Nam Ngo aka Nam Ninja was born in America and is the son of two Vietnamese refugees who escaped Vietnam during the end of the Vietnam War. Growing up, Nam had no real attachment to his Vietnamese heritage, he felt in his heart that he was American and believed in the American dream: that a person regardless of color or creed had equal opportunity and the freedom to live out their dreams.
His earliest memory was at the age of 3 and even back then Nam had fantasies of being a musician. He would write his own songs and day dream about performing on stage. He would take the first steps toward this dream in 7th grade, when his best friend Jaysin who wanted to start a band asked Nam to be the guitarist. The following weekend, Nam's father took him to the Swap Meet and bought him a used classical guitar to practice on until he got better. Three years later, Nam bought his first electric guitar, a red Squire Stratocaster and a year after that, he sold it and used the money to buy his dream guitar, a re-issued white Fender Mustang like Kurt Cobain had in a poster Nam had in his room. With this guitar, Nam would start a band with his friends called 'The Losers.' They broke up during their senior year, having played only one show. Nam continued to write and play guitar but wouldn't perform again until 5 years later when he was 22 and in college.
Nam loved different cultures and meeting new people, it was his open mind an heart that would expose him to all sorts of music and he fell in love with punk rock, hip hop, reggae, samba, drum and bass, house, and much more. Nam's music took influences from many genres but also from different art forms, including method acting, film, performance art, photography, and of course literature.
Nam released his first album in 2007 under the name Nam Ninja. He chose the name Ninja because for a few years, Nam was obsessed with Martial Arts movies. One of his favorites was 'Duel to the Death' which had a great depiction of Ninjas, how they used science to create various illusions to evade their opponents but also defeat them. He also read a book called the Art of Ninjitsu in Barnes and Noble and felt that him and his friends were like modern day Ninjas because they moved in small packs and also their current lifestlye. Living in Irvine at the time, Nam and his friends would do various things to keep themselves entertained, half of the time it involved a bit of sneaking around. Throughout his music career Nam would always tell a different story about how he arrived at his name.
On Halloween of 2007, Nam met Bao Le, an aspiring musician. In January 2008 they formed 'The Shinobies.' Later that year, Nam would start Nam Ninja Productions, a small business that Nam created in order to work on various projects including event planning, web design, promotion, music production, and soon film.
The Fatal Fury...
It was Johnnie Dominguez that nicknamed Nam's ferocity on stage as the Fatal Fury and it became the inspiration of one of Johnnie's drawings that would eventually become the album cover of Nam Ninja's self-titled debut album.
