ten centimeters. Provides magic strawberry sound.
On the 27th of last month, a ‘Find 10cm (Kwon Jeong-yeol)’ contest took place on YouTube. It was the ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) Clone Singer’ program conducted by the coding YouTube channel ‘Jo Coding’. It was a game in which Kwon Jeong-yeol and four voices created through an AI model had a singing competition to find out who was the real singer. Kwon Jeong-yeol himself was surprisingly similar, but throughout the 4th round, more than 80% of the voters matched the actual voice of Kwon Jeong-yeol. I met Kwon Jeong-yeol, the main character of ‘strong singing style and tone’.
A scene from the ‘AI Clone Singer’ program on the YouTube channel ‘Jo Coding’ on the 27th of last month. YouTube capture.
Kwon Jung-yeol, whom I met at the shooting site in Mapo-gu, Seoul, was as honest as his lyrics. He described himself as “the one with less enthusiasm for challenges.” So he said that at the beginning of this year, he pledged to be a ‘challenging year’.
The most important schedule for this year is the release of the regular album ‘5.0’ prepared since 2019. It is expected to be an album that includes the song “Immediate First Love” released on the 14th and the singles “5.1” (2020), “5.2” (2021), and “5.3” (2022). He said, “I have longed for a remake album for a long time,” and in February of this year, he released an album called ‘Remake 1.0’, a remake of 4 songs by his juniors in the indie scene. He said, “I don’t think it would be easy to allow reinterpretation because it’s a precious work,” he said, “My songs have never been remade, but since I released a remake album, I’ll accept it gratefully.”
At the end of this month, the second collaborative project with ‘Jo Coding’ will also be released. It is part of ‘Artist Connect’, a program that YouTube Korea supports collaboration between artists and YouTube creators. Cho Coding said, “I will try to write lyrics with ChatGPT.” “If ChatGPT creates the lyrics and chords, the 10cm team will improvise and complete the song. The theme is related to love.” Kwon Jeong-yeol said, “I’m really looking forward to it” and “I thought ‘I can’t live with only what I’m used to.’
ten centimeters. Provides magic strawberry sound.
“When I first started music, I longed for the life of a singer who received great love, so I feel proud that I am realizing my dream. However, she did not dream of becoming an active musician like this.”
10cm has been receiving public attention since the first regular album. 10,000 albums were sold out in one day. The song ‘Americano’ (2010), ‘Love is at the Milky Way Cafe’ (2011), ‘Do you like spring’ (2016), and many other hit songs. In 2011, after appearing in MBC’s ‘Infinite Challenge”s West Coast Highway Song Festival, the thought that “I became a lot more successful than I thought” became stronger. Kwon Jeong-yeol said, “I think of myself as a person with a small distribution. It was just that I liked living with music. It’s a fortunate thing, but it’s a life where I received more love than I ever thought of.”
What gave him a greater love than expected was ‘responsibility’. He said, “Even during the first regular album, it was important for me that I was satisfied with my music and that I was cool.” Then, all of a sudden, I changed my mind. The philosophy that “the direction of music should go from me to the public” came into existence. Kwon Jeong-yeol said, “When I did the music I wanted with a gap from the public, it was pretty empty. The satisfying time I got from doing that was short-lived. If this happens, time passes and the music doesn’t sound good to my ears.”
“There are many times when this philosophy becomes ambiguous, and in fact, there are many times when projects are progressing with ambiguousness. Whenever that happens, I just feel a lot of pressure. Then you will work hard.”
Kwon Jeong-yeol foreshadowed active activities as usual. What he is already looking forward to is the year-end concert. He said, “I want to hold a year-end concert again at the Olympic Park Gymnastics Stadium.” In 2013, it was an event in the music industry that 10cm, a former indie musician, stood at the Gymnastics Arena, known as a performance hall for large singers. “I was a bit disappointed at the time,” he said, “I want to hold a concert more faithfully than then.”
Reporter Kim Tae-eon beborn@donga.com
