Korean-American singer-songwriter and producer, min.a, has always dreamt of being a singer ever since she was young. Having parents who were immigrants and a father who tried to find any job opportunities that were available, min.a moved around a lot as a child. Born in Virginia, she moved to San Diego then to South Korea where her family lives; the latter two are where she had her most formative experiences growing up. Now, she has lived in New York for a while where she graduated from New York University Tisch’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. HALSUG had the chance to sit down with her to discuss her life growing up, her creative process, and the release of her newest EP, i hope i get well soon.

At 23 years old, min.a is glad singing is her full-time job where she has control of her music and is involved in every aspect of it. min.a expressed she just wants to continue making music and “...that is my dream, to just be able to say what I have to say.” min.a's music has the sound of Indie electro pop, but she is not constrained to those genres because she is exploring with her music in different genres and sounds. She has songs that are filled with glitchy upbeat electronics that make you want to dance and songs that are dreamy, slow-tempoed showing her gentle voice that accommodates her vulnerable lyrics.

Photo courtesy of min.a - i hope i get well soon (2022)

On October 11, min.a released her new EP, i hope i get well soon, exploring a time of uncertainty and insecurity about the future. Before min.a signed with the label, Good Partners, the songs on this EP were written when: she had just graduated from college, worked a part-time job at a restaurant, and watched a lot of her friends who graduated from the same college program as her go onto tours and be successful. That experience made min.a stressed about where her career in music was going and if she wanted to continue being a musician. min.a said she had to push herself to write songs and had the help of some of her friends Laiko, Shigecki, and Jack Laboz to produce the EP. She loved working on all of the songs from her new EP but really enjoyed making “would you rather” the most because it was written and produced completely by herself, and it also showed the growth in her production skills. “...I was also feeling insecure about my production skills as a female producer,” min.a said. “Because even though there are plenty of female producers in the field, it's hard to feel like your skills are valid. And your title as a producer is something that you should be proud of.” Each one of these songs, just like all of her music, touch on honest experiences that one can resonate with.

Growing up, min.a said K-pop was basically everything she listened to. She was among the top 8 in the reality television show, K-pop Star, in South Korea back when she was in 8th grade going into her freshman year of high school. Despite her involvement and interest in K-pop, min.a realized she did not want K-pop to be the direction of her music career. “[The show] really solidified the fact that I don't necessarily resonate too much with at least mainstream K-pop and that industry because it's incredibly hyperfeminine and that's not what I identify as,” min.a said. Now that she has greater knowledge of the Korean music scene, if she were to pursue a music career in Korea, she would “probably try to focus more on the K-Indie scene, you know with like 8BallTown and AOMG being kind of examples of labels that aren't mainstream K-pop.” 

Going more into min.a’s identity, she expressed her struggles with not feeling like she belonged; felt that she was not “Korean enough” or “American enough”; and her identity was not being accurately shown. Today min.a states, “I've become a lot more comfortable embracing my upbringing in terms of growing up with K-pop.” Although she finds Korean not being one of her strong suits, she has tried incorporating more of her bilingual background into her songwriting, believing “practice makes perfect.” min.a even mentioned she would want to do more songs in the future in Korean too. 

When asked about her favorite K-pop artist, she mentioned BTS and her admiration for their work ethic. “…they [BTS] all worked very very hard while still finding so much success in being very humble people,” min.a said. “They are world stars but they still all act like human beings and aren't full of it or anything, which is not something that you can say about a lot of world famous artists I feel like.” Along with BTS, she also enjoys SEVENTEEN, Twice, Girls’ Generation, Mitski, and The 1975. 

Getting to know her creative process, min.a explained that 90% of the time her process begins with writing lyrics or generating the idea of a song. Then production comes next where it is usually just her or her co-producing with others; she will decide how much production she adds to her songs whether it be adding simple piano notes or making it heavily produced with electronics. Recently, she has tried to push herself to work with other songwriters and to not always feel like she needs to be a part of production. “If I get sent a beat that I absolutely love and it's done, I'm not going to reject it just because I didn't necessarily have a part in it.” HALSUG asked if she faced any challenges in the creation of music, and she expressed that in both production and songwriting, she experiences writer's block, which she acknowledged is a struggle that all songwriters and creators face. “Honestly, it's still something that I feel like I struggle with, but I have learned that that gets solved by listening to more music and trying to find new artists to listen to and new genres to listen to. That helps with both songwriting and production,” min.a said.

In an Instagram post, min.a said that writing songs helped her process some traumatic experiences she had at the beginning of 2018, so we asked her what it is about writing songs that helps her: “...it's a lot easier to write a song about something than just kind of like outright say it and I think the process of, first off, just like kind of dumping it into a notes app is where I write my lyrics most of the time. I have to take that jumbled mess and then write it into more coherent lyrics and I think that's really helpful because it helps me kind of refine what I feel like I wanna say or need to say and I don't feel like I'm burdening anyone by saying the same thing over and over again, but you have to spend a lot of time sitting there and thinking about specifically what you feel and I think that's really helpful for me because you get to organize your thoughts.”

Photo courtesy of min.a

When it comes to choosing cover art for min.a’s music, she likes making Pinterest boards of ideas and reaches out to different photographers that she wants to work with, sharing her ideas with them. When it comes to the release of her music, she always has a say in when she wants it out, as long as it does not conflict with PR and the label. For music videos, min.a said, “usually what I do is I reach out to a director that I really like, and I try to give them as much full reign as possible just because it's really interesting to see how people that think more visual-wise interpret my music, cause I’m not necessarily that visual of a person. I'm more like listening, so I do try to be involved with everything but I think the least control that I have comes with music videos…[min.a talked about her music video for “headache”] So when they [director] said ‘this gives me Teletubby vibes’, I was like, ‘absolutely, let's run with that.’”

Ending off our time with min.a, her first message was for her fans and other Korean-American artists in the music industry. “First off, I just wanna thank them [fans] for listening to my music at all. They are the reason why I can do what I do and that their experiences and what they feel are valid. You're not alone, like your identity is important and it's heard. Specifically, what Korean Americans and just Asian Americans have to say I think is really important because it's not a perspective that's mainstream quite yet, you know. Like at least in the U.S., the biggest influence that Asian Americans or specifically Korean-Americans have is K-pop, but that's not everything you know. There's like the identity diaspora that Korean-Americans specifically feel, that is not something that's as well-known right now.” 

One day, min.a would like to explore the music scene in Europe where she expressed a big part of her audience is based. min.a also mentioned it is a long-term dream of hers to be signed to Dirty Hit record label. min.a is open to writing about anything and even said that she would like to write lyrics about stories that are not necessarily hers. “I feel like it would be good practice for a songwriter because the whole point, at least for me, is telling a story when I'm writing a song, and I think it would be fun to tell a story in a perspective that's not necessarily mine,” min.a said. 

At this time, min.a continues to focus on writing a lot of music. With inspirations from Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzie McAlpine, min.a said her next planned release will be a double single where one of them is more acoustic, a vibe she has been trying to get more into. We look forward to her future music. Discover her discography, stream her latest EP, i hope i get well soon, and keep updated on her social platforms.