Alex Yu, whose stage moniker I.C.E. stands confidently for “I Create Entertainment,” started performing at age 10, entering a contest at a local Asian radio station in San Gabriel Valley, CA. He got third place. He recalls singing a country song, “Cotton Fields,” “while my parents line-danced behind me. I didn’t win, but I knew singing and performing was my calling.”
I.C.E. is influenced by rock, K-Pop, hip-hop—and anime. “I get chills from anime and feel viscerally inspired by it. Some of my favorite are Onegai Teacher, Code Geass, and Fullmetal Alchemist,” he enlightens. He has carefully blended all of this inspiration into a laid-back flow that vacillates between singing and rapping. It’s his style, mixed with east-meets-west fashion and visuals. “The aesthetic of pop and hip-hop speaks to me. I love rock, but it can be too grungy for me visually. I’m more into the bling bling lifestyle. But at the same time, rock with that spine tingling you get, I want to mix into something fresh and present.”
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He describes what attracts him to the glitz and glamor: “Music is primal, inherently in us. If you don’t teach a human being how to dance and you put this human in a room listening to random music, I’m willing to bet that a majority would start moving naturally and gravitate towards Chris Brown’s or Usher’s music.
“With fashion and music it’s so natural, nothing’s out of place.”
I met I.C.E. on the set of his video shoot for his recent three-part release of a song narrative of love and loss and revelation. I asked him to describe his trilogy.
“It’s about a guy and his love interest. In ‘Need You,’ we reveal the bittersweet moments with undertones of sadness. Reminiscing about a relationship lost. We switch it up in ‘Like You,’ following the same guy looking for love across three dates, with each girl having a semblance of the traits from his original love. He can’t find the whole!”
For the third act, “2 More Shots,” released in August, he reunites with the original love and realizes that the idea of her is really what he was missing, not the actual person. So he walks away.
So what’s next for I.C.E. besides posting fusion food from Hong Kong and Taiwan on his IG? He’s getting ready to perform live locally, in California, working with his team to get his show together. In the meantime, he’s planning some acoustic performances. Just how he began, but probably without line dancing this time.
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