Last week I had the opportunity to speak with musician and rapper PianWooo about his career, music, and his involvement in the upcoming ESEA festival.
Park Seung-woo chose his stage name ‘PianWooo’ by combining the words Piano (he is classically trained in piano) and Woo, being the name his friends call him. This is perfect for me, he says, as it defines who I am.
Born in Korea, PianWooo came to the UK in 2006 and is now based in New Malden. He studied piano at university, having been classically trained as a pianist from a very young age. When I asked when he started playing the piano, he modestly says he was 5 years old, when he first began. Naturally, as someone with very little musical talents, I was interested to know more about being talented at something, even from a young age, and how he decided that this was something he wanted to pursue as a career. The reason, he jokes, was his older sister & competitiveness he felt – being the good younger brother I am, I wanted to beat her at everything. The battle, as he describes it, lasted a long time. But, PianWooo talks fondly of his sister, who is also classically trained and now works as an actress in South Korea.
F: A talented family.
P: We try.
So why does a classically trained pianist decide to start making rap music? The answer to that question is because he’s following his dreams. Four years ago, he says, I decided that I didn’t want to do classical piano anymore. Whilst I’m sure I will go back to classical piano eventually, I wanted to create my own music. Do my own thing, and since I had always wanted to be a rapper, so I thought I’ll just go for it and see what happens. PianWooo acknowledges this to be a “big leap” and “not necessarily the wisest thing” but it’s a choice he’s made and one he is excited to pursue and see where it takes him. It’s a great thing to see people pursuing what they want to do. Whether it works out is something you will only know with hindsight in any event, and as he rightly says: when I look back on my life, I’ll have had the experience of being a rapper, something I’ve always wanted to be, regardless of whether it works out as I hope it will.
PianWooo doesn’t just make music though, and along side it, he says, I work with K-pop stars and go on tour with them. I’ve worked as part of Blackpink’s Europe tour and I worked with NCT Dream. More recently, I have worked with Jungkook of BTS. We talked more about what it is like being on tour and how it impacts him:
P: It’s just another type of job within the entertainment industry but it’s been a great experience. I’ve met some amazing people. My dream one day is go on my own tour of the world, and one day fill up my own arena. I’d love to visit loads of different places. Getting to be a part of that has been fascinating – it has both inspired and grounded me. I hope that’ll be me one day! It’s very exciting.
We then talked a bit about his music, and the processes involved in creating them. PianWooo explains the process of creating rap, as being “different” for every song. Largely, he says, it depends on the context. If there is a certain feature or sample, there are certain topics that I have to touch on. That makes things straightforward. However, when it comes to writing my own stuff, I used to just write lyrics on my phone, but these days I’m trying to freestyle.
F: What does that entail?
P: Basically, I hum around for a bit, and freestyle based on what is in my head – it usually comes out as complete gibberish but from there I work on the lyrics, make them a lot better, so they flow and keep at it until I get a good feel of the song. It’s a mixture really, and often it depends on who likes what, and how things are received.
One of topic of his EP, ‘Bird’s eye view’ which is a record that chronicles the story of survival, we talked a little bit about the process of its creation. PianWooo describes this song as “very experimental” and “a lot of fun” to create. He talked to me candidly about this period of time in his life, when he was without a home, living in London, and sleeping at the producer’s studio. We would wake up, make music, often recording until 3 am. Sleep. Do the same. He talks of this period with a sense of excitement but since I found myself thinking that must have been quite a difficult period for him, he says, it was relentless, for sure, but actually it was one of the most blissful periods of my life. I enjoyed it, looking back at it. It was a very unique period that I can definitely cherish. It led to something great.
Talking of his recent release, Yamang, you can sense how proud he is (with good reason) of what he has created. When I asked about how it has been received, he replies, I think people like it. It got showed a lot of love when I was promoting it on TikTok. This naturally led us on to how the internet impacts the music business, something which he says he is still figuring out.
P: Generally, though from the point of view as an artist, it’s great. Back in the day without the internet you wouldn’t be able to reach out to as many people without a big corporation supporting you. But now, with the internet just being there and available for everyone, it is just a matter of making yourself known. Engaging with people and getting numbers up.
F: So what’s next?
P: I am doing a show on 12 August in K-town(New Malden) at 601 PM Cafe/Bar. It has been a while since I was on the stage performing, so I’m really looking forward to it. I wanted to make sure I can see as many as my peers/fans who I haven’t seen in a while. I’m really looking forward to it. I go back and forth between London & Korea, I don’t always have time to meet with as many people as I would like. I hope to introduce more people to my music.
I’m also performing as part of the ESEA Festival.
F: Can you tell me more about that?
Sure. The KBCE chairman saw what I was doing and she reached out to me, and asked me to curate the group of artists (including myself) on the lineup for the festival. I thought wow, yes! why not? What a great opportunity. I am excited to have been a part of it.
I had to make sure the vision was clear and did my best to include as much diversity as possible with the group to show the diversity of Asian artists out there. I’m really excited. Seeing and celebrating diversity is great. London is such a diverse city, and that is one thing of the many things that is beautiful about London.
Note to reader: You can find out more about the ESEA Festival by visiting KBCE’s instagram page/website.
F: Any new music?
P: I’m working on something. A single is definitely in the pipeline. Definitely. I’m just figuring out how to best drop it, and the best way of getting it done and dusted.
F: Final question. What message would you like to give to those who follow and admire your music?
P: My experience of life, and also I suppose the music industry, but mainly about life, if I’m honest, is to be humble. I believe that you should always do what you want to do but always be humble because there will always be people that are better then you out there. Don’t look down on people – you may think they are not at your level but that can change immediately, so always be nice.
Also to smile more. I think that smiling can get you a long way in life. So can good energy. There is so much competition out there, so it is important to remember that we are all human.
