YEIN redefines classic


YEIN is a siren. Her voice sounds delicate, often with a seemingly whispered flow, but her serene storytelling floods listeners with emotions. Her first digital album “5” is available on Spotify. Here, she talks about pioneering her genre, Future Classic:

I just love to sing. I say what I want to and represent myself whenever I sing.

I think these are what I do best even when I’m still so into so many art forms. I like combining them. I consider art as one—you can separate and categorize them, but eventually they are one in a big way.

There are different stories in each and every song I write and sing. When I finish one, I listen to it and it makes me feel really peaceful—and I want people to experience the same thing. That’s why I think I try hard to bring in that kind of naturism feel, that kind of atmosphere into my music. I’d like to think that the tone of my voice could make them feel at ease and relaxed.

I like the atmosphere that classical things in general exude and I want to be able to bring that into my music. I want people to listen to my music right now, in the contemporary, and also in the future, and hopefully they would feel a classical mood. 

All things classical, I think it never fades. It’s always relevant, and we always go back to it. It’s called a classic cause that’s the foundation of what we have now. There are a lot of people who fuse classical things with futuristic concepts.

But even when I call my music “Future Classic,” I don’t create sounds under the genre of future. Instead, I want to bring back future listeners into some sort of classical era, with a sound that was inspired by the classics and interpreted by someone in the present.

Future Classic—it’s very me. It’s actually awesome to pioneer things, but at the same time I don't think I'm the only one who tries to produce this kind of sound, this kind of music. There are so many people who pioneer classical things mixed with future things together, I think I’m just the one who named it (laughs).

Future Classic—I think it’s good to finally be able to call the music I create. It’s nice to have these words represent myself and the artist in me.

Life is very hard, so I want people to really feel calm when they listen to my music. Unlike my music, though, I’m not really calm as a person. I also feel frustrated during my process of creating songs, too. But there’s also this sense of calm that comes with the sense of accomplishment whenever I finish a song.

Personally, I like the song “Jose (pronounced as Joje).” It’s my favorite song out of all that I’ve written. I wrote it when I saw this movie “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish.” It’s a Japanese film and it really inspired me to write a lot of music.

These days, it’s quite hectic. There are so many people I meet to help me with my album. It’s hard sometimes, but also fun. There are many opportunities to learn new things and meet awesome people who support me and help me do what I do, and would like to do.

I’m the one who knows my music very well, but for the other aspects of it—looking for a clothing muse, music video director and editor, while I acknowledge that there are experts for it, being hands-on is a great opportunity for me to learn in many areas to build who I am as an artist.

When I wasn’t preparing for my album, I sleep a lot. I watch movies—I like old films and my best friend is also into film and videography. I also watch YouTube and go to cafes where I listen to new music. I love watching live sessions at Cafe Nara, it’s a place I frequent in the area I live in, which is outside Seoul.



As told to Vinz Lamorena; interview courtesy of MCA Music Philippines.
This article was previously published as a newspaper article on Inquirer Super.

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