22 year old Singapore-born, Boston-based DIY artist, hongjoin, has just released his highly anticipated album KOMOREBI. The album title is the Japanese word for when sunlight filters through the leaves of trees. Hongjoin set out to capture the emotions this word evokes to his listeners in this album, and he accomplished this.
KOMOREBI is a cohesive album that delves into the feeling of love and the beauty that comes with it. It’s uplifting, it invites the listener to be a dreamer and embrace the unknown. Each song blends together seamlessly. Those who are looking for a beautifully composed and thought out album will enjoy what KOMOREBI and hongjoin have to offer.
Learn more about hongjoin’s writing process, the creativity behind this new release, and various inspirations through the interview below.
What is your biggest strength when writing songs?
I like to think that no matter what genre I write, it’s pretty obvious when it’s a hongjoin song! I take a lot of pride in writing with my heart on my sleeve, and I try to make them feel like a conversation. Maybe the fact that I’m so honest and vulnerable in my music is the reason why my listeners always come back to a song.
Music fans joke that an artist’s best work is made after a breakup. How has love influenced the way you create a song?
They are not wrong…and I am charged as guilty as well hahahaha. Love is the reason why I write, and they take shape in many ways. KOMOREBI is a breath of fresh air from my usual songs about loss and heartbreak though! It’s centered around taking a leap of faith and choosing love. I think why most artists write well when they are a reflection of their personal experiences, so yes! An artist’s best work can be made when they feel in love with people and with life.
You’ve mentioned that VALLEY inspired your songwriting and that you’d love to write a song with them or Charlie Burg. What’s one element these artists share that consistently draws you in?
Both artists have distinctly different styles of songwriting that have pretty muched shaped my own craft in songwriting. I love VALLEY for all their nostalgia-inducing lyrics, juxtaposing happy melodies with heart wrenching lyrics. It always transports you into a conversation, and you feel like you are experiencing it in real time.
Charlie Burg is dead-on poetry. The way he writes is sometimes so abstract and personal, it feels like a pretty painting you would stumble across in a museum. What they have in common is their innate ability to storytell, and say things without explicitly describing it. It’s what I try to emulate in my own work and I am so incredibly inspired by them!
What do you feel is the most underrated song in your discography?
If by underrated song you mean deserves more streams, I would say “Long Way Home“! I feel like it’s one of those songs that will remain in my setlist for a long time to come.
Which song on your latest album, Komorebi, are you excited for people to hear?
Well, I feel like I’m inclined to say “Komorebi” because it is the title track, but Anomaly is my outro track and it was the hardest one to get right out of all the songs on the album. I love the way it turned out, and it is a song that I worked on with many people! I feel like I managed to capture my influences from the Asian and Western world the most in this song, blending them into a single composition. From the songwriting to the production, everything captured the essence of what I wanted to portray within the song.
It feels like the art of curating an album is lost. With many major artists releasing 20-song records (with the track list not being coherent) creating a narrative with this long form piece of work has dissipated. For you, how important is it to create a cohesive story within an album?
I feel like the way that music is being consumed is changing so much due to short form content, and our attention spans are getting lower and lower which is detrimental to the art form of telling stories through well thought out projects like EPs and Albums. Personally, if I am invested in an artist I, I will always be most excited when anticipating an album, finding easter eggs and recurring motifs throughout the album. With DSPs becoming the main source of consuming music, it is inevitable that singles are preferred, and just churning out songs consistently is the best way to retain an audience and to grow and market music.
It’s hard, but this is going to be my 3rd musical project, and this is my most cohesive body of work in my opinion. From the soundscapes to the transitions between songs, and the musicality behind the tracks, I hope you can sit down for 30 minutes to listen to this album from start to finish as every choice made in the tracks were intentional! I want this album to live on for a long time and grow on you with each listen. It represents a collection of my thoughts and emotions and to me is a journal of those experiences. I look back on F(OOL) and Petrichor fondly, and I know I will do the same for KOMOREBI after some time!
hongjoin
