Q&A: Infusing Genres With Collaboration and Her Divine Musical Ability, swja Returns With Latest EP ‘Studio X {1. Phase}’

Q&AMusic

Sep 28

☆ BY Gomi Zhou ☆

3 YEARS SINCE HER LATEST FULL-LENGTH RELEASE — South Korean indie-pop artist swja returns with a cohesive, chromatic, and collaborative EP, Studio X {1. Phase}.

With a stellar list of features ranging from rapper Woo Won-Jae, indie pop singer SUMIN, and jazz pianist MeariNam, swja presents a comprehensive course of her own musical abilities. A silky production persists through the entire project while allowing swja to explore different sonic textures, vocal treatments, and, of course, a wide range of genres. “OCTAVE” feels like an anchoring indie R&B tune, “nononono” (“ㅅㅣㄹㅓ”) turns out to be a whirlwind jazzy experiment, “gum” (“껌”), on the other hand, serves nonchalant coolness not unlike Billie Eilish through a playful use of sound effects.

A veteran producer with songwriting credits for TV soundtracks and many more notable collaborations with international acts, Studio X {1. Phase} feels like a deliberate attempt to take a step back to craft a more personal sound, all through the intricate and creative help of her fellow artists. The signature R&B production, featuring writing and composition that is by definition jazzy and full of grooves, certainly makes swja a unique songstress and a jack of all trades.

With the release of Studio X {1. Phase}, Luna reached out to swja through an email exchange to chat about the EP, her musical background, and plans for expanding outside of South Korea.

LUNA: Hello! How are you doing? I decided I’m gonna start asking about the weather for where you’re at for each interview — so, how’s the weather for where you are right now?

SWJA: Hello to you! The weather is of great importance, I agree. The weather here in Korea these days is wonderful. The sky is blue and the air is nice and cool in the evenings, the best kind for a walk outside. I wonder what it’s like where you are!

LUNA: You are truly a genre-bending artist, but there’s something really jazzy/jazz-oriented about your composition and songwriting that stands out to me. What’s your background in music? Did you ever go to school for music?

SWJA: Yes, I did. I first learned classical piano when I was very little and grew up picturing myself becoming a musician. I was into band music in my teenage years and dabbled in that a little too, and then I came across jazz in college. I remember being super into Disney cartoons as a child, which is around the time I started learning to play the piano — that’s probably why jazz grew so easy on me. My main area of study and training at college was vocals, but I took a lot of producing and songwriting classes and studied it vigorously. I would get myself into all these projects here and there and learned a great deal by going back and forth between learning and working, which all still serves as a groundwork for my music.

LUNA: Tell me a bit more about the new EP, Studio X {1. Phase}. It seems like it’s been a while since the last time you put together a full EP.

SWJA: That’s correct, it’s the first since 4x4 came out a few years back. Having released several works since, including a full-length, a few singles, and that mini album, I feel like EP is a format that gives room for musicians to expand boundaries. I tend to prefer works that feel playful, you know. The kind I used to do when I was younger and less known. I feel like this would be a good time to do something like that, but there are expectations people have for me as an artist so I thought it’d be good to make use of an EP format.

LUNA: I am so intrigued by the 3rd track, “nononono” (“ㅅㅣㄹㅓ”) — tell me a bit more about this.

SWJA: I’m really glad to hear that you found it intriguing. I’m curious to find out how this song will be perceived because the song barely has any lyrics. It only repeats “Si-ruh” (which is a romanization of the Korean word for “no”) with variations in its sound but without any other word or sentences adding to further narrate it.

You often find yourself in situations where you want to express objection. It could be at work, at restaurants… Under many different circumstances. And a lot of the time it’s not easy to express that (it will be different from culture to culture, but at least in Korea, where I’m from, most people struggle to do so). And this song is sort of a telepathic message I can repeat within myself whenever I’m in such situations. Or it could be a joke-y “Noooo!” that I’d [say] to my close friends. While contemplating on the idea of telepathy, I thought of making use of morse code instead of writing full-on lyrics. So I transcribed the word “no” in morse code and built a theme around it, which in the end became the verse part of the song (I used morse code for Korean, just to clarify! Haha). I think one important thing to note is that it’s not a negative no, like hatred or dislike, but more like a “Nope” or a “No~” — it’s being able to say no but still doing what you gotta do. It has a productive energy that allows you to release stress without avoiding reality, or a playful banter of sorts. I wanted to express something like that musically.

LUNA: You’ve had such an extensive and impressive career, and you’ve written and produced with so many talented artists. The same can be said about this album — what are some memorable moments working with another artist in the studio for this project? What are some of the most memorable moments working with another artist in your music career?

SWJA: I’d say this EP is a collection of the biggest and the best collaborations in my entire career. Working on all five songs has been a unique experience far from what I’ve done so far. There’s so much I want to say about each song but I will try to not go too crazy, haha.

“black coffee” is the first of my own songs that features a rapper. I met up with Woo [Won-Jae] to talk about lyrics and he did a sketch recording [demo] right then. I had never seen how rap makings are done in real life so that was very new and interesting for me. There’s always joy in experiencing new ways. For “OCTAVE”, there was a collaboration in the mixing stage as well. I mixed the first half of the song and SUMIN did the second half. This isn’t done particularly often so I can’t say I wasn’t worried at all. But the song came out great, all thanks to SUMIN and BK (who mastered the album), who are both fantastic artists with amazing musical intuitions.

I co-wrote “nononono” with jazz pianist MeariNam. I had an idea on the theme and what kind of mood I was going for, but I didn’t have a single note put down so we started writing together in a jam session. It was an unforgettable experience. “gum” (“껌”) came along in the process of making “nononono,” so the two are like sister songs. Baehyuni is a producer/rapper I’ve been keeping my eye on for some time, so I reached out to him first thing. His style is quite different from other artists featured on this project, so seeing all the differences in their style and ways of communicating things has been good fun. I tend to work in a rather introverted manner normally, so working on this has been really inspiring and motivating.

LUNA: You are such a well-rounded musician: you write and produce for yourself, write and produce for others, for TV shows and films, and you are also a very active live performer. What’s your favorite part of being a musician? What do you enjoy doing the most, performing live? Writing? Music scoring?

SWJA: I think producing, in an overall sense. Songwriting plays a big part of what makes up “producing,” but there are other aspects I need to consider. For instance, what kind of visual presentation I want for live performances, which direction I’m moving towards for each release, or just general theme or a universe each song is based on. Sometimes it’s hard, to the extent that I feel absolutely devastated, but I always crawl back out to finish a project. And that’s when I really feel like this is what I’m meant to do.

LUNA: Out of curiosity, any plan for performing outside of South Korea soon? Any plans for an album?

SWJA: I always dream of performing in different countries. There [haven’t been] many, but I always tried to make it happen whenever there’s a chance. I’m waiting on more for sure (one got canceled recently… T_T). In terms of an album, yes, there are loads of songs stacked up waiting to be put out in the world, so there will be more to come for a few years, at least. I’m actually working on my fourth full-length at the moment.

LUNA: While I was doing my research, I found out that I actually have one of your songs, "in the bed," saved in my Spotify library from all the way back in January 2021 — so cool that we got to e-meet this way!

SWJA: Thank you so much! “In the bed” is a humble yet lovable song — I really adore it too, and it makes me feel happy to have written it. Everytime I sing it on stage, I can feel it pumps up everyone’s love gauge, including myself. I hope it will embrace you in love everytime you hear it!

Interview translated by Ash Hyuna Jo

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