Jan 18 2024
by Yvonne Morales
After feeling lost, and experiencing fear, Jaygrdn, an emerging Korean-American artist, faced the unknown with a bold spirit as he made his first steps into the music industry. With a sound inspired primarily by R&B and hip-hop, Jaygrdn has been able to experience the joy and freedom he found through his self-expression in creating music.
He started off by recording lyrics for songs while serving in the Korean military. Soon after, he moved back to the U.S. and was found by a team of creatives in Boston after posting a song clip on TikTok. Jaygrdn now works with them under the production house, NYTE WORKS. Founded in 2022, they are a passionate production team with a mission to build a platform that empowers artists to showcase their creativity and voices through visual narratives.
YOUR NAME MAGAZINE sat with Jaygrdn as he reflected on diving head first into his artistry:
YN: Your first album, ‘Thru The Grapevine,’ is out. What does this mean for you?
JAYGRDN: It signifies a bold beginning for me. I fell in love with the process of making music – writing lyrics and expressing myself through this medium. I guess I never built up the courage to share that with the world. That was a very intimidating thought for me. Throughout this past year I was experiencing a lot of life challenges as well, I graduated from college, and ended a long-term relationship. I constantly came back to this feeling, this passion I had for music. So I took this leap of faith and started to share my music which led to me meeting my friends and the team I have now. One thing led to another and we started creating “Thru the Grapevine.”
It’s very much an introspective project, it talks a lot about my own experiences in life, and the vulnerability I needed to create it.
I think these seven songs to me signify the beginning of my journey as an artist, and I think it’s a great privilege to be able to do that. All the songs on the album were written and made when I was living on a street called Grapevine Road. And so that was kind of a little reference to the song, and where I was at that point in my life. So that’s why it’s called "Thru The Grapevine".
What is one of your go-to songs from “Thru The Grapevine”?
I would say one song that personally, if I met someone that didn’t know about my music, and I wanted them to know who I was I’d recommend “Hold Me Down”, which is my favorite. Making music is special, because we can share it with other people, and everyone takes away a different message or feeling from the song. For me, "Hold Me Down" is a song I wrote in my deepest darkest times in terms of figuring out what I want to do. I expressed that in the fullest way through the song.
“Dolce Vita” is your most streamed song, what inspired it?
It is a really special song because I posted a snippet of it on TikTok a long time ago and it did pretty well. That’s how I met all my friends who I am living with. [NYTE works] commented "hey we love your song, we would love to make a video for you”. So we started talking with each other, and here we are today, living together, creating music and videos. That song was like the beginning of everything, I would say, yeah.”
What has been your favorite part of this whole process?
Being able to make music, share it with people, and be creative. When I sit down with my team and we have all these different ideas for what we want to do, and bounce off of each other’s ideas. We try to improve everyday, I think this whole process to me is so joyous and liberating. And for me, I feel this great appreciation and privilege to be able to do that.
What are you working on now?
Oh I’m working on a lot of music, I actually have so much new music, that I almost don’t know what to do with it. My goal for the upcoming months, and just looking ahead, at least in the short term, is to put out as much music as possible, and to share the best art that we can make. Whether that be through the videography or the music. For me just on a personal level, I think really pushing the limits of the music that I can make is my goal. Throughout the next three months, I’ll probably be releasing around 7 to 10 songs. We’ll be keeping ourselves busy working on that.
With two newly released singles and two new collaboration pieces, Jaygdrn is making his mark in the music industry with his versatility, emotionally charged music, and chill/ hip beats, to find his message to the world.
But you didn’t hear it from us. You heard it through the grapevine~
Check out Jaygrdn's newest single "SAY SOMETHING", that was released earlier this week:
Comments