The Yin and the Yang of It All

March 6, 2023
Faye debuts with a high-spirited memoir detailing his time as front man for 1990s alt rock band the Caulfields, alongside a vivid rendering of his lifelong love affair with music: “Music gave me my voice—not just the transmitter of lyrics and melodies from the songs I write but my place in the world, my sense of belonging somewhere and believing in something.” The son of a Korean mother and Irish father, Faye candidly shares his struggles with “growing up Asian” as he explores the often opposing forces of his mother’s culture, his school experiences, and the ever-present undercurrent of music humming in the background of his life.
In many ways a love letter to his music obsession, this polished memoir will awaken the songbird in readers familiar with ‘80s vinyl hits and the rising star of punk rock. Faye’s first band, No Excuse (later renamed Beat Clinic), found inspiration in artists like MDC and Dead Kennedys, and served as a mouthpiece for his initial attempts at lyrics and later development into lead singer. Faye fondly recalls their early days of cover shows and broken-down vans before reaching their big break in ‘94 as the Caulfields with A&M Records. Those recollections are consistently entertaining, whether it’s their first show with the then-unknown Indigo Girls or being pelted with water bottles onstage at ZephyrFest in New Orleans.
Faye covers the eventual breakup of the band, too (live on the radio, when the collapse of their label deal was a foregone conclusion), as well as his solo work and other projects, culminating with band IKE, which opened for Bon Jovi in 2006. He never shies from the weightier topics, including his divorce and the idiosyncrasies of his close relationship with his mother, who passed away in 2012 after a string of health issues. Rockers and anyone else eager to live a creative life will appreciate Faye’s intense passion for song throughout, “the voice that projects the me I want to see in the world.””
Takeaway: A backstage pass to the glory days of alternative rock.
Great for fans of: Kim Gordon’s Girl in a Band, Bob Mehr’s Trouble Boys.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

April 1, 2023
Faye recounts a life caught between identities in this debut music memoir. The Caulfields released two albums with A&M Records during the height of late-1990s alternative rock. Unlike many of their contemporaries, however, the band was fronted by a mixed-race singer-songwriter. Faye was raised in Delaware by a Korean American mother who was 40 years old when he was born; his father was a 62-year-old Irish American ex-cop who died when the author was 6. Faye thought of himself as a perpetual outsider--a sensitive child who felt alienated from White kids he grew up with and from his extended Korean family. He found his voice in rock 'n' roll, although that path was hardly a simple one to follow. As a lifelong working musician, Faye says, he still feels caught between worlds: "I'm always just one song, one soundtrack, one viral anything from being able to put my kids through college," he writes in his preface, "or one unforeseen dry patch from having to play 'Wagon Wheel' in front of an eighty-inch plasma TV that the bar owner refuses to turn off during my set." With this memoir, Faye recounts not only "the Caulfields' fifteen minutes in the spotlight," but what happened to him before and after it: his confused childhood in the 1970s, the premature demise of his band, and the way music and writing helped him to grapple with subsequent losses in his life. Faye's prose is even and evocative, particularly in chapters framed as letters to his late mother. Here, he drives past her old house: "Even though the bamboo trees are gone--the ones that used to piss off the neighbors when they sprouted up into their yards--the Japanese maple you planted when I was a teenager is still there, standing as strong as I remember, although the current occupants don't seem to have the skill or desire to maintain it like you did." The book sometimes drags a bit, due to its length of nearly 450 pages, but Faye's thoughts on music and family are likely to linger in readers' minds. A sometimes-rambling but often affecting remembrance.

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