This oral history interview with Joe Kye was conducted by Sankar Raman and Allison Merkel on December 23, 2020. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. The interview was conducted remotely using Cleanfeed software due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this interview, Kye discusses his family background and early life in Seoul, South Korea, and talks about his family’s reasons for immigrating to the United States in 1993. He describes his experiences as a Korean immigrant in the U.S., including learning English, adjusting to American culture, and acting as a translator for his parents. He discusses his early interest in music and playing violin, talks about his early career ambitions, and shares his experiences at Yale University. He speaks about his reasons for not majoring in music at Yale, instead pursuing a career as a high school teacher; talks about his marriage to Natasha K. Kye; and discusses his decision to pursue a career as a musician. He speaks at length about the development of his music career in Sacramento, California, and in Portland, Oregon, and talks about telling stories while performing his music onstage. He closes the interview by discussing the difficulty of working as a musician as a new parent and during the COVID-19 pandemic.