ArcaMax

For Andy Koh, his October debut album “Taking the Long Way” has been four decades in the making. Though he’d been writing songs and singing since his college days at Harvard University, his music took a back seat to his family and career as a pediatric oncologist. Said Koh, who recently celebrated his 60th birthday and 30th wedding anniversary, “2026 has been a year of milestones. Early in my [medical] career, it was extremely difficult to find time for music. Now that I’m an established physician and scientist, and my sons are young adults, music has become increasingly important again. Music is the only thing that helps me reset. Focusing on music can stop me from replaying the loss of a patient or worrying about why an experiment didn’t work in the lab. It clears my mind and helps me come back the next day with more focus and energy.”

You may read more about the Dallas-based artist and physician at (https://ffm.bio/andykohmusic), and follow him on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/andykohmusic ) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@andykohmusic). This interview with Koh has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: When did you find time to work on “Taking the Long Way”?

A: At night, on weekends and during vacations. I was also lucky to surround myself with extraordinary musicians and engineers who helped me turn my songs into the records I had been hearing in my head for decades. I’ve become more focused as I’ve gotten older. Family, medicine and music. That’s all I do. I have no social life.

Q: Do your patients or their parents know about your music?

A: For the most part, no. I have always tried to keep those worlds separate. But lately my worlds are colliding. Medical colleagues and even patients’ families are starting to discover this other part of my life, largely through social media. The most common reaction has been some version of being dumbfounded in a very kind and positive way. It has been very touching and a little surreal.

Q: What do you remember about your first professional gig?

A: Not counting the college gigs, Club 3 in Somerville, Massachusetts. This was our first real club show. I remember being so incredibly nervous doing our first soundcheck, not being able to hear much through the monitors and playing mostly to friends and family at 11 p.m. on a weeknight. But I also remember seeing positive reactions from a few people I didn’t know, which meant a lot. And I think we made about $100. It feels like a lifetime ago and also like yesterday.

Q: What venue is on your bucket list?

A: Royal Albert Hall. I’ve attended a few concerts there, including Elvis Costello doing a solo acoustic set. It has that perfect blend of intimacy and grandeur. It feels big without feeling cold or alienating. And the acoustics are pretty good, too.

Q: How did studying overseas influence your musical style?

A: Living in England for two years profoundly changed how I heard music. The students I knew at Oxford were obsessed with music and unusually open to all styles of music in a way that I had not encountered in the U.S. This inspired me to start digging more deeply into American blues, soul, and early R&B. That changed how I listened and eventually how I wrote music. My biggest musical influences are British artists – Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Police, Elvis Costello.

Q: Do you have any upcoming trips planned?

A: Mexico City in December. My sons are major foodies, so we have a running list of cities and countries we want to visit largely for the cuisine. We’re interested in everything from street food to Michelin-starred restaurants. Mexico City has been high on the list for a long time.

Q: What city is embedded in your memory?

A: Prague made a huge impression on me when I visited in 1990, shortly after communism ended in Czechoslovakia. Prague was so beautiful and slightly mysterious, not yet transformed by global tourism and capitalism. I’ve always wanted to go back, although part of me is afraid to see what has changed.

Q: What childhood trip has stood out?

A: My first trip to South Korea [was] my first time outside the U.S. I was six years old and traveled with my family to Seoul and Busan to visit my parents’ relatives. It was an overwhelming visual, cultural, emotional and sensory experience. Most of it was amazing, particularly the food and being surrounded by Korean language and culture. Other parts were difficult to process, including the poverty and encountering bathrooms that were definitely not what I was accustomed to.

Q: Have you traveled during the holidays?

A: A New Year’s trip to Heavenly Valley near Lake Tahoe. My sons wanted to try snowboarding so we went as a family. The setting was spectacular. The snow was great. And there was a lot of laughter, much of it at my expense as I repeatedly fell on my behind.

Q: What are your five favorite cities?

A: Reno where I grew up. San Francisco, where my parents would drive us regularly to shop for Asian groceries in Chinatown. Boston, where I went to school, met my wife, started my family and really began writing music. Oxford, which changed how I thought about the world. And Dallas, where medicine, family and now this album have all come together.

Q: Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?

A: New Zealand. I’ve never been to that part of the world. And full disclosure, our whole family is full of “The Lord of the Rings” nerds. So yes, we would love to see some of the places where the movies were filmed. The landscape is insanely beautiful.

Q: What is your best and/or worst vacation memory?

A: Best was a family trip to Japan and South Korea to celebrate my sons’ college and high school graduations. My sons designed most of the itinerary and I forced myself to put aside my micromanaging tendencies and let them be in charge. It turned out to be wonderful. Worst was a trip to the Azores that never happened. We were supposed to go with my wife’s family, but our flight was canceled because of wildfire-related travel disruptions. The next available flight was several days later. So we canceled the trip and flew back to Dallas for an unplanned staycation.

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(Jae-Ha Kim is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist. You can reach her at www.jaehakim.com, follow her on Instagram and X @goawaywithjae, or read more from her on Substack (jaehakim.substack.com).)

©2026 Jae-Ha Kim. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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