ESKM is a Korean-American RnB singer based in Seoul. KpopWise got the awesome opportunity to speak with him to learn more about his artistry and get his perspective on his new song "Stay."
Hi! I’m the singer.
I’m currently based out of Seoul, Korea, but my hometown is the
DC Metro area in the US.
When did you become interested in music?
Growing up I’d always been very
musically inclined. While my family isn’t the most musical family in the world,
music was always a part of my childhood life and our house had lots of
instruments. I honestly don’t know a point in my life where music
didn’t take up a large chunk of my time.
What's your
inspiration?
My biggest inspirations are the
new songs I hear throughout the year, and the different scenarios I imagine in
my head. I'm constantly impressed by the new music released and it’s honestly
so inspiring. Covid was hard for me as a writer because an important part of my
writing process involves taking solo walks while listening to new music and
seeing human interactions.
How do you
describe your style?
I’m all about the vibes. If I
don’t feel the groove in a song, it won’t get released. My goal is for my songs
to get people physically moving. Lyrically, while I don’t write all my lyrics,
I tend to write about the types of situations I’d find myself in. I can be a
bit awkward, especially when meeting people for the first time, so often that
awkwardness gets written in. That’s simply me keeping it real.
What is your
creative process like?
I’ve always focused primarily on
melodies, which can cause my songwriting to stall at times. From the first
stuff I seriously wrote with producers in 2017, to my newest song, I’ve
constantly tried to expand and improve on my skills. I’ve learned so much about
song production, and the mistakes I’ve made along the way are simply part of
the journey.
Normally I’ll find a bunch of
reference songs that fit a certain vibe I’m looking for. It can be something
from a drum pattern and some airy synths, to even a full song that I want to
model my vibes off of. Even if I tried to copy someone completely, it’d be
impossible to. My style inevitably gets imprinted on it.
After that the producer I’m
working with will generally send me somewhat of a shell of the song and we’ll
go over what I like and dislike from that.
My “fun” part comes next, I load
it up and start writing the different parts and figuring out how I want to
divide the song. I’ll sit down and sing various melody lines that might match,
throw out all of them, rinse and repeat. All it takes is for one part (verse,
chorus, bridge, etc) to feel right. That’s when I start writing some
lyrics and figuring out if I want to do it in English or Korean.
I write lots of what I call
“dummy” lyrics. Sometimes they end up being real lines that I use, but usually
they’re just random things I thought of in my head at the time to figure out
the sounds and rhythms I want.
My process is pretty
compartmentalized from the producer sending me a beat, me writing my part, me
sending it back to the producer, then jumping in the studio to record.
Can you tell
us about your single “Stay”?
Stay was a really fun song to
write. Writing for the song actually finished long before release. When I
released my last song “Gamebreaker”, I had envisioned that song as being
released and most pandemic restrictions being lifted not long after. Stay tells
the story of how foolish I can be to think I know what the future holds.
I turned 30 in March, and I was
definitely thinking about that as I wrote the lyrics. I told my parents I’d
stay in Korea for 5 years doing music, and then reevaluate the next phase of my
life after that. This past April marked 5 years in Korea for me, and I have no
intentions of changing what I’m doing. Music is like this challenge that I want
to conquer.
The song’s definitely a reminder
of how much we change over the years, and yet how much we actually stay the
same. I thought by this point I’d have a much more established music career and
be able to have performances lined up for whenever I wanted. That’s not the
case, but that also doesn’t mean I’m necessarily doing anything wrong.
While that part of the song is very personal to me in that way, it also represents how I feel about my love life. How I’m not always ready to move on, and how I want the next person I meet to be the one who pulls me out of that cycle. I’m not the greatest with girls, so the song reminds me that whether in life or love I should not doing anything half-assed and jump in 100%.
Do you have any other hobbies or non-music-related talents?
Fitness is very important to me.
These days I’m working a lot on my flexibility and I’m trying to do the
splits!
The other aspect of fitness is
food. I’ve never been much of a sightseeing person, but I love to travel to
eat. I’m really excited for health and safety to continue to improve globally
so I can go discover great cuisine. I also enjoy cooking. A lot of people would
laugh if they saw my YouTube recommendations since there’s almost no
music and it’s basically just cooking and food videos.
I also play some console games
(PS5). I’ve never been great at games, but have always enjoyed playing. I’ve
been going at it since the days of Atari.
What can we
expect from you next?
Honestly, who knows? I have a
background in broadcasting, so I’ve often considered starting my own podcast.
I’m also always trying to do more video content, and I finally have the right
people around me to encourage that.
Maybe I’ll start streaming me
playing games at some point?
Of course, there’s always new music
in the works that I can’t wait to release for everyone.
What is a
message you would give to your fans?
I’m by no means a well-known
singer, but I’m thankful for each person who listens to my music. It’s easy to
get frustrated when I see listens or views in the single digits, but the fact
that anyone is actively clicking on something I made is simply amazing to
me.
So, in short, thank you! The
music I write is meaningful to me, and I hope it can be meaningful for you
to.
Anything else?
Don’t
have anything specific coming up, but I did recently release my stay music
video!
Follow ESKM!
https://linktr.ee/eskmofficial
Listen on Spotify