Spotlight: Rising Asian American Creative hyejin Releases Debut EP ‘WHAT A SHAME!’
“I ACTUALLY ALWAYS GO BY ABBY” — confesses Seoul-born singer-songwriter hyejin. Not many of the up-and-coming artists’ close friends know her Korean name, hyejin, leading the artist to adopt it as her stage name. “I want to kind of separate my identities,” she explained.
And it isn’t hard to see why. In recent years, the singer has built a strong discography of work, releasing her first EP, WHAT A SHAME!, today.
“Honestly, I always liked music,” the artist told me on a busy Friday afternoon. After performing in her debut show at Sounds of Brazil (SOB’s) and opening for renowned Korean rapper Loopy at the Sultan Room, she prepares for her first EP release, WHAT A SHAME! all while attending New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.
With concert shows, music recording, and schoolwork, she is no stranger to stress. “It's a pretty tough balance, honestly, but I get to do what I love as part of my education,” she said.
At college, hyejin has immersed herself in the creative community, frequently collaborating with classmates Lio and Joe Cho.
“I never knew what it took to become a musician until I was in middle school, because I fell in love with old school R&B and hip-hop,” hyejin described. “That's when I kind of decided that I want to pursue music because there [weren't] many people that looked like me that were making music that I was listening to.”
The ambitious young artist got her start self-producing in her bedroom, “watching YouTube tutorials.” After getting a summer gig and saving enough to buy a microphone, she started self-releasing on SoundCloud, cementing her intention to pursue music.
While producing WHAT A SHAME! the artist tapped into influences of city pop, dreamy vocals, and jazz-funk. “U GOOD?” one of her pre-release singles, features instrumentation from star saxophonist Augie Bello.
In respect to her musical journey thus far, hyejin describes it as a “double-edged sword.”
“On one hand, I’ve reached a community of complete strangers, but on the flip side, I’ve also become strangers with people I once considered my closest friends,” she said, referring to people who have doubted her in the past.
Despite her brutally honest lyrics, the singer describes herself as a quieter person. “I try to keep [my music] as honest as possible because I [don’t] normally say what I feel, so I create a different character when I'm writing,” she explained.
And it shows. From its first moments, “U GOOD?’’ establishes a dreamy R&B track with sharp, biting lyrics. “[This] is my response to the people who have doubted my dreams and the lessons that this path has taught me,” hyejin added.
In the EP, “I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE” is one of the singer’s favorites. “That was the first song that I wrote for the album,” she shared.
However, other songs took longer to perfect. The singer identified “U GOOD?” as a challenging piece. “[It] took me the longest — we went through so many different progressions and I re-recorded vocals.”
Before the EP, hyejin’s songwriting was primarily individual. “What I do is [I] get a sample from my producer and start freestyling,” the artist said.
For WHAT A SHAME! hyejin took a much more collaborative approach. “I remember my first session with my producers. I was so nervous [and] scared, but I definitely got more comfortable with that.”
On stage, the singer shines. As a child, hyejin never grew up onstage, never seeing herself as a “power vocalist,” but the artist showed off her talent in recent debut at S.O.B.’s East West performance.
“I'm going to do more [like that] in the future,” hyejin said, praising her producers for their support through the creation of the EP and her listeners. “Every time a new song comes out, I get so many messages in the comments.”
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