Yaeji sighs about the process of self-discovery leading up to his long-awaited debut album, With a Hammer. I can say it again. Blending influences ranging from Korean indie rock and electronica to leftfield bass and techno, the New York-via-Seoul creative’s intricate 13-track record saw her breakthrough single ‘Raingurl’ catapult her into an underground cult. Arriving seven years after being elevated to status, he carries a similar spirit with his 2020 mixtape, WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던. NME It has been described as a “dazzling, genre-bending tribute to the communal spirit”.
But while many factors inspired, or more precisely infuriated, in creating Yaeji, she came to a conclusion. That’s the far-reaching impact the pandemic has had on her. “Aside from how scary and hard it all was, lockdown was a time of sitting with myself without distractions,” she says. NME Zoom from her New York base. Before her pandemic, Yaeji wiped past events that had happened in her own life, and she “didn’t think about what it took to process, unpack, and understand myself.”
Being isolated for so long has brought mixed perceptions. Born in 1993 in Queens, New York City as the only child of a Korean family, Kathy Yeji Lee moved from New York to Atlanta at the age of five and moved to Seoul, South Korea during her junior year. She later returned to the United States to study, but she remembers that during her school days she felt abnormal.In Atlanta, she was in a mostly white neighborhood (” They didn’t know they were Korean. [entailed]so there were oddities and difficulties”), while in Seoul she was “too American and confused about it in the ’90s”. Combined with the Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate protests that were taking place, Yaeji’s emotions reached a boiling point. NME.
At the root of everything is anger.A nostalgic revisit of childhood love – just like in the animated TV series sailor moon – made her feel angry at her younger self, “because I felt like I had been wronged”. Because otherwise I’d let my anger live and pretty much ruin the point of seeing what it does.” Instead of conforming to the portrayal, she playfully observed it.
Similarly, when Yaeji writes songs, she finds her anger in check, sometimes appearing calm and positive. Take her poignant “I’ll Remember For Me, I’ll Remember For You” as an example, and see how Yaeji’s outlet and turning her emotions into her songs helps her. It lyrically describes what She sings sweetly to her melancholic instrumentals. “Feelings without words, melodies with feelings/When you write them down, your thoughts disappear and you are released.”
“With A Hammer” proves to be her most daring work to date, challenging herself to be more direct. Her album’s most sonically aggressive song, the techno-driven “Michin,” shows her newfound confidence. “I’ll show you one step ahead. Just smash it with a hammer.” Despite describing her musical style as “still shy, whispered and abstract”, she took a larger approach to her songs, further improving her vocal processing techniques during the album’s process. We have developed a large palette.
With a voice that mixes English and Korean, Yaeji also realized that “there are things that two languages can’t express emotionally.” If that wasn’t enough, like in “Passed Me By,” she was even blunt. “The chorus on that song isn’t words, it’s just phonetics,” she said, placing the chorus over drums and synths. “It captured this in-between feeling that I was feeling,” she says.
She also noticed that singing in Korean changed her expressions. It cannot be said in one language. It’s as if they’re working together to communicate a bigger idea. ”
There is also hope. In the opening song, “Submerge FM,” we sing about what we can do to “save future generations,” discovering that the bridge between generations is slowly but steadily building. A certain amount of lightness and optimism can overcome her destructive mindset, she says. “If you recognize the trauma and vicious cycle you have inherited, isn’t it your mission to break and heal that vicious cycle? and find the energy to bring about change.”
The album’s contemplative title track conveys a desire for freedom, but as the sleepy “Be Alone In This” subtly conveys that freedom doesn’t necessarily have to be explicitly fought for, she says. I would like to emphasize Through that gentle synth soundscape, Yaeji is able to recharge herself with her trembling voice fading in and out. “I have found that something as simple and mundane as daydreaming, resting, and getting enough sleep is a very powerful tool and a form of resistance. It can actually be powerful.”
Similarly, Yaeji previously found it easier to love his friends and family than he did to himself, so he learned that self-love is essential.’YYou fall in love with yourself and those around you.” Her new mantra is ‘Happy’, but she herself hit that spot near the end of the album process. “I experienced such emotional turmoil when the anger first surfaced.
After a period of inner doubt and a loss of sense of what was really important to her, Yaeji found herself again – but only after writing music and resting. For Granted” reflects this shift in thinking.Thinking about it, I don’t know.” The track explodes into a 30-second breakbeat frenzy. This unexpected release comes to a sudden halt as Yaeji concludes. “Let go, feel”. Finally, a moment of silence.
Previously, Yaeji stayed away from her releases “because the music I put out is too real for me.” But after a long journey of personally discovering and understanding how her anger has morphed into something else (“I’ve probably gotten over it. And it’s really sweet.” “Maybe it’s because there’s a made-up story about me and this hammer, and there’s a layer of separation – it’s me but it also says different myself. “
Yaeji’s ‘With A Hammer’ will be released on April 7th via XL Recordings.