“I don’t want to be this ‘Warped Tour-superstar’ or anything like a false idol anymore, so I decided that I’m going to raise money.”

For singer, songwriter and public relations major Rocky Kim, a sudden change in dreams led him to start a band under the name of ComebackAlive, which will raise money for foster organizations.

Years before any thought of performing, Kim was born in Jin Ju, South Korea, and at the age of four, came to the U.S. with his parents.

When he was nine years old, his father was arrested for drug trafficking and fraud, and was sentenced to 15 years in a Texas state prison.

During that time, Kim also left his mother and took care of his younger sister.

In 2007, his father was deported back to South Korea and granted probation, and later that year, Kim’s mother suffered a fatal ruptured brain aneurysm.

Around that time, his father failed to get back in contact with Kim and his immediate family, and then his father fell into severe depression because of it.

His father was found dead in Korea with a picture of Kim in his hand.

He has planned to give back to the foster community through his skills as a singer and songwriter that have been acquired through years of performing with various bands.

“Music and singing have always been an outlet, and when I was 16, I discovered that I can actually perform, so I have been in bands ever since,” he said.

Plans on releasing music through iTunes and hard copies have been made and 60 percent of the proceeds will go to a foster organization.

The Cerritos College financial aid advisors have opened donation accounts for the proceeds to funnel into them.

Kim and his band most recently performed at Cerritos College for the Financial Aid Awareness Fair on April 25.

Yajayra Tovar, the student affairs technician in the financial aid office, met Kim through a group involved with creative change.

Along with coordinating the fair, she made the decision to ask CBA to play during the first day.

“I was the one who contacted Rocky. He happens to be a student that I have gotten to know,” Tovar said. “Before the fair, I listened to a couple of [CBA’s] songs and I felt we can all relate to the material.”

For the past year, Kim has been playing shows with singer Taylor Collins and the CBA lineup.

Collins had a solo performance right before CBA on April 25, but usually shares the same nucleus of band members as Kim’s band.

“We have started to get this going, as far as Rocky’s and my CDs being released,” he said.

Collins said of the performance, “I thought it went really well; the people that were there seemed to have liked the message we were sending.”

In the past year, meeting new people from school and playing shows, Kim has set himself up for what he plans on doing for the rest of his life: “playing music and writing songs.”