In music, in art, and in life, honesty is one of the values that should always prevail and that should guide the way in which we communicate. It may seem like the obvious, but in our current times, where everything is either sugarcoated, exaggerated, or passed by some sort of filter, creatives that have this very real and raw perspective of life are more rare than one may think, and maybe that’s why when an artist speaks in words the average human can understand and relate to, they’re listened to, recognised, and celebrated. This may be the explanation for Sion’s success.
Going viral from his unique vocals and preserving the momentum with his realistic lyrics, unexpected blends of a wide range of musical genres, and a musical talent Sion has caught the attention of his native Germany, South Korea — where he is currently based —, Europe — recently toured — and soon, the world. Sion is an unstoppable force fuelled by his ever-creative brain, and in this interview we understand better how it works.
Hi Sion! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with METAL. Where are you answering us from?
No, it's a pleasure! I'm here in Seoul at my studio.
You just had your first European tour this past October. Congratulations! How was the experience? Did it feel different from anything you've done before?
Thank you! I was born in Germany, but this was my first time doing shows in Europe, so the vibe was completely different. I feel like Korean audiences usually are more reserved and really focused on taking in every detail that I do on stage, and I think that kind of energy is amazing; it feels like they're really listening deeply. But in Europe the atmosphere was so much more open and loose, almost like a celebration, and people were chanting, dancing, and moving, just fully engaged with the music, so it brought a whole new energy to the performance. I think you need both crowds; there's something special about an audience that's totally locked in, but there's also something freeing about people just letting go and vibing to my music.
Where do you think your music fits better, with which type of audience?
I think the reason I actually arrange my music again for different shows is because I want my music to fit the place that I go to, so I don't feel like there's such a thing as a perfect place where my music fits, but I try to fit my music into that place.
As you said, you were born in Germany, but you're currently living in Korea. Does coming back to Europe with your very own tour feel like a homecoming? Where do you feel most comfortable?
It definitely feels a bit like a homecoming. It's been three years since I left Germany to pursue my dream of being an artist, and a lot has changed, but the moment I reconnect with my family and my friends, it's like time hasn't passed. It brought back everything; I was right at home. Germany is where I grew up, so there's always a part of me that finds comfort here. But honestly, I think you need both words again. Being back allowed me to recharge, and now I feel ready to take on new challenges abroad again.
With this multicultural background you have, but working mostly on the Korean market, what do you feel is the main difference between you and your peers? How has your upbringing impacted your creative process or way of thinking?
There's a big cultural difference between Korea and Germany; everything here in Korea is fast-paced, which is good and bad. The service here is really fast and on point, perfectionist almost, but that also means that you have to be perfectionist and fast as well, and you have to always keep the pressure alive, which is sometimes really hard, especially because I was born in Germany, where everything is slow. You can have some off time in Germany, but in Korea, that's not possible, so I think that also reflects in my music nowadays; it feels a bit more chaotic and fast-paced than my music that I've released two or three years ago.
I first knew about you when your Rising Verse got released two years ago, as I always keep up with it. The video received a lot of attention; did you think of it as something that could launch your career in the way it did?
I definitely tried to make the performance catchy and impactful. The songs I performed were all demos back then, so I tried to come up with arrangements that are very interesting sonically, like the Braindead one that had these ups and downs in falsetto and shouting and everything. It was definitely planned, but I didn't expect it to really work out that well. So it was a big surprise.
And you saw a big change after it? You felt the new attention towards you?
Actually, I just signed the contract with my label back then, so we were like, okay, let's take some time; it's probably going to take three to four years until you get some recognition, and then suddenly I got the recognition, like two months after I signed the contract, so it was really overwhelming. It's still overwhelming, I feel, but I'm really grateful for everything that happened.
From your very successful appearance in The Voice Germany to this Rising Verse and all the attention you receive whenever you do something, what has been your main motivation or purpose in this journey you've had of promoting yourself? Do you feel people understand you and your music in the way you intend to?
I feel like my purpose and my goal are always changing. At first, when I signed the contract, I just wanted to make people know me. But then I started listening to a lot more music because I'm producing my music all by myself. So that means I have to study a lot of music simultaneously, and that made me also search for a bigger goal and the purpose of not just getting people to know me but also making something that is purposeful for the world, so right now I feel like I want to make an album that is really impactful and new, that nobody has ever heard before. I want to be an artist that people feel is a bit mysterious; that doesn't mean I want to be super isolated in any way, but I just want to keep my musical sauce a bit isolated. I feel like I'm not there quite yet; I'm trying to get there. I feel like my last album was a good step towards my goal, and I need to work upon that.
Talking about your very last project, Sociavoidance, I reviewed it and I remember it as an album born from a rather harsh personal experience. Do you find any comfort after working on an album like this where you sort of canalise your emotions through it?
I never thought of my work that way; I never intended to make it heal me mentally, but I feel like when I make music, I kind of let out all my dark thoughts, so it helps me digest all the stuff that is happening around me. I'm trying to be as brutally honest as possible; I feel a lot of songs nowadays are a bit too beautiful. They try to make something very poetic and like a dream, but my songs, lyrically and also musically, feel a bit more harsh, and I feel like people need that. I think it's not enough to just give people dreams, but you also need to give them the reality. That's where we're living right now, and just by realising that, I feel like a lot of people get cured for a slight moment from reality because they realise where they're at right now also applies to me. When I write my lyrics down and my realities down, I realise where I'm at right now in my life, and that just makes it so much easier to digest.
So, as you said, the lyrics in this album are very realistic, even at times pessimistic and dark, but they're paired with bright melodies and even uplifting rhythms. What was your purpose when creating this dichotomy?
Usually, I don't try to go for a purposeful contrast. I just really like uplifting music and dynamic electronic music. So I just make the music and write lyrics separately, and then I end up fusing them together. Most of my lyrics are pretty realistic and dark, and most of my music is pretty uplifting, so it ends up creating this weird contrast, but I feel that is also what makes my music special in a way, so I think that's good.
It definitely works. You’re very critical about the state of the world in this work; how have you been feeling lately about it? Do you see any glimpse of hope anywhere?
I see a lot of hope in the world. The media is always feeding us with dark information, propaganda, and war, bad stuff happening. But seeing people react to that in a very, very respectful and also thoughtful way always gives me hope that people can change this world. The state of the world right now is kind of concerning; I feel like the big conflicts in the world also reflect the small conflicts that we have in societies as well. I don't know how much my music can change something about that, but I feel like it just reflects my hope and my desire for something to change.
Are you facing your next projects in the same mindset?
Yes, it's going to carry on the same vibe that it had with this album; I'll keep it realistic. Now that I've talked more about antisocial stuff, I think I want to talk about death and suffering a bit more, so I'm trying to go for that. But let's see, I'm still writing.
My favourite song of this album, and I think my favourite song of yours, is Incognito I think it's a very complex song that best sums up you as an artist. Can you share with me your creative process with this song as an example? What comes first when you’re creating? How do you blend all these different sounds and genres into the same song?
I always fight with myself when I make a song. By the way, Incognito is also my favourite song that I've made until now, so thank you so much; I appreciate it. I always have a conflict because when I make a song and just try to go with the flow, I'm like, “Oh, this is bad; I should start over,” but you always have to fight through that urge to keep creating just because, at the end, it ends up becoming something more meaningful. Usually demos that end up being an actual song for me are songs that have a concept from the beginning, like karōshi! for example. I had a musical concept in mind: it should be abstract hip hop mixed with new age music and ethnic music, and it should talk about death, and for Incognito I want it to be an extension of that, so it had to be ethnic, but in a different way; put in R&B and pop sources and try to mix them together. I always have a signature sound for each album, so this time the signature was like these little sound details, like the micro sound pieces that are always floating around in my ears. I also was really into jazz when I wrote that song, so I feel like my music always reflects what I'm listening to the most at that time.
Oh, so you create like a formula first? Is it not like a sudden inspiration you get?
The thing is I just go with the flow usually, but these songs never make the cut for the album (laughs). It's usually the songs that are born when I'm sitting in the toilet and I'm just like, what if I make a song that is ethnic, R&B, and jazz?, and then I go to the studio and try to make that. Usually, these songs end up in the album. I don't know why, but it is just like that.
Oh, wow, that's interesting (laughs). Do you also feel like Incognito is the song that best describes you?
I don't know; I like Incognito as a song, sonically, but I started playing the piano classically and playing the violin classically, and then I listened to a lot of pop stuff and really came into the pop-centric music world. So I feel like karōshi! describes me very well because it has both these new-age classical musical aspects but also the pop side of it and hip-hop, because that was also a huge part of my music life when I started off as a pop musician. So what would describe me best as an artist is karōshi!, but the song that I really like just to listen to and appreciate the details in is Incognito.
The visual counterpart in the project is very important, and you include many artistic references in the videos, and in general, it seems like a very curated graphic work to accompany the music. Is this born after you work in the music? Do you conceive them at the same time? How is this process of building the visuals?
I think it naturally comes while I make the music. So the music is electronic and at the same time natural. So the music videos and the visual style had to be something out of this world that doesn't exist. So I immediately thought about liminal spaces. Having this visual concept of liminal spaces made it easier for me to work on my music because I could just visualise my music playing in these liminal spaces. So I think these visual inspirations and these musical inspirations build up on each other, and then it gets to be an album.
I'm very curious about your references. Not only in music but in general, who do you look up to or what inspires you?
I feel like most of my inspirations are in music, so as a producer and singer-songwriter myself, I really look up to people who make their stuff really on their own because I know how hard that is. So I've always loved James Blake. He was one of my biggest inspirations from the beginning on. Also Porter Robinson. He was a big inspiration for this album, particularly. But I feel like I'm always searching for new inspirations; that is also why recently I've been listening to a lot of Japanese music. Japanese underground music, it's so, so unique; it's just so free.
What genres? What type of music?
Electronic, techno, also punk rock. My love for Japanese music got to a point that I just direct messaged random musicians on Instagram because I loved their music so much. I was like, "I'm going to Japan soon; let's meet up" (laughs), and, actually, I met some of them, so I want to work with them on collaborations. Let's see if that works out.
How is the future looking for you? What are your short-term and long-term goals?
Next year, since we had this year already a few European shows and also a showcase at the Reeperbahn Festival in Germany, we're trying to build upon that and do more shows outside of Korea. That's also a long-term plan for me and for my label as well. Since we signed my contract, we have already talked about not making this a Korean project but an international one, so we're trying to go more global. As part of that, I'm definitely trying to contact more international musicians and try to work with them if they want to. A short-term goal for now is to build up that link between these artists from me in South Korea to Europe, Japan, and America. My long-term goal is definitely to be the best among these people; I'm an ambitionist.
What is your ultimate dream? Something that would make you say, "Ok, I peaked."
When I was young, it was always a Grammy, but right now most of the artists that I listen to will never get a Grammy (laughs), so my standard has definitely changed. Now I am usually very active in music rating communities. There are two websites called Album of the Year and Rate Your Music. These are two websites where this really huge community gives these albums like a star rating; my goal is to get a good rating in there; I would be really happy.
Can you give our readers a song recommendation?
Wait, let me look at Spotify really quickly. Peterparker69 and Tennyson's skyskysky. Peterparker69 is a Japanese electronic music duo, and I fell in love with their music since I heard them because I was a really big fan of the producer Tennyson, and he did a collaboration with them. I immediately had to listen to their own stuff as well, and I listened to this song in particular all year, when I was working out, when I was sad, and when I was happy. It's a really quirky and stupid kind of song.
