We were lucky to catch up with Jaden Kim recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jaden, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I think I’ve been very influenced by anime haha! Growing up I watched shows like One Piece where the core values are never giving up no matter how hard and also how important good friends are in your life. I grew up watching shows like that and I think as a result of that I’ve always felt a strong confidence in my ability to go the extra mile and hold out until the job gets done.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m an artist first and foremost. I’m sure it seems trite to say that when it seems like a given but I feel like so many musicians treat being a musician and an artist as separate. I have a band called JOJO : THE WORLD. The name, like the source of my resilience, is influenced by anime, in this case, by “Jojos bizarre adventure”. My vision for the project is to create an experience that feels as exciting, dynamic, and dramatic as an episode of anime. I think in todays age, especially in the indie scene, a lot of people have foregone good showmanship in fear that they might be perceived as “selling out” I think the visuals and drama of the show can serve to elevate the art as a whole. I’m a huge fan of the visual arts so its very important to me that I’m able to reflect some of the best elements of visual art in my live shows and music videos.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The most “bang for buck” skills I’ve developed as an artist have been learning to play the guitar, studying composition, and most importantly training my ear.
Guitar has been a wonderful journey because I came from a history of playing polyphonic instruments like horns. Access to more notes at a time and the ability to play chords really changed the game for me. Not to mention my mouth was now free to sing which opened up a whole new world to me. I think one of the most underrated elements of the guitar is that you can take it wherever you want. I really took advantage of that, especially in my early days. I would take my pink Stratocaster electric guitar hooked up to a little bluetooth speaker wherever I went. The beach, my schools convenience store, I played in my zoom classes with my camera panned towards my head. It really let me get into that singular focus and helped my improve musicianship a ton.
Studying composition and the art of songwriting has also been invaluable to me. I think most of all it helped me enjoy my favorite songs even more. At this point I’ve developed a sort of obsession with sounds and harmony. Every time I hear a song that really strikes me, I try to figure out exactly what they’re playing as soon as I can, it bothers me if I can’t! Learning songs and being able to understand the building blocks of how they wrote it/what they may have been thinking has really helped me in my own composition, taking moves from my favorite artists and rearranging and mixing until I have a product that’s authentic to me.
Most important by far has been training my ear. When your ear is developed, you don’t even need an instrument to get better or practice. Every time I hear a song on the radio or otherwise, I’m figuring it out in my ear and analyzing what they’re doing. When you do that, the patterns subconsciously deep into your brain until one day you just sit down with your instrument and you realize “wait I can play this song that I’ve never even attempted before”. Other than the technical aspect, developing your ear really means becoming a better listener, which is one of those skills that transcends music and helps you become a better human.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
I’d say my singing for sure. The voice has been an aspect of music I’ve felt like I’ve struggled with ever since I could remember. Only recently have I started to gain some confidence and feel like I’ve been able to move forward. Recently I’ve also been able to own some of my own talents. For the first time in my life recently, I’ve found myself saying “Wow that sounded amazing. I’m a great singer”. Everything in moderation of course, but as someone who grew up hating the sound of my own voice it’s felt like a huge shift. What’s funny is that it’s hard to tel which came first. I think the two feed each other, actually becoming better and having confidence in your ability. I have a tendency to be stiff, which is definitely one of the enemies of good singing. In the past 12 months I’ve definitely loosened up which has made me a better singer.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @andnowyousayjojo
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jojotheworld?si=AQcpTklNeUlPGEqH
