Photo by Aaron Spicer

Nicole Yun is the singer and guitarist of the dreamy indie rock outfit Eternal Summers, but on her recently released second solo offering, Matter, reality hits hard. Written across the mind-warping stretch of pandemic times and delving deep into the state of this world on both an individual and community scale, Yun reintroduces herself as a songwriting in her most personal form yet through a creative direction as vivid in its craft as the Virginia-based artist has ever been.

Above all, it’s a statement of her personhood as well as that being a voice for the Asian community during a critical moment in our modern day American society. +rcmndedlisten spoke with Yun via e-mail to talk about her approach as a songwriter when confronting some of the most personal reflections she’s put to pen, turning to pop to punctuate her music’s themes, how these last three years influenced the energy behind the album’s sound, and where she’s headed next.

+rl: With your primary outlet Eternal Summers, your songwriting often falls softer off the tongue whereas your solo work has a more defined focus. This effort is especially more so in dealing with themes of survivalism, being seen as an equal as a Korean-American woman, and thwarting attempts to cut you (and the rest of the Asian community) down in size. Did you find that this being your most personal reflection to date made it easier to find that clarity in sound, or was it yet another challenge you took on?

Nicole Yun: Honestly, the sound of this record was the driving force to help me to be more honest and vulnerable with the lyrics. I really wanted a guitar driven indie rock record that sounded powerful, concise and intentional. My first solo album was an open experiment in style and had many different players throughout the album, but the thought behind Matter was to have the same band throughout and to capitalize on the strengths of the group chemistry which seemed to lean towards punchy powerful delivery, and catchy poppy melodic choices in each member’s playing.

With such strength in the music, I was able to get a sense of what was needed from the lyrics. On a train ride to New York to play some shows, I wrote the lyrics for “Like Never Before” – perhaps my fifth attempt to find lyrics appropriate for the music. The words came spilling out because my mind had been pre-occupied with my trip to New York and whether I was going to be safe arriving at Penn Station – an area in Manhattan where many hate crimes against Asians had occurred. I felt both self-conscious and empowered once I had finished writing the lyrics. It was as if the discomfort was a sign that I needed to finally express my frustrations and true emotions about what I had been feeling in a much more candid way than I had ever done before.

+rl: It strikes anyone listening as being more of a “lyrics-forward” kind of album even though the music itself is arguably your sound presented in its catchiest terms. Do you find embracing a – for a lack of better words – pop medium in your canvas helps punctuate the narrative of songs like these where each line is a self-reminder, a declaration, or an exclamation to the world around you?

NY: I have always loved a juxtaposition in lyrics and music. With Eternal Summers, I often found myself writing lyrics that were a bit darker while the music tended to be more dreamy, shimmery or upbeat. On Matter, I really enjoyed pairing much more literal, personal, and often quite blunt lyrics with a catchy melody to form tension. Is this ear worm about racism or xenophobia??? Yes, why yes it is. The catchier the vocal melody could be, the greater the tension it built with the lyrics.

+rl: The album was recorded in two very different places: NYC and your hometown of Roanoke, Virginia. Without having any guiding background info to be able to tell, a song like “Annyeounghaseyo Again” has a very Roanoke rumble about it where as the exhilarant jangle pop of “Lost Keys” races down big city streets. I’m curious to know if either location put you in a different headspace, and where we as listeners might be able to pick apart the details in those respective tracks…

NY: Though the locations could not have been more different, the approach to our recording was always similar. Since my band mates and I all live 8 hours away from each other (NYC/NJ, Cleveland and Virginia) and since the album was recorded during the pandemic, we would use a weekend every four or five months to cram in as much recording as we could. The process was stretched out over years – 2019 through 2022. The energy always felt like there was a sense of urgency because we didn’t know when things with the pandemic would get worse and when we would see each other again. It didn’t matter where we were, we were determined to work to get the tracks recorded.

+rl: Matter is informed by the events and your own personal experiences of the last three years. Where do you hope the proverbial wheel steers going forward from this point onward?

I never expected to write an album like Matter. The topics felt relevant for the headspace I was in during the pandemic, and I am so glad the album came together to be what it is. The vinyl for the album will come out later this summer alongside some tour dates so I’m excited to finally perform it all! My hope for the next step in my creative process is to explore a new sonic palette and perhaps some different genres while still employing melodicism and vulnerability. We shall see!!

Nicole Yun’s Matter is available now on Kanine Records.