Name: Mogwaa
Nationality: South Korean
Occupation: Producer
Current release: Mogwaa's new single "11khz" is one of the tracks featured on compilation release Gudu & Friends Vol. 1 out via Gudu. His latest solo release is the Drifted EP, also available from Gudu.
Recommendations: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (1961) Donald Byrd - Slow Drag

If you enjoyed this Mogwaa interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



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?

When I listen to music, I see sceneries. It shows me some pictures based on the elements of the score. Like what kind of instruments they used, or how’s the texture of the sound they made.

I like to listen music when I take a walk so my eyes need to be stay opened.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

I learned piano when I was a kid. But I’d say learning guitar was my first step in music since I started to be conscious of what kind of taste I have and build up who I am now.

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

Music is still taking huge part of my life but it also took huge part of my life during that period. I think all these started from there.

I was into hiphop back then and later I found that people used sample to make beats. And then I started to dig where it came from. I was learning guitar at similar period and I found out Funkadelic-Parliament, Ohio Players and all these funk bands which made me want to play funk music. I think everything started from there.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

I’d say hardware instruments / gear are the most important thing in my music. I’m not a hardware purist but for me, personally, I get inspiration while I hang around with hardware gear.

Each instrument / piece of gear has a different personality. So, depending on that, it will give me a different feeling when I play different instruments / pieces of gear.

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

I just play around with the gear a lot and just sit tight at the studio most of the time. And then I try to catch the moment when I find something has the potential of turning into something good.

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?

My music is like my diary. I see the state of my mind, where I was, people I met and etc. when I listen to my music. So my music is more a memory for me.

On the one hand, it’s full of errors and mistakes that I made while making the music. But on the other hand, it’s kind of music that I want to hear, so I can listen to it all day.

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”?

I take walks early in the morning around the river and a small ecological park near my neighborhood. And I hear waves, birds singing along the car noise. And this gives me some sort of peaceful state.(even if the car noise is human made).

It’s so hard to say, also it’s too personal to say something is musical or just sound. But for me, I think it becomes “musical” when I put musical notes or tones on a sound. Or even if it’s just random car noise that you cannot tune, but if you can use it musically and describe how you did it. Then it’s musical I think.

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?

I feel drawn to simple but structural composition.

There was a period when I kept adding new elements to the arrangement. And at some point I felt the story / motif which formed the inspiration for the track was going nowhere. I then started to look for ways how to finish the story (around 80% at least) with a simple structure while organising it in a way which gave a satisfying conclusion to the story / motif.

Soundwise, I used to be more into low frequency. Generally speaking, I am a bass person foremost but I do prefer everything balanced well. So a well balanced mix which allows me to hear pretty much every elements cleary makes me happy.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

It depends on what kind of mood or what kind of vibe I want to build. I’m not a genre-based musician so I can cross genre borders.

When I make music for the dancefloor, I just focus on dancers on the floor and try to arrange the music focusing on the dancefloor and making people dance.

At the same time I also make music without the computer, just using a 4 track cassette recorder and guitar, bass, keyboard and rhythm box - non-MIDI gear. When working with this set-up I'll approach things with a band-mindset, as though I'm a one man band. Which means I'll care more about song structure and arrangement.

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?

Let's take the live performance I did on Boiler Room. At some point, I started to perform more at clubs not live venues. And it was mostly close to the main time that I played live, but my older sets were more song-based set. I also DJ so I know how the dancefloor flows and I felt that I’m wasn't approaching the vibe on the dancefloor well. So I started to re-think my set for the dancefloor.

I started to collect tracks including unreleased demos and sorted by BPM. I re-arranged them so they'd be suitable for the dancefloor. I made the transition for every tracks so I could move to another track fluently like a DJ mix. And I keep updating tracks like a DJ.

So this is more a DJ approach for the live performance which I put huge effort into during the past year.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Well, I do both but it starts from my insight. I do experiment but it always begins from the factor I can expect. From there, I'll take things further.

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?

I think it pretty much reflect who I am. I haven’t asked listeners what kind of person they think I am after listening to my music. But I try to reflect my self sincerely in my music.

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?

Hostly, my music starts from mundane tasks.

I come to the studio, brew a cup of coffee and sit in the room. I’m not a genius guy who hears a melody and make that into a great song. So I just sit and keep trying to catch the moment and also I need to be prepared to go further when that moment come.

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?

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - S/T (1961) is that kind of album for me.

I remember I first listened to it when I was around year 2007 and I wanted to be jazz guitarist back then and was into Hard bop and Soul-Jazz. And this album gave me such a feeling that I cannot explain.

And at the end, I noticed that there are too many conflicting feelings and expressions in the music and yet, every feeling goes really well with each other.

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

This is really a complicated question. I think we already have everything and nowhere to develop musically unless it’s AI stuff.

Maybe this is not a development, maybe we're actually stepping backwards. But I’d love to hear quieter music or at least music that's less loud. Music is too loud these days.