INDEX
The conflict and change of heart before deciding to concentrate on traditional music in earnest
– You didn’t decide to enter the world of folk music in earnest from the beginning, did you?
Heemoon: When I went to my teacher’s office later, he told me to sing a song that I liked. I sang a song called “Chang Arirang.” It didn’t have a specific rhythm, and I sang it in time with my breathing. It was difficult, but I liked it, so I sang it even if I was not very good at it, and my teacher heard it and said, “Heemoon, you have to do folk songs. I think those words were a big trigger for me to enter the world of folk songs.
– That was the moment when your teacher sensed the talent hidden inside you. But you were still working as an assistant director for music videos at that time, weren’t you?
Heemoon: Yes, I did. After going to the teacher’s office, I practiced intensively for about three months and then entered a contest and came in second place. My teacher said, “Heemoon, if you want to be a professional folk singer, you need to study folk music in college to be recognized. I still wanted to be a music video director as far as I was concerned, but when he said that, I thought that going to school somehow wasn’t a bad idea (laughs).
– Somehow! (laughs) So, you end up entering the folk music department of the Seoul Institute of the Arts.
Heemoon: At that time, if you had won a contest, you could get in just by taking a practical test. I was lucky, wasn’t I? At first I was planning to attend college while continuing to work on music video production, but the classes in the folk music department were so rigorous that we practiced all day long, so there was no time to work. If I had just taken the classes as I went along, I might have been able to balance both, but I was in my late 20s and had decided to enroll in the program on my own, so wouldn’t it be silly if I didn’t work hard? I thought. I thought it was the right time to choose between continuing to work or learning folk music in earnest.
Also, in 2004, the budget for music videos suddenly decreased in Korea due to the change to downloading music by MP3 and the lack of CD sales. In response to the music industry, which is rapidly changing with the times, I thought that traditional music is a world where the value of a song is refined by continuing to sing it over the years. I was halfway convincing myself to quit my job and concentrate on school (laugh). Since then, I have been practicing hard.
