In Pursuit of Timeless Tunes: Jo Dong-hee's Vision for Songs to Become Life's Soundtrack
"Songs that possess enduring vitality are our objective... aiming to be the background music of everyone's life."
Lyricist and singer-songwriter Jo Dong-hee was one day taken aback while watching an audition program on TV where Jang Pil-soon's 26-year-old song 'When My Loneliness Calls You' (1997) was being performed.
In a world where dozens of new songs are released every day, he was in awe of the long life that a good song could have. This led him to propose to his elder brother, singer-songwriter and producer Jo Dong-ik, who resides in Jeju Island, that they should create a song together that could be loved for a long time.
In an interview with Yonhap News on May 14, Jo Dong-hee said, "I remember feeling thrilled when I saw a scene in the cartoon 'Glass Mask' where two actors interpreted the same role differently. I believe this ability to interpret the same content differently is the essence of art."
Jo Dong-hee's story is an explanation of his 'Two-Track Project,' where one song is sung by two singers and released as two distinct tracks. Each singer interprets the same song differently with their unique emotions, thus expressing the dual nature of life.
The first season of the 'Two-Track Project' featured top-tier Korean musicians such as Jung Seung-hwan and Jang Pil-soon ('Chronicle'), Jannabi's Choi Jung-hoon and Han Young-ae ('Until You Learn to Love Love'), Lee Hyo-ri and Jung Se-woon ('From Today, I am Happy'), Lee Seung-yeol and Stella Jang ('Where Sadness Passed'). Singer Sung Si-kyung will kick off the second season, which begins on the 21st of this month.
Jo Dong-hee narrated an episode, "When Jung Seung-hwan sang the first song of Season 1, 'Chronicle,' and I told him that Jang Pil-soon would also sing it, he was so nervous he said he'd 'sing on his knees.' When I visited the recording studio, he was trying to sing like Jang Pil-soon, so I told him, 'You have a beautiful tone of your own, sing it your way.'"
Jo Dong-hee, the younger brother of folk music legend Jo Dong-jin and Jo Dong-ik, has written song lyrics for various artists like Cho Gyu-chan, Na Yoon-sun, Lee Hyo-ri, and made his debut as a singer himself with his first album 'Pigeon' in 2011.
In the 'Two-Track Project,' she filled the songs with his characteristic clear and dew-like lyrics such as 'Like irregular pain, it will be that way for a while... Until You Learn to Love Love' and 'Where sadness has passed, the sunlight builds up and wakes up today again.'
"If songs are living beings, then lyrics are their breath. To make a song, you need lyrics," she emphasized, adding, "Good lyrics should be unusual expressions that contain universal emotions."
sheHe went on to say that rigorous observation and research are required to write lyrics that make people think, 'Can you express love like that?'
Jo Dong-hee wove our everyday language into the 'Two-Track Project' songs, tailoring them perfectly to each singer. As in the phrase 'Memories painfully rub against the body, collecting the broken pieces, endless snail sleep,' he portrayed painful memories and the recovery from them.
she expressed his conviction, "While the K-pop market has globalized, I still want to console Koreans with beautiful Korean words. When I see lyrics functioning more as an effective sound delivery method than as a means of conveying meaning, I can't help but think, 'Songs are living entities, but isn't the soul that penetrates them too fragmented?'"
In 2020, Jo Dong-hee established his own label, 'Minimum Universe,' and has been operating independently. However, coincidentally, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) hit, causing him to downsize to a smaller office, effectively operating on a 'minimum' scale, true to the company's name.
"Setting up the label was possible due to my reckless nature of not over-calculating things," she said. "I had the confidence that I could take responsibility for this much. I was able to pull through the COVID-19 crisis thanks to the help of many people."
Continuing, she said, "In these challenging times due to the COVID-19 situation, I took a trip to Europe as a gift to myself. I wrote 'From Today, I am Happy' while experiencing a delightful deviation and thought it would be effective if Lee Hyo-ri sang it. I hope people enjoyed a breath of fresh air in the stifling times through this song."
Lee Hyo-ri recorded 'From Today, I am Happy' in Jeju Island, accompanied by her husband Lee Sang-soon's guitar. It was reported that she suggested to Lee Sang-soon, "You should sing too," and the couple ended up singing the song together.
Reflecting on this, Jo Dong-hee said, "The sight of a couple singing was so beautiful. Hyo-ri is quick-witted and smart. She understands instantly when I talk, and she even included her laughter in the song."
"As for the goal of the 'Two-Track Project'? It's to become the soundtrack of everyone's life. If there's a season 3, I'd like to participate as a singer myself. Haha."
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