Yaeji

NTS Don't Assume with Zakia

Bedroom producer turned global club-pop icon Kathy Yaeji Lee, better known as Yaeji, is our guest this week. Yaeji self-identifies as an “introspective loner” and was raised between New York and Seoul. In this interview she reflects on how her upbringing has influenced the music she makes today: whether that’s listening to her dad’s mixtapes of Korean indie ballads, finding community in internet forums or getting into the brostep scene for her radio show in Pittsburgh. She started out DJing and later became a producer, known for her introspective yet danceable beats, and vocals which swing between Korean and English.

Where some of our Don’t Assume guests struggle to think of any surprising hobbies outside of music, Yaeji was spoiled for choice. She’s a prolific journaler, with multiple journals on the go at any one time. She’s also into fibre art, where she collects fibres from across the world and weaves them into yarn to knit or crochet into fabric. Whilst this sounds like a departure from the songs featured on albums like With A Hammer, it all feels like a continuum of Yaeji’s lifelong process of observing, gathering and reassembling the multiple facets of her identity to create something new.

Discover Yaeji on NTS

Presenter - Zakia Sewell

Producer - Alannah Chance

Music composition - Jennifer Walton

Mix-Mastering - Sol King

Exec Producer - Lizzy King for NTS

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