“This sound is a drum break from the track ‘Funky Drummer’ by James Brown. Clyde Stubblefield's flawless drumming is one of the most frequently sampled drum loop in a variety of musical genres. It's something that has transcended time and has become more than just a drum performance, it's an entity in its own right.”

You're a percussionist, DJ, organizer, record producer, and do a lot of other things related to music. In other interview, you said that you don't consider yourself a DJ, why is that?

I was once asked to play music at an event. There was always an atmosphere around me where people with similar tastes would organize gathering events and play music together, For me, it was more fun than I thought it would be. Also, audience and promoters were interested in it too, So thankfully I've been doing it ever since. At first, I was hesitant to put the title of DJ on my name because I wasn't full-time DJ. But now I've been DJing for about 10 years, I don't mind the title of DJ, but I don't think I need to put it to my name anymore.

You mean putting a DJ in front of your name?

Yes. It's not common these days, but it used to be common to put “DJ” in front of their name.

Let's go back to our first question. With all the different things you do in music, do you have an identity that you consider most important?

I don't think it's so much about the position, but more about the need for my work. As a percussionist, I tend to collaborate a lot with other people, but nowadays I think it's more important to focus on my own work, whether it's starting my own band or producing myself.

What sounds or music did you listen when you grow up?

When I was a kid, both of my parents went out to work, so I liked to stay up late watching TV. My father was electric engineer who was hired by an old neighborhood Cabaret. Our house was also rented from Cabaret. There were a lot of people and a lot of musicians in father’s workplace. It was like a family atmosphere, just like in a TV drama. Sometimes I would go to my dad's workplace and listen to pop songs that were popular at the time.

Did the cabarets also host bands in those days?

It wasn't a full band, but I could hear instruments like drum machines and electronic organs being played. I've heard that full bands were common before I was born.

Someone who listened to music in cabarets as a child is now playing music in clubs. How romantic. I'd like to broaden the scope of my childhood sound experiences to include some of the best sound experiences I've had in my life.

My first memory is seeing Asoto Union perform for the first time. I was working on the street team of a music magazine called <MDM> at the time, and I saw ASOTO Union perform at Apgujeong Club during the magazine's official launch event. I loved hip-hop music at the time, and I only knew that hip-hop was music made by sampling soul and funk music, but when I saw ASOTO Union perform, I was shocked that someone could make this kind of music in Korea. After that, I went to their gigs every week and got to know the members, and they introduced me to their music and encouraged me to practice my instrument. That's how I started playing an instrument, and later I joined a band called Windy City. The second one is more of a visual experience than a musical one, as I once experienced a ‘whiteout’ while playing in Windy City. I was playing and I couldn't hear the music and my head was white, but it felt really good. When Windy City disbanded and I had to go into military service and couldn't play anymore, I wondered if I should give up music, but then the memory of the whiteout came back to me and I was able to continue playing. Those two experiences were the most powerful for me.

Your careers remind me of Korean subculture and underground culture. In my opinion, It’s very different from the Hongdae indie music scene. Do they have a sense of belonging to the Korean subculture?

Honestly, I never felt like I belonged. I don't even been conscious about it. The band I'm in now, Workmanship, has a lot of major hip-hop clients, but a lot of the stuff I do with my own name is related with subculture and underground scene. I don't really think of them separately. I think both are good.

So you don’t have an affections for Korean subculture?

Not particularly affectionate. Rather, I think it's interesting. I've been in a relationship with subculture for a long time, but I think I've kept the right amount of distance because I'm more interested than I’m in love.

What's interesting to you?

When I was younger, my focus was always overseas. Whether it was underground or major, I was always conscious of what was happening overseas at the moment. Then, when I was in my mid-to-late 20s, I observed that the gap between overseas and domestics shrank a lot. The domestic music scene and the overseas music scene became more or less in sync. I kept observing with interest because I felt that the music, style, and way of running a label in Korea was becoming more similar to the overseas cases I had read about and watched on YouTube. Now that I've been playing for more than 20 years, the generation has changed, and new friends are coming out of the new generation. I think those things are still interesting.

Can you share a few more interesting things you've seen recently?

First of all, music events where DJs collaborate with clubs become much more specialized, and there are more cases of Korean electronic musicians working with overseas labels. It's not as widespread as K-pop, but it's not uncommon to see Korean names on the lineups of famous electronic music festivals. There are more Koreans appearing on popular channels, and they don't necessarily emphasize their Korean heritage. In the past, Djs and producers would form labels and promote together, but now it's become common for an individual artist is hyped international promotion and play big venues.

Dj is a person who plays music, Some DJs create their own music, but it's not necessary. There are deejays who achieve world-class fame without making music themselves. So What do you think makes a good DJ?

I think of a DJ as someone who organizes and introduces people to new music or genres of music, like a radio station. It's when I listen to their library that I get interested and realize that this person is really good. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to listen to a lot of genres, but a mix of music from different libraries can have a big impact. Mixing technique is also important. It's not just about connecting the flow of songs based on how people react to them, it's about whether it feels natural when the chords of one song lead into the chords of the next, or whether the kick patterns are less pronounced and more natural when they overlap. It's definitely a skill that takes a lot of listening to music to get good at.

I didn't realize you cared about chord progression.

If I'm playing the house genre, I'll spend 30 minutes thinking about how I'm going to take a kick pattern, instrumental sound, or chord progression. Unless playing something completely different, I’ll connect the set that could be matched. Playing something completely different is when I want to completely change the mood.

I'm also curious about the process of building the library. My stereotype of DJ is someone who is always 'digging' through the 'dust box'. There is so much music out there, and new music is being released every day, so I wonder how a DJ finds and listens to music and organizes it into your own library.

In the past, I used to find new music from compilation records. There used to be a lot of compilations of certain genres, and if there was an artist that I liked, I would buy their album and listen to it. Then I would go to a record store and ask the staff. I like this person, can you introduce me to someone like this person. That's how I expanded my library when I was younger. I also expanded my library by reading magazines. I would watch interviews with my favorite musicians and find out who they were working with. I used to do it analog way and ask around, but nowadays I also get recommendations from Bandcamp, Apple Music, and Spotify, but I've definitely found that algorithmic recommendations get a little boring after about half a year. I still try to find new music by looking at web pages, DJs' mix sets, and radio playlists.

Do you maintain both interest in music that's been released in the past and music that's being released now?

I tend to. Of course, there are some musicians that I used to really like but don't listen to much anymore. But if they're still making music, It creates a connection with my current favorite music naturally. Then I'll go back and listen to their albums and see what they've done since then.

It sounds like it takes a lot of energy. I used to be an aspiring hip-hop producer and I used to diggin‘ vinyls from dustbox. I listened to a lot of music, obsessed with finding the rarest music that no one else knew about, and at some point it all became really tiring. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the task of finding and listening to music?

Actually, I had the same experience not too long ago. It's a job, so there are situations where you have to keep updating your library. If I have a party where I have to play dubstep, I have to keep updating my dubstep library, and if I have a gig where I have to play hip-hop, I have to keep updating my hip-hop library, and I have to keep updating the music that's relevant to that. So, after the pandemic, I had a little bit of burnout. I felt like it was exhausting to find music, listen music, and categorize it like, “Mmm, I like it,” or “Mmm, I don't like it,”. At some point, I found myself listening to music but it wasn't transmitting to my brain. It was like that until the beginning of this year. Funny thing is that I kept getting scheduled to play an instrument and meet people, jam with them, then I felt differently about listening to music. Recently, I've been curious again what are DJs playing these days.

I can totally understand your point. The next question is about algorithmic recommendations. An important characteristic of our time, I feel, is that there is so much to listen to everywhere. Algorithmic recommendation services using artificial intelligence (AI) have come along at the right time, and many people are happy with them. In terms of the act of recommending music, a Dj and an AI may seem to be doing similar things, but there are significant differences. A DJ is essentially someone who encourages active music discovery. Algorithmic recommendations, on the other hand, seem to send the message that in a busy world, you don't have to do that anymore. As a DJ, how do you feel about algorithmic recommendations?

At first, I thought algorithmic services were fun because they kept recommending musicians I would like. I thought, “This guy is good at what he does.” But as time went on, it became less and less interesting because it always recommended similar music. Sometimes I want to listen to something different, but he keeps recommending jazz or soul funk. So I still find music magazines and musicians' own playlists more interesting. I think one of the reasons for relying on algorithms is that you want to save time and develop your taste, but what I've realized lately is that I need to experience a lot of things I don't like to know what I really like. You can't do that if you only get recommendations for things you already like. My friends who work as Dj and radio stations around me were initially wary of algorithmic recommendations and worried that it would mean less work for them, but over time, I think they've realized that's not the case.

You started out music carrier as a percussionist in the Windy City and have since moved on to various session work includes workmanship. How is playing an instrument as a performer different or similar to spinning music as a DJ?

As a DJ, I listen to a lot of music and the libraries I've built have had a huge impact on my playing. When I listen to a piece of music, I could immediately organize the options of whether I want to play a conga, bongos, or timbales on top.

There are so many different types of percussion instruments. Do you have a favorite percussion sound?

Congas are probably my favorite. It's an instrument that fits into every genre. Even if you don't know the difference between a conga and a bongo, you can catch it by the sound. It's timeless, and it's still being used today. After tambourine and shakers, congas are probably the most popular percussion instrument.

Do you keep up with your instrumental practice? As a percussionist, I personally struggled with the number of instruments I had to practice.

I used to think that I had to be good at this and good at that, but if you do one thing to a certain extent, it leads to another. I think I'm less obsessive about practicing everything and more about wanting to play as a whole.

Percussion instruments can perform a variety of functions, including rhythm, timbre, effects, and more. As a percussionist, what are your favorite features?

When I'm working on a session, the percussion is often added after the necessary instrumentation is already in place. Then I have to squeeze in between, and I get a kick out of that when I do it well. I feel like I get my own sense of satisfaction when I'm able to squeeze in something and create a rhythm or harmony that people can accept.

In my current work, I look at contemporaneity as the sound of different eras echoing here and there, and in that sense, I think clubs and DJs who play a variety of music from different eras are very important witnesses of contemporaneity. As a witness to the club scene for 20 years, is there a sound that you think is important to you now and will be important in the future?

The kick sound(bass drum). The kick sound is so important in dance music. A lot of club music only has a kick sound in the drums. It's very dangerous to play music in a club without a kick. In that sense, I think the kick is a timeless sound. A lot of DJ still sample kicks from old records when they make music.

What's your favorite kick sound?

For funky music, I definitely like the kick sound of the James Brown band. It's not too bouncy, it's not super compressed hard hitting kicks that you hear nowadays, it's the kind of kick you'd hear on a breakbeat. I feel best when I hear a kick like that.

Official final question. Please use your imagination. If you had a microphone that could pick up a sound from yourself or your unconscious what do you think it would sound like?

Oh! (Spits out a short exclamation.) Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I'm often moved by many things these days, and I wish I could record that impressions. It's a sound that evokes a kind of joy. When I play, it feels good to hear that sound.