INTERVIEW: Crystal Choi from Phoebe Rings

Rat World catches up with Crystal Choi, lead singer-songwriter of the Tāmaki Makaurau-based dream pop band, Phoebe Rings. Their newest single, ‘아스라이 Aseurai’, written in Korean, describes feelings of longing accompanied by a dreamy music video made by Punctum Productions. We spoke with Crystal to discuss writing music in your mother tongue and the collaborations that complete this process.

Interview by Nam Woon Kim

Who are you and what do you do?
Hello, I’m Crystal Choi! I’m in a band called Phoebe Rings with Simeon, Ben and Alex, and we play dream pop.

‘Aseurai’, the single, is new as a studio song, but the song itself has been a part of Phoebe Rings’ live set since 2021. When did the song actually come about?
I think it was 2020. As the band started and we did some gigs, it was a weirdly creative year for me and I felt another song cooking up. It was actually after I listened to a Korean song called ‘샴푸의 요정 [Fairy of Shampoo]’.

No way! This is kind of telling on myself but I have to ask, do you mean the OG or the TXT version?
(laughter) I'm sorry, being a very old person, it is the OG by 빛과 소금, [The Light & the Salt]. I am a very big fan of 90s Korean songs that I would say were quite inspired by 80s city pop. It hit me and I was just humming along to it a lot. I quite like the groove of the chorus, which got me thinking, oh my God, I want to write something like that - which led me to write the song. And as I always do, I write everything except for the lyrics. For the lyrics to be made, it took a very long time. Until then, I kind of made up some lyrics and mumbled it and used, “oh, no one would understand Korean” as an excuse to just wing my way. I hadn't finished the lyrics for a very long time until I had to really do it when we recorded the studio version.

So when the song was coming together with the band, the lyrics at that stage weren't fully set in stone. Did you still have the underlying theme, or spirit, of the song?
Yeah, definitely. I think it used to be a much more uplifting kind of song as the arrangement of the song gives. But then I suck at writing happy songs (laughter). I did want to write something nice and hopeful, but around that time was when my grandma passed away. I couldn't stop thinking of her when I was writing the lyrics.

Can you tell us a little bit about her and what your relationship with her was like?
She's very close. She looked after me when I was in kindergarten because our parents lived really close to them. While my parents were at work and I came back from kindy, my grandma would always look after me and teach me the two times tables.

Already?
I know. (laughter). But, you know, in a very playful way and she was so loving. I also do remember that she was a very happy person back then and I think she cherished that part of her memory as well, bringing me up. But, quite a big chunk of her later life I think she did have depression. When I asked my mum, she said she always went through patches. I think if she was born a bit later she would have had more help. She lived a very long life, but her knee was really bad and she couldn't walk around so much and I think that debilitated her as well.

Thinking about her whole life, it made me think I really wish I could show her good things, like show her the happy moments. I guess I also kind of imagined her as my age and got me wondering what her life would have been like. But it doesn't have to be grim. When I was initially writing the song, I wasn't thinking of my grandma. I just wanted to have this anonymous person. I didn't know who, I guess, at first, but I was thinking that for people who need that, I want to wish them happiness. I do want to dedicate the song to not just my grandma.

Live shows seem to be a key component of Phoebe Rings, how much did these play a part in shaping ‘Aseurai’?
It did a lot. How it got completed was I brought the chords and the melody to the band. They kind of got it straight away as they often do. After we did a couple of live shows it really started to sit properly. We interpreted the live shows, made it into a studio version, and then added some details to it.

Did much of your intentions change over the song’s life-span?
I would say that it didn't. It changed so gradually that I didn't even notice it until I listened to my voice memos recently. I went, oh, this is kind of different. You know, when you have your raw composition and just have it in your phone voice memos? The tempo was maybe a little bit faster and sounded way more like ‘샴푸의 요정 [Fairy of Shampoo]’. But then we morphed it into something that's more Phoebe Rings which I think is even better with Ben's disco basslines, Simeon's rhythmic strumming in the bridge, synth layers with sounds designed by Alex, percussion details, and lush strings played by Charmian and Kat.

You mentioned 80s city pop before. When I first listened to ‘Fairy of Shampoo’ I was trying to trace the lineage of this kind of Korean pop song, how does that come about? I guess with city pop we think of Japan, but even then a lot of that is riffing on American music.
We're all influenced by music around us. I feel like that style of Korean music was influenced by many different things. It's interesting. I know Japanese city pop as its own thing and I like funk, disco, yacht rock as its other inspirations. But when it comes to this song, I was definitely influenced by ‘샴푸의 요정 [Fairy of Shampoo]’. Also our other song, ‘January Blues’, that's a bit city poppy - that was also influenced by a Korean song: ‘연극이 끝난 후 [After Play]’.

Could you elaborate on what writing this song in Korean was like with translating it into English, and perhaps any other musical influences as a result?
If you read the lyrics translated to English, my friend Elizabeth did an amazing, amazing job. When I was trying to translate my lyrics, gosh, they were so cringe. Why are they so cringe in English? (laughter). Like 돼 주길 [may it be], 전해진다면 [to reach], like if my thoughts could reach you kind of thing, like, in English, like who sings that? Even when a person confesses their love to another person, 좋아하고 [to like], 고백하는 마음이 전해진다면 [if my feelings reach you], it’s not as cringe in Korean, but if you translate that to English, it's so cringe.

There’s a strange nuance to it.
I think a lot of my thoughts are not very actionable lyric idea-wise. I think they're quite internal, passive kind of things. When I express that in Korean it makes a lot of sense. When I think about those sentiments in Korean, it makes perfect sense to me. I think that is influenced by a lot of Korean songs and K ballads. K ballads I would say are really good at describing those sentiments of introverted emotions.

Koreans do love ballads!
We really do. I have to say I grew up with massive K ballads because my brother was a big fan. Like 신승훈 [Shin Seung Hun] and 성시경 [Sung Si Kyung] are staples that my brother and I listened to so much when I was in primary school. I didn't even know what they meant.

Is there a stronger language for you between English and Korean?
진짜 반반이야 [It’s really half-half]. I haven't seen a lot of people like me actually. 가끔씩 있어 [Every now and then there are a few], but usually they’re skewed towards one language a little bit more. 근데 나는 굳이 따지자면 한국말인 것 같기는 하거든 [But if I had to pick just one, I tend to think it may be Korean]. It's because I read in Korean when I was growing up and I kind of refused to read in English because it was hard. (laughter). I spoke it inEnglish, but I read Korean. I read literature in Korean so it still reads better to me. I can read news articles and stuff, but when I read novels, say, or poetry, gosh, it takes a long time to read in English.

Is there any specific Korean literature that speaks to you?
There’s a poet called Yun Dong-ju. I love his work, it’s really wonderful. He was around the time when Japan took over Korea. He died in the camps being used for experiments so he died really tragically. I only knew of him because one of his poems was in the 한글 타자 연습 [Korean typing practice game]. There was a poem called Night of Counting the Stars that I really liked while practising so I searched up his stuff.

Coming back to which language I find more comfortable, or feel a bit closer, I would say it's half-half, because I lived here for longer than I did in Korea. In terms of speaking, I'm pretty comfortable in both languages. But, when it comes to literature, it's Korean.

Tell me about the music video, what made you work with Nahyeon Lee?
I actually knew Nahyeon from the Basement Theatre days. When we were trying to do a Basement show that got delayed, she was the one on the comms and was super duper lovely. We followed each other on Instagram and I thought her work was really amazing; the Kāinga movie she was involved with was so beautiful. So, when we got this Pan-Asian Funding by NZ On Air I thought this might be a prime opportunity for me to hit her up.

Because the funding was Asian-specific, it motivated me to collaborate with Asian artists, but even if it wasn't that I would have contacted her. I had a pretty tight deadline and she still said that she was keen, I was very thankful for that. We met up for coffee and I was basically saying you can do whatever you like, I trust you. I let her know of the lyrical content and the vibe of the song. She translated that into visuals really well with her storyboard and her vision, got a really amazing team together, and it got shot in October.

That’s quite recent!
Yeah it was pretty bam-bam-bam - let’s go, let’s make this happen.

Did you converse or communicate in Korean at all?
나현씨랑 나랑은 거의 영어로만 소통했었어 [Nahyeon and I communicated mostly in English].
I had a feeling that it would be nice to talk to a Korean person. It's also getting 정서 [emotion], that feeling - I was after someone who could understand these. That’s how I contacted Nahyeon and it seemed to work really well.

I noticed there are a few Koreans in the production credits for the music video, what was it like working with the rest of the team?
There were artists that are not in music like sculpture, costume design or graphic design that I hadn’t heard of which I feel quite guilty about because I should be supportive, but I was, what do you call it, under a rock. 근데 생각보다 너무 많은거야, 너무 잘하고 재능있는 사람들이 많은거야 [But there’s so many more than I realised, they’re all super talented].

Hanna Shim who did the mushroom sculptures - like oh my god I fell in love with her work. Her other work as well is so cool and I wouldn't have properly known if it wasn't for this collaboration. The costume designer Steven Park, 6x4, is really incredible and Jungie Choi who did the title graphic and the album artwork. Liz Hyun who did the makeup did a really amazing job, but not only the Koreans of course. Julia Croft who did the rock sculpture has done a really incredible job too and the D.O.P, lighting, logistics, focus-pulling, everyone. The crew was so creative and amazing to work with so it was a breeze.

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Check out more about Phoebe Rings here and be sure to listen to their new single on Spotify or Bandcamp!

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