Samuel Seo is an Asian artist, who can take the roots of R&B and Neo Soul to make it their own sound without imitating other artists of the same genre. The artist chatted with ROOM2K about being in love for the first time, his upcoming single “Some Things Don’t Change” and how love can bring one of his best albums to life.
2023 began with the release of his first single Swing Slam, produced, written and recorded by himself. Defining himself from his own work as an artist who is old-fashioned and has not been carried away by superficial sounds. Rather, he is one of the few who continues to create music from real instruments.
“My fourth studio album is going to be dope as hell” Samuel Seo mentions about his upcoming single album. This new music was written after he discovered the feeling of being in love.
“Before I met my girlfriend I kind of want more… Not just calling her my girlfriend I kinda want to call her my wife and stuff… But the thing about that is that love can change a lot of things in your life and before this one I didn’t really believe in love, I hated it.” he mentioned.
Samuel found it cheesy the way everyone talked about the word “love”, but after meeting his girlfriend, his perspective on the world changed. It was visible during the conversation, because every time we returned to the topic of his new single, his smile would not leave his face.
In fact, the “Some Things Don’t Change” is about how he doesn’t believe in love, being the prelude to the next album where we can see Samuel in love.
THE SOUTH KOREAN CULTURE OF LOVING
Samuel Seo is not a fan of the culture that companies impose on their artists about hiding their relationships. In fact, in one of his previous agencies, the “GAE NA RI” singer questioned this rule, “Why hide it? We are all human beings and we are born to be loved and to love.“
And hiding a relationship is silly, but understandable with the culture of fanaticism in South Korea. However, Samuel is no longer scared and defines himself as a Korean ahjussi. “I’m 32 years old, it’s time to get married” he confesses, smiling.
TWO WINNING ALBUMS FOR BEST WORK OF THE YEAR
Like it was nothing, Samuel Seo doesn’t feel much after winning Album of the Year twice for FRAMEWORKS (2015) and UNITY II (2020). Both works did not have any other guest artist, so it is the presence and essence of Samuel that led him to take home the award.
“Everything changed in a positive way and that’s when I first started making a living out of music. I started to struggle less about making music because I could finally focus on making music solely because before that I had to focus on other stuff”, said Samuel.
Something very interesting that Samuel describes as focusing on himself, is that both winning albums at the Korean Hip Hop Awards and Korean Music Awards were works where only he was involved. Contrary to EGO EXPAND (100%), who he had collaborated with GIRIBOY and Nucksal, which did not take place at any award show.
SAMUEL SEO ON PRODUCING FOR K-POP GROUPS
With a smile from start to finish and his girlfriend’s dog on his lap, Samuel Seo mentioned JYP Entertainment band Xdinary Heroes when asked which K-Pop group he’s been listening to lately. The choice for him was based on the fact that he worked with the band on one of his most recent albums.
Although we would never have imagined Samuel Seo, the imminence of Neo Seoul, working for K-Pop groups, the reality is different. But it all started as a challenge to himself, “I wanted to sell my tracks to other artists to prove the fact I can create commercial songs like the ones I sold”. Some of his work has ended up in OnlyOneOf songs like “blOOm”.
CULTURAL APPROPRIATION IN K-HIP HOP AND HOW TO AVOID IT ACCORDING TO SAMUEL SEO
“My influence comes from a lot of places such as Marylin Manson, Roy Ayers and Deftones and I’m kinda of a mixture of all those musicians” but what is special about Samuel Seo, and here we enter the discussion on cultural appropriation, is that Samuel tries to bring his love of music into an Asian look.
Reflecting a little on the cultural appropriation that exists in K-Hip Hop, Samuel Seo confesses that there must be respect and an Asian perspective for the genre. “Speaking even of the lyrics in certain songs, there are topics that are not from our culture and as Koreans we should reform the genre in a proper way if we love it so much.”
At the moment, there aren’t many artists in the South Korean industry that Samuel Seo would want to work with, but DPR LIVE is one that he does. Despite the fact that they met at the beginning of their careers, and are not in contact, the artist defines DPR as the “clear example of interpreting Western culture and music to their Asian careers.“
Meanwhile, “Some Things Don’t Change” guves us a preview of Samuel enjoying himself, his next album will be a masterpiece, said by himself. And obviously we can’t wait to have it.
You can follow Samuel Seo on Instagram for more music to be released and some updates on his MC role on the Radio Show “K-Ride” by TBS.
