The South Korean prodigy found comfort in alt-rock’s universal depths; now he’s sharing space with his heroes
It’s 1:30 AM in South Korea when Løren appears on my Zoom screen. He’s dressed in a black sweatshirt with his dark hair loose, no makeup, and his smile is radiant. Tucked in his studio with keyboards and a soundbooth behind him, he assures me the ungodly hour isn’t an issue. “This is like midday for us,” he explains with a laugh, spinning a sleek little vape between his fingers. “Our company operates very late, so this is perfect timing.” Overall, it’s a softer image than I was expecting. His Instagram and music videos paint a more intimidating picture as he blazes across our feeds – impossibly tall and cigarette in hand, draped in tattoos and oozing confidence – it’s exactly the kind of glamorous image that pop culture connects to the traditional ‘rockstar.’ But behind the scenes, he’s happy to relax and let that larger-than-life version of himself recede so that the shy emo inside can take over.
LØREN graces the cover of our July 2023 issue. Photograph by Junkyung Lee, exclusively for Rolling Stone India. Visual Director/Stylist: Seajun Kim, Hair Stylist: Seonyeong Lee, Makeup Artist: Young Lee
Løren is towards the end of what he calls the ‘longest day’ but in truth, it’s been a whirlwind of action for the 28-year-old a lot longer than that. Along with the release of his debut EP Put Up A Fight in March and signing with Asian-American music giant 88rising for its distribution, 2023 has been packed full of performances at some of the world’s biggest music festivals including SXSW, Head in The Clouds and Coachella. In fact, getting a hold of him for this interview involved a few months’ coordination between our teams before we realized that waiting for him to return to his home base in Seoul for a breather between trips seemed like the best bet. “I just recently flew back. I did a show in Taiwan. It was fun,” he says cheerfully. He’s set to fly out to Berlin two days after our conversation for a Saint Laurent show and has several more performances planned over the next few months. “It’s like straight back to rehearsals after this, because we have a couple of other events coming up in like July, August-ish.”
All of this demand is well-deserved; while Løren ‘officially’ made his debut as a rock act in 2020 with the rebellious single “Empty Trash,” he’s been in the industry a lot longer, contributing to a few of K-pop’s biggest hits along the way. Going under the pseudonym Cawlr, he first made waves as a co-producer on Big Bang member and pop megastar G-Dragon’s 2017 single “Bullshit,” a grimy, aggressive hip-hop number from the veteran artist’s critically-acclaimed solo EP Kwon Ji Yong. In fact, it’s the track that introduced me to his work. “I really appreciate that,” he says when I tell him I’ve been keeping an eye on him since then. The mention of “Bullshit” has caught him off-guard and he grins in disbelief, taking a moment to gather his thoughts before adding, “Wow, I haven’t even thought of that song in a very long time… But that was like my first proper ‘Okay, my music has seen the light of the world’ moment, so it means a lot to me. I still remember the day when it came out, and it was pretty magical.”
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AS WE BEGIN talking about his life, I see a part of myself in Løren. Before he became the enigmatic rising star of rock that he is today, he was Lee Seungjoo, a kid who moved from South Korea to Singapore to start a new life thanks to his parents’ job transfers. He joined the Singapore American School, spoke very little English at the time, and kept mostly to himself. It’s a familiar story to those of us who are fellow international school alumni; it was a life of drifting from one city to another every few years, switching languages and cultures before we could fully process any of it. This particular background brings with it a hesitation to put down permanent roots and it meant we were automatically designated to be the loners, the kids who didn’t quite fit into any long-term groups. Therefore, most of us found salvation in the one thing that remained constant: music.
Rock, in particular, spoke to a lot of us because it balanced anger with resolution and isolation with the underlying message that ‘we’re all in this pain together,’ so it makes sense that it stood out to Løren as well. “I was fascinated by rock music from the get go, ever since I saw it on TV… I think it was even before that,” he shares. “I just really liked the energy that it had and so, naturally, as soon as I could, I bought a guitar. A shitty $100 guitar set, and I formed a band with a couple of kids. I also played percussion in the school’s concert band. I gradually became a drummer as well. So… a lot of performances, a lot of flops throughout high school and failed song attempts.”
“I had 15,000 songs on my laptop but the one thing that really stuck with me was the whole post-punk revival movement in the early 2000s. I felt like that had the perfect balance between musicality and approachability.” Photograph by Junkyung Lee, exclusively for Rolling Stone India. Visual Director/Stylist: Seajun Kim, Hair Stylist: Seonyeong Lee, Makeup Artist: Young Lee
For Løren, making music in those days often came with the dream that putting out a hit song or delivering one outstanding gig could pull him from the hell that was high school. “I had a pretty rough time throughout school just in general,” he admits. “I can name maybe one person that I could call my friend. But even then, you know, it’s not mutual… he’s my friend, but it’s not like I’m like his best friend or something. My interaction with other people was very minor. A lot of that kind of translated into me becoming this ball of solitude, where I just played like drums all the time in my room. I would dream about, ‘Okay, maybe if I do this one gig really well, maybe the kids will like me,’ you know? Like some sort of high school teen movie shit — which never happened — but I guess a lot of that feeling was portrayed through the music. It began with a lot of emo pop-punk, like ‘I’m very angry at the world and fuck you guys.’” I tell him it’s the most relatable fucking thing I’ve heard in my life and he bursts out laughing. “I’m glad you stuck around,” he says. “It’s like when you tell your parents, ‘It’s not a phase!’, now we get to tell them, ‘I told you, so. Now it’s my job!’ We spend the next couple of minutes bonding over our mutual love for Megadeth, being the emo kids of our respective schools, and being shunned for our unorthodox tastes in music. He shakes his head as he remembers, “There was a point where I was listening to [American death metal band] Dying Fetus and some kids saw my iPod. They were like, ‘What the fuck are you listening to?’ and I couldn’t even defend myself – I was like, ‘I know they’re called Dying Fetus but I swear they’re pretty good!’”
As time passed and he dove deeper into the subgenres of rock, things shifted; it was no longer about what the world thought of him and fighting to feel accepted – it was about finding himself in all these different branches of music. Løren fell in love with math/prog band Animals As Leaders and even more obscure acts like Giraffes? Giraffes!, to more mainstream names like The White Stripes and The Killers. “I had 15,000 songs on my laptop but the one thing that really stuck with me was the whole post-punk revival movement in the early 2000s,” he says. “I felt like that had the perfect balance between musicality and approachability. Lyrically, I felt like the vagueness that comes with the genre was very appealing.” He spent the next few years listening to Jack White, Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) and The Strokes. “Julian Casablancas is probably one of my favorite artists of all time. I think that’s when I was like, ‘Alright, I’m probably gonna settle here,’ because I still listen to The Strokes pretty much every day and it’s been like 13 years.”
GRADUATING FROM HIGH school in 2013 meant the end of Løren’s time with his band. “Singapore is a very temporary place,” he says. “A lot of people are there because of their parents’ jobs and then they just kind of go back. It doesn’t last more than a couple of years, usually.” He began to chase music on his own, stepping away from rock to pursue paths which might lead him into production or songwriting. It wasn’t his first love but it was, at the end of the day, a step into the music industry. “I figured that’s the one thing I could do by myself.”
After returning to Seoul, he began performing at nightclubs under the moniker DJ Boid, experimenting with EDM and hip-hop. Those skills eventually led him to working with G-Dragon on “Bullshit” and captured his current company The Black Label’s attention. Co-founded by one of South Korea’s most prominent producers Teddy Park, The Black Label houses some of the country’s leading producers and soloists. A few names include Zion.T, Big Bang’s Taeyang, pop singer Jeon Somi, producers Kush, R.Tee, 24 and more. The Black Label officially signed Løren on in 2017 and served as the support system he needed to finally push himself in the direction he was meant to go. “As I picked up how to make music through a computer with a sequencer, I learned that the magic of modern music production is that you can actually make a full on rock band by yourself. That was not something that I thought was doable. I thought I needed like five people, but I didn’t.” Løren credits Park in particular for encouraging him to keep working on rock. “Teddy, who was the head of our company, he actually very much supported my vision of becoming a soloist from the get go, which gave me all the confidence because I’m a very insecure person. I don’t think I would have had the courage to chase this properly had it not been for his advice. Eventually, my dream to become a rock [artist] kind of reignited.”
“The word ‘rockstar’ is… a pretty big pill to swallow. I just hope that people can see I’ve been doing this for over 10 years. This is not a concept I’m trying to do; this is in my veins and in my blood.” Photograph by Junkyung Lee, exclusively for Rolling Stone India. Visual Director/Stylist: Seajun Kim, Hair Stylist: Seonyeong Lee, Makeup Artist: Sunghee An
Over the next couple of years, he made an impression on mainstream audiences as a key songwriter on Blackpink’s 2020 debut LP The Album, having co-written “Pretty Savage,” “You Never Know” and the record’s rock-tinted lead single, “Lovesick Girls” with the group. He even ended up going viral across stan Twitter for his appearance in the “Lovesick Girls” music video, which he finds baffling. “Being in ‘Lovesick Girls’ was a very last minute thing,” he laughs, adding that it was Blackpink’s idea to have him cameo. “It was just kind of off the top of their heads and it was so much fun. You know, it’s crazy. I didn’t expect that many people to take interest.” Although he kept his face somewhat hidden over the duration of the video, being associated with superstars like Blackpink automatically meant being thrust into the spotlight. There was an online frenzy at the time among mainstream K-pop audiences to learn more about him, and it meant that his debut a few months later would have a lot more eyeballs than he expected. “So the thing is, ‘Empty Trash’ was written a good two years before its release,” he explains. “The video was actually shot in April, which was a lot earlier than ‘Lovesick Girls’ (October.) So yeah, it wasn’t a planned thing for that [audience reaction] to happen.” Like everything else that blows up on the internet, there were a few unsavory takes here and there, but Løren now sees it all in a positive light. “Even if some people felt that I got some sort of undeserved attention… Thank you. I’m grateful for every person that listens to my music. Even if it’s hate, I’m still grateful. I’m glad it happened and I believe that everything happens for a reason. Whatever it may be, whatever you feel towards me, thank you for taking an interest in me.”
IT’S WORTH NOTING that Løren’s debut with “Empty Trash” in 2020 turned out to be a massive success because it stood out in Korea’s pop-saturated industry. There weren’t any other Korean artists stepping into darker strands of alt-rock at the time and the music video racked up several million views within weeks of its release (standing at over six million as of this writing.) Critics across the globe commended his commitment to the art; he did all the writing, production and arrangement on the track and played every instrument you hear on it. Its angsty 2021 follow-up “Need (ooo-eee)” was even better – reminiscent of Blink-182, Sum 41 and Green Day, it helped Løren gain a foothold in global the punk-pop renaissance of the 2020s, joining the likes of Willow Smith, Yungblud, Måneskin and more. Later that same year, he dropped “All My Friends Are Turning Blue,” pushing the pop-punk sound further, solidifying his style as an artist, and finally– after years of having to fight the battle to keep rock alive on his own– having a band join him for the ride.
“So funny thing is, two of my bandmates are actually my friends from when I was like, 19 and they didn’t play instruments,” he shares with a grin, referring to his guitarists Mikey and June. “Like two years ago I taught them how to play guitar, then they got to play Coachella 2023, which means life is unfair.” Mikey and June do appear as part of the band in the music video for “All My Friends Are Turning Blue,” but Løren reveals at that point in time they were faking it, a full-on air-guitar situation. “But they liked it so much, it got to the point where I was like, ‘Do you guys just want to do this?’ Because they had potential.” However, he did make it clear that if they didn’t put in the work, he wouldn’t entertain the idea any further. “We’re friends, but this is something that I’ve worked on my entire life. I’m not going to justify a bad performance because you’re my friend. They put in the effort and they did have the talent, thank God. So what began as a cameo, essentially, in my music video became this proper career. And it’s kind of crazy if you think about it.”
Forming a band with real friends was the ultimate goal Løren used to daydream about back in those harrowing days of high school. So even after it’s been accomplished and they’re touring the globe together, he won’t let himself take any of it for granted. “I think there’s a certain amount [of stress while performing live with a band] because I still write, produce and do everything with my music,” he says after a few minutes’ contemplation. “I’m the person who actually sees the entire blueprint and I’m the only person who can actually say, ‘Okay, this frequency of the song, the low end is not pulling through’ or whatever pocket is not working, or the tone is not right. So [I put] a lot of pressure on myself. As much as I prepare myself, I have to make sure that these guys are doing well, especially the two – I call them my kids – they’re still very much nervous about performing, more so than myself, and to make sure that their mentality is on point…” He needs to put on a brave face no matter what happens? He nods, taking a puff of his vape before continuing, “Even if I am kind of shitting myself, I try to give off this energy like fuck it, you know? It’s okay, let’s just go and have fun, not worry about fucking up. If you do, you do. That just means you’ve got to go home and practice more, it’s not the end of the world.” He confesses the constant pressure of having to lead a band can be overwhelming, but he welcomes it because it keeps him sharp and grateful as a performer. “I’m happy to share that experience with the people that I genuinely love, who never even thought about doing music.”
WHEN IT COMES to his songwriting, Løren is a beacon of self-awareness. As powerful as his debut EP Put Up A Fight is, it plays out like a string of various dark thoughts pieced together and he admits the process of making it wasn’t about focusing on a particular theme. Rather, it outlines certain moments of his life from the last couple of years. “It was never planned as an EP,” he reveals. “I was just writing songs left and right. At the time I didn’t know if I would even perform – there was Covid and all these other things. So I think it’s basically a compilation of the five songs that I think are okay out of the 50 that I wrote in the last three, four years.” If there is anything tying the five tracks together, it is perhaps common threads of perception and judgment that run through them; the lead single “Folks” was written two years ago at a time when he felt he wasn’t being taken seriously as an artist. The lyrics seesaw between helplessness and anger as he sings, “So blast your radio/ And bury me so I can grow/ ‘Cause I won’t leave alive/ My lies are getting old/ These fucks they’ll never know/ If only I could show/ But I got no control/ I’ll never know.” The B-side “Panic” dives deeper into the fear of not being heard, while “Sticks And Stones” calls out fake friendships or perhaps even betrayal: “And I’ll do anything/ Just not what I’m told/ Still can’t help myself/ But I’m getting old/ In this sea of smiles/ Not a hand to hold/ Just my sticks and stones.”
“I guess I felt that sometimes people are very quick to judge other people,” he says about the emotions within Put Up A Fight. “I don’t need them to like my music. But I don’t want to take away from the fact that I put in a lot of effort and I put in a lot of work and love and soul into what I do. I don’t take this lightly in any sort of sense, and that I can’t take away from myself. That’s the line that I draw. You can shit on my music, you can shit on me as a person, but you can’t take away the fact that I poured myself into this. It’s a fact. It’s like saying, I’m wearing black right now,” he gestures at his shirt, “You can’t take that away from me. But I felt like a lot of people in the beginning felt that I was maybe not sincere about music, or maybe that I didn’t… I don’t know.” He pauses for a moment, unsure of how to express what he felt at the time and tucks a strand of his hair behind his ear, sinking into himself. “It was just people’s perception that really got to me.” He admits he isn’t perfect either and it’s natural to judge what you don’t understand, but that’s where his brilliant self-awareness comes into play– Put Up A Fight is also a critique about his own shortcomings. “Folks” in particular addresses this. “Being a human myself, I can’t help but sometimes judge other people as well. I’m regretful of the fact that we are so quick to do this. But at the same time, I do realize and acknowledge that it’s inevitable; as human beings, we’re judgmental creatures. So it was that odd phase of my life where I did the same thing, but I hated myself for doing it.”
He pairs all five tracks with branches of grunge, post-punk and alternative, conveying the same sense of vague relatability and approachability he fell in love with when he was younger and bringing in listeners who feel similarly. While the record earned critical acclaim as soon as it dropped and marked his first release under 88rising, Løren felt there was still something missing. “Sometimes it feels like… because it’s not so in tune with what I make nowadays, it does kind of feel like it is something of the past,” he says. “But I do feel like the amount of energy and effort that I put into those songs deserve some light.”
Right now his focus is on his next album and he’s eager to keep moving. He doesn’t want to give too much away yet, but he does offer to give me a slight outline of what he’s building. ”The album which I’m working on right now, all the songs were written within, like the last year or within the last couple of months,” he says, sitting up straight again, excited to dive into it. “So it feels a lot more personal. It has a lot to do with the latter half of last year, which was pretty much when I was depressed out of my mind.” He goes on to explain that the tail-end of 2022 was a low point in his career because he didn’t have much going on at the time; the distribution deal with 88rising wasn’t locked in yet and he was brimming with anxiety and anger. “I didn’t know if I could kind of continue to do this in my tiny room and pretend like this is gonna go anywhere. So it was a lot of struggle for the first half of the album.” As 2023 dawned and things began looking up, it was like a switch had flipped in his creative process, shaping a more positive outlook on the second half of the record. “After this ball started kind of rolling, I did a lot of work in L.A. with a bunch of super talented producers and songwriters, which was the first time that I actually worked with other people. And that was a new phase for me– it opened up such a big door of opportunities and possibilities. It sounds different, it feels different.” He plans to fly back to L.A. as soon as possible to wrap up the record and figure out a release date. “So [the mood of the album is] very mixed between the early half and the second half of the past year, but I think there’s a sort of beauty in the contrasting aspects. It has a lot more songs, too. I have like a good 10 or 12.”
“My interaction with other people was very minor. A lot of that kind of translated into me becoming this ball of solitude, where I just played like drums all the time in my room. I would dream about, ‘Okay, maybe if I do this one gig really well, maybe the kids will like me,’ you know?” Photograph by Junkyung Lee, exclusively for Rolling Stone India. Visual Director/Stylist: Seajun Kim, Hair Stylist: Seonyeong Lee, Make-up Artist: Young Lee
WHILE LONELINESS FUELED his creativity when he was younger – his stage name ‘Løren’ was, after all, born of an anagram for ‘loner’– it is no longer the absolute truth of his life. He’s built a world around himself that features a support system which spans his team at The Black Label, 88rising, his band, his friends in the industry and most importantly, his fans. To his listeners in particular, he’s a symbol of something greater than himself – he’s the ultimate success story, fighting through the murky depths of rejection and isolation to finally swim to shore and become the emo kid who made it. It’s pretty badass and he’s possibly one of the very few artists rising from our generation who embodies the rockstar image in a traditional sense.
Bringing this up with him, however, promptly leads him to cover his face. “I’m like, red right now, because the word ‘rockstar’ is… a pretty big pill to swallow,” he says when he finally looks up again and his ears are indeed red. “But I really appreciate that. It’s not that I feel like the way I portray myself is the ‘rockstar type’… I just hope that people can see I’ve been doing this for over 10 years, and I’ve been loving this for maybe, like 15 years. So I hope that genuine affection shows through my music and me as a person. This is not a concept I’m trying to do; this is in my veins and in my blood.”
While the charismatic artist we see onscreen isn’t a facade he’s putting on, Løren admits it takes a lot of work to get there emotionally. “I guess I have to portray or emit a certain amount of confidence, maybe more so than I, you know, genuinely usually feel,” he says. “I’m a pretty insecure person. You know how people say that a lot of your psychological aspects developed when you’re young? It’s kind of hard to get rid of that. I think it’s something that sticks with you almost permanently. But I’ve learned to kind of make peace with the fact that okay, this is not going away anytime soon. But at the same time, I think that whatever I hold in, really kind of erupts when I get the opportunity to show it.” He knows a few people who are very different from their celebrity or artist personas onstage, but he feels he’s showing us exactly who he is– he’s still that emo kid who wanted to make music, he’s just leveled up a bit. “I’m very bad at pretending, and I’m an awful actor,” he grins. “So yeah, in videos, I try to look a lot prettier than I actually am, but apart from that, I like to think that I’m a genuine, transparent person, on and off stage.”
“I want to just become a musician without regrets and give back to the culture that I consumed. I think the culture in itself deserves at least a good effort to kind of return the favor, in a way.” Photograph by Junkyung Lee, exclusively for Rolling Stone India. Visual Director/Stylist: Seajun Kim, Hair Stylist: Seonyeong Lee, Makeup Artist: Sunghee An
Regardless of whether he’s truly ‘made it’ or not, the most important goal in Løren’s life right now is being able to give fans the same sense of hope he found through the artists he loved. It’s something that’s already happening, but he can’t yet grasp the magnitude of it. “I think the reception that I got at Head In The Clouds was pretty wild,” he says. “I did not expect that many people to show up, let alone like, cheer. You know, I was expecting a very low key ‘who the fuck is this guy’ type thing, and I could hear some people singing along, I saw some posters.” It’s surreal to finally connect with the community he’s been a part of since he was a teenager, and even more so now because he’s seeing the movement from the other side – the artist’s side. “When I went to the So Wonderful Festival (in Taiwan) there was one person who had my logo drawn on their hand and I could see the entire time through videos that their hand was just up,” he smiles. “I don’t know who that person is, I don’t know what they do. But I actually have to message that person because I genuinely want to thank them. Thank you. I feel sometimes that I am worthless, and what I do is not good enough ever. But the fact that somebody enjoys what I do that much is humbling.”
For Løren personally, there probably won’t ever be a point where he’s ‘made it’ because he doesn’t think he’ll ever stop trying to be to others what his favorite artists were to him. He wants to continue to grow, improve himself to be worthy of his audience, and earn his place within the genre and culture that saved him. “I know the bar is going to continue to rise within me and I cross my fingers that I don’t come to a point where I’m satisfied,” he says firmly. “I want to try and make sure that I’m still looking at the next staircase instead of where I am today. I want to just become a musician without regrets and give back to the culture that I consumed. I think the culture in itself deserves at least a good effort to kind of return the favor, in a way.”
Stream LØREN’s EP ‘Put Up A Fight’ below:
Photographer: Junkyung Lee, Courtesy of The Black Label
Art Director: Tanvi Shah
Visual Director/Stylist: Seajun Kim
Hair Stylist: Seonyeong Lee
Make-up Artists: Sunghee An, Young Lee
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