Mini-Interview with auhm

auhm
Last summer Donawhale‘s Youn Sung Hoon began updating his blog with some of his own demo recordings. I already had the greatest respect for the music he’d made with Donawhale (아카시아 being one of my very favorite songs) and was thrilled to hear what he could make all on his own. A few weeks ago he made the name for his solo project official while launching both MySpace and SoundCloud pages. I wanted to find out more about this new project so I asked him a few questions and in return got a set of answers translated by Ryu:

How would you like to introduce auhm?
auhm is the name of my solo project. (ambience guitar player and songwriter Youn Sung Hoon – better known as the primary guitar player of Donawhale)

auhm is an abbrevation of 4 words. It stands for something, but I’m not gonna tell you in detail at this moment in time. That’s kind of secret. It could be a sort of pleasure to find out and imagine what it means.

How would you describe the sound of auhm?
Well, essentially, I could possibly tell you that auhm is without a doubt well-suited for post rock. I often avoid the common pitfalls of so-called “post-rock” by maintaining a standard form of its genre. To stop perpetuating stereotypes and prejudices about my work as auhm, I do not want to define ‘auhm’ in detail. But in this sound of auhm, evolving development with a rock sound and not having any lines of vocal and so forth, could be some elements of post-rock. Recently, I guess the genre of post-rock straddles instrumental music with its various elements.

I tried to describe and develope those things that coexist with “intensity/feebleness of feeling”, “delicacy/rowdiness” and “beauty/ugliness” or something like that in the sounds. I also wanted to express the amplification, the development and the extinction of energies in this world. All this, as well as the hidden side of everything we belong to. Y’know, the sun gives us light but it also contains the dark. Each has its opposite side. Through auhm, I attempted to express those things as much as I possibly can.

You’re a guitarist, but listening to your demo songs there are also other instruments. Is it all you or have other musicians been involved too?
All demos are made and recorded by myself. And I made the whole drum part on the computer. But it’s just like drawing up basic guidelines, so I need to change a little more.

Especially while recording, there might be a drummer or other musicians I’ll be able to work with. Not working with the computer & doing all parts alone :) Most likely, it would bring a change. I hope that the change could become precise/original, more positivie, much more dynamic.

What are your current plans for auhm? Any EP or album in the making?
I’ve been conducting some musical experiments in private, and I’ve made lots of demo songs so far. But I haven’t completed my work yet, so I have got to concentrate and get some work done. After this, I’ll make progress in releasing new album or EP and doing extra works. And I want to find well-matched members of auhm and practice and record my works together. If I don’t find anyone, I would have to do it all alone. That sounds so tough! lol

Well, at any rate, I hope to release my EP album before this summer and then I’d like to perform live on stage as auhm. It’ll be my honor to communicate well with each other through auhm’s lively soundscape. Thanks.

I’m already so excited about his plans for an EP and hope to one day get to see auhm on stage. Donawhale fans need not worry too much about their favorite guitarist getting too occupied elsewhere just yet however. Although Donawhale is on a hiatus right now Youn Sung Hoon expressed a wish for them to become active again soon.

Check back tomorrow to download an mp3 of one of my auhm favorites so far, but already now you can listen to plenty auhm demos on SoundCloud. Any guesses on what a.u.h.m. stands for?

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