The Yin and the Yang of It All

In 1966—the Year of the Horse, not to mention Revolver and Pet Sounds — John Kim Faye was born out of wedlock to a 40-year-old Korean mother and a 62-year-old Irish father. Faye grew up in the state of Delaware, where laws forbidding interracial marriage were still on the books until 1967.

As the lead singer and primary songwriter of the Caulfields, Faye was one of the only mixed-race Asian American frontman to sign a major record contract in the alternative rock heyday of the 1990s. In an era that preceded K-Pop—and even the rise of the internet—Faye’s personal journey did not lead to superstardom. Instead, The Yin and The Yang of it All is a memoir about the discovery of a voice, a tribe, and a musical ethnicity that runs far deeper than his Korean/Irish roots.

Bookended by the loss of this father against the backdrop of his tumultuous childhood in the post-Vietnam 70s and his mother’s tragic passing in 2012, Faye’s story weaves a tapestry of revealing moments as told from his unique perspective on the cusps of identity, race, and fame.