(soft piano music)
- My name is Joseph Kim.
I am 52 years young and I was in Korea for four years
and then in 1974, I was in Kansas
and then I grew up all my life in Colorado Springs.
My father really emphasized me speaking Korean.
He had a big aegugsim, national pride about Korea,
so he always emphasized for me to speak Korean,
as well as my sisters.
I had a chance to go to Korea to become a film composer,
but someone told me, this really famous guy who did
the music for this drama called, (foreign language).
He was the one that produced it and I somehow met him
and he told me, if you do music for movies
you are like a third rated composer.
So he said to do K-pop, not the idol K-pop at that time,
but Korean pop music.
And so I was able to get in with that.
I did want to talk about how Steve Jobs once said
that there are a lot of dots in your life
and dots represent the people,
the significant people that you meet
as well as significant events that happen.
And my first, very first dot was
this very talented young lady.
I used to work in LA when I was 23 as a producer.
And in walks in this girl and her mother.
She was 16 years old at the time
and they came in and they needed a song composed
for these lyrics that they wrote
and she wanted to enter this gospel contest.
And so I wrote that song for her
and she actually won the grand prize.
And her name was Lena Park.
(Foreign name) is probably one
of the most famous singers here
in Korea ever since this show called, (foreign language)
which was very popular and that made her like a megastar.
And at that time I was thinking one of these days,
because of her, I'm gonna do well.
I'm sure I might have had some other dots
but as far as a career is concerned
Lena also being one of my closest friends
is one of the biggest dots in my life.
I did not know about K-pop music at that time.
I was more of a pianist.
My aunt had her wedding and behind her wedding music
there was the song that came out.
And I just loved the song
and I somehow found the score for it
and I was actually able to play it
because I guess it just got ingrained in me subconsciously.
And I just loved it.
Every day I would practice like eight hours.
And I even went to college with music as well.
It wasn't until I attended a school in Hollywood called MI,
that I really got into pop music.
You know, when 21 and Big Bang came out,
they definitely were people that paved the way
to have Korea go to America and all over the world.
But I think the actual person that
made that really possible was PSY.
I went to this one gig in Austin, Texas where,
you know, it's predominantly American people.
And I asked, do you guys know who PSY is?
And they knew who he was and they really liked him.
And right there I thought, oh my God
I could start dreaming.
I do believe that I have an advantage.
And like I mentioned before, it was the kind
of music that was like maybe two
or three years ahead of the trend.
So if it goes too far above the trend,
it's very difficult for people to cope with that.
But being two, three years ahead, at that time,
they didn't know how to write like that
because at that time YouTube wasn't around.
Now, I think writers, composers can write advanced music
because of, you know, things like YouTube.
But at that time, because I was in America
it was like kind of having like YouTube all over my mind
and being able to study it and bring it out to Korea.
So I think a lot of people, when I wrote songs for them
they couldn't really imagine writing songs
like that and having that kind
of line melody lines and that kind of feel.
So I did have an enormous amount of advantage, I think.
So now my way of thinking is instead of as a writer
I wanna be a producer who helped young writers
do their thing.
Very recently, and it's going to start
actually in next week,
we started a brand new K-entertainment company.
And now it seems like it's like full circle.
I finally came to a point where,
okay, now I can start again.
Because at that time, I was in the mainstream
and I was one of the mainstream.
And now that I'm not, I can be of help not just musically
but with leadership skills and just knowing
about the industry and how to help younger kids, you know,
fulfill their dreams and then 이끌어내
and get them to help me take things
to the world with their talents.
And my goal right now, especially as America,
of course, me being speaking in English,
America from Korea not starting from America,
but from Korea incubating in Korea to take it to America.
Like BTS like more BTS kind of projects
whether it be movies or whether it be dramas
and you know, just K-entertainment.
And we are incubating two idols, a boy and a girl
and we're gonna start that.
It's not gonna be for a few years
but definitely has a really big chance of succeeding.
Because I'm not a singer or anything that's
in the front when I say I wanna be a part
of that is I want to be a behind the scenes person
with my name being able to help to bring things
to the world.
For some reason Korean people have talents
that's out of this world.
And I think a lot of other countries,
especially Asian countries, I think really can envy that.
Life sometimes is like a full circle
and I can give you kind of an example of that.
When I was writing for Anne, the Anne one,
there was this group that I really loved,
Brown-Eyed Soul, right?
And so, what happened is before I gave
that particular song that hit with Anne,
I sat around in a keyboard and we were at the studio.
Brown-Eyed Soul was there and they were sitting behind me
and I was actually playing the piano
singing that song to them, right?
And one of the members said, "Oh, I like that song
but you know, I don't think it will fit us very well."
So I said, okay, that's fine.
And then it went to Anne and it did very well.
And ironically, I think it was like 2018,
I got a phone call.
I got a email from Sony, Sony Publishing
saying that they're gonna make a remake of your song.
And I said, oh, awesome.
And I said, who's the person?
And they said it was Brown-Eyed Soul.
Being able to come back and being able to start again
from a different point and it coming full circle,
I think that could be a big theme for my entire life.
You just never know the people that I've met.
So I think it's a good idea for people to,
not to give up and go just as far as you can,
'cause you never know,
It can come full circle and it can happen at that time
in a different manner.
My name is Joseph Kim, and this is my Korean American story.
(soft piano music)