"The basis of scientific research is to start with observation, discover regularities, formulate laws, and then move on to verification and experimentation. This method can be applied to many other fields, not just science, and it's similar to my work process. If I find a small regularity in my work, that's a good starting point, or it's just fun to observe."

*This is sound created by haihm by a modular synthesizer.

My first question is about the soundscapes of your childhood. What sounds did you grow up listening to?

I attended a music school from a young age and was exposed to a wide variety of music. From middle school to university, I attended many performances and practiced with my friends, memorizing scales and harmonic structures. In the process, I developed a clear sense of pitch and began to recognize pitches without realizing it. I think the same is true for people who have been listening to their favorite music since childhood, even if they didn't attend an art school. Just by listening to music, you learn through experience, and that experience becomes a valuable asset.

Was your musical experience more specifically a Western classical music education?

It's probably not unrelated, but my dad is a musician, so I was exposed to a lot of music even before I went to conservatory. Wherever we went, I could hear his selection of pop music, and my mom loves to sing, too. I played the piano, but in middle school and high school, I listened to a lot of non-classical music with my friends, sharing our favorite music on MP3s with each other. Metallica was very popular then, and I personally listened to a lot of Japanese idol music.

When did you first learn to play the piano?

I played it as a hobby when I was younger, but when I was in sixth grade, my lesson teacher recommended a school where I could major in piano. I studied hard for a year and got accepted.

You then went to Austria to study abroad, and in many interviews you often talk about your time abroad, and you say that there were moments when you practiced and realized that you really loved music.

I was feeling lonely in a foreign country at my very sensitive age, and one day I was playing the piano and I realized that this is really beautiful music. One of the memorable moments was that I was getting ready to go to bed at night and I turned on the radio and it was playing a piano concerto, and it was the famous Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major No.2 (Adagio Assai), and the lyrical melody was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes, and of course I love it now, but it remains a touching moment for me because so many things overlapped at that time. At that time, what my teacher talked about the most was how to make a sound, how to use your arms and body to make a sound, how to recognize the sound you want to make first and then touch the keys, and if I practice with that in mind, I sometimes find really beautiful sounds. I think that moment was the beginning of my fundamental interest in sound.

Have you had a moment like that recently?

Until my early 30s. I remember listening to 'Bright Star' by The Enid, an 80s art rock group, and almost bursting into tears.

While studying abroad, you switched from piano to popular and electronic music. In fact, Western classical music meets electronic music at some point, was that an influence?

Not necessarily. First of all, when I was studying abroad, I was really impressed by the beauty of sound itself. I was listening to Yoon Sang's music at that time, and I loved how the kick and snare, which I thought was a drum set, would change into something else, and I realized that music could be made like that. It wasn't until much later that I realized the intersection between classical and electronic music. One day, when I was really into glitch and EDM, I listened to Debussy after a long time, and it felt very similar to the structure of electronic music.

I heard that Debussy's music had a big influence on brazillian musicians like Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Yoon Sang is also known for his love of Brazilian music. Personally, when I listened to your early music, I felt that it was electronic music with sophisticated harmonies and melodies, like Jobim's music. Nowadays, you've changed to a more minimalist and glitchy style, how did that happen?

I actually gave my first demo to Yoon Sang, and then we met and worked together, and he influenced me a lot. We have very similar tastes, so whatever we do, it works really well. Meeting with him led me to work on electronic music-style songs and even release my own solo album. And after a bit of time, I realized that I needed a change. At the time, I was working a lot of jobs to make money and didn't have enough energy to put into my personal work, and I realized that I needed to do the music I wanted to do before it was too late.

When I listen to your music these days, I hear both glitch and ambient. They can be very different genres, which style do you gravitate towards more?

I was just a piano player, so when I started, I didn't really know anything, and it was a process of finding my taste one by one. To be honest, I later discovered electronic music, which is connected to classical music, like musique concrète or tape music. I think I ended up mixing a lot of different styles. There was a period when I loved Brazilian music because I was fascinated by the richness of the harmonies in Brazilian music, which I've loved since I was a kid, and I was also curious about dance music with sequences, like Japanese idol music. As I dug deeper, I became interested in glitch, and my tastes deepened.

Can you tell us a little bit about the music that influenced you during that time?

I listened to a lot of Japanese electronic music in the early 2000s. Ryuichi Sakamoto and the musicians around Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) released a lot of cute electronic music. I also listened to a lot of German glitch music, European electronic music, whose name I can't remember right now. There were albums by Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, two of the guys from YMO, as well as music by Frank Bretschneider, Taylor Deupree, Alva Noto, and others.

With the album <Nowhere>, released in 2022, I felt that you were interested in very small-scale vibrations. It feels like a musical journey from harmonies and melodies to grains of sound, and after the release of that record, you said on social media that “the sound is in the right place”. What sounds are important to you in your current work?

I think I'm getting simpler and simpler as a person, and sometimes when I listen to my 2014 album again, I feel suffocated. I think music represents the state of mind at that time, and in the past I really wanted to do my own thing and do something unconventional, so when I listen to it now, I feel like there's no room to breathe. An important change for me was meeting Cha Jinyeop. I met her a few years before I released Nowhere and started making music for dance theater. Of course, it's important for music for dance to have a rhythm and create an active atmosphere, but more importantly, it should be a flowing background. The movement should be more prominent than the music. Until then, when I made music, I felt compelled to change something because the music was the main character. I was worried about how people could listen to minimal music with a similar flow because it was boring. But when I met dance, I gradually got used to it and let go of my obsession with music, because music doesn't have to be the main character, and if you just let it be, change happens. I learned a lot from working with dance. I have a really good working relationship with Cha Jin-yup since then. These process of change led to the Nowhere album.

There's a also stigma around this kind of minimalist music. There's a misconception that it's too easy to make because you only hear a few notes for tens of minutes. Nowadays, there are products that create instant ambient music with a single pedal button. I think the simpler you approach music, the more you have to think about what makes it special.

I've been thinking about that a lot since my first album, and I think an artist's unique color comes through from the beginning when they choose the sounds that they like, and I think the more you literally focus on the sounds, as opposed to creating melodies or chord progressions, the more your taste can come through. Sometimes when I collaborate with friends who know me well, they say that I always pick sounds that I think they would like, and I definitely have that kind of taste.

Can you describe a little more about your favorite sounds?

I love sine waves. Most of my favorite sounds are derived from that.

A sine wave is a clean sound with no overtones. Is it connected to your personality?

I think it does, to a certain extent.

Do you have a preference for certain oscillators that produce sine waves? Some people in electronic music value specific equipment made at a certain time, while others just use computers and programs. This question is about music-making tools.

I don't have a preference for any particular oscillator. When I buy an instrument, some people read the manual first, but I just listen to the presets first and if I like the sound, I start writing a song. I call myself an electronic musician, but I'm not interested in the origins of electronic music or its early environment, I just focus on composing. Even with presets, there's a lot of possibility for tweaking, so I tend to start with a sound I like and modify it. I use Ableton Live as my digital audio workstation (DAW) and Reactor as my favorite instrument.

When playing acoustic instruments, including the piano, the player's body in relation to the instrument is important. Your breathing and posture can change the sound. Can the same perspective be applied to electronic instruments?

It can't be explained in terms of body posture, but I think it has something to do with energy, and I think it depends on my emotions or mood at the time. Sometimes there's a sound from that moment that I can't recreate, even if I tried.

Electronic music is closely related to technological advancements, and there are many experts in the field. Do you try to keep up with new technologies?

To some extent, yes. When I see other people using different tools, I get curious. But for me, making music is still the most fun. I think there are areas where you can take it to the next level with new technology, so I think it's necessary to study, but I don't try to keep up with what's trending, what people are using.

Let's talk about live performance. Making music and playing it live are two different things. How do you prepare for a live performance?

I don't play keyboards live, so it's a bit of a challenge. So far, I've been mixing clips I've prepared, but I'm thinking about using modular synthesizers in the future.

When you're working on a dance theater, what do you usually do in front of the computer?

Sometimes I edit the sounds in real time, but usually I'm cueing the music because there are certain points in the dance theater that are promised.

Nowadays, there are a lot of people who use audio visuals to accompany their electronic music. I wonder if it's because they're thinking about what they can do on stage with electronic music that they're relying so much on visuals. Personally, I am wary of music performances that are more visual than auditory, but I was impressed by the fact that you used scent rather than video in your recent solo performance.

I used to like audio-visual artists, and I was really envious of artists who were good at it, but now I realize it's not my thing. There are a lot of people who are good at it, but I personally think that people tend to judge it faster if it's more visual. I want my work to be more focused on sound than visual.

Finally, let's talk about contemporaneity. Artists are always asked to be contemporary. How do you interpret the word contemporaneity in your work?

I had a brief conversation with a dance director the other day about this question. I think people in the dance world are more used to translating conceptual things into text, and I don't make music to organize my thoughts, come up with a concept, or organize my intentions, and then make music. As I was talking to him, I realized that I'm a very personal person, and of course I'm not immune to the situation and environment I'm in, but I think all the answers are always within me. I have a database of music I've listened to since I was a kid, and from there I develop and categorize things that I like, and when I'm making music, those things come out one by one, and I guess I call it contemporaneity. A lot of what makes me who I am is influenced by my relationships with people, and it's definitely influenced by the times.

We talked about your favorite sounds, do you have any dislikes?

My least favorite sound is the sound of a chalkboard scratching.

If you had a microphone that picked up sounds from your unconscious mind, what do you think it would record?

Can I just talk about the feeling? I think it's a sound of sadness. It's a personal thing, but I feel like sadness is what drives me to keep making things and living, and I think it's emotion of sadness that's deep inside of me that allows me to do emotional work and live my life, and I also think there's a lot of beautiful things that come out of sadness.