They were just nominated for to count them Grammy and if that is not enough she was named one of time magazine's most influential people Michelle good morning, I'm a show you had it all going on and hit your book crying in H Mart was such a sensation during the pandemic but it was during the pandemic so you didn't get to do a book tour and all that you're going to get to do that now.

Yes, I'm very excited, especially being a musician, I'm I'm quite used to the touring life but I am really looking forward to not having to lift an 80 pound and like a little tote bag in a book so exciting and so it's coming out paperback that's yes, we next week at a day before my birthday to people who don't know about crying in H Mart what inspired the story.

I lost my mother in 2014 to a very short 6 month battle to cancer and I'm half Korean and my mother's Korean and I spent a lot of my childhood visiting Korea when I was younger and suddenly I sort of felt like that part of my identity was kind of at risk and it was a sort of different process of grieving and I found myself in a Korean grocery store in an H Mart crying and I just think why are you doing that and so this book is sort of an exploration of of of why all the reasons why I found myself sort of crying in an Asian supermarket when you talk about how complex a relationship with your mom was because on the one hand she expected so much of you but then you were in in the arts he wanted to be a singer and in a band and she wasn't sure is that really what you should do yeah, what do you think she'd be thinking right about now Michelle's honor.

I always say that my mom would say where's my handbag.

I mean after all the success that you found like you owe your mom a fancy designer.

You wrote the book before the pandemic.

Jubilee the album to I think was done before the pandemic yeah, but you have the daunting task of having to promote both those things you didn't really get a chance to a proper book tour you're going to do that now I wonder with so much time going by what what's the reaction you get from fans of the fans of the band are they people like me who just came up to you to talk about my grieving a loss of a parent, what sort of action you get.

You know it's it's across the board some people know me as a music my favorite thing is is somehow finding out that people didn't know that I was a musician at all and that they actually knew my music and didn't find out until the sort of last chapter of the bands and even the point before yeah, I know the book.

Yeah, it's really great to get a whole breadth of different people coming to the book are coming to the music and finding that marriage but my favorite response to the book is after I read it I I called my mom and I feel like that's the best thing that you can hope from from making something like this speaking of marriage, good segue right.

You did just get married recently.

I got married 8 years ago.

But yeah, the story of how you Peter got married is incredible.

Yeah, it's in it's in the book and yeah, we had been dating for a year and a half and once my mom got sick and things are looking very dark we wanted to sort of have some lightness into our lives and so we planned our wedding in 3 weeks so my mom could be there and we were married in my parents backyard and my mom passed away to 2 weeks after we were married and so I when I wrote the story thought that was like such a unique singular experience and actually I've learned that so many people trying to have that kind of event so their parents can be there right and have the sort of simultaneous celebration of love and life and yeah, that was a big big part of our story.

You also have a great story about she worked as a coach in Pennsylvania, just you know trying to make a buck and it's full certainly come full circle tell us also.

Yeah.

So when I was a sort of floundering musician and at 24 I worked at a Philadelphia venue called union transfer I worked at the coach at and I once took a fake I took a counterfeit $100 bill and I had to pay the manager back.

And you know it was a lot of money was like my you know way more than what I made on that shift and the owner of the venue actually stepped in and was like I got you here's a $100 and then 5 years later we sold out 5 not 5 nights at union transfer as a band and I called Sean Agnew back up on stage and I was like here's.

And then he went up to me and was like come out into the lobby and they they had painted Michelle's honors coach and just wow the top of the the coach X so yeah now now I have my own coach at which feels very special pretty awesome Michelle, thank you so much by the way that was my mistake, not a searcher's mistake.

You're also going to you're also going to put a book number 2 you're going to move to Korea for one full year learn the language right about it.

Yeah, yeah excited for that.

I'm very scared and very excited.

But yeah, I I've my mom always used to say if you live in Korea for a year I really believe that that sort of immersion will allow you to leave fluent in the language and so it feels like a really natural jumping off point we can't wait to hear it.

It's this crime is where it's going to be a TV show to a movie.