Singer-songwriter Grass started making songs when traveling because she wanted her music to be like a memory box that she can look into whenever she wants to bring back the experiences she had while traveling.
“When I travel, I get a lot of ideas from the people that I meet. I write down the stories of these people, and I also write down the feelings and moments I want to remember. Then I look back at those notes and that’s when I have a piece of new music,” Grass told The Korea Herald as she sat down for an interview on Tuesday.
She has been working with On Gray Entertainment since her debut as a singer-songwriter back in 2019 with her debut single album, “Midnight Bus.”
Because her travel experiences constitute the muse of her music, Grass is also launching two new singles about travel this Sunday.
“My former singles feel distant from who I truly am because I used to separate my identity as a singer and my identity as a content creator. But recently, I realized that there is no need to separate these two identities. So this time, I was determined to make music about traveling,” said Grass.
Grass is not only a singer-songwriter but also a popular YouTuber running two travel vlog channels that have a total of 864,000 subscribers.
“The first single to be released is called 'Airplane Mode' and the second one is 'Safe and Lonely.' Both are songs that are perfect to tune into when you are traveling or want to go on a trip composed with acoustic vibes,” Grass explained.
On the day of the release of the new singles, she will be taking the stage at a festival for the first time in her life.
“I am performing on the last day of the HAND Festival taking place at Nodeul Island, Seoul this Sunday. It will be the first time that I perform these new tracks live. I am so nervous and excited,” said Grass.
Two weeks ago, Grass took off to Switzerland to shoot the music videos for these two new tracks.
She is known to take part in all the processes of making the music videos for her songs from planning to filming.
“At first, I was planning to visit a local modeling agency to hire a male actor but I didn’t have enough time and resources to do that so I starred in the music video again. It turned out even better than what I had in mind,” said Grass.
The music video of her single, “Round and Round,” in which Grass was also deeply involved in the production, recently hit one million views on YouTube.
“I tend to have difficulty in relying on someone else for my work. If I leave my work to someone else and the results are unsatisfying, I spend a lot of time regretting it. So I'd rather sleep less and work more to do it myself,” said Grass. “It’s important to shoot, edit and plan the music video myself to deliver the message I want to deliver to listeners.”
For Grass, who was mostly recognized as a YouTuber, the single, “Babyblue,” is what brought her music career under the spotlight.
“Babyblue” was a remake single that went viral and hit 728,000 streams on Soundcloud.
“The original version was singer Kevin Oh’s song and it was from the original soundtrack to my favorite drama, 'Dear My Friend.' Because I wanted to cover the song so much, I contacted Kevin Oh to get his permit to remake the song. Thinking about it, he was a true grown-up who wanted to root for a youth’s dream, because if it had been me, I wouldn’t have allowed a total stranger without any musical reference to remake my song,” said Grass.
Now, Grass is a singer who has a total of 11 singles and two EPs.
Recently, she has been expanding her musical spectrum by taking part in making soundtrack songs for K-dramas.
She landed on the major local music chart, Melon, for the first time with “It’s Sunny Today,” her soundtrack song for the drama, “Crash Course in Romance.”
“The production company contacted me first. I was really worried that my voice would not go well with the drama at first. I think this track is probably the track that I’ve practiced the most before recording. It’s really surreal to hear the song being played on TV. Once, I was visiting a large mall and suddenly this song was playing. I froze for a minute because I couldn't believe it. This was an opportunity that led me to more opportunities to work on original soundtracks for other K-dramas,” said Grass.
But among all her songs, Grass’ favorite is the single, “Stay,” a fan song she made as she put her biggest travel-related channel to a halt.
“It took me more than four hours to record this song because I couldn’t stop crying. This song is like a letter to the people whom I have spent my 20s with. I still can’t listen to this song because it makes me emotional,” said Grass.
“I want to make music as a gift to my fans, to tell things that I haven’t been able to share through my videos. Music is what keeps me from getting emotionally barren so I wish and will continue to make music.”
