21 Questions with Jihae

Please explain what just happened.

Rain.

What is your earliest memory?

I called my dad a pig and he was flabbergasted.

If you weren’t a musician, what other profession would you choose?

Travel journalist, food critic, and a yoga teacher. Who does just one thing nowadays?

Please describe the current contents of your refrigerator.

Kale, yogurt, mangoes, pomegranates, pears, oranges, avocado, broccoli, turkey, kimchi, water.

Is there a time you wish you’d lied?

I’m sure I can find plenty of times that would’ve been preferable to lie but I strive to be an honorable human being and honesty is key, so no.

What would you say to yourself if you could go back in time and have a conversation with yourself at age thirteen?

Read and learn, don’t just memorize everything. Be proud of your ethnicity. Don’t let others’ handicap (racism) be yours.

Looking pretty is really trivial.

If you could have only one album to get you through a breakup, what would it be?

Best of Leonard Cohen or Nina Simone’s blues album.

What are three websites—other than your email—that you check on a daily basis?

BBC.com, NYTimes.com, Facebook.

From what or whom do you derive your greatest inspiration?

Free thinkers.

Name a book that changed your life.

Memories, Dreams and Reflections by Carl G. Jung.

If you could relive one moment over and over again, what would it be?

It’s between being held in mom’s arms as an infant or bowing at the end of musical theater performance I co-created with John Patrick Shanley at the album launch 9/7/10.

How are you six degrees from Kevin Bacon?

“May 10, 2010 … For reasons unknown, Kevin Bacon has declined a lucrative offer to star in Steven Spielberg’s mega-budget dinosaur series Terra Nova,” (Google is so handy dandy) – IMDB news.

I did a screen test with Spielberg for Memoirs of a Geisha when he was suppose to direct it about 10 years ago. I didn’t decline, he pulled out as director and the Chinese took over the world.

What makes you feel most guilty?

Not calling my parents often enough.

What would you most like to have invented?

Google.

What is the worst piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?

Get revenge on the person who did you wrong.

What is the best advice you’ve ever given to someone else?

Let it go, don’t allow it to live in your life.

What do you consider the harshest kind of betrayal?

The kind that breaks trust and wreaks havoc on other people’s lives.

Of all the game shows that have graced our TV screens throughout history, which one would you want to be a contestant on and why?

The Mighty Boosh, a UK show. It’s surrealist comedy with music. What can be more fun?

What do you want to know?

How to revert the dissidence in the world, how to have peace.

What would you like your last words to be?

There’s a song I wrote about that on my first album called Lullaby for the Lonely People.

Lyrics:

I don’t want and I don’t need other people’s measures to rise
We all sleep underground someday
By then I will say

I’ve seen all the beauty and the magic
And darkness so tragic
Still with so many unanswered questions
In the end I’m glad I got to
Sing a lullaby for the lonely people

Please explain what will happen.

2012 will arrive in a year and will bring some major changes.

TAGS: Art, David Lynch, Fire Burning Rain, Harmony Korine, Jihae, John Patrick Shanley, kimchi, korea, Lenny Kravitz, Lullaby for the Lonely People, Memoirs of a Geisha, Music, musician, Portishead, Terra Nova, The Nervous Breakdown

A native of South Korea, the daughter of a South Korean diplomat and a trained opera singer-piano teacher, JIHAE traversed the world in her youth from Nigeria to Sweden to London and ultimately New York City. Jihae’s voice defies simple terms. Drawing upon the influence of different genres, her unique soaring and darkly fierce vocals have been compared to Grace Jones, Mazzy Star and Portishead and media response to Jihae’s music has been overwhelmingly positive.

Her love of fine arts has led her to collaborations with numerous multimedia artists including Marco Brambilla (they worked together on the sound for his video art piece Ghost. The concept for the music was based on Maurice Ravel’s one-movement orchestral piece, Boléro, which is performed with percussive breaths as the only instrument for the piece) and Gerald Byrnes (Jihae was featured as both a vocalist and an actor in his video art installation Interview, shot by renowned cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Interview originally premiered at the Venice Biennale). Jihae also scored the short film Agria by Rajan Mehta starring Paz de la Huerta as part of a collective of 42 shorts by 42 directors including David Lynch, Gaspar Noe, Larry Clark, Harmony Korine, Kenneth Anger, among others, called One Dream Rush.

She has also co-written songs with Grammy-nominated artists David Steel (English Beat, Fine Young Cannibals) and Duncan Sheik. Her debut album in 2007, My Heart is an Elephant, features diverse guest artists including filmmaker Michel Gondry on percussion and Lenny Kravitz on bass and guitar.

Following the success of her debut LP My Heart Is an Elephant, which Venuszine’s Melissa Bobbitt declared, “…the time has come for Jihae's unique talent to shine” and the remix EP Afterthought, Jihae received enthusiastic praise from the critics with her sophmore release in November 2008, Elvis Is Still Alive, which Baeble declared “super-cool, with some delicious composition.” Recently Jihae returned with a brand new album, Fire Burning Rain, which features nine stirringly beautiful songs that create a seamless soundscape with elegant layered musical arrangements. She once again brings a musical sophistication to her ever-evolving, always-electrifying sound on her third record and transcends the boundaries of downtempo both musically and emotionally.

Jihae has been developing a reputation for her captivating live performances and her use of visuals injects the audience with a dream-like experience that lasts well after her set is over. This past Spring, she opened for The Virgins, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth and Moby at an event to celebrate the Anthology Film Archives 40th Anniversary and to honor the work of Kenneth Anger. In early September 2010, she launched the live performance for Fire Burning Rain with a multimedia art exhibit and an epic musical theater performance at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. The audience was treated to a dazzling collaboration of music, art, theater and dance performance.

On Fire Burning Rain, Jihae’s entrancing molten vocals and an alternate universe of beats creates a particular sophistication that engages listeners and leaves a lasting impression.