Newcomer hongjoin will attempt to steal your heart with his gentle crooning and earnest lyrics.
hongjoin received a shoutout in our roundup of favorite albums of 2022 for his debut album Petrichor, an intimate and vulnerable exploration of the relationships in his life. With only a few releases out, he’s still in the early stages of figuring out what he wants to sound like and how he wants to present himself through his music. He’s working on a number of projects, both solo and with friends, and he’s pursuing a music degree in a university thousands of miles away from his home in Singapore. He calls this opportunity “nothing short of a leap of faith” as this was never something he could have predicted just three short years ago.
Shortly before he began his mandatory Singaporean military service and had to buzz off his hair, hongjoin posted his first video to the void of YouTube, a cover of “I Don’t Wanna Be Okay Without You,” by Charlie Burg. This cover was only intended for his family and friends to listen to, but the YouTube algorithm rewarded his post with a bit of virtual traction. Fueled by this newfound positive feedback, hongjoin continued posting throughout the tenure of his military service.
Reflecting on the first covers he ever uploaded, hongjoin says: “This was really for myself; music was always like therapy to me.” Continuing to share his passion became an unexpected practice in developing his own sound and finding an audience. Growing up, hongjoin surrounded himself with music, learning instruments by ear, but music was always considered a hobby. Around the time of his service, he began learning the building blocks of home studio production through GarageBand tutorials and released his first original song “The Last Time” in August 2021, with angsty lyrics about a breakup. Looking back on it now, hongjoin is critical of the song, but he also recognizes it as “one of the first final products that I was proud of” and it has paved the road for his future releases.
Until now, hongjoin never had much of a formal music background, so pursuing music was considered to be nothing more than a dream. Back home, in a culture that prizes quantitative academic achievement, he was always considered a “STEM student.” He had plans to attend a university in his home country and pursue a path that was laid out for him. When hongjoin received his acceptance letter to a college program in Boston, his family was surprised. “When I told them I got an offer to study music in the United States, they were shocked because I had never prepared them for this.” They had always known that he was drawn to making music in his bedroom, but the idea that this field could be a career was a foreign concept.
A few short months before he left Singapore for school, hongjoin put together his first live show in June 2022. He identifies this experience as the moment it really clicked for his family that there might be some merit in this dream. From the beginning of his music-making experiences, hongjoin has drawn inspiration from the personal relationships and experiences in his life to support his compelling melodies. Track 7 from Petrichor, “Least That I Could Do,” embodies these themes well. Meant as a tender letter from hongjoin to his mother, it made her cry when she heard it for the first time at this concert.
“So much that I know I take for granted / And so much more you do that I don’t know / I know you love the parts that I hate the most / I know what I am to you / I’ll let you know / That I won’t let myself hurt you like before,” he sings, recognizing his family’s impact and role in his life. Later in the song, hongjoin reveals that the least that he can do is make a promise that he’ll try to look out for himself as he embarks upon a future of uncertainty. In this gentle chorus, he acknowledges his roots and that he will always remember where his home is.
hongjoin’s latest singles “You’re My Everything” and “Long Way Home” showcase the adaptability of his songwriting. Compared to Petrichor, these songs introduce a much more upbeat and bubblier version of production, driven by a percussive drum groove and vocal harmonies that create layers of sound that were absent in the album. Where Petrichor was a collection of gentle melodies, minimally accompanied by acoustic guitar fingerpicking and strumming and sometimes supported by straightforward piano chords and simple drum loops, these new releases showcase a new direction of hongjoin that you can dance and vibe to. Although Petrichor and these 2023 singles sound markedly different, one key element they share is hongjoin’s tendency to pour his heart out about farewells and unrequited feelings in his lyrics.
“You’re My Everything” is the first single in his upcoming EP slated to drop in May. hongjoin revealed that performing songs from Petrichor can sometimes create too sad of an environment. He’s been getting too many inquiries of “who hurt you?” and wishes to jump around on stage with a band. Petrichor as a debut album is a strong first chapter of hongjoin’s musical journey and sad boy storytelling arc. The past year has been a period of musical experimentation and sharpening his production chops, and he’s ready to have fun with the new skills he has acquired.
Outside of songwriting, singing into a mic hooked up to a computer in his bedroom, or going to classes, hongjoin finds himself learning how to relax and do things for fun. His new life experiences are sure to make for fresh songwriting material to keep an eye out for in 2023.
