Indie musician ALEPH on making music in K-pop's shadow
Ask singer-songwriter ALEPH where he writes his songs. He will not point you toward a studio. He will point you toward his bed. "This is my office and my home," the singer-songwriter said, sitting in the apartment that doubles as both, during an exclusive interview with The Korea Times in Seoul's Mapo District, Friday. A producer's studio sits nearby for arrangement and mixing, but the songs themselves are born here, in the same room where he sleeps and eats and, on good days, picks up a guitar because something in him says it is time. "I pick up the guitar, fool around with it, and if a melody comes out, I sketch it. On a good day, I finish the whole thing right here, then bring it to the studio." ALEPH, whose real name is Lee Jeong-jae, debuted in 2017 as part of a duo before the project became a solo act in 2019. Raised between China and the United States before returning to Korea for military service, he has spent the years since building a catalog that moves easily between folk, pop, rock and R&B, including the EPs "Hwaehwae" (2020) and "Forest of Tigers" (2021), and the single "Nig
