By Jacob Pellegrino
R&B singer-songwriter hyejin creates music that combines personal lyricism with dreamy vocals and production that envelop listeners in her world. We recently had the opportunity to talk with hyejin after the release of her most recent single, “DAVID LEE.”
Born in South Korea, hyejin currently lives in SoCal and discussed how the differing cultures have influenced her sound.
“When I was in Korea, I definitely grew up listening to a lot of American records. And then once I left Korea, I fell in love with Korean music… There's a really huge city pop and fusion jazz scene in Korea and those artists really influenced my sound right now,” hyejin explained.
hyejin went on to discuss some more specific influences and how she listened to American music in her youth.
“In Korea, my dad would take me to like those bootleg CD stores. Foreign exports were really expensive back in the day, so a CD would cost like $60. So you would go to a record store and get the fake ones. I bought a bunch of records and I grew up listening to a lot of James Taylor, Keyshia Cole,” hyejin recalled. “But I think that really, the influences are there with my song ‘I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE.’ And that song, people view it as just like an R&B ballad, but it’s an homage to the Korean ballad scene. So I kind of like to sprinkle in the influences, like Eastern influences.”
Currently a student at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, hyejin released her newest single during finals week and move out. She discussed how production and songwriting classes complement her music career while other general education classes “take up a lot of [her] energy.”
“It's kind of weird. A lot of us are professionals in the music industry and we do so much stuff outside of school that school kind of feels like a side hustle at times,” hyejin said.
hyejin’s single, “DAVID LEE,” came out on May 19th and begins with a bouncy production style and smooth vocals before moving into a melodic and ethereal chorus. The track is a “straight to the point trap, R&B, pop song” that sees hyejin described as an “outlier” sonically and something she had never done before with more rap influenced vocals.
“There's a huge community of Korean boys that like church is a huge thing. Like religion is like everything, you know, over here and so like, they go to church and they go to praise band… but when they're not in church, they like to screw girls over and there's a huge like cultural awareness surrounding that and we just wanted to kind of tap in and make fun of that,” hyejin explained. “But David Lee is not like a specific person.”
hyejin’s lyricism is very open and bold, addressing a variety of situations that can arise in romantic relationships and embracing an empowering pessimism. She spoke some about the differences between her personal life and the view listeners get from her songs.
“My daily life is more low key… I would say I grew up as a super introverted, like shy girl. And then once I got to college, I think I realized that not a lot of people care. So I became more extroverted. So I kind of did a 180 with my personality,” hyejin said. “I think a lot of people who used to know me, they view my music as an, ‘oh, what the hell happened to her’ kind of thing. But the music that I'm making right now, especially the things that I talk about, have been thoughts that I've had for my whole life… it's how I express it. Like, I've never been able to express those thoughts. And then my music, once I got to college, became an outlet where I just talk about whatever I want to talk about.”
As a musician, hyejin started on the production side when she was 14, volunteering at her mother’s church to get her mother to buy her a USB mic and later Logic Pro, before being able to buy her own equipment. hyejin’s focus soon shifted to songwriting, “realizing that music’s such a collaborative thing and you gain a lot by working with other people.”
“With my producers, I met them my freshman year of college, and it was a very interesting process… I'd never been in the studio before. I was just writing songs in my room. And then once I got to college, it was kind of like figure it out in the studio,” hyejin recalled. “And so what I did was, I was super shy, so they would arrange the song first and then I would go to my bathroom floor to write it because I couldn't write in front of them for a while. Now I don't have an issue, but I used to be unable to top line or do anything in front of people. So I would do it in my dorm and then my roommate would come in at night to sleep, so I would go to my bathroom. Like all my songs are songs from my dorm bathroom floor. Just gross, but that's how it happened.”
With a diverse taste in music, hyejin has also been collecting records since she was 14, which can help her to find new sounds and inspirations.
“My dad would drive me to a bigger store in LA called Amoeba Records. That was like the greatest, greatest happiness of like, being able to buy like a $40 record. You know, I mean, it's an investment piece, and I have a few that are like rare finds,” hyejin shared. “My favorite one is a record called Oasis by Roberta Flack. I bought it at a bookstore in LA for 99 cents. I’d never heard of the record. Like, I love Roberta Flack, but that was not her hit album, I think. I listened to that and I fell in love. A lot of my songs are inspired by her and that album, especially my song, ‘I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE.’ The reference I had was a song from that album, so that's such a special album to me.”
As a musician, hyejin has recently started doing live performances and connecting with fans in person. When asked if there were any artists whom she listens to that someone might not expect from her catalog, hyejin discussed an upcoming track.
“I'm a huge Radiohead fan. I've been super inspired by Radiohead since high school, and I think my current catalog doesn't reflect that, but I have a few songs that are going to come out that are sort of alternative rock. I don't want to say it's a rock song, but it has the influences of rock music. So I'm very excited for that,” hyejin said.
After the interview, I was able to listen to the referenced track, titled “My Favorite Pillow.” It melds her unique style with more experimental stylings, mixing together multiple vocal and instrumental sections in an exciting new direction.
hyejin’s music is available wherever you stream music.
Photo courtesy of hyejin.