Bobby Choy (Big Phony) is a Korean-American singer/songwriter born and raised in New York City. At the age of 14 Bobby’s family relocated to Los Angeles, leaving him in New York City so he could attend the legendary School of Performing Arts and Music and Art, which has produced a long list of talent including Al Pacino, Adrian Brody, and Bela Fleck. Living alone at such an early age, Bobby devoted his time to writing music in his New York City apartment.
With strong religious conviction, Big Phony left for Boston to attend a Christian college to study to be a pastor. He quickly realized that this was not the path for him and returned his focus to his music. After college, he returned to New York City but after the 9/11 tragedy he relocated to Los Angeles to be closer with his family. It was in Los Angeles where Big Phony began his pursuit to be a singer-songwriter. He quickly built a devout fan base while performin...
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Bobby Choy (Big Phony) is a Korean-American singer/songwriter born and raised in New York City. At the age of 14 Bobby’s family relocated to Los Angeles, leaving him in New York City so he could attend the legendary School of Performing Arts and Music and Art, which has produced a long list of talent including Al Pacino, Adrian Brody, and Bela Fleck. Living alone at such an early age, Bobby devoted his time to writing music in his New York City apartment.
With strong religious conviction, Big Phony left for Boston to attend a Christian college to study to be a pastor. He quickly realized that this was not the path for him and returned his focus to his music. After college, he returned to New York City but after the 9/11 tragedy he relocated to Los Angeles to be closer with his family. It was in Los Angeles where Big Phony began his pursuit to be a singer-songwriter. He quickly built a devout fan base while performing under the moniker “Big Phony” to avoid using his Asian given name “Choy”. MTV News would later run a story stating “No matter how hard you try to find an image of Big Phony, you’ll find that it’s nearly impossible. That is because this shy 28 year old singer and songwriter Bobby Choy prefers to let his music speak louder than the color of his skin or the spelling of his last name.” In early 2006 he returned to New York to build the same kind of following he found in Los Angeles and began to split his time between both cities crashing on friends couches and aerobeds.
In 2011 Big Phony made his first visit to South Korea, the country his parents originally hailed from. He felt a unique and positive connection with its culture and people. Within only a few months upon returning home to the US, he packed his guitar, a single suitcase, and bought a one way ticket back to Seoul. He has since been able to create an unexpected bridge between himself, his parents, and a people & culture he now adores and identifies with. With a new found positive identity, Big Phony has been able to find acceptance in the Korean music scene and has also found greater success back home in the US.
Big Phony has performed in more than 150 live venues as well as on US & Korean TV & radio. His songs and arrangements have made its way into television, radio, and film including penning a song sung by Andrea Bocelli. He has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Spin Magazine, Time Out Los Angeles, 944 Magazine, Performer Magazine, Theme Magazine, KoreAm Journal, and more. For media outlets he’s been featured on programs such as MTV News, PBS Television, MNET Television, Ariang TV, TBS eFM, EBS TV, NPR (PRI’s The World), Sirius Radio, Indie 103.1, YouTube Presents (filmed in Tokyo), and more.
You can catch Big Phony in “Ktown Cowboys” (the movie & hit webseries) in a leading role as the reserved Korean American adoptee “Robby”, which world premiered at SXSW Film 2015. In theaters March 2016. His latest album "A Brick Through My Window" is set to release June 2016.
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