YUNJIN LEE
I just released my debut album Voluntary Response in January 2020. It's a solo piano album consisting 3 piano improvisation tracks and 4 experimental tracks - parts of piano recordings were fed into a synthesizer software called PERMUT8 and performed on a modular synth rig (thanks to Rabid Elephant 🧡). After the release, I have been focusing on solo electronics performance.
I am always gravitated towards interesting textures and raw sounds that aren't necessarily tonal. Recently I've been appreciating the balance and combination of textures/sounds and how the artist arranges and unfolds them through out the song. I guess it also has something to do with mixing, like how nicely the sounds sit together.
Voluntary Response is my first work as a producer, so I am pretty new to it. Around last summer, I had been graduated from a jazz school for a few years, and playing for lots of different projects as a sideman. But I was struggling to figure out my own musical identity. I couldn't see myself pursuing jazz as a main project but there were things that I definitely loved in music like weird noise, Igor Stravinsky's compositions, spontaneous improvisation, etc. I just didn't know how to put them together. Then I started learning about synthesis, which opened up A LOT of possibilities and ideas for me.
When I decided to record an album, I wanted it to be entirely about me - no external voices/expectations of what the album could be. I wanted to dig deeper into where my inspirations were coming from, what/why I love them so much, and record those ideas one by one. Then the editing process came along then mixing and mastering. I kept asking myself 'how do I want this to sound like?' in every process, and gave myself ownership over all the decisions (along with the help of mastering engineer&co-producer). Hence I was producing my album.
I love irregularity and little jolts within a rhythmic pattern (something I love about Stravinsky's music). I think it is fun to put something that throws off the momentum and almost make it sound like it's wrong. But if I have enough guts and push that forward, usually something unexpected and beautiful happens. As most of performance/recordings take place as improvisations, I like to add that 'see what happens' element and utilize that.
When I'm not working on music, I love watching cooking shows on Youtube, going to galleries and walking around while listening to music. I love hanging out with friends, going to see shows sometimes and taking a bath.
In this day and age, we live in a lifestyle where you need to be multitasking. It's unavoidable to be working on multiple projects at the same time while you are in the process of growing your own visions. I like to see the whole vision as a life long pursuit, therefore you really need to be honest with yourself on what you want to be spending time for. The faster you deal with yourself (in terms of what you want to do with your life), the more time and clarity there is for you to execute the steps to achieve your goal. So, I guess saying 'no' to what you don't want to do is another way of staying focused.
Don't be afraid to open your heart! It's hard to embrace mistakes made by you and people around you that may have significance in shaping who you are. I think we all constantly try to make peace with ourselves to understand and accept us as who we are, in order to live our lives. And we should be, so that we can do the same to the others. And I think what life is really about is relationship, after all…and making stories with one another that eventually becomes part of a history.
As I get older, I'm learning that you can't do everything on your own, and that's why we're all living together, and you can create something better, greater that is beyond you if you reach out and work with others.
