Setting off for an interview with singer Choi Baek-ho on a windy late October day, with dry, fallen leaves swirling about my feet, I thought, “What a perfect day for a meeting with Choi.”

“Please don’t leave in autumn, but, if you must, please leave in the white winter,” goes a line in Choi’s first hit song from the late 1970s, and he has been known as the quintessential man of autumn ever since.

I met Choi at Musistance, an underground music space ― literally underground as it is located in a converted underpass in Ahyeon-dong ― that opened its doors at the end of last year. 



“It used to be a gathering spot for the homeless in the area. We still get some homeless people coming, not knowing the change,” said Choi, adding that with winter approaching he worries about where those people will turn to for warmth.

How this music space for aspiring musicians and indie musicians came about is something of a fairytale, as is the warm, inviting space fully equipped with the latest sound equipment, recording studios, practice rooms and a stage ― any musician’s dream come true.

The Culture Ministry approached Choi, who also heads an organization of professional musicians, seeking ways to promote indie music in Korea. Choi proposed creating a space where aspiring and indie musicians would be able to practice, record and perform for a nominal fee.

So far, Musistance has organized Independent Project, a contest for independent musicians, and Jugyeongyarak, a contest for amateur bands. A total of 562 teams competed in the Independent Project and at the time of the interview, 10 teams were in the process of recording two songs each for the mid-November final round. Choi, who serves as a mentor to the teams, said, “I see them improve a lot in the process.”

Koreans are known for their love of music, but the standard of the amateur bands participating in Jugyeongyarak took even Choi by surprise.

“The average age is about 30 and rock is the most popular genre. We had to screen teams that sounded too professional,” said Choi. The final five winning teams of Jugyeongyarak will hold a concert on Dec. 30, a rare opportunity for amateur bands to perform on stage in front of an audience.

Choi was 26 when he burst on to the music scene in 1977 with a song that had the mood of a French chanson ― a novelty at the time when the music scene was dominated by traditional Korean pop music. He had written lyrics that people thought were inspired by lost love.

“Actually, that song is about my mother. She passed away in autumn and the song is about her. Yes, women did leave me, but not in the fall,” Choi said.

After his meteoritic rise, Choi virtually disappeared from the public, reemerging years later in 1995 with yet another hit song, “About Romance,” which is still one of the most popular songs in noraebang 20 years on. If his debut song earned him the label “man of autumn,” “About Romance” made him an icon of middle-aged Korean men, the song their anthem.

“That song resurrected me and changed my life completely. The fact that I am still working today, I owe to that song,” Choi said. “About Romance” became a surprise hit when a popular television drama scriptwriter heard it on the radio in a cab, liked it very much, and had the middle-aged male protagonist in her drama sing it in an episode. It caught on like wildfire among the middle-aged men who understood the longing for youthful days and Choi was back in the music spotlight.

In the last couple of years, Choi has been collaborating with some of the hot young stars of today, including singer IU and indie band Sweden Laundry. What is it like for the 65-year-old to work with singers from a different generation?

“They are not my songs and it is a completely different world. It is like traveling abroad after having only traveled in Korea. I learn a lot about the new feelings, sentiments,” he said.

“IU has something I don’t have. Her songs are comforting and easy to listen to, but she knows how to ride the rhythm,” Choi said. “I think singing is 99 percent talent and 1 percent effort,” he added.

Choi is also a host of a late-night radio show, which he has been doing for nearly eight years. He doesn’t say much on the show, taking short pauses between songs to read out a message from a listener and offer a short response in his characteristic low, gravelly voice. Sometimes his response to a listener is a “Um, yes,” before he introduces the next song.

What explains the long life of a show in which the host does not pretend to entertain?

“We play a wide range of music. There is no specific genre, no specific period. And I think people like it for that ― in spite of my voice, which is not easy on the ear,” Choi said.

As for his choice of music, he said he goes for “good music,” which he defines as a song created through a lot of hard work.

When he is not singing, mentoring, deejaying or playing soccer, Choi paints in his atelier. Before he debuted as a singer as a way to make a living, Choi had planned on studying fine art in college. Today, he often starts painting at dawn and continues for several hours. “I sleep four hours a day. I am a restless person by nature and I need to keep myself occupied,” he said.

Trees are the frequent subjects of Choi’s acrylic paintings, the medium he prefers because of the speed it affords. “Painting is difficult. You have to put everything else down and give it your all,” he said.

When I ask about his next project, Choi sheepishly takes out a USB stick from his bag. Holding it up, he says, “Movie! I have two scenarios here on the USB that I always carry with me.” One story revolves around a singer working in Misari, an area just outside Seoul famous for its many cafes featuring singers on stage. The other is a pure science fiction.

“I was inspired by a Japanese sci-fi comic series. It started in 1987 and there are still only 12 volumes. It took the cartoonist 11 years to come up with volume 11 after publishing volume 10,” Choi said with excitement in his voice.

“It has an immense scale,” he said.

As for his own sci-fi film, he wrote the story several years ago and is still in the process of polishing it, Choi explained. For the next five years, he sees himself working on his film projects. “This was not in my plan. I am not one for planning. But I am enjoying this work,” he said. “I will be good at it. I am confident,” he said, sounding very much like an excited young boy.

As I leave the underground playground for musicians, Choi asks if I can include the need for an elevator at the underground Musistance facility. Currently, it is disabled accessible by chair lifts but a way must be found to install an elevator, he said.

“We had a band of disabled people come to practice and it took nearly two hours just to have the band members come down the chair lift one by one. Plus we really need it to move instruments and equipment,” Choi said.

By Kim Hoo-ran (khooran@heraldcorp.com)