You are a songwriter, singer, musician and producer. Do you identify more strongly with any of these titles? How do you describe yourself when people ask you what you do?

Even though the names are all different, it is always about making the best music possible. Every role needs to be understood, and most times they're all connected to each other. Sometimes, you are more than one at a time. Depending on the situation, I make sure I am fully committed to, and concentrating on, my role as either singer, musician, or producer.

The music is always first, so if someone asks what I do, I will always say, "I am a musician."

How would you say the sound of your music has changed over the years?

At first, it was straight pop music. My music matched the basic sound of the time. I used a lot of basic and common chord progressions. This allowed me to gain a certain amount of fame. Once I had popularity, I was able to be a little more ambitious with my musical style.

At that point, I was able to experiment with more and more styles of music and production techniques. There was definitely a point where I began to feel a musical obligation, sort of a musical conscience.

At this point of my career, I can pretty much do what I want with my music. I always have a goal of trying to introduce new styles to the Korean and Asian music scene.

Right now, I'm exploring more and more electronic music. I've become highly influenced by IDM. Still, I've written vocal music with a strong melody my whole life, so it's hard to truly say that my music is IDM, and I'm sure a lot of IDM purists will say the same. However, I like taking the elements of IDM that I love and placing them in the context of my songwriting style.

Your music has elements of jazz, samba, electronica, rock. Do you feel there is a common thread to all of your music?

To answer this question, you should probably understand something about the Korean music scene. For several reasons, such as the size of the market and the country's population, the demands on music can be very limited compared to the US. For this reason, the only way to be successful in Korea and in Asia is to contain some common elements of major "K-pop" music. So, in K-Pop, you'll see lots of different musical elements, such as jazz, samba, rock, dance, ballad, all mixed together. So, it's really hard to divide music into specific genres like you see in the Western music scene.

My differing styles was merely a reaction to the Asian pop music scene. I always wanted to have a successful working career as a musician, so I always included certain styles into my music. Over the years, though, I have chosen certain other styles that I personally enjoyed, sometimes at the risk and expense of domestic sales.

Many people feel that my music is all brought together from my melodic composition style. However, the color that my music has is much more based on my chord progressions, and the melody is a result of that.

Many of our readers might not have had exposure to much Korean pop music, but it is a huge export to many other Asian countries and to the rest of the world for that matter! Do you have any other observations on the differences between Korean popular music and popular music in the US?

As I mentioned, there is no real "genre" in K-Pop. There is still a lot of focus on the musical "icon", and the persona that they have. Thus, if you limit yourself to a certain style or genre, you have a really hard time making a living. Even in the Hip Hop trend in Korea right now, most of the artists and producers have a huge struggle to gain recognition and exposure. There are a lot of really great artists that the public has no way of seeing.

What influenced you musically when you were growing up? When did your career as a musician begin?

In Junior High, my cousin gave me his guitar. I still think that he is a very talented guitarist, but he decided to go in another direction in his life. Learning on that guitar, I started a school band as a guitarist and a composer.

I wrote a few songs, and played with that band for a while. However, Korea has a mandatory military service, and the entire band had to serve. I was left with a demo of my songs after high school, and no band to play with anymore.

A few seniors of mine passed this demo around, and somehow in ended up in the hands of a record executive. Before I knew it, a famous singer at the time asked to be able to record and perform a couple of the songs. It was those first songs that brought me recognition as a songwriter.

As my songwriting became more well known, it was a really natural step to become a singer.

Your new mo:tet project sounds like quite a departure from your earlier work. You mentioned there are four Korean electronic musicians and a Japanese vocalist involved. How do you approach making music with mo:tet? What can we expect to hear?

The musicians from Korea and the friends I had at Berklee College of Music would meet through the internet. We realized we could make something new regardless of where we lived. That is how the electronica unit mo:tet was born. As each of us has very unique characteristics and backgrounds, various original ideas are mixed into the production, even when designing the very first rhythm track. Right now, we are making an EP until the end of this year, and you can expect a much more experimental sound than my solo work with mo:tet.

Has your process of writing music changed as technology has changed over the past decade? What do you do differently now as a songwriter and producer?

Before coming to the US to study music in 2003 at Berklee College of Music in Boston, I had used lots of hardware instruments. I was a fan and a collector of vintage synths. However, since then, I've made a transition to software instruments and synthesizers. Most of it is due to the changing production environment, efficiency, and space. Most of the time, I use software for programming and hardware when I perform.

I will say, I do feel nostalgic for the old days with my analog gear. There is something psychologically more "real" about turning a knob when designing a patch.

I would say that my songwriting and production techniques haven't changed much with technology. It makes it easier and faster, but technology is just there to help, the best music still needs the same work that it always has.

You mentioned you've been using pHATmatik PRO and other iZotope plug-ins. How are you using them and are there any features you really enjoy?

Radius for Logic was my first purchase from iZotope. When it was released as a Logic plug-in, it was smashing news for me as a Logic user. I always use Radius when I need to change the key of a pre-recorded audio track. There is nothing much else that sounds this good for complex music.

I used pHATmatik PRO a lot in my recent work, "Play with Me," to re-design a number of audio files. I had recorded my son's voice and the sound of his toys. Loading them into pHATmatik was the best and most convenient way to edit and warp the files, and really explore the musical imagination of the track.

To learn more about yoonsang visit www.myspace.com/yoonsangmusic