Kimj Brings a Rebellious Edge to Asia’s Underground Scene

Kimj has just arrived in New York when he joins NME on Zoom. Fresh from a US tour and a bowl of pho, he starts talking about Asia’s underground music scene while hunting for a charger. His phone is down to one per cent.

That mix of urgency and warmth carries into his music. The Busan-born producer makes tracks that can hit with the force of Skrillex, then suddenly reveal a sweet pop melody or a gleaming synth. Having grown up between Korea and the US, Kimj has become a link between young electronic artists in both places. His collaborators include 2hollis, Nate Sib, The Deep and Effie, and his work is reaching further into pop through artists such as Tinashe.

“The young people, they will always be the future,” Kimj, whose real name is Jaehyun Kim, tells NME. “Their creativity is so pure and so honest, and because they’re most likely living with their families, they’re not thinking about taxes or rent. They have this very pure outlook on life, and it makes the art super fun and fresh.”

Credit: Press

Kim moved to New Jersey when he was six. Classical music lessons became part of his childhood, as did American pop: he heard Kesha and Katy Perry on car rides with his father and stepmother. Seeing Martin Garrix break through at 16 drew him toward EDM, though he struggled to recreate those sounds. He found a better starting point in the hip-hop his friend played for him, including Future, Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert.

He began posting ‘type’ beats inspired by popular rappers on YouTube, where he built a dedicated following. Rod Wave and NBA YoungBoy were among the artists who bought his instrumentals. By the time the pandemic arrived, though, the routine had worn thin. “It was getting exhausting making these similar beats,” he says.

Looking for a sound with more room to move, Kim connected with SEBii, who would become both a collaborator and a roommate. After finishing high school, Kim moved to New York with him. He credits SEBii with helping him feel more at ease with his Asian identity.

When Kim first came to America, he spoke no English and went through a period when “I wasn’t really the proudest to be Korean”. Today, Korean references appear throughout his song titles, but he says living with SEBii, who is Chinese American, helped him work through that “inner negativity”. “Having these Asian values be so prominent in his character, I would see that and be like… ‘This guy loves being Chinese. Dude, this is badass’,” Kim recalls. “So I took a look at myself. I’m like, ‘Damn, Korea’s pretty badass, too’. That’s when I was like, ‘I can learn to love myself.’”

“Koreans are hard workers… that burning passion to survive and do better for ourselves is super Korean”

A move back to Korea around 2024 gave Kim more time to reconnect with the country. SEBii had returned to Shanghai, and Kim spent the next two years living out of a suitcase. He also met Asian musicians he had first discovered on SoundCloud, including fellow Busan artist Effie. “It was my first time in my life being super close with a female artist; it really changed my life working with her.”

After that period of travel and collaboration, Kim is considering a return to New York. “I’m ready to come back to America, have a home and be grounded again – moving back to Korea was super important. I knew I needed it, and it was really worth it.”

Looking back on his time in Korea, Kim speaks with pride about the country’s work ethic and connects it to its history of liberation from Japanese colonial rule. “Koreans are super hard workers – that’s for better or for worse,” he says. He is also critical of its more conservative attitudes: “Being openly gay or trans is still very taboo”. Even so, he recognises its determination in himself. “That burning passion we have to survive and do better for ourselves is super Korean.”

He sees a similar drive among the East Asian artists bringing alternative music to listeners in the West. Kimj is on the bill for UK collective Eastern Margins’ Margins United festival, which celebrates alternative Asian culture. He has worked with other artists appearing there, including f5ve, while Taiwanese act R!R!R!iot recently supported him on tour. He has also hinted at new music with festival headliner and NME Cover star Yves.

Kim believes his life as an Asian American producer shapes the way he works with artists across borders. “I think America has the fastest-moving culture in the world – me being surrounded by that has shaped my sound to work with homies like Effie or [The] Deep or even Jackzebra, Billionhappy… all these guys who are polarising figures in their country.” He says some of them challenge the expectations they grew up with: “they don’t believe in the ideals or the confinements of their country. China’s such a strict country, and every time I meet Billionhappy, he’s always like, ‘Bro, China’s fried – it’s bad’”.

“America has the fastest-moving culture in the world – me being surrounded by that has shaped my sound”

For Kim, their feelings about home are complicated. He points to things he admires in Asia, including the sense of security in China and Korea and the “old ass K-pop bangers” Effie plays for him. He describes these artists as having a “love-hate” relationship with their countries, with both affection and frustration finding a way into the music.

“They wanna do better for themselves, but they also doing all this polarising shit in this ‘fuck you’ kind of way, because they want to see their country do better,” he says. “They want to see everything evolve and get to a better place.”

Kim plans to bring that energy to his largest release yet. Although his third album, ‘Kreatures’, arrived earlier this year, he tells NME that a 30 song record called ‘Dance Music’ could follow in the coming weeks. Frost Children and Audiogoth are among the new collaborators set to appear. Working with others remains central to what he does: “When you make something greater than the sum of its parts, that’s when something’s really special.”

The idea for the album took shape after Kim was invited to play San Diego’s Niteharts festival alongside artists including Porter Robinson and Underscores. He remembers telling organisers Isoxo and Knock2, “I was like, ‘If you guys ever have me, know I would dedicate a whole project for that’. My plan is to finish this album by Niteharts time and release it by then.”

He wants ‘Dance Music’ to capture that live energy without overthinking it. “What I want is no concepts: just pure, raw, dance music,” he says. “I just want people to shake their ass!”

Kimj plays Margins United on September 26 and Niteharts on October 11. ‘Dance Music’ is due soon.