits roll that emote something Kenrick has always lightheartedly compared to as “bringing home a fresh stack of hot laundry”. Beaten down, put through the ringer, hung up to dry, redeemed (or not), but always coming home feeling freshly inspired. In between classes and during any free time he had, Kenrick began overdubbing his favorite songs into his favorite films, with both original recordings of his own and influential expansive instrumental pieces from artists like Explosions In The Sky and Sigur Rós. This led to more supervision and composition projects over the years with student films from friends, skateboarding videos, and homemade music videos, all of which helped pave the way to the formation of Hot Laundry Music.

 

Being born and raised in Orange County, CA during his formative years, continuing his undergraduate education in sunny Santa Barbara, and then continuing on to Los Angeles to pursue his music career, Kenrick’s compositions through Hot Laundry Music celebrate feelings of nostalgia and fresh, sunny, beach-tinged, soundscapes that mirror the beautiful sceneries of the Southern California coastline, with the spotlights of Hollywood looming over the hillside.

 

When it comes to collaborations and composition, Kenrick always has an open door. There are no rules or boundaries. When friends come to the studio with casual ideas and a guitar, they hit the record button and let the magic unveil itself, naturally. When a photograph or short film sparks an inspiration, the instruments emerge and they let the music play out, organically. Hot Laundry Music’s mission is to inspire, collaborate, and integrate the mediums of music and film; to amplify the beauty of the human experience.

 

​HOTLAUNDRYMUSIC@GMAIL.COM

 

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