[HA for DROKU] David Choi: Hear His Side

May 31, 2010: a shocking event stunned YouTube fans everywhere. On the day that most people were celebrating Memorial Day with sunny picnics and family barbeques, David Choi found out that his YouTube account, “DavidChoiMusic,” was suspended for copyright violations.

“I was touched by the support from different YouTubers vouching for me on Twitter,” says Choi, whose covers of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” and Black Eyed Peas’ “I’ve Got a Feeling” have garnered millions of views.

Not only did people vouch for him, Choi’s friends and fans started an online petition and banded together to make #FreeDavidChoi a hashtag and trending topic on Twitter. To his fan’s relief, Choi got his account back June 7th, and he immediately posted a video of thanks to his viewers.

Choi’s impressive musical background and creativity as an artist makes his YouTube channel as much a fan favorite as his online antics of colorful background graphics, split-screen singing and dancing, beat-making sessions, and entertaining masks and headwear.

His parents own a music store, and at the age of five he began playing violin and piano and taking private lessons until high school. Choi went on to add David Bowie’s Mashup Contest, Songwriter Universe Song of the Month, and USA Weekend Magazine’s John Lennon Songwriting Contest to his list of prizes and accomplishments.

His passion for music landed Choi at the prestigious School of Music at the University of Southern California, shortly before he took the opportunity to sign with Warner Chappell Music.

“That’s something I wanted to do my entire life,” says Choi, who saw himself as a composer and producer in the music industry, but never dreamed of becoming an artist or performer.

After a year of songwriting for Warner, however, Choi says he was bored and dissatisfied.

“I got really tired of doing the same thing over and over again,” he says. “I just randomly put up a YouTube video because I was bored. It was another creative outlet for me.”

Choi’s first original song, “YouTube (A Love Song),” quickly became an online viral sensation, earning him half a million views in the first week and a spotlight on YouTube’s music homepage.

“And the rest,” he says, “is history.”

Since then, Choi’s channel has gone on to become the ninth most subscribed to amongst musicians on YouTube and has received upwards of 68 million total views. He had collaborated with several fellow YouTubers, from Kina Grannis to Paul Dateh and Amy Kuney.

In May, Choi released his sophomore album, “By My Side,” two years after debuting his first self-produced album “Only You.” The album launch date happened to be scheduled at the same time as his tour to Seoul—his second tour in Korea.
“I wanted to be home,” confesses Choi, who could only express his appreciation for his fans from abroad, as he performed at sold-out venues for his fans in Korea. Other than being almost entirely female, the fans in Korea aren’t much different from his American fans.

While his loyal followers may send him countless letters, snacks, clothes, toys and dozens of Hi-Chews—as evidenced by his P.O. Box videos—he doesn’t have any crazy or scary fan stories to tell.

“That’s the cool thing about people who listen to my music,” he adds, “they’re very down to earth.”

So far, Choi is pleased with the response he has received from those listeners, who enjoy his easy-listening sound and relatable lyrics.

“People tell me they like listening to it when they do their homework or when they want to wind down or things like that,” he says.

In addition, Choi’s music video, created by Wong Fu Productions for his single “That Girl,” reached over 1.5 million views in three short months.

“That was fun,” says Choi of the four-day shoot. “They’re really talented guys—they’re amazing actually. I’m happy how it came out.”

The collaboration with Wong Fu was so successful they invited him back to work on the track and music video for “Dance to this Song” with YouTube comedian KevJumba.

Compared to his first album, Choi describes “By My Side” as more mature in sound, drawing inspiration for each track from everyday life, “from fresh ideas, things that I went through, things that I’ve been thinking about or
feeling.”

“I wrote it all at a certain part in my life, and it’s all meaningful. They’re all special in their own little way,” explains Choi.

“This one is definitely more current, as far as where I am in life,” he says. “It’s a little less acoustic, a little more complex production.”

With a recent tour to Singapore under his belt and U.S. and Asia tours in the works—not to mention regular YouTube video releases for his loyal fans, you can expect David Choi to keep busy through the rest of the year.

“There’s definitely more music coming,” Choi says. “I just re-vamped the video section on my webpage, where I’m going to put more exclusive stuff.”

Choi especially wants to do more collaborative projects with anyone and everyone on YouTube willing to join him.

“It would be really nice if we could do a joint thing, I think that would be fun,” he says.

Now that Choi’s music channel is back in action, we can’t wait to see what’s next for our favorite YouTube artist.