In the Korean music scene, many independent artists are revealing their talents as songwriters, composers and performers. On July 14th, at a tea room table, I met Yunsae and Jungtune. I discovered these two artists 2 years ago, and since then, I've been listening to their works. I had the chance to meet them in person during their busking tour this summer. So, I invited them to join me for an interview. This was also an opportunity to look back on the recent projects of the two artists, as well as those that are coming soon. For two hours, we talked about their stories, their music, the Korean indie scene and the busking tour. I'm sharing a snippet of that moment with you.
Valentin: Hello Yunsae and Jungtune. First question, who are you? Introduce yourself.
Yunsae: Hello, my name is Yunsae. I am a singer, songwriter, and producer featuring electronic pop with sensuous sounds and catchy melodies. I have 10 singles and two EP albums under my name, and I'm preparing for new future releases. Today, I'm here to introduce my music inspirations and future goals with our Valentine. I’m done. (Laugh)
Jungtune: Hi, I'm singer songwriter, Jungtune. I write songs about games, and also about a lot of things in our daily life. I play the piano, and I'm preparing for my full-length album. Also, I released a song recently, ‘Yearbook’, or ‘Rolling Paper’ in Korean. I made this song with my friends. It’s a summer song!
AN INTRODUCTION TO YUNSAE AND JUNGTUNE'S MUSIC
V: Why did you start music and what were your influences?
Y: When did I start my music career? I'm not sure… When I was young, I loved to play piano and write children’s songs on the score with real notes. I wanted to become a singer at that time, but my parents didn't want me to start. They only wanted me to focus on studying.
J: She’s also good at studying.
Y: It's just very common in Korea to focus on studies. You don’t have many opportunities to spread your dreams or pursue other things aside from studying, so I just studied hard when I was a teenager. And then, I came to college, and I finally got my freedom to do anything I want.When I was in the third or fourth grade, I got to know all the electro-pop songs such as Lauv’s music. I wanted to know how to make that kind of song. So, since then, I learned how to produce songs, which is called beat-making. Time passed, and then I am here. (Laugh) Yeah, now I have so many songs under my name. That's how I got into the music career. And I also produce songs for other artists. I've written Jun Hyu Seong’s ‘Starlight’ and MK’s ‘Mistake’, an idol band member of ONF.
J: I started music when I was very young, three or four years old. I started to play the piano. I took a private lesson. My teacher was very strict like the movie ‘Whiplash’. Sometimes she hit my hands. Then, one day, the teacher rang the doorbell and I hid behind my mother. I was really frightened and I said to my mother ‘Do not open the door! Please!’. My mother was really shocked and she told me ‘you don't have to play the piano if you don’t want to’. So that was my last piano lesson. When I was young[…] I really liked music when I was young because I think I have got a talent. So, when I hear music, I can hear the pitch, like Perfect Pitch. When I was young, everyone told me, 'You're so talented, so you have to do music. But I was like, 'I never wanted to do this anymore.' […] When I went to middle school, I saw the Japanese drama ‘Nodame Cantabile’. It's about classical music […] The girl plays the piano, and then I really liked that drama and got a lot of inspiration from it. So, I restarted to play the piano. […] My friend was going to piano Academy, so I just followed her and then played the piano with her, four hands piano pieces. At the piano academy, teacher told me that ‘You gotta do music!’. And then she said that there is a composition major in music school. I thaught I didn't know that before. I had to do the Piano major only, but …
Y: Then she got to know that there also is a composer major.
J: Yeah, right. So, then I kept writing songs and then I went to a teacher to learn composition. And then I really liked the drama and also movie music. So, I started to learn classical composition. Then, I went to high school, I mean, a music High School. I learned it for about three years, and then I went to university, also in classical composition. I really liked to compose classical songs at that time, but after I went to University, I had to write contemporary classical music, and I really don't like it because there is no pitch or there are no correct pitch or chords or Harmony.
Y: Basically, it doesn't make sense to you.
J: Yeah.
Y: And there's no Harmony… It’s abstract.
J: And then when I was learning composition, I didn't know that when I go to university, I have to do contemporary music. I only studied like Beethoven or Schumann, and I really liked their songs. So, I thought a lot about my future life because I don't want to do those things anymore.
Y: She majored in classical composition, but all she had to do was all those abstract contemporary songs.
J : When I was in third, fourth grade, I wrote a song like Indie music because I always liked it and always listened to a lot of Indie music. I especially liked J Rabbit and also Cheeze. I wrote a song just like easy-listening music because I wanted to do those things, so..
Y: Same as me.
J: Yeah right. (Laugh)
Y: She hasn't sung her own songs before.
J: I just wanted to compose a song. Then […] I bought some mics and then I sang a song and then uploaded it on SNS. It was like…
Y: People liked that.
J: Yeah, people liked that. So, oh, I didn't knew it before but…
Y (imitating Jungtune): ‘Should I sing?’
J: ‘Not that bad at singing.’
Y (imitating Jungtune): ‘Ooh people like it?’
(Laugh)
J: So, then I started to sing as well, and it was really fun. And I really liked it. So, I made up my mind to be a singer-songwriter. I make a song 'till these days, and this always gives me energy, and still I really like it. But when COVID-19 came to Korea, I played a lot of games because I couldn't meet friends or I couldn't go out. So, I played a lot of games. I thought, game is so similar to our lives. So, I wrote a song about games. It sounds like a game and lyrics about games and our life. And then I released my EP album [‘Game Over’]. I'm preparing for a little bit different music in my full-length album. It's not about games, so I think I'm challenging myself.
Y: It's going well, I think. We have some differences and similarities. We both make bouncy, energetic kind of and easy…
J: Positive things!
Y: Yeah, very positive. But I didn't major in music production, and she majored in composition. That's the difference.
V: You released your first single song in 2019. What were your motivations and your feelings?
Y: I first thought that I needed to be prepared very well to release a song to the public. But as time passed, I changed my mind because that would take me so long. You know, everything cannot be perfect. Like, no things in the world can be perfect. So, that's why I realized oh, that's a wrong idea and I changed my mind to show what I've got at the time in 2019. It was one of my homework for the beat-making class, but my friends or people around me loved that particular song, ‘Be your Breeze'. So, I got to have some kind of confidence on this song. Even though it may not be perfect, at least it may sound good to someone. It was perfect for the season, the weather, and I think I did it well because that was the first step that I made in music and naturally, I think my road, as Yunsae’s music career, just began at that time. Yeah, that was my feeling.
V: This is my favorite song.
Y: Really! I have twenty other songs and your favorite one is my first song! (Laugh) But I didn't have any money to do the mix for the tracks, individual tracks. So, it was basically just a homework released directly to the world. So, sometimes it feels sad for me, but still, it's our favorite song.
V: But the result is good!
Y: Yeah, yeah, that's what's important.
J: When I released my first single, ‘당 떨어지는 이 세상에 달콤한 미소를 주세요’ (‘Give this world a sweet smile’), I think I just wanted to release a song that people can hear in any way, Apple Music, or YouTube… Because before, I did music for a long time and I wrote a lot of pieces, but my friends cannot search for it or hear it.
Y: It was only on your computer. (Laugh)
J: Yeah, right, it's only on my MacBook. And then, I did performances before, but that was not for everyone. So, I wanted to release a song for everyone. That was my first song. And at that time, I wanted to be a singer who’s not that famous, but everyone knows the song.
Y: She wanted to hide behind her songs.
J: So, I didn't think a lot about performing or contact with others in offline. So, I and just released the songs without any concert. But now, everything's changed.
V: Yunsae. About the characters in your music videos. We often see them alone at home, outside and having fun. Do you enjoy this kind of time alone, having fun, or creating things?
Y: I have to say yes. Actually, the scale of the music video totally depends on the budget, like how much you can pay. As I’m an independent artist, I don’t have much money and That's why I couldn't use a lot of staff. I couldn't hire a lot of actors or people in my video. That's why basically, most of my music videos go with a girl or a boy or an animal, playing alone. But of course in reality, I do enjoy being alone and doing everything by myself. Just walking outside alone, eating alone, watching TV alone, doing my beat making alone. I'm kind of an introverted person. So, I might have expressed the real myself in the form of a music video.
V: What about you, Jungtune? You like it too?
J: I’m kind of an introvert. And, I’m a little bit an ‘Otaku’, because I really like animation movies and Japanese drama. I like being alone.
V: Jungtune. In your music videos I can see a homemade style. Why did you choose that kind of style?
J: Because in Korean, we call it ‘B급 감성’ (B geub kam sung), the sentiment of the second class in the category. I also like funny movies. So, I tried to be funny in that music video. I tried dancing, and I'm really not good at dancing. So, I wanted to give my fans a little bit of fun.
Y: So, ‘B급 감성’, is like you don't make something perfect or well-made, but by intent.
V: If you want to say something else about your last projects…
J: That album [‘Game Over’] is very special to me because I made all the things in the album. Especially the album cover, I call the square thing, and then me and my friend made it. And at that time, I thought that all the people are like spending the same days, and then I thought that people live in the square (an apartment). When they see the apartment, there are people, people, people, people in the square. So, I wanted to write a song about that. Also, I really loved that retro game sounds and 8-bits music, chiptune music. So, I wanted to put it in my album.
Y: My second EP album, 'When the Stars Align.' I prepared it for like six months. EP is not a studio album, but I'll just call it an album. Albums are good because we can talk about one particular concept, and this time I wanted to make a warm and young love. Like teenage love. Just sparkling like the stars and the sky. For the title song named 'Stardust’, I like the ideas for the arrangement. you may have seen the process of making the song as a short form video on my social media sites. I stacked my voice to make the main chord progressions, and everybody was shocked at that idea. 'Stardust' is a pop track, but some people understand it as EDM, and I think that's what I do well. So, it starts very calm, but as the track goes by, it sounds bigger, and bigger because there are a lot of synths that came out at the chorus part, somewhat sounding like EDM or rock. There’s lots of melodies that I like for the song, as well as the sounds. […] Yes, I’m kind of proud of that song. And I pre-released a song. It was the second track in the EP album called 'youniverse.' ‘youniverse’ is about relationships between people. I thought each individual has its own world, or universe. So, Valentin, you have your own universe, and mine and her [Jungtune] are all different. But when you like someone, when you want to be familiar with someone, I thought the two universes are gradually combined. That's the first idea or concept of the song. So, that’s why I use the expression ‘I jump into your universe.’ I like all the other tracks including this in my EP album. After releasing this album (EP), some people in the music industry contacted me, praising my album. I had one comment that's very memorable. He or she said, this EP album was better than what (s)he expected. I think I grew up through this album, and I hope you like it. (Laugh)
INDIE MUSIC IN KOREA
V: You are both independent artists. How developed is independent scene in South Korea? There are many independent artists?
Y: I think the independent music market in Korea is narrow, it's not that big. There's a lot of artists, but the stage that we can be is very limited. The music market in Korea, so-called K-Pop market, is growing, but I personally feel like it's a festival only for idol bands. We independents have our own festivals and concerts, but it has shrunk through COVID 19. And I think the lineup, like the artist who can be on that independent artist Festival, is the same, too. The lineups are always similar. So I feel like rookies have not many chances to show what they've got.
J: I think that in Korea, people think very differently with others. Like some people think ‘Yunsae and Jungtune are Indie [artists]' but others think that very famous singers are Indie.
Y: Yeah, it's different. It's what's different in Korea and the other countries. Like, independent means you work with no investment, no budget, and you don't have any management. That is what is so-called independent. But here in Korea, people often think it’s a category of genre. People usually imagine acoustic sounds for indie music here.
J: Or like, how did you start?
Y: Yeah, for a band… That kind of particular genre means Indie music in Korea. So, some people think we are not indies because we sound like idol music… (Laugh)
V: Do you think the popularity of the K-pop industry is a problem for independent artists’ visibility or does it help?
Y: Can’t say it’s a problem. […] Popularity of K-pop can help us, but I think, … just idols’ bands take too much portion in K-pop. That's the problem, I think.
V: Do you receive support from the government as an artist?
Y: Usually not but sometimes. Sometimes there is a support project, but it is not in the form of a salary.
V: Do you have to work on the side?
Y: We have another job to earn money. I teach English. You teach…
J: I teach music.
Y: Yeah, we can’t make a living as an independent artist, yet.
J: Some months, I earn a lot of money. Some months I have no money. So, we have to another job.
V: And you both are on YouTube, and you make a lot of content: music, vlogs, cover songs. Is it important for you to diversify your creations?
J: I think nowadays, people really like shorts [Youtube]. I'm uploading shorts, cover music, and I think something unique is that we are good at it. I'm good at acapella or like harmonizing with my voice. So, I upload those kinds of videos. I think it's quite important that we have to know what we're good at.
Y: One day… a worker in the music industry taught me that one little clip you upload to the world can be a lottery ticket. Like, when you upload a short, you’ll never know what happens next. It can be big, or not. But even though it fails there is no need to be discouraged, because next time the other clip or shorts can do big things. One TikTok can go viral around the world, so you will never know. All we have to do is ‘just do it.’ At the time, I was kind of depressed because I make a lot of various contents for my YouTube, you all know, which are not that popular. Sometimes it only hit 200 views, 300 views, and I was depressed. He told me that I have to change my perspective. we all never know. It can be big someday in the future, or you can try different things because you will never know before you do. Since then, I've been focusing on making different videos on my YouTube. And also, there are some 짹짹이 (jjaekjjaeky), my fans, waiting for my new video.
V: Lot of independent artists often come to Hongdae to perform. Is it an important place for artists?
J: I think Hongdae is quite an important place for independent musicians because it's historical.
Y: Historical and traditional things. (Laugh) I don't know why, we don't know why, but a long time ago, musicians came to Hongdae.
J: Hongdae has a lot of young people.
Y: Yeah, it's a young Street.
J&Y: Twenties!
J: There is freedom, I think so…
Y: And a lot of small concert halls were in Hongdae. But it's like closed a lot during the Covid-19.
J: Hongdae has a lot of live halls […] and also many buskers [singers in the street]… There is a lot of open mic. So when the musicians want to perform for the first time, they should go to Hongdae. It's an important place.
THE BUSKING TOUR
V: You two recently did a busking tour. How did you get this idea, and can you explain the concepts?
Y: We wanted to do something energetic. Some different things that can be free or refreshed online, then she said…
J: Also, I'm good at driving.
Y: Yeah, she wanted to travel somewhere in Korea, like the south. Then we came up with the idea that, ‘oh, what about we combine the busking and travel?’ That's why we started to think about the busking tour.
J: First, when we tried to go on the busking tour, that week it was so rainy, so we couldn't go. So, we delayed it, and then,
Y: Yeah, we delayed it for like one week.
V: How was it? Any good moments?
J: Actually, the mood of each city was really variety. Busan and Daeggu was really energetic and Gwangju was a little bit shy.
Y: Daejeon was quiet, very quiet.
J: In Daejeon, two girls […] came to us, they were doing picking dolls game before, and then they gave us the dolls, and they ‘Aaah!’…
Y: Ran Away. (Laugh)
J: They were so cute!
Y: And we ate a lot of delicious meals every day in every city. We slept well, and sold a lot of albums, right? We sold a lot of them. I was surprised because nobody already knew us, right? No?
J: Many people didn't know us.
Y: If I were them, I would not buy an album… when I first saw them on the street. I would not buy albums from unknown artists. But thankfully, they bought a lot of albums from us.
J: We ate a lot of delicious things (Yunsae is making eating noises). She likes rice, and I like ’Guk’ […] a Korean soup. So, we always ordered…
Y: Different dishes, and we shared it. Because I prefer rice, and she prefers soup. The funniest thing was, the day we ate breakfast in Busan. I met a 짹짹이 (jjaekjjaeky). It was in a very famous Korean restaurant. I was eating rice…
J: It was morning and we were so…
Y: I didn't put on my makeup, and I was very sleepy, so I had a disheveled face. But (Laugh) 짹짹이 (jjaekjjaeky) was there! A man came to me and said, ‘ hey, sorry, but… are you Yunsae?’. And I was so shocked. Because it was in Busan, it’s not Hongdae. I thought nobody would recognize me, that's why I didn't even take a shower, and I was eating breakfast, but I met my fan right across my table. That was shocking.
J: It was before we check in at the hotel, so we were very dirty, and we were hungry,
Y: So, it was shocking, more shocking.
V: With busking, you're close to your audience because you're on the street. Do you like that kind of stage and why?
Y: Yeah, it has a different charm, like being in a gig at a concert hall and being on a street. It has a different vibe.
J: We had to give up many things.
Y: Yeah, yeah, actually, the amp [amplifier] sounds quite dirty, because we only had one speaker and all the instruments and our vocals, piano, guitar…
J: And it's not stereo.
Y: Yeah, they all comes out to that little mono speaker
J: And then also speakers in front of us.
Y: Yeah, we can't hear anything but we have to sing. So, it might not be that perfect or beautiful to listen to, but at least we can interact with people in very close distance.
J: ‘What do you want to hear?’
Y: Yeah, we can ask them what to do. Actually, we didn't have any setlist for the gig every day. We just asked them what they wanted to listen to, and we could play for them.
J: I really like that mood. And also, in Busan the stage was the ocean view.
Y: It was so good for us to have our fans in different cities. Every city we had our fans, and they said, ‘oh, Seoul was too far from us to go, and thanks to you, you came here’. Then I realized, ‘Oh, Korea is not that small.’ It's a big country.
V: Will you plan a season 2?
J: Season 2 for a busking tour? (Laugh)
Y: Actually, she had to drive all the cities, yeah, so maybe it was too tiring for her.
J: After I came to Seoul, I got COVID-19 again. I was so sick! (Laugh) I thought I was twenty, but maybe not. (Laugh) […] I want to try once more [busking tour] in… Seoul. (Laugh)
Y: Around here, that can be possible. It was fun, it was happy, but exhausting too because we needed to move cities every day.
J: Yeah, it was like driving for five or six hours. (Laugh)
V: Maybe next time you will have a driver?
Y: That sounds good. Maybe we can do it. (Laugh)
ONE LAST WORD?
V: Maybe you want to talk about any projects in the future?
J: I'm preparing for a concert on August 13th. I'll sing the songs from my full-length album, so it's like a preview concert. And then, the audience can vote for my title song. So, I want to know what people want for the title song. It means a lot to me. I am making my album with various sounds. Some songs are in a band sound, and some songs are pop songs, and also some songs are acapella. It's like a Christmas gift, whatever you want. I really care about having one album that has a cohesive story that relates together. So, this is my first time to put so many songs in one album…
Y: There were some kinds of songs she threw away.
J: In this album, I tried a lot of new things which I hadn't tried before. The first track is about good luck. I want to give ‘good luck’ to the audience of my album. So, from the first song to the last song, it goes like one big story.
Y: I don't have any particular future plans for now. But I'm currently making a lot of demos with me. You know, I always put out the summer songs as a kind of season, but I couldn't do it this year. I'm making a lot of demo songs, in different genres. I have three or four pop-rock songs, one two K-pop beats… But I'm not doing the rap! Anyway, they will sound somewhat different from some songs that I made before! Currently I'm not planning any studio album, just like her. But maybe I can show you some singles in autumn, around autumn, so stay tuned. And please stream my previous albums until then, (Laugh) including ‘when the stars align’ and ‘Flowerain’.
V: Thank you for this interview.
Y: Yeah, it's done? Thank you to the listeners or readers.
J: Thank you for having us.
Y: Yes, thank you for having us.
Thank you to Yunsae and Jungtune for this interview. Give them a lot of support and listen to their songs on Spotify and Youtube. You can follow the busking tour adventures through vlogs on Yunsae's YouTube channel.
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