Our Independent Artist of the Week AnSo is a South Korean artist creating music in the electronic realm, dabbling in vocal manipulation and weaving between English and Korean in their practice. They joined Dyan Tai and Emily Elvish on Kings and Queens on Up For It! to chat about their latest release ‘ANSOIE.’

“I think I always go back and forth. There are some days I feel like a bit of a fraud, because I migrated to Australia just before I turned one. But in saying that, I am fluent in Korean, but my level of fluency is quite low. I sometimes feel like “Oh, I’m not even Korean” and when I visit Korea, it’s not even like I fit in. For me writing in Korean and also weaving in English is true to who I am as a person and really shows my experience of cultural confusion.”

Writing in Korean is simultaneously a relief – a vessel for private honesty that comes from feeling that no one is really listening.

“When I first started writing in Korean, it was nice because I never really liked how my lyrics sounded and then it was like ‘Oh! No one can understand me. I can write whatever I want! *laughs*”

“But now I think it’s about connecting to Korean people and Korean people who live in Australia who probably have the same diasporic experiences as me.”

AnSo’s newest single “ANSOIE” is an expression of being torn between cultures, cities languages while simultaneously navigating a relentless creative scene.

“This new song is kind of all about the feeling of contradictions. One day you feel like you’re the best…and the next you’re having an eternal mental breakdown. It’s kind of also the feeling of running out of time or falling behind as an emerging artist.”

Listen back to AnSo and Dyan Tai chat about language, translations and rhyme on Kings & Queens, our weekly catch up on all things queer, on Up For It! with Emily Elvish above. Buy/stream AnSo’s latest release below.