at some point in my life I need to try something like this

good morning ~

(click the link / citrus towel to listen)

My Big Breakat some point in my life I need to try something like this

today’s track features hissy samples of my piano recorded onto cassette, then loaded into my sampler, then played back through a midi keyboard, yummy

had a great talk with my friend and former roommate OHYUNG for today’s email. our conversation coincides with her record dropping next Friday, then after her release show we’ll play together at Tubby’s the following Friday. Like so:

tickets are available now, and if you’re in NYC you should deffo go to the release show.

OHYUNG is an explosive live performer and a musician with a deep catalog of ambient scalp tinglers, nightcore noise ecstasies, confrontationally overloaded drum machine rippers, and now, shiny yearners with fantastic music videos. As you'll read, she also writes wonderful music for film under the name Lia Ouyang Rusli. Her romantic new popstar album - You Are Always On My Mind - comes out March 28th via NNA Tapes. Her soundtrack for the show Fantasmas also just came out on streaming.

O: My name is Lia, I make music as OHYUNG, and I am getting ready for this album release and the release show.

MBB: The music on this record - You Are Always On My Mind - is primarily strings and drums in various combinations of live takes and samples, things that sound either more human or more robotic. Why do you think those instruments are so present here?

O: I grew up playing strings and I always think about strings when I’m writing music, especially for film scores. I come across a lot of string libraries - sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re terrible, sometimes they’re really good. I also have a sampling / hip-hop / rap production background, so I have an urge to take these random sounds I’ve collected and cut them up. Same with the drums. I wanted to create a sound that was accessible but strange and dark and distant, too. A lot of the drums are pitched down or stretched or distorted. It was sort of like, what can I do with these instruments that don’t really come together too often?

MBB: The drums are super live sounding, like they’re in a room somewhere. And the strings are super present and close, intimate sounding, romantic and right up in your ear. And I read somewhere that the primary string loop on “No Good” is from one of these corny string libraries, right?

O: Yeah, it’s a string library loop - I cut out just a section of the sample and then have them loop out of sync with the drums. It creates this disorienting feeling, a timeless feeling. And then I add live strings. I start with the texture of the instrument, then I’ll add, subtract, or sample from there.

MBB: It seems like everything on this record has the potential to slip off the grid rhythmically. Were you doing that intentionally, or did things kind of just naturally fall out of time?

O: I wanted it to feel slippery. It was quite difficult - some of them aren’t on a grid at all, so it’s really complicated to try and write out the music for performing live. Doing it was kind of driving me insane! Trying to approximate this feeling with one loop in five-eight and another in seven-eight, then its interrupted with this sample, then we switch to a different section. I wasn’t thinking of any of that when I made it! 

MBB: Plus you’re doing a lot more choreography now!

O: Yeah, I’m trying to be a pop star. [laughter]

MBB: By wider standards this isn’t necessarily pop music, but in comparison to some of the other entries in the OHYUNG catalog these songs are bops, they’re radio ready. Are you making an intentional shift toward pop stardom?

O: Totally! I became honest with myself. I love weird, inaccessible, harsh music. But what I realized I love the most is a gorgeous melody. I love the way pop music makes me feel more than anything in the world. But I do think it is the hardest music to make. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time but just haven’t been able to figure out how to present it in the strange, distinct way I want. It’s a fine line to walk on, I’ve always found it hard. The music’s not as pop as I’d like it to be, but I’m moving in the right direction. 

MBB: Can you name some specific challenges in making pop?

O: The vulnerability of the singing, making something catchy that doesn’t feel corny or saccharine, making something infectious but still maintains a sensibility I respect. 

It requires a presence that is very difficult to command. Most people don’t have it. I don’t even know if I have it! But I’m going to try.

As soon as I start singing on a track I’m just, like, oh my god…it’s so much harder to sing pop music. It’s not enough to just hit the notes. You have to be a star, also.

MBB: Right, you have to slay.

O: You have to slay. And it’s hard to slay. I’m working on it. But it’s a work in progress.

MBB: Part of me wants to go on the journey you’re on - I love attempting pop, but there’s a self-consciousness. The most compelling pose for a pop star to hit is nakedness, you at the center of the production. Which actually leads me to my next question for you…appropriately for a pop star, your creative team seems to have expanded really widely in the leadup to this album coming out. Previously you’ve worked in a more intimate, DIY mode, but now there are a lot of other people’s efforts involved - the credits for your first single’s music video goes on for a while. Who and how is your team?

O: I always want to work laterally. If anything, I want to bring people with me. I reach out to friends and I only work with people I love and respect. I’m much less interested in reaching out to some bigger video director. It doesn’t feel like an organic or communal way of existing.

My friend day directed this video and it just made perfect sense. We’ve been raving together for the past six years and we’ve come into our identities and queerness at the same time in this really beautiful way. I couldn’t imagine making this video or this concept with anyone else. They’re a commercial / music video director and brought in their own team, their own group of people they’re comfortable working with, people they love and respect.

It’s not the most accessible sound but it’s the most accessible music I’ve made - I’ve never really “gone for it” on a release. Usually I’ll be like: I barely wanna spend money, I’ll just do it myself or do it in a small way. This is the first time I’m saying to myself, okay, let’s go for it, let’s go into scary, uncharted territory, let’s see what happens. At some point in my life I need to try something like this. And I’ve gotten to the place in my film scoring work where I can afford to take the risk.

MBB: Do you want to talk about film scoring at all? The score you did for Fantasmas [TV show, dir: Julio Torres] has so many bangers! 

O: I love working with Julio. I feel like one of my strengths as a composer is that I can do a lot of different sounds and I can do them pretty well. When I work with Julio he has such a wide imagination and I love how fantastical he is, plus we share a sensibility and come from similar NYC communities. He lets me take really wild swings when I’m scoring. And something like Fantasmas is so queer, so New York, I just wanted parts of the music to feel like you were at Body Hack or Papi Juice. We need the Jersey Club influence!

MBB: The show cuts between different moods pretty aggressively, it’s like sketch comedy, and the swings only work if the music is matching the tone. [The 2024 film] Problemista is also a really extreme piece of New York City media - I found it difficult to watch at times because it felt too reminiscent of horrible experiences. But the music in it is much more chamber, like Philip Glass vibes. Was that something that Julio envisioned or did you arrive there based on what you saw of the film?

O: Julio gave me two points of reference: one track from [the anime film] Millennium Actress and one track by [American contemporary classical composer] John Adams.

MBB: Oh yeah, that totally makes sense.

O: I knew I wanted to feature choir, a weird choir sound - that was always a dream of mine. Very much an anime reference - anime scores are so good! And they’re so emotional. Julio’s work is very emotional, it wears its heart on its sleeve. I love that I’m able to pull out a heart-wrenching melody when I need to. Because it’s so stylistic it never feels like too much.

So I got to play with this New York art music sound that’s a little fantastical, a little synthy - there’s an element of retro synthesizers because the main character has this utopian vision of the future, but the future of the film is a little janky. So I tried to recreate the futuristic sounds they were making in the 70s. It’s a dusty future, it’s made of cardboard.

MBB: I noticed on the track “i swear i could die rn” you mention the DJ Goth Jafar - are there other moments of dance music ecstasy that deserve a shoutout?

O: Kilbourne, she’s a super hardcore DJ, places like Merge, Basement, Paragon I mentioned, weirdly Rash pre-fire, Bossa Nova - also just like, you know, random warehouses…my friend Concrete Husband, I really like Gabberbitch69

MBB: I’m not familiar with Gabberbitch69 but sounds promising

O: Maybe the best name for a DJ [laughter]. There are definitely more.

I wanted to make a record that was about the rave that wasn’t rave music.

MBB: Have you thought about doing club remixes of this album?

O: Yes! That is the dream! A remix record with all these rave producers I love. I wanna wait until this comes out first, though.

MBB: What are your other dreams with this record? What are your wildest fantasies and where does this go?

O: I don’t know…in my personal experience I’ve never had a record take off. It’s always been this local thing that people like where I’ll play a couple of shows and then life goes on. I’d love for something to happen with this but I don’t even know what to dream up. I’m giving my all and just seeing where it takes me.

With the album release show where I’m going to have live strings and Matt Evans helping me with music direction, I could potentially do like a KEXP or Tiny Desk video session. I feel like I’m ready for that.

MBB: What if you got an opportunity to tour?

O: Well, it would cost a LOT of money to bring the full ensemble along. I’m a pretty solitary worker as a musician, I tend to just do my thing. But now I’m finding a lot of joy in expanding the show. It’s like, okay - I’m not going to make money on this release show. I have to pay everyone. But it’s bringing me so much more. Maybe working alone so much isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. It’s not that I make much money on OHYUNG anyway.

MBB: It’s probably better to pay someone $200 to play your music than it is to make an extra $200.

O: Yeah! I mean if you’re living paycheck to paycheck of course you have to take it. But I’m not in that position right now.

MBB: When you’re sturdier you can invest in things more readily.

O: You’re right, I feel sturdier [laughter]

MBB: Speaking of performance…you have a tendency at shows to leave it all the stage, even when you’re DJing. There’s shouting, you’ll lose articles of clothing. Are you still going for it in that way or have you entered a more refined era?

O: The words you use are so good [laughter] - that’s exactly it, I’m in a refined era. I do want to bring that energy but if I’m playing primarily songs from this record then I have less opportunity to go all out. I’m gonna find ways to reach that fervor occasionally but it has to be a smaller percentage of the set. Maybe that will make the fervor more special when it happens.

MBB: You’re doing something different here - there’s far less confrontation.

O: Yeah, it’s more internal.

MBB: I was listening to the first track earlier today and I heard your characteristic “SUH!” vocal tag in the mix - what does that mannerism mean to you at this point? Is that still a part of your performer’s identity?

O: A little bit, yeah. I don’t entirely know what it means, though. The origins of that are me really loving Friday night radio mixes with DJs screaming over something, Jamaican sound clash kinda stuff. It brings so much fun energy to the sound. I imagine my records as one long radio broadcast, me shouting over something. It’s not so much a producer tag, more of a fun way of uniting all these different sounds that I do. But I don’t really think about it much anymore.

MBB: Right, I mean the album is a departure but slots nicely into your catalog - there are pieces of imagine naked! and GODLESS here for sure.

O: It does feel like a coalescing of all these things I’ve done.

MBB: Let’s talk about this Kingston gig right quick. I don’t know what type of set I’m gonna do exactly, but how are you approaching it?

O: I’m not going to do the live strings but, you know, for the tour I think I’m going to do a higher percentage of my wild shit. It makes it fun for me. I’ll be experimenting with a new type of set and really this is my first tour I’m organizing in this way - I’ve done little things here and there like out in the midwest with MIZU, but now I’m so appreciative. If you don’t have a booking agent it’s just asking friends and fans, like “I’m gonna be kinda in this area, can you help me with that?” You become really reliant on your friends for a tour like this. So thank you.

MBB: Who should I talk to next?

O: Oh, well I know Lucy Liyou is putting a record soon. She is hilarious and I love her death. I’ve heard the record and it’s really good, it’s really honest and maybe her most accessible so far. And I’m a huge YATTA stan - I think they’re a genius.

~ ~ ~ ~

But what about you? Who are the people in your life worth spending $200 on? Did you include yourself on that list? Are you slaying?