California native Dong Joo Hwang, AKA D.J. AKA SupremeD is a producer and musician who has always had an interest in music. He first learned how to play the piano and flute and eventually joined his school’s orchestra and several other ensemble’s. Not only was an instrumentalist but he was a vocalist that participated in many competitions where he won multiple awards. When he realized his voice had changed he began to pursue musical production where he learned about many software’s and found his career path as a producer. He first learned how to use the software called FL Studio when he was in 6th grade and shared his music with his cousin, Aaron. Aaron was also interested in music production so he taught him how to use industrial software like Protools. With his support, he finally started to make some quality music and started to post his music on his blog. In 2012, he was signed by his production team, CRT, where he was able to work with his new co-workers to produce and share the music he loved.
About 2 years later he released his first album It Was Only Yesterday and a little over 48 hours ago, Hwang released his sophomore album Blue, in a kingdom by the sea. Most of you may have never heard of his name before but you have heard his music. He works with multiple members and artists’ of the United Legion of DOOM for example 1200 who has a guest appearance on his new album and Grand Kaiser who never fails to blow my mind with amazing artwork!
I personally have not had much contact with Hwang but over the past few months we’ve been communicating and I had been looking forward to his new album when I heard he would be releasing one soon. My personal favorite is the beginning, “Open” because it just immediately caught my attention and had me boppin’ for the rest of the album. It was perfect timing cause I was on my way to the
beach so it put me in an even better mood. Anyways, I was able to get more details of the album through an email conversation and all the work and thought that went into this new album. I’ll now let Hwang do the talking for
his complete and flawless masterpiece.
Artwork by Grand Kaiser
How is “BLUE, in a kingdom by the sea” different from “It Was Only Yesterday”?
– I was focusing more on vocal and melody portions on It Was Only Yesterday (IWOY). I had to email a lot of artists to get a proper clearance or feature. It was like my whole career in one album like how I was a part of The Destroyer or Jessie Ware’s production before when I made my own album. If I created IWOY to make people love and appreciate my music, then I created BLUE, in a kingdom by the sea (BLUE) to share people what I love about music.
-In BLUE album, I couldn’t release any original pieces because of my contract between me and my production team. With my production team’s permission, I could balance between my original works and reworks from other artists. I tried my best to include my signature sound and my own texture to them. This album is heavily based on samples from other artists. Some people really appreciate the beauty of sampling so I really hope people do like my style of sampling flips.
Where do you find most of your samples?
– I usually search it on YouTube. I share rare Youtube channels with good 70s and 80s music with several friends. I also listen to my coworker Jason’s vinyl collections and find inspiration. During the session, I just picked up a random vinyl and played it. One of them was 21st Century’s Ahead of Our Time. I really loved their track, The Way We Were and put it on my ProTools and started sampling it. It came out as The Way We Remember (Positive Vibes Only). Nowadays I sample artists from UMG because it’s easier for me to get clearance and get approval.
Which of your two albums is your favorite and why?
– I just can’t pick one of them. I don’t think it’s fair to my hard-work. I worked on both albums equally very hard.
What are your favorite songs from each album and why?
– My favorite song from IWOY is Wildest Moments because it was my first major record that I’ve worked on throughout my short career as a producer. My album version has my own drums and other additional production that Kid and Jessie’s team took out from the original record. I really wanted to share my version of it and I’m so glad they gave me permission to include that on my album. Brady Vans’ verse was a very last-minute decision that I made on the album. I was supposed to work with a different rapper on the record, but it didn’t work out. I asked Brady for it and I didn’t expect that he would do it for me. Like you heard, he murdered the track with his smooth flows and intelligent lines. I really love his work.
– From BLUE album, my favorite track is World Revolves Around You. I don’t know why I love that track so much. I recommend you listen to this through speakers or headphones. I recommend listening to any music through speakers and headphones actually. Other than World Revolves Around You, my favorite track is The Way We Remember (Positive Vibes Only) that me and 1200 produced. It was also my last-minute decision that I made for this album and 1200 created a masterpiece from a complex beat that I made. We did a similar work on IWOY called KKK, but I don’t think it was relatable to many people and the subject matter was too heavy for some people.
What influenced the title of “BLUE, in a kingdom by the sea”?
– I think blue is a mysterious color. It often represents “coldness” and “solitude”, but I’ve recently watched a film called “Blue is the warmest color”, that really inspired me to title my album, BLUE. My music both have cold and bright sides. So it really suited as my album title. Also “in a kingdom by the sea” is a line from one of my favorite poetic pieces, “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe. The poem is about him remembering his dead wife by the shore. I felt like I was in the same situation as Edgar Allan Poe in how I’m remembering my old love while I’m working on this album.
What influenced the sound of “BLUE, in a kingdom by the sea”?
– I wanted to try something different than IWOY. Last year, I was really into artists like Cashmere Cat, Hudson Mohawke, and other electronic music producers. I was planning to create an EDM album, but I didn’t want to limit my album as one genre. I had already finished this album in December but I decided to change my direction and it finally came out as BLUE, In a kingdom by the sea.
What was it like working with other artists on this album?
– Unlike my last album, IWOY, I didn’t really have to interact with many artists for this album since it was a mostly sampling-based project. My friend, Jeremy Fuentes, made a track called “WANT” and I loved it as soon as I heard his demo track. I decided to work on my version of it for my album. He knows how to create melancholy and uplifting tunes like that. I always love working with 1200. He always shares his vision for every track and his advice is always helpful to me to become a better musician. It was my first time working with Greg Brown but I’ve already heard his past works and I really enjoyed them. My producer friend, HXNS was supposed to be working on “WANT”, unfortunately, he was caught up with his school works. Our collaboration never really worked out (laughs).
What influenced the cover art of “BLUE, in a kingdom by the sea”? What was the experience like working with Grand Kaiser?
– Recently, I had a chance to visit LACMA, an art gallery in Los Angeles. I was fascinated by Larry Sultan’s post-realism works and I went to his website and saw this image of a mother and her baby swimming in a pool. That picture really grabbed my attention. I felt like a mother figure from the picture was representing a savior, despite the religious perspectives, I feel like music is my savior in my life. The baby would then reflect me in this picture. I showed this image to my designer friend Grand Kaiser, who’s also a brilliant musician, and he added red and orange tone from the original work. I enjoy working with people that I love and respect. Grand Kaiser is one of them, for sure.
Consider the title, the music, and the art. Rank the importance of these. What formula do you use when creating the three? What comes first? Are they all dependent on each other?
– Everything is important, but I would like to rank the music as the most important part of my album. Without good music, the title and the art wouldn’t really matter. Since I’m a music producer, I care about the sound much more than the others. I really care about the art cover part too. Though, I’m interested in art and design, I’m not an expert at it, I always do collaborations with other artists and try to learn from them. That’s why I was working with Mariah Llanes, an illustrator from Canada, and gave her all of artistic direction for IWOY. I worked with Grand Kaiser for this album and he has been working with many underground artists and his works are phenomenonal so I could trust him with my album’s cover.
– For BLUE album, I finished my music and tracklist first, then Grand Kaiser and I created a cover for it. At last, I came up with an album title. I mean, it doesn’t really matter. I always make my music first and the rest of them goes right after the music.
What was the creative process like when recording and writing this album? Did you do most of the work alone? Where did you write and record?
– The creative process during this album was totally different than IWOY. Pieces from this album are mostly from my room and I created them without any frustration and limitation by someone else. I made those records just simply because I love tunes like them. I worked most of the time alone. I wrote them while I was in my apartment and while I was in a coffee shop near my place. When I went to work, I often showed my music to people in the studio and they gave me criticism and their opinion.
Describe this album in three words.
– Gritty. Challenging. Nonchalant.
Why Gritty/Challenging/Nonchalant?
– Gritty has two definitions. I really love rough samplings and I’m anti-digital when I make music. I really love dirty and gritty sounds from sampling and off-beat tracks. “World Revolves Around You” & “Ew Ha Ew Ha” are great examples of gritty music. Also a word “Gritty” could define as showing courage. I believe that I showed my courage and ambitious through this project.
– I choose the word “Challenging” because I had to argue and make a compromise to release this album. I finished this album in December, but I couldn’t release it until now. Like I said, my production team members weren’t cool with my album release because they wanted me to focus on other projects and keep my original pieces to develop and give different artists. I respect my team and understand them, but I wanted to share my music with many people possible so I had to compromise on certain things. Also, my album was supposed be an instrumental album. I even got official instrumentals from Rhye and Galimatias themselves, but I felt like something was missing so I’ve decided to include some vocals.
– Nonchalant because you can enjoy my album at any time. Whenever you’re feeling good or bad, you can always listen to my album. That was my primary goal for this project.
If you absolutely had to choose one genre for this album, what would that be?
– One special thing about my album is that I don’t have one defined genre. I want Kendrick Lamar fans to listen and like my style of music. I want Radiohead fans to like my album. I want electronic music fans to like my album. I want Freddie Mercury fans to like my album. You know what I’m talking about (laughs).
What singles and visuals can we expect from this album?
– You can expect a few visuals from my album. I have a music video of “World Revolves Around You” that my friend and I made in December. I don’t know if I’m going to release that version but soon I will announce a few visuals from this album through my twitter and my website. Eventually, I’ll be doing more interviews internationally to promote my album.
Hwang will continue to go over and beyond the expectations of his fans and listeners which is why I’m already excited for when he plans to release his third album. Hopefully he’ll be making a trip over here to The Ville in the near future.