Interview: Terry Lin

I have a sincere belief: music has a way of transmitting the essence of the person behind it. I say this because when I listen to Terry Lin’s music, I feel a certain resonance—the same one I experience when I put on the work of Stevie Wonder or Jorge Ben Jor. It’s what compelled me to reach out to Terry, to let him know his work is still appreciated and that his story is still important enough to express.

You see, in a world where all sorts of music—running the gamut of emotion from anger to sadness—compete for one’s attention, finding music that earnestly and compellingly digs into the feeling of joy seems rarer each day. It’s in this increasingly smaller space that I feel fortunate to have discovered Feel Like The First Time, which Terry is kindly allowing me to share here.

Released in 1996, Feel Like The First Time was the unlikely but true major-label debut from Motown’s first Asian-American signing. Before most huge Asian-American artists like Conan Gray, Yaeji, Olivia Rodrigo, and Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) were even born, there was this other second-generation Chinese-American kid from New Jersey (probably not far from that first H-Mart), trying to navigate what must have felt like uncharted waters. In hindsight—after meditating on my interview with him—it’s a wonder we even get to hear Terry’s wonderful music at all.

Featuring so many should-have-been hits like “Hush,” “Feels Like The First Time,” “Telephone Lover,” and “Angel,” Terry’s Feel Like The First Time was somehow never actually released by Motown in America. Instead, it got lost in the din of late-’90s major-label shakeups, only to finally find its signature release in Asia—where it had to unknowingly compete with releases from that other Terry Lin, Taiwan’s premier balladeer. For so long, this hidden gem of urban music remained criminally slept on, quietly inspiring anyone who managed to unearth a CD. With its unique blend of contemporary R&B, house, and all sorts of neo-soul, it felt closer kin to other mature-sounding releases by D’Angelo, Jon B., and Maxwell of its time.

Digging into the liner notes and credits, one can imagine all sorts of missed opportunities. Huge names in music production—Frankie Knuckles, Martyn Ware, LaVaba Mallison—helped flesh out Terry Lin’s musical world and gave it the oomph his ideas needed. And yet, when it came to marketing a record, it appeared the label didn’t know how to promote him as an artist, let alone how to handle the “Asianness” about him.

Early interviews with the artist reveal someone trying to compel others to open up a new path for more artists like him. History would shake out that his attempts fell on deaf ears, that those with the most sway were the least moved, that the time just wasn’t right for what Terry was trying to accomplish.

Going back even further—early piano lessons, gifted to him by his parents to encourage his love of music, fell by the wayside after he saw Michael Jackson perform the moonwalk on TV. Driven by the adoration it inspired and inspired by the King of Pop and other soul singers, Terry dove headfirst into performance, crafting his own dance routines and filling countless cassette decks with original demos.

In the beginning, it was Terry’s parents who, through great sacrifice, financed and wholeheartedly supported their son’s dream of becoming a star. It was an early, privately pressed release—1990’s Unity—that introduced him to the wider world of American R&B and house music. Somehow, this driven kid from Holmdel, NJ, even convinced Frankie Knuckles to remix his “Telephone Lover.”

In our world today, where one can self-release on Bandcamp or any number of streaming platforms, Terry’s only option back then was to build a word-of-mouth following, hoping it would lead to a major-label signing. At that time, the dream of remaining independent would have led only to a dead end.

So it took years—and all sorts of chance encounters—to get Terry signed. He was fortunate enough to know enough about production and songwriting to retain the freedom to create the music he wanted. But other things were out of his control. Financing videos, sending singles to radio, simply giving Terry the time and space to promote his music—that still mostly fell on the artist. In the end, it seemed too many things were working against him, despite his best efforts.

And yet, now, when I listen to songs like “House of Joy” and “Just Think of Me,” I think of an artist whose music is better served existing outside of time. Released in the same year as Ghost Town DJ’s “My Boo” and Akinyele’s “Put It in Your Mouth,” Terry’s work felt like it came from a different wavelength. And now, in retrospect, we can see it’s better served being rediscovered in a time when more of us understand how the best music transcends race, style, and trend. Our time feels ready for something that feels like the first of something new.

In the end, the arc of history—like that of justice and humanity—can’t curve and contort itself downward forever. Now, I think, we’re ready to lift our heads to the sky, to follow up on so much we’ve missed. And my sincere hope is that someone finds a way to give this album the proper reissue it deserves (with whatever help you need from yours, truly, no questions asked). It’s why I’m pleased to share this story—his story—told by Terry himself.

[Editor’s note: A huge thank you to Terry for sharing his time, music, and the archival images on this post. You can find Terry with The Earth Monkeys Band and on YouTube.]

Terry Lin Interview

Diego (F/S): Terry, first of all, please share with me how a young second-generation Chinese-American kid from Holmdel in Central New Jersey caught the music bug? Were there any early influences that really cemented themselves in you to make that kind of mark?

Terry Lin: Hey Diego, thanks for reaching out, it’s been years since anyone has asked me about Feels Like the First Time and my musical career, so this comes as a pleasant surprise!

I apologize if my responses get a little long winded but looking back at my career it kind of Forrest Gump like in that I met and came in contact with so many famous people and places it’s kind of wild looking back!

Yes, as you noted, I grew up in the New Jersey suburbs to parents who commuted to New York City every day to work in Chinatown, as they were in the garment business.

Though they were first gen immigrants to the U.S., they came over as college students and actually met at BYU of all places! They were the 2% non-Mormons at the school and met whilst hanging out in the overseas Chinese student groups at BYU .

While my folks grew up in Hong Kong, their cultural influences were all American and my father in particular had a really wide ranging library of music he would collect, everything from the Everly Brothers to Dave Brubeck to The Doors.

Our family used to drive up to Vermont on weekends in the winter and on those long car rides we’d be forced to listen to whatever my dad would have on the mixes he would make for our road trips, whether we like it or not, “Driver’s choice!” he’d always tell us with a laugh!

But eventually the songs we dreaded listening to kind of seeped into our subconscious and before we knew it we’d be secretly humming along.

But looking back, my dad’s eclectic and wide ranging music and comedy selections really was a huge influence on my early love of music.

On top of that, like most Asian kids at the time and probably now, I also took piano lessons and learned and listened to lots of classical music as well.

Interestingly, I was always kind of an “old soul” and even as a three or four year old, I distinctly remember connecting emotionally with romantic lyrics and songs like, “You Make Me Feel Brand New” by the Stylistics and to classical music like Chopin’s Nocturnes.

Actually, my dad only had one audio biography of a composer and it happened to be on Frederic Chopin, who was also my favorite. I think the fact that Chopin’s life was so tragic and short that it really hit me emotionally.

Diego (F/S): What compelled you to become a singer and composer? 

Terry Lin: Oddly enough, I never had any ambitions to be a performer or musician at all because I was kind of a quiet observant kid who definitely would not be the type to draw attention to myself.

But I’ve always been fascinated by exceptional people and things and one big cultural touchstone for me was definitely Michael Jackson’s performance at the Motown 25th Anniversary Show where he debuted the moonwalk and blew our collective tiny minds!

From that day on my friends and I were obsessed with trying to learn how he did it and how he moved the way he did. We learned the routines to “Thriller” and “Beat It” as lots of kids did and a few of the more daring ones attempted to do the Billie Jean routine as well!

While most kids probably did it to get attention, and though I think I was more fascinated with the skills and athletic ability on display, it did certainly trigger at least a tolerance for performing and entertaining.

Aside from that, I’d always been messing with bouncing tracks from tape deck to tape deck so I could make little “remixes” for my friends before I got any real musical equipment. For example, I got so good at timing the start of my Onkyo cassette recorder that I was able to add extra “Ow’s”! and repeat certain sections of songs like “Wanna Be Startin Something” by dropping them in at key points.

Songwriting-wise, I guess, I got my start writing little birthday ditties for my family and for girls I may have had a crush on, ha!

But over time I developed a pretty good ear and mind for arrangement and production once I’d learned about Quincy Jones and how he’d produced Michael and so many other great artists. I’d pore over every item in the liner notes, and I really was moved by how complimentary Quincy was to all the people that worked on his albums and I tried to do the same on my liner notes for both Unity and Feels Like the First Time. I took care during the recording process to acknowledge everyone who worked on the record from the engineers and studio help to every musician and friend who helped as well!

But back to songwriting, by this time I’d acquired a Tascam 4-track Portastudio and started messing around with it, I really didn’t have much overall musical ability other than on the keyboard, so my first songwriting ventures began with two instrumentals.

The first half of the song “Like A Baby” by Wham/George Michael is a lovely instrumental that I used to write my first lyrics and first attempt at a real song.

The second song is another instrumental, the B-side to British-Pop family band 4 Star, and their hit “All Fall Down” or maybe it was the B side to their other hit, “Let Me Be The One ,” another banger! But the instrumental song was called “First Avenue” so I wrote a duet for my pal Missy O’Neill and I.

We recorded a great little demo on my 4-track that I may be able to dig up for you, if you’re interested at all!

Diego (F/S): You mentioned a duet demo with Missy O’Neill. Are there other unreleased songs or recordings from that era that you’d love to see the light of day?

Terry Lin: Funny that you ask that Diego, I’ve actually uploaded some of the songs you’re referencing over the years, here’s the link to “First Avenue” which I recorded on my Tascam 4-track Portastudio, it sounds surprisingly not bad considering I was maybe 16 years old at the time, ha!

I also released a compilation of some songs from Unity as well as a free originals I wrote in the ensuing years called Terry Lin Classics that you can listen to and/or download on Apple iTunes, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, etc.

Diego (F/S): You mentioned making DIY remixes by bouncing tracks between tape decks and adding your own edits. Do you think that hands-on approach influenced how you later approached production and arranging music?

Terry Lin: Great question, and for sure that hands on approach was really evident during the recording of Feels Like the First Time. Gordon and I really took pride in taking a more guerrilla approach to tracking in that most of the songs we did together we recorded in our own home studios then only did overdubs and mixed in the big budget studios if there was certain outboard gear we wanted to process sounds through like the amazing Neve console we encountered at a cool little recording Studio near NYU where they mostly tracked jazz records.

Nowadays, that’s probably not that crazy but back then, most bands and artists would rent out big budget studios for months to write and record their albums blowing through their recording budgets and being in debt and a slave to the labels indefinitely. Gordon and I thought that was crazy and knew we could get recordings that were good enough that no one could tell the difference but in the meantime we saved lots of time and money while coming in under budget so we could spend the money on things to make the album better.

And I’ve got to give a huge, huge shout out to my mom, Wynnie Lin who not only was a huge source of wisdom and counsel not only to myself but to many of the friends we made in the industry, most of whom have become like family and are friends for life. 

My silly little demos would have never gone anywhere if my amazing mom didn’t rack her brain day and night to find any kind of connection that could possibly help us on the right path, and she was the one who reached out to our family friend who was a great doctor named Dr. John Coleman, who had a secretary whose sister lived in the same building as Danny Sims, who later became my manager and introduced me to LaVaba, Gordon, Blaze, Bunny Wailer and so many more. Dr. Coleman also knew a guy in the publishing business who knew someone at CBS and somewhere there is an awful demo of me trying to act, (having had zero acting experience prior to that), testing for the CBS hit show at the time, the Flash TV series that had Amanda Pays in it, who I had a huge crush on at the time, ha! Obviously I didn’t get the part, but like millions of others, I was willing to try anything to get my foot in the door and the time.

But if it wasn’t for my mom pushing me to work different connections to see if we could find any common grounds, I would have never met Frankie [Knuckles], we would have never have thought to pivot my career to connections in Asia, I would have never become whatever it is I am today, and I just want to make sure Mama Lin got her flowers because without Wynnie Lin and her unconditional love and support, none of this is possible.

Diego (F/S): For those that don’t know this, New Jersey, especially in the early ‘90s, was such a hotbed for all sorts of R&B and dance music. What role did all that cultural and musical influence coming out of New York City’s club scene play on your kind of music or creative vision? Most people don’t realize this but one of Frankie Knuckles’s earliest remixes was a Terry Lin joint: “Telephone Lover”. 

I believe your first release was 1990’s Telephone Lover. It featured a couple of songs that would eventually reappear (or be reimagined) six years later on Feels Like The First Time. Can you fill in the gaps in your musical career between them? Did it take you that long to find someone to back your career? You know this story better than anyone but how did you wind up signing with Motown? I still can’t believe you were the first (and possibly last) artist of Asian descent signed to the label, which is a sad thing to say.

Terry Lin: You’re very astute Diego, yes there was a bit of a gap in between Unity and Feels Like the First Time, guess I should give some historical context.

My first album Unity was self financed by my family and friends, and the beginnings of it started my second year at Cornell, where I’d written a handful of songs that I felt were decent enough to be heard by people who might help guide me in the right direction.

I played the songs for my family and they got excited enough to start asking random friends if they had any connections in the entertainment industry at all and oddly, a doctor friend of ours’ secretary lived in the same building as a fellow who claimed to be both Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye’s manager, which intrigued me because they were two of my biggest musical influences at that time!

It turns out that guy was Danny Sims, who indeed had been manager for both Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye, but who was a bit of a controversial figure in Bob’s life and career. He had been married to the lovely supermodel Beverly Johnson and their super daughter Anansa became a supermodel herself.

But it was Danny who introduced me to LaVaba Mallison, who grew up with Teddy Riley and a young soon to be dubbed “Commissioner” Gordon Williams and burgeoning house legends Blaze, both of whom were young artists making their way.

I fondly remember traveling up to the Bronx to work with Gordon in his mom’s apartment, and we actually got him his first Akai sampler and we started recording stuff to some of the first commercial DAT machines in NYC on decks we had our friends carry on the plane home from trips to Asia!

One of the biggest highlights of recording the Unity album was getting to work with one of my All Time musical heroes, the late great Bunny Waller, who along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh formed the Original Wailers! We got to record two Bob Marley covers, “Mellow Mood” and “So Much Trouble in the World”.

Bunny was so moved by my vocal performance that he agreed to sing on the song and he ostensibly turned it into a duet, with Bunny adding lots of ad libs and vocal parts that really heightened the mood! We also shot a really moving music video to go with the track in which we added lots of timely news footage of the time, featuring the Tianmen Square riots, footage of Noriega and others scenes of injustice from the time.

Supposedly Bunny showed the Marley family the video at the time and he said that we did their father’s song Justice and that they were moved by the video!

I also got to work with amazing veterans like Jocelyn Brown who had the great hit “Somebody Else’s Guy” and Benny Diggs to produce songs on Unity as well. Legendary house DJ and remixer Timmy Regisford also mixed a few songs on Unity, and Timmy’s role would become a big one in the near future.

After the album was complete, Danny had us go to Hollywood to shoot a few videos for the songs we’d recorded and in the process, got to choose some lovely young ladies to be in my videos, some of whom went on to be have success in Hollywood and including Carrie Ann Inaba who has become a TV legend on “In Living Color” and “Dancing With the Stars”!

We did our best to promote Unity locally and it was sold in stores like Tower Records in NYC, and whatever local stores would take it but we quickly realized that we needed some sort of chart traction in order for stores to take my record.

I had become fascinated with house music and one of my favorite songs at the time was a song called “And I Loved You” by Satoshi Tomiie and Arnold Jarvis, remixed by Frankie Knuckles! Somehow through one of the local NYC record stores I got in touch with Frankie’s manager Judy Weinstein.

However, Judy wanted nothing to do with us, as I was not exactly the high profile act she was trying to get him to remix more of. But my family and I managed to charm Frankie with a lovely dinner at the long defunct Italian restaurant Patrissy’s on Broome Street, and we ended up becoming dear friends and Frankie agreed to remix “Telephone Lover” for a relative bargain on his off hours!

That led to various club performances, where my dancers and I opened for twice in the span of a few weeks, first at the now defunct Club Zanzibar in Newark and the now legendary Palladium which has now been transformed into NYU housing! 🙁

However, despite our best efforts, there was only so much we could do self-financing my musical career, so we started the long and difficult process of trying to get a recording deal.

After several years of almost literally banging on doors to try to get a record deal, rather fortuitously, Timmy Regisford had gotten a job at MCA under legendary A&R Man Jheryl Busby, who had a 10% share in I believe MCA, and when MCA got absorbed into Motown, Jheryl got a huge payday!

It was Timmy and Jheryl who signed me to Motown but under Clarence Avant’s label Tabu. I actually got to talk to Mr Avant on the phone, and he threatened to cancel the contract if I didn’t give up my publishing, but somehow or other, they either didn’t like my songs that much or forgot about it because they never ended up taking my publishing despite the fact that I wrote half the songs on both my albums.

So that is the roundabout way I managed to get to Motown! Oddly enough I’d never really tried to shop my demos to Motown previously and funny thing is in my senior yearbook, one of my friends jokes, “See you on Motown one day!” And I actually drew a Motown record label with my name and Missy’s on it as a little joke, little did I know it would some day manifest itself that way!

Diego (F/S): You won over Frankie Knuckles with dinner at Patrissy’s, which is an amazing story! Do you remember any specific advice or insights he shared with you about the industry or music itself?

Terry Lin: With Frankie, I guess it wasn’t any specific piece of advice he gave me but rather I was just lucky to get to feel his warmth as an amazing human being and get to experience some amazing historical moments for me that are seared into my memory and I still remember with fondness.

For example, he’d let me watch when he was remixing some songs he knew I’d appreciate, and I was lucky enough to be in the studio when he was remixing “Rock With You” and “Thriller”, and you can imagine my excitement given my passion for Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones!

At the time, Frankie was DJing at the Sound Factory Bar, a tight medium sized room that Frankie and the owner had tuned to sound incredible. One night he took me along, and he brought along a reel-to-reel mix from the studio.

While I’m sure some of the people in the crowd were aware that Frankie had been rumored to have been remixing Michael Jackson, for Frankie it was business as usual, meaning Frankie had the crowd in the room whipped up into a frenzy building up to an amazing crescendo which Frankie ended with a big “Booom” that faded into silence…

Then came the tinkling of a grand piano, some beautiful rolling chords mixed with some strings which sounded super familiar but were rearranged in such a way that you weren’t quite sure what song it was until you heard Michael’s voice break in with, “Girl, close your eyes… Let that rhythm get into you…”

The crowd exploded with delight when they realized what they were hearing and that they were getting a world exclusive listen to the remix of “Rock With You”!  Here’s a link to the remix on YouTube:

Diego (F/S): In an enlightening archival CNN interview you mentioned how back then “no one knew what to do with you”, you weren’t the “stereotypical” soul or R&B artist. What were some of the struggles you had to face down to get your music released?

Terry Lin: Well, unfortunately even at Motown, no one really knew what to do with me, I guess because I wasn’t trying to be one of the current artists on the roster but had been on a nostalgic classic soul kick, and that’s what I wanted Feels Like the First Time to be, a complete album like the one’s I admired growing up, that had it all, from uptempo dance songs to contemplative ballads, songs of protest and everything in between.

But I guess the labels only knew how to promote within their lanes and didn’t really share or understand the global vision I had. Since they didn’t know what to do with my music in the States, they figured they should promote me in Asia first, make me a pop star there and then hopefully have some success as a result here in the States.

I told them we had to do the opposite, I told them that even if we could have a minor Top 40 hit here, if I were to bring that success over to Asia, it would translate to a lot more attention than it would if I were a pop star in Asia trying to cross over here, I didn’t think that was the best way.

Unfortunately for me, right at the time we were to start promoting Feels Like the First Time, and we’d gone to MIDEM in Nice France to do showcases and to meet with foreign distributors, Motown got absorbed into Universal Music and pretty soon the writing was on the wall; Jheryl got another big payday and decided to retire, handing over the reigns of Motown to Andre Harrell, who has built up Uptown Records with Puffy/P-Diddy Combs into an R&B mini empire.

Soon after, Andre started cleaning house of acts he didn’t sign, one of them being me. But being the industrious and creative folks were are, we’d developed some relationships in Hong Kong and our friend Alex Chan who was a VP at Polygram in HK took an interest in taking over the project and trying to promote it in Asia after all.

Alex managed to get it to Decca Records in Taiwan who eventually put Feels Like the First Time out in Asia, which all worked because in an odd twist of fate, Motown and Decca were now under the same Polygram umbrella, so it all worked out legally.

Diego (F/S): In that same interview you mentioned having a few dreams: one to be successful and another to make it a little easier for the next generation of Asian singers. You also mentioned being successful in Asia would be nice but also a failure if American audiences failed to latch on to your music. Looking back, how close did any of those dreams come true? What would you attribute those that didn’t to?

Terry Lin: Yeah, unfortunately with 20/20 hindsight I can see now that perhaps the timing wasn’t quite right for a mainstream Asian artist, though given the recent success and revival in interest in Asians and Asian culture after the success of such books and movies as Crazy Rich Asians (which ironically was written by Kevin Kwan, a relative of mine on my dad’s side, but that’s another story for another time), it seems a lot easier for Asian artists to break through and that makes me happy for sure! If I couldn’t get it done then at least I’m glad to see Asian bands like BTS and others having an impact on even regular kids here in the States and that’s great!

Diego (F/S): You’ve described how labels struggled with how to market you. Were there any artists at the time—whether R&B, pop, or otherwise—who you felt were breaking similar ground or facing the same industry hurdles? Did you feel your story was unique then?

Terry Lin: Yeah there were definitely a few other Asian artists who were giving it a go at the same time, I think a guy named Gerry Woo and another guy Harlem Yu who were trying to make it as well. I don’t think it was easy for them either! 

Unfortunately I think we were all a bit ahead of our time and perhaps looking back now maybe the world wasn’t quite ready to have a straight up Asian pop star headlining or topping the US charts. And though it isn’t exactly super easy for minority artists to stand out, the recent success of films like Crazy Rich Asians and other Asian-led vehicles like Squid Games finding success plus so many more opportunities to self promote these days, perhaps will allow an Asian superstar to emerge, but really, who cares? As long as we have great artists putting out great music no matter their color or creed, it will be a net win for us all, don’t you think?

Diego (F/S): Can you paint a picture of those Feels Like The First Time sessions? How different were they from your debut? 

Terry Lin: The first half of Feels Like The First Time was really Gordon and I working out the demos to my songs, “Feels Like The First Time,” “Thief in the Night,” “Just Think of Me,” and “Hush” then crazily tracking them all at the same time at different studios to save money! It turned out to be a difficult thing to pull off but it was an exciting and creative time and we pulled in all kinds of great musicians in to play on the record that e we knew and it was an amazing experience.

The others song I wrote for the album, “Little Thing“, I recorded with Blaze whom I’d worked with on Unity as well, and they also produced, “Makes Me Wanna Cry“, which was written by the great Josh Milan of Blaze, which I loved, and “Blame It on the Sun”, which Stevie Wonder himself was supposed to do a guest appearance on but we could never work it out schedule wise, even though Josh and I had written a little bridge section in the middle hoping Stevie would play a harmonica solo on it, but sadly it never came to fruition!

Diego (F/S): Did you feel you received the kind of support you needed to record and promote that record? I’m looking at the credits for your album and remain in awe – Martyn Ware, LaVaba Mallison, the aforementioned Frankie Knuckles, and that heavy burden of a name hanging over you: Motown.

Terry Lin: I must admit I did get to work with some amazing people like Martyn Ware, who’s work on Terence Trent D’Arby’s debut album was amazing and who’s work in Tina Turner’s Private Dancer album was memorable as well!

I got to spend two weeks recording in London which was amazing, though unfortunately I was stuck with a cold the entire trip and it didn’t star to clear up till the end of my time there and we actually kept recording up to the day of my departure as my voice started getting stronger and stronger as the days went on. Lots of edit for the poor engineers on those sessions but it was a great experience nonetheless.

Funny story, on an off day from recording in London, I decided to go to the movies to see the animated Lion King, which had just come out in theaters.

As I cued up to buy my ticket I noticed a young woman and a small boy in line in front of me. When she handed her credit cards to the boy at the ticket window, I noticed he did an immediate double take, looking down at the card and back up to the face of the young woman in front of him.

Turns out, it was Bjork and her young son, and I ended sitting not far from them throughout the entire movie, and it was wonderful to see the innocent joy and excitement reflected on both their faces whenever I’d remember to glance over! So in a weird way I guess I can say I saw the Lion King with Björk and her son, ha!

Diego (F/S): Signing with Motown must have been surreal, given its legendary history. Was there a particular moment or interaction at the label that made you feel like things could have turned out different?

Terry Lin: Yeah, actually when we went over to the South of France at MIDEM, it was really cool to be able to be able to see how my music translated in Europe, and I remember the day after our showcase, which somehow was televised locally, enough that my dancers and I were kind of chased down the street, my fans who were yelling my name and invited into their cool little indie clothing shop in Nice. 

Funny thing is that in the beginning of our showcase, my mom remembered that many of the folks in the crowd, who were mostly industry people, had their arms folded across their chests when we started but by the time we’d finished with “Feels Like the First Time” she noticed that a lot of them were grooving to it by the end, so that felt good!

Overall we got a good reaction from the people that were there and the general vibe was exciting because it felt like we were officially part of the company, as for the first time I got to see my name on printed CD’s with other artists on Motown/Tabu at the time like Lucky Dube and Femi Kuti. Unfortunately the good vibes were short lived because soon after we got back the whole turnover from Jheryl Busby to Andre Harrell started to happen which spelled the end of the Motown experiment for us.

Diego (F/S): It’s weird to say but did your record ever get released in America? On sites like Discogs Feels Like The First Time it only shows that your record was released in places like Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan.

I can’t stop thinking about songs like “Hush”, “Just Think Of Me”, and “Feels Like The First Time”, the list can go on and on for this record–all should have been hits. What led the label to push for your cover of “Crazy Love”? Speaking through my inner-A&R, I know “Hush” remains a bit of a well-kept dancefloor secret and feels closer to what the album really sounded like.

Terry Lin: Again, you’ve done your homework, Diego! Yes, unfortunately I don’t think Feels Like the First Time has ever seen the light of day here in the States, other than through imports, for the reasons stated above; my time at Motown proper had passed when Andre Harrell took over but it was saved on the Asia side by Decca/Polygram, which is where it was ultimately released.

Diego (F/S): Can you share the influences hovering in your mind during Feels Like The First Time? That album title has so many meanings. It’s fascinatingly forward-thinking but also gives us small clues into other, past influences (like Marvin and Stevie). 

Terry Lin: Great ear, Diego! Perhaps it was obvious, but at the time, I was an all time huge Marvin Gaye Head, and still am! But at the time, my soul and mind were swimming in Marvin’s albums I Want You and Trouble Man, and of course, I was and still am a huge fan of Sade!

In fact, the song “Feels Like the First Time” was written while I was in the shower singing along to Marvin’s “When Did You Stop Loving Me/When Did I Stop Loving You”, and the entire song just came out fully formed, and I rushed out of the shower to get the parts down before I forgot them!

The rhythm is definitely inspired by Sade’s “Smooth Operator” but the reason the bassline for the song is all over the place is that I transposed the demo bassline almost note for note to retain the vibe of the demo!

Talk about a strange confluence of events, how about my strange Paul Pesco connection?

Paul Pesco is a great Filipino-American guitarist who at the time had famously toured with Madonna on her first tour, which inspired my mom to tell me to take guitar lessons as she could envision me onstage with a guitar like Paul Pesco, plus he was a handsome Asian guy who I could look up to who’d made it to some extent. There might even by photos floating around somewhere of me with a shock of blonde in my hair trying to look cool the way Paul Pesco did on tour with Madonna!

A few years after I’d seen him perform with Madonna at Radio City Music Hall, I went to see one of my favorite bands at the time, Level 42 Live at Rutgers University as they were opening for Steve Winwood on that particular tour. Guess who happened to be the guitarist for Steve Winwood that night? Paul Pesco! And when Paul threw his “Steve Winwood” imprinted pick into the audience, whose feet did it fall right under? Mine, and believe it or not, I still have that pick somewhere!

A few years after that, I was working on my first album and on the song, “Leave That Guy Alone”, which was produced by LaVaba Mallison, had a long instrumental section at the end, which I loved but sounded a bit empty at the time, so I suggested we put in a cool guitar solo just like Janet Jackson had on “The Pleasure Principle” which was a hit at the time. They hired Paul Pesco to do the solo and he did a spot on amazing job, exactly what I’d envisioned!

Then crazy enough, a few years after THAT, when I was recording the song “Angel” with producer Lemel Humes, guess who was brought in to play guitar on the song? Paul Pesco! We got to hang out a bit and he was amazing again, always playing just what the record needed, great taste always. I actually never told Paul about all these crazy connections, but if I ever cross paths with him again, I’ll have to share them with him!

Diego (F/S): Where did your solo career head to after your debut? I can’t believe Motown had nothing left in the can from you for a sophomore release.

Terry Lin: As noted above, once Andre Harrell took over at Motown, the writing was on the wall for my album, so we pivoted to Hong Kong/Taiwan, and I did a bunch of promoting while in Taiwan on local holiday television shows, including some live performances and radio appearances etc.

Unfortunately my Mandarin was never as strong as my Cantonese, so it made things a little more challenging as far as promotion was concerned.

That combined with the fact that I was a bit homesick feeling a million miles from home while really wanting to make it here in the States kind of ended the experiment in Asia, and I came home to try and find a way to make it Stateside.

Diego (F/S): How did you mingle with black and Asian audiences? You shared a YouTube video where black audiences were surprised you turned out to be an Asian guy, yelling out: “Go Chino, Go Chino”. Did you find a similar vibe affected when and if you performed overseas to predominantly Asian audiences?

Terry Lin: Actually, whenever I got to perform in front of people, the reception from different audiences was great! But it was when I had to go in front of corporate folks from different backgrounds where skepticism and doubt were prevalent, that’s when all the barriers started to go up.

With regards to that YouTube video from the now legendary Palladium, it was actually a vocal group of Latinas in front that were chanting “Go Chino! Go Chino!”, ha! Fortunately, I’ve always had a good reception from the Latino population and African American crowds as well at live shows.

Diego (F/S): Most people don’t know but there is a wildly successful Taiwanese singer that shares your name. Do you feel that unfortunately some of that confusion sets you up for failure? You had to compete with someone who had a decidedly different set of fandom and music.

Terry Lin: With regards to the “other” Terry Lin, I wasn’t really aware of him at all until maybe 10 years ago or so, and anyone looking at the two of us would definitely not mistake us for one another! I think I may have predated him but I’m not sure, but he’s definitely got a great following and all the power to him! I don’t see him as any sort of competition, he’s surely got me beaten by a mile in that department, ha!

Diego (F/S): In hindsight, what would you suggest to younger Asian-American or those of Asian descent as lessons learned from your career? What would you do differently now than then?

Terry Lin: Nowadays, it’s so much easier to build an audience independently and to promote yourself without the need for a big major label, which is something Gordon (Williams) and I were dreaming about 25 years ago, about a world where artists controlled their own careers and promotion and were totally self contained, and it’s finally happening!

So I’d just tell any young artist, especially Asian artists; really discover who you are, what makes you unique and if you love what you do, spread that love to your audience, and with some luck and hard work, that audience will expand to include the World!

Diego (F/S): You’ve had such a unique career, spanning different genres and cultures. How do you hope your music is remembered?

Terry Lin: I’m actually just getting a huge kick out of being remembered at all at this point, ha! But musically I’ve been stretching out and working out my musical kicks in a fun cover band I started a few years back called The Earth Monkeys where we cover all kinds of songs from the Eagles to Steely Dan and all points in between! Being an R&B and club music guy for much of  my formative years, it’s been educational and fun learning to rock and play all different styles of music with a talented group of musicians in a live band setting! 

But as far as how I’d like my career to be remembered, I guess I have to give you one last weird little backstory to put what I’d like to say in context.  

Over the years, like many families, we’d occasionally consult with different so-called seers, mainly not to tell us how successful we’d become but rather what kind of pitfalls we could avoid. There was a fairly famous blind guy in Chinatown who used to supposedly be able to give you life readings and advice etc. that we’d go to occasionally.

Of course, being mainly Americanized kids from the New Jersey suburbs, going to see the blind guy kind of freaked us out because we’d heard stories that he’d had his eyes gouged out in order to gain that “second sight” ability! He’d whip out an empty tortoise shell and shake some sort of coins or sticks to get a reading and he’d slowly feel the bones of your palm whilst the eye sockets where his eyes would have been would roll around as if he were looking up into his skull all while smiling at you! 

The weird thing that he and other fortune tellers have said over the years is that unlike most other people whose fates are fairly mapped out for them, he said it was unclear what it was that I should do, but rather that whatever I really wanted I could manifest into reality.

Now you’d think that I’d be ecstatic and would wish for something practical like, “Make me a billionaire!” or “Make me super successful!”, my stupid existential self took it as a massive burden of choice, because in a way, my music career was a manifestation of my wishes and desires at the time, the desire to be heard, the desire to make a difference whatever that meant, and I saw how my putting that thought into the universe pulled my mom and everyone in our little sphere of influence into this musical journey with us. 

I saw how some people changed when they thought I was going to be successful and I also saw how they changed when they saw the lull in my career and it made my shudder a bit to see how my desire had manifested all this activity and action, both good and bad, and instead of making me bolder and wishing bigger, it made me pull back my desires and I’ve been super careful about what I try to manifest because the good you wish to manifest always comes with a mirror side of unintended consequence that you might never foresee.  

So, I guess what I could say to anyone trying to learn from my career and experiences is that if you really want something, you really have to put your entire heart and soul into it, without reserve, and trust that if what you hope to manifest is worthy that the universe will conspire with you to bring your dream into reality, but just be aware that there may be consequences of having your dreams come to life but to accept whatever comes with humility and appreciation and things will generally turn out ok!

Diego (F/S): How does it feel to get some of the recognition you sorely lacked in the past? I know everyone I’ve turned onto this album just absolutely lives with it and loves it. Here’s hoping there’s a hunger for it to be reissued.

Terry Lin: Man, I’m just gassed that anyone even remembers Feels Like the First Time and I’m tickled that someone took the time to delve into the wild and wacky musical career of one American Terry Lin, ha! It’s been a blast and feel free to shoot me any further questions or if you need clarification or details on the some of the stories related above.

Thanks so much Diego, it’s been a real blast from the past and I really appreciate you reaching out!

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