Name: Jeonglim Yang

Nationality: South Korean
Occupation: Bassist, composer, improviser
Current release: Jeonglim Yang's Zodiac Suite: Reassured, her personal take on Mary Lou Williams’ classic, is out via fresh sound. It features a trio also composed of Gerald Cleaver and Santiago Leibson.

[Read our Gerald Cleaver interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Jeonglim Yang and would like to find out more about her work, visit her on Instagram.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

They come in various ways and can come from any serendipitous moments — dreams, personal relationships, emotions, and often inspiration from other artists.

Particularly with the latest record Zodiac Suite: Reassured (2022, on Fresh Sound New Talent) came from immense love and admiration I had kept so long for Mary Lou Williams’s original record Zodiac Suite from 1945.

It was like ... I loved the music so much that I could not stop thinking about playing it in the exact way I wanted to.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I like to have vague sketches of the music. But I also like to give as much space as possible for other band members to render the picture together. So there’s always a moment of ‘wild card’. Like who knows what’s going to happen and who’s going to do what — these elements kind of excite me the most.

Jazz / improvised music can be expressed in many ways, but I do not usually like doing uber-detailed rehearsals with the band when it comes to my music. (at least it has been that way so far until now) Obviously, there will be important cues and structures but what I really look forward to is an intuitive and interactive rapport between the members.

That’s why these band members are irreplaceable to me. They are not just robots who are playing what’s in the score, their brain is also part of the plan. (The second track ‘Aries’- from the Zodiac Suite well interpreted the trio’s group dynamic in this regard.)

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

Not really. I try not to listen to other people’s music so much right before I play, because I know I’d get influenced by it. I like to be empty minded.
    
Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

If I could stay quiet, that’s great. Talking distracts me a lot …

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

This is a great question. I also think about this myself a lot. What I’ve learned over the years is that the key is to not think or predict too much about what is going to happen.

I just start the first note, or wait for others to do so, then make music accordingly … improvisation is a present action for me, it can’t built up by premeditation.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

Now it’s in the hands of the music god … I don’t have control; I have the tools, but the full control is on all of us.
 
Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Those narratives may be disruptive but also many times very useful ideas. So I don’t exert strong control over it. I rather flow with it.

I sometimes set them aside for later use or turn the directions around to follow it.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

It happens to me all the time when I write. I am very open to these, many times I positively embrace them and take a different route than I originally intended. So, the result could become somewhat different from the original intention, but I like that.

If I need to do it again, I can always do it again. If things get too messy, I leave them for a while to sit and come back later, then I get a clearer vision of what direction it should go or where I want to go with it.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I feel reluctant to use the term “art” to describe my music, in fact, I never do. Because that feels … so distant.

I think true art would in every way reflect and be related to human experience, life, presence, and the psyche which further becomes spirituality. So, when I create music, I try not to forget what it is about … this is an experience to be close to humanity. That is an element.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

I am pretty good at knowing when work is done. And not to dwell.

Everyone can become very obsessive with little details, I know myself can be too, or I know I used to. It’s just something I’ve learned over the years: What I think really matters, doesn’t matter that much in the end.  

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Yes, I can relate to it. Especially with my first release (Déjà Vu, 2017 on Fresh Sound New Talent) which was 5 years ago, I felt that a lot.

But I realized just now I am feeling that less and less. I think it’s that apprehension of “what matters so much to me, doesn’t weigh as much to others”. I think I’ve already learned that in life and become stoic about it.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing 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?
 
It’s true that I am so fortunate to have the tool to express creativity whereas my mother and her mother had no chance to learn the instruments or had other ways to express theirs other than mundane stuff.

But I do not think less of their creativity than I think of mine and I believe that everyone has creativity which they can nurture and make an expressive tool … Anything if they have awareness and are willing to do it.

The way I express creativity works for me because it gives me the space I need which other mundane stuff can’t. Like ... when I play, I feel I'm creating an absolute “my space” that no one can enter.