Name: Jaeyong Lee aka Closet Yi
Nationality: South Korean
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Current release: Closet Yi's Wire Broke EP is out 8th Sept via Scuba’s Hotflush label.
Recommendations: Painting - Kim Whanki: "26-I-70"
Piece of music: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: The Mosaic of Transformation

[Read our Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith interview]

If you enjoyed this Closet Yi interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram, and Facebook.  



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

It actually differs when I’m listening to my own music when I’m making it, and when I’m normally listening to music in my daily life.

When I listen to other people’s music, it’s mostly just about the sounds. Especially when it’s electronic, I would focus on the element’s position and soundscape.

But for the works that I make, I try to visualise or actually watch something on Youtube to see how the music resonates with my brain and body. I think it helps you to develop a more specific direction.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

I started DJing first, learning next to my friend who already had the equipment. I had some good years of building my career as a DJ in South Korea, but then I naturally wanted to make something of my own. So again, I asked around some of my producer friends and taught myself Ableton.

I don’t think there’s technically a path that requires training to be an artist, but I do think you need to be disciplined, and dedicate a good amount of time to become able to create something professional enough to persuade the audience.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Oh really? I didn’t know that, but I have to agree because I did listen to a good amount of electronic, game soundtracks, and new age styles at that time which clearly influenced my sound.

I used to listen to a lot of Moby, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Enya, and soundtracks of Starcraft, Aion, and Final Fantasy.



Of course I listened to MTV and k-pop as well, but I think the former genres resonated more with me. I think I picked up the atmosphere and soundscape from then, and combined that with club sounds when I started to make music.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

It’s a very pure process to me, just like you would play on the playground when you were a kid. I 100% enjoy the process itself, and love the feeling when I’m focused, playing and tweaking with this and that.

I think my inner feeling naturally smears out during the process, so sometimes I would monitor back to the works and analyse, “Oh I might have been feeling this emotion at this time, because I was going through this event at that moment.”

It's really a self-enjoying, but also a very self-reflecting process.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Like I said, I'm closer to discovering and developing an already existing idea in my own way.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

Yes I do agree with that, I’m also more of a sound person than a lyric one, and because of that my sound has been constantly evolving through my life experience.

I guess it started with a more technical approach in the beginning by approaching the sounds in a more sound-designing perspective. But as I got more used to the working process I’m more enjoying the flow and trying to make rhythms and sequences that are interesting and don't sound familiar to me.

I’m definitely enthusiastic about drum patterns, percussions and breaks.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Reflecting my early memories of listening to lots of new age and soundtracks, I think I don’t really separate non-human-made sounds from artificial ones. It’s all in the same scope for me as a musical source, and I do like putting unusual sources together.

For instance in the track ‘Four Loops’ on my past EP Ruminate, I used lots of live samples like squeaky door opening sounds with voice samples from English-learning video tapes.



But a track like ‘Bird Emporium’ was made out of a lot of chopping from field recordings and animal recordings.



From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

Maybe I am evolving to appreciate more complex pieces since I’m more into breaks and chopping rhythms.

I like to find interesting rhythm sequences in sources and develop them into something distinctive.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

So for the two EPs on Hotflush Recordings, Simmer and Wire Broke, I pretty much followed an identical process.

On ‘Heavy’ for instance, I started with an 8 phrase top pattern and played with it until the original source became unrecognisable. While doing the work, I can specify the key tone and idea of the track, and would add the kicks and other instruments respective to that.



Arrangements are down pretty quickly, normally because I picture in my mind how I’d like this piece to be played in the clubs.

And then the boring part comes, making revisions, automation adjustments, monitoring again and again, and mixing.

Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

I would say I try different things every time and don’t really stick to a certain structure, maybe because I didn’t get any professional education in music. However I do believe there are certain fundamental things that you should maintain.

To compare it to cooking for example, you’re not supposed to rinse the rice after it comes out of the steamer, right? Like that, there are some basic technical rules underneath the overall making of electronic music.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Well I believe the music style that you listen to the most can influence your emotional spectrum, and certain pieces can teach you a lesson during a moment of your life. But as always it’s correlated to one’s personal life experience as well so there isn’t really a standard logic to it.

That’s why it’s so amazing to always have music besides you, and it’s beautiful that everyone has their own story related to a music piece.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I could find similarities, but it’s fundamentally a different process thinking of the difference of the media, and the difference in how you involve your body into it. Each process triggers different parts of your brain, and releases different hormones to your body.

Comparing it to mundane tasks, making music connects many more synapses in a much deeper level I think, connecting my deeper, older instincts to the newer, more sensitive consciousness.

It also has to do a lot with the retrigger of your unconsciousness as well because I often find myself expressing through sounds the ideas that I have forgotten or never realised before.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

I think Plaid and Robert Leiner’s pieces give me so much lush and rich feelings every time. I’ve listened to their albums numerous times, but it’s always fresh and never familiar.



Also in certain moments, like for instance when the first snow comes, I would always think of Plaid’s track ‘Choke and Fly’ with no reason. The sound itself can feel nothing special to some people, but it has something for me, and I still have no idea how they made it.



If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I wish there could be a scientific improvement that will enable the frequencies to be delivered in some way to people who have hearing problems. I once saw a performance where they curated the low frequencies so it can be delivered in physical vibrations to the floor so that hard of hearing people can feel it at the same time.

On a similar note, I’m interested in how the immersive audio engineering thing will develop. One day it might get free of the thick cables and physical limits and we would no longer need to try to find sweet spots in the festivals maybe? :)