How have you been? I’ve been checking out your Instagram account @lioncladbeats where you’ve been posting many collaboration and performance photos.

I’ve been good. I have mainly focused on personal work for my second album and collaboration these days. It is fun to come and go between the border of two different jobs. I love jam sessions that work in harmony as if we prepared earlier. I’ve worked with multiple session players, musicians, and dancers, and I am planning on keeping active.

Do you gain any other vitality from collaboration apart from musical inspiration?

It is a fresh way of getting to know people. You can hardly tell someone’s sincerity out of superficial interactions like “What do you think about this?,” “It is good.” In the meantime, working together, I can sense the mood of my partner without even saying, “This is good.” I get to catch the immediate mutual responses, including audible and elaborate sentiments. Also, it is sensational to have the same vibe as someone else.

I can’t distinguish your music as mainstream or underground. I love that oddness. How would you describe your connection to the public?

I do not put a tag on myself. On the outside, my music has a slight distance from the popular appeal, and I still feel strange about the term “mainstream.” When I meet the audience in person, I create intimacy as if I’m casually seeing my friends. I’m not sure this is the right analogy, but my interaction with the fans reminds me of childhood memories playing hopscotch. (Laugh) People grow their curiosity and gather around near my musical boundary. I let them listen to pieces I like and invite them by asking, “Would you like to come in?”; this is how I get to know more people. I hope listeners would voluntarily join me empathizing with my enthusiasm when I ask, “This is what I do, what do you think about this? Doesn’t it sound fun?”

How would you describe the sentiment or mood dominating your current days?

It is similar to a song called Mad About Yo by Belgium band Hooverphonic. The song describes how it is to be madly in love or bewitched by someone else, and I am in a similar state. I have to take care of millions of factors in the process of my musical work, gathering people trying new things; however, I even enjoy such trouble and confusion “What should I do?” in those moments.

I guess you accept any hardship as a driving force rather than frustration.

Yes, I do. I get to have a clearer vision of the matters that make me wish ‘someone would teach me how...’ compared to standard issues. I start building a feeling: ‘I am arranging this house that I can comfortably breathe in’ and concentrating on it as a project. When trying something new, most people look for previous examples. For instance, if wanting to use tiles as baseboards in DIY interior decorating, they might search ‘construction using tiles as baseboards’ online to make sure and look through related videos. In my case, however, I act like there’s no former example. I try my ideas and enjoy the moment of it ultimately working out. The same had applied to finger drumming. When I first started, there was no one actively working in the field. Therefore, instead of following an iconic pioneer, I prioritized achieving my unique identity. Since I had no information, I asked many battle DJs, including DJ Son, who I’m still close with, and pondered the right mood from many angles. I didn’t want to miss out on either building up skills or promoting my identity.

How do you embrace trial and error or learn from mistakes made in the process?

I believe mistakes are necessary. I read Les Miserable when I was young. If I remember it correctly, it ends with a sentence like “His fate was very strange, and he dies.” His ‘very strange fate’ has lingered in my mind more than the fact of him being successful for a while. Thinking of Jean Valjean, I have a feeling that he had an acute outlook on the world. For example, I imagine him as an open-minded person telling the truth about his hard times rather than bluffing about his glowing glass factory days. Sometimes, people say, “Things turned out as the opposite of what I had planned…” or “Once I messed up completely!” I feel the ones who can acknowledge their failure and let go of the dark history are the ‘rich’ or ‘affluent.’ That might be because I have sensed their tolerance toward accepting exceptions.

How do you deal with your artistic blocks?

I try to have a good sleep or get back on it after a week of rest. In the restarting moment, it should feel refreshing like taking out an old antique I haven’t seen for long from storage. I also like to get inspiration from places unrelated to my work. Lately, the Retro market became one example. It is a market selling retro games, and I became instantly stimulated by seeing the beloved, now retro Nintendo Famicom.

What aspect do you devote yourself to the most in musical work?

I’m inclined to dislike any work reminding me of a trace of other artist’s sound. My originality is my essence.

The music of Lion Clad exposes the power expanding paused time or a sense of isolation beyond time and space. Does your second album relate to this?

I’m not so sure. I haven’t even decided when to release it, but I wish I could deliver a sense of guilt from immorality with a cultic touch. While working, I’ve continuously imagined a hideout for outsiders desiring an escape from the immense industrial society. The ‘sense of guilt from immorality’ in this context would be the mutual feelings of unordinary people going slightly off track with a laugh. Similar to a bunch of outsiders plotting an insignificant conspiracy.

The word ‘conspiracy’ goes well with the genre Trip Hop and Lion Clad peculiarly. It suggests a vibe that Lion Clad would take the lead of something constant throughout the whole album.

I might be conspiring something in this basement studio right now. (Laugh) I can’t even make it home for days when working. I wish I could directly pass on these feelings I possess when making music to my listeners. I hope they consider my music as a temporary way out of a world separated from reality.

Freelance editor / Minhyung Kim



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The full text of Lionclad’s interview is available on the Heavy Magazine page.