September 24, 2025 • 34 mins
Boemhan chats with Ronnie Icon multi-platinum, #1 Billboard charting songwriter about making hits for some of Kpop’s biggest acts TXT, NCT 127, TWICE, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM, THE BOYZ, NAYEON, and many more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the K Factor Everything
k Pop. I am your host, Bomhan and just a
(00:20):
little reminder that you can listen to this podcast on iHeartRadio, app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Today we
have a very special guest. He has an incredible talent
who's been making waves in the K pop scene since
two thy and nineteen. He is a multi platinum number
one Billboard charting songwriter and producer whose work has helped
(00:42):
shape the sounds of some of the biggest names in
the industry, from Stray Kids to NCT one two seven,
Twice Lseraphim, t xt En, hyphen and many many more.
His songs have reached millions of fans all over the world.
Known for his ability to adapt to different styles and
(01:02):
always leave his mark, he's one of the most exciting
creative forces in K pop right now. Please welcome Roddie
Icon who like moving on, Ronnie, I'm good, How are you?
How did that intro feel for you? Oh? Strange?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
You know what, I'm never really the person to get
a lot of I mean, being a writer, you're the
one working for the people that are in the center
of attention.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
It's usually a more like behind the scenes thing. And
actually when we were like kind of like trying to
like do more research on like your story and all
these things, you like really embraced that background role and
like you like deleted your digital footprint and try to
So I mean, this is this is quite a step. Okay, Yeah,
(01:53):
like what like sparked that, Uh well, you guys hit
me up and I was like, you know what.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
But I mean it's I feel like it's always it's
such a delicate balance as a writer as well to
be because I think a lot of cool writers also
have cool artist projects. But I specifically chose not to
be that guy because I don't know, it feels risky
at the same time, and and in this way, I
(02:23):
get to be through different songs, you get to be
different characters, and you get to embody all of these
different groups. So I don't want to put my own
identity out there too much because you also kind of
need to be somewhat of a blank slate some of
the time.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's beautiful. That's like, that's like commitment to your art.
Oh my god. We honestly, if I if it wouldn't form,
wouldn't be for my writer's career, I probably wouldn't have
social media in the first place. Oh okay, So it's
like it's something that kind of came naturally to you
that reminds me a bit of like acting, Like like
an actor will like really try to embody their role
(03:04):
a method actor. Yeah, yeah, like you're like a method
writer maybe, like I was. I was reading your your
bio and your intro, Like you've really accomplished a lot,
Like a lot of this is a lot of people's dreams.
Like do you ever like kind of like like sit
back and be like, wow, yeah, that's me sometimes icon
(03:25):
the icon, you know sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
But you know what, It's also weird because I in
the Netherlands, k pop isn't that huge. I'm from the
Netherlands and it's not that huge. It's not as huge
as as say in obviously Korea or other places in
Asia or now the States as well. So I've had
to do even when I was already getting success, I've
(03:50):
had to do so much explaining to the people around
me to even what it is that I do and.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
What this genre even is.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
So I don't feel I don't feel like a star
or anything, which is probably a good thing.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
If you do you feel like a niche writer, like
in your space in the Netherlands. It, yeah, I kind
of do.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I mean, there's there are more writers now jumping onto
the bandwagon, which is you know, which could be fun.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
But it's nice to know that I was here early,
right like and we found we found that you like
were here super early, like all the way back in
like twenty thirteen. Like can you talk about like when
you first discovered K pop? Yeah? Sure, I knew that.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I always knew that I wanted to do music, okay,
because I you know, as a kid, I was obsessed
with anything music and had a little keyboard and was
even writing songs back then. However crap they were. And
at some point I started I dropped out of college
(05:03):
and I started working full time. And after a couple
of years, I was like, I need to take the
opportunity now if I want to, you know, make something
out of my career. I felt like the time was taken,
even though it really wasn't. But that's when I decided
to enroll for a music college program. And the second
(05:24):
time that I auditioned, I got accepted. And that was
like four years of this you know, full time school
where I could just develop and do whatever I wanted.
And I didn't know about K pop at that moment,
but I because I I first wanted to just be
a producer and I wanted to make video game soundtracks, okay,
(05:47):
and then I started doing more pop music because I
was always obsessed with pop music anyway growing up. And
then I found out I didn't I basically I didn't
know what I wanted to do. And then I saw
K pop and I was like, this is so broad.
There's so much, so many different genres meeting in this
particular space that I just felt like that's something that
(06:11):
I wanted to do more with.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow. So you kind of like you've kind of you
started off as like someone who's interested in a lot
of things, and then you stumbled onto K pop. You're like, Wow,
this is a lot of things. This is a lot
of things. Yeah, okay. So when you write for like
K pop songs and stuff, do you do your top
lines and your references in English? Yeah? Yeah, I do. Okay,
(06:36):
it's what language they speak in the Netherlands, Dutch.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
But I read this statistic or whatever that we are
the most English proficient. That is not native English. Okay,
so it's naturally a second language, right, like like more
(07:01):
so than like if you were to like be born
and like like like like if you were to be
like Hungarian, like probably I mean okay, probably, yeah, I'm hungry.
So you said that, like the K pop scene in
Netherlands is like kind of small, but like some of
the like my first like my first band club was
from the Netherlands.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Oh was it. Yeah? Yeah, So like like they're always
telling me, like, come to the Netherlands, and I've always
wanted to come. Passionate niche Yeah no, yeah, no exactly.
So there's like there's like a weird like full circle moment.
That's cool. Mm hmm. Well okay, so we actually found
(07:39):
out that you used to do your own music and
used to post original covers. Oh man, you got the FBI.
Oh my yeah. We were like, oh my god, is
Ronnie icon? Because I actually I'm kind of like a
little bit like fanned out right now because some of
your some of your like writing credits. I'm like genuinely
like those are songs like my playlist, like those are
(08:01):
like my favorite songs at all time, like Strake his
chic Chen boom. What is it? Actually? What is a
song that like you remember working on and like really
really falling in love with. Do you know what?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You do so much music, and often it tends to
be the ones that the ones that I love the most,
are the ones that you get the most attached to,
are the ones that you have to keep pitching because
no one's taken them.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I'm like, how can no one take this song? This
is brilliant.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So if there's probably anything that's not been released, even
though obviously I love what's been released, but there's Yeah,
you listen to your own songs over and over again
with your own vocals on them.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah. So it's like the song Truest to Ronnie Icon
hasn't been released yet. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I don't because I don't I wouldn't even know how
to define truest to Ronnie Icon. I mean, I know
I tend to be I tend to be strong in
certain genres or certain places vocally, to do certain styles.
(09:16):
But at the same time, I wanna, like I wanna
I want to I want to do I want to
perform best in places that I know I'm good at.
But at the same time, it's I don't want to
be typecast in any specific genre, so yeah, keep going
for that chameleons role.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
That chameleon role. I was listening to a lot of
your like, like I went through all the like I
went to your Genius page and then I just listened
to every single song, and I'm like, there is a
bit of like a Ronnie icon sound, but also you
should tell me what it is. Yeah, it's like it's
(09:54):
like like a lot of your souls also have like
Japanese adaptations, and it's like very like like very broad.
And I was gonna say, like, there there is I
like I can I feel like I can listen to
a song and be like, yeah, I feel like Ronnie
Kon could like has taken part in this. And like
now that I've like been more familiar with your work
in the future, I feel like I could clock out
(10:16):
a little bit. But also your range is also still
very wide. Like you'll do like a song for for
ny On, you did Love Countdown, right, Yeah, and you'll
do You'll do Love Countdown and then you'll go to
stray Kits and do Chick Chick Boom, And we're like, wait,
like Ronnie, like is really a chameleon like when you
(10:37):
when you when you take on that role, it was
like a lot of like your other songs, like they
kind of like, I don't know it has it has
a vibe like you.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
You don't think so, I mean, obviously, I sometimes have
people telling me, or like co writers that are more
intimately familiar with how I work or how I write.
They might tell me when a song comes out, oh
I really heard you in this or or friends that
tell me, oh, this is your backing vocals in this
song or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
But it's gould be me soon. I'm gonna be I'm
gonna start hitting you up. Sure, But you know I
thought of this.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Have you ever seen the paname Blue Lock? Where's about
the soccer team soccer.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And the egos and all these things.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Right, so they're looking for the perfect striker or something
in Japan, but they have all of these teams. All
of these guys have different talents. So one guy is
like amazing at jumping, one guy is the best dribbler,
one guy is the best, and then.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
The main character, he's like.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He does everything sort of well but not not better,
not one thing better than the one that's the best
at that one thing. But he can smell a goal, right,
that's like the thing. Yeah, so I'm maybe I am
that I can smell a hit record. It's weird to
say about myself, but I think that's that's what my
(12:07):
overarching strength is, knowing what makes this a good song,
a great song.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
That's beautiful. Dude. I the one of the most the
closest person to me on my team right now. His
name is Damon and he did all my life and
that was the number one record across the entire world.
And when I first met him, he was like, Yo, man,
(12:38):
I'm be honest, I don't even listen to music like that.
I can't produce, I can't do anything. But the one
thing I can do is I can smell a hit record, right.
I know what a hit record sounds like. And it's
like that was the first time I heard anyone say
those words outside of Damon. Oh you see, I thought
that was original here but no, but like that's a
huge honor like that. That's a wonderful group of people
(13:01):
to be in, you know, and I believe you, like
all the all of your credits have been smashed records
and like songs that I like has gone into my world.
You know, I'm just like some random kid from New York.
You're you're in You're in the Netherlands. Like how does
your work reach me? You know? And it's because of
this talent that you have. That's very sweet. Thank you
(13:22):
so much. That's really that's so incredible. That was so beautiful, dude.
I have a question when you write, Uh, you say
you take on this chameleon row, But what do you
think about when you start writing, Like, do you like
before you pitched, or you like, Okay, I'm gonna start
writing for TXT now and like what would TXT like?
(13:44):
Or like do you start thinking about like certain musical
elements and then be like, oh, this kind of fits
in with this person.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Well, there's, of course, there's different situations. Sometimes you write
for a specific group with them in mind, and you
gear the song towards them. And sometimes you just write
something because you think it's gonna do well and it
will be uh, it will be a good fit for
a couple of different artists and we'll figure it out
later at the end of the writing process. But what
(14:13):
is always constant is why would a label take this song,
Why would an artist want to sing this why what
makes this better or stand out from the thousands of
other songs that are going in that that's always at
(14:33):
the forefront of my mind.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
And what what do you what are those elements that
you think stand out kind of like the same throughout
your work or is it different each time like all
the old Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
No, it's I don't think it's different, Oh I do.
I don't think it's the same every time, because it
can be.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
It can be.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
It's a hook basically, right, a hook. The hook can
be many different things. It can be an instrumental thing,
it can be a spoken thing, it can be a
song thing, it can be a melody somewhere in the track.
So a hook is literally what's gonna hook you into
the song, And ideally for a great song, you've got
a couple of those throughout the song that will make
(15:19):
it stick out even after you've finished playing it.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Something that sticks okay. So something that I personally consider
a lot when I listen to K pop is kind
of like the visual elements, Like there's a lot of
storytelling in the way that like the sections are broken down,
and with like choreography and dance being such a huge
(15:46):
part of K pop, do you ever consider, like, oh,
how a choreography might turn out when you're writing a song,
like for example, like Chick Chick Boom, it turned into
like a huge TikTok dance like across the entire world,
Like do you actively consider that possibility as you're writing
or is just kind of like, oh those nice?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I definitely take the choreography seriously. I'm not a dancer myself,
but I know that it needs to be dance a
bull so unless I'm aiming for something else that's on
the album and that's not the purpose of the song,
but I know that nine times out of ten they'll
want to be able to dance to it. So if
(16:26):
there's too much downtime, like I literally did this today
with sitting with the producer, I'm like, can we add
some percussive elements to this even though it was a bridge,
because I wanted, you know, if there's too much downtime,
what are you gonna do on stage? You know you
can't keep I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I appreciate that the percussives during the bridge. I really
really appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
You need something to keep the momentum going right, So
that is something that you actively because yes, that's like
so interesting. I think it's kind of like, well, I
don't see it this way anymore, but I think a
good way to explain kpop to people that are not
familiar is like it's like ADHD music. You need constants, stimuli, stimuli, right,
(17:23):
Maybe that's why I'm in K pop?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Right? Maybe? All so, you've written for huge board groups
and you've written for huge girl groups. Do you have
like a like what what do you think is like
a big difference between writing for like the two different
kind of groups.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, I've been writing professionally for a couple of years now,
like six six years ago, the difference was bigger than
it is now. I think what what tended to be
the case was that boy groups would do stuff that's
more experimental, maybe for we're thinking, and girl groups would
(18:06):
catch up, especially with to any one in Black Pink
at the time, they were the ones doing most of
the hip hop, and then the rest of the girl
groups would more girl groups would maybe follow after that.
I think these days it might be more interesting to
(18:26):
flip sometimes when you hear a track and you don't
know whether it should be for a girl group or
a boy group. But it's given girl group, maybe it's
more interesting to write it for a boy group or
the other way around, and you get something, you get
some interesting color that way. So I don't think it
matters as much anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Okay, so you've had the experiences where you like, you
wrote for a girl group and then like a boy
group will like pick it up and it just becomes
a super interesting blend.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well, I think A and rs will want to hear
a song in the you know, if a boy, if
a boy, if it's a boy group, they'll want a
guy to have sung the demo. So we do need
to consider what do we want to do with this song.
But one of my first songs that ever got cut
was for Twice, and I actually recorded that as a
(19:17):
male group as myself with my own vocal and now
and then later I considered, you know what, revisited this
song and I was like, we should record this with
the girl in mind, and then we rewrote a little bit,
and then we had a girl recing the demo obviously
transposed it up and uh and that, yeah, kind of
(19:41):
opened my eyes to the idea of don't think too
much in boxes, because anything could be possible, is that the.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Only experience you have of like the end product being
completely different from like what you pitched.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Uh No, because sometimes labels will come back with uh
with notes that that maybe they'll want a different section somewhere,
or they'll want something to have been rewritten. But most
of the time I think the demos are pretty close
to the final results.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Okay. You have you ever had like a like a
group like wildly put their own spin on like a
on like a song and then you're like surprised by it.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Lyrics wise, maybe okay, but obviously because I write the
songs in in uh in English, and then someone else
will help out with Korean lyrics and try to capture
the same sonic essence of what I wrote, but obviously
a lot of it will be in Korean, so a
(20:47):
lot of it goes over my head.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Anyways, I thought that you were writing completely in like
Korean and Japanese because both yeah, Because I was like, Yo,
like every song that Ronnie wrights, there's like a Japanese version,
So I thought you were pitching these songs in Japanese.
I was like, like, my first question company was like, Yo,
are you poor Japanese? No? No, man is there like
(21:13):
a is there a reason why, like your songs like
often have like these Japanese adaptations, do you think you
have like A Well.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
They tend to do that with singles with title tracks.
Whenever the group would release an album in the same
time frame in Japan, they might have as a B side, Uh,
the Japanese re recording of the title track.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So I just had a couple of title songs. So
you're just you're just you're just pushing out hits. That's what.
Maybe that's it. I didn't want to say that, but
you're just good at what you do. That that that
Japanese like like kind of interpretation like surprise. A lot
(21:57):
of my team members like, oh, like they always do
like a CD in Japanese. You know, like like what's
something that like fans would be surprised to learn about
like behind the scenes, like like like behind the scenes
or like making like K pop music. What is something
that you think like surprise the fans.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Oh, that's a good question. Thinking about the creative process,
I don't know. Maybe what's surprising is that you write
a lot, and most of what you write doesn't get
released because there's just this huge abundance of music circulating
(22:42):
from you know, from email to email, from laptop to laptop,
And yeah, these A and rs have a tough job
of sifting through all of these music, all of these songs,
most of which is up to a certain standard. So
(23:03):
now it's a matter of picking between a lot of
good songs. What's the the best fit for the artists
in that specific year, specific month, what's the trend, what
do we want to what's the image that we want
to go for, And obviously sometimes that we write based
(23:25):
on a general direction that that is being considered for
a certain artists. So yeah, I think what might be
surprising is how much music is out there. And that's
actually I'm still surprised by that I have. I don't
even know how much music is out there. Maybe it's
good that I don't.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Like. Speaking to the other writers. They tell me a
lot about like the writing camps that happens for these
like KP hop groups, right, And it's like they'll be
like breaking like like whole team of writers producers, and
they'll work on like these songs for like a week.
They'll pitch it and like there's like a possibility that
none of it ever gets picked up. You know, yeah, yeah,
(24:06):
how how often are you like doing these camps and
how often? Like what's like the success rate of these
things where like, okay, we gotta we got a job
out of it? It?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Well it really are you per person?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You mean? Or yeah? Song?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Because I've had to do a lot of investing upfront
obviously and in terms of hours as well. So I
was I was serving tables for the longest time before
the checks came in to the point where I could,
you know.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Quit my job. Wow. So I was serving tables.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
First it was six days a week, and then one
day do the music for the entire day, and then
maybe it became two days of full time music, and
the balance started shifting till I could eventually quit that
job even though I loved it, but obviously I knew
that this was the long term plan. So it takes
a lot out of time. But I think more often
(25:05):
than not, probably people don't actually succeed in making that transition. Yeah,
because there's there's just not a lot of spots available
mm hmm. It's it's really competitive.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Well, So with that being said, do you have any
advice that you would like to give to like future
artists or like future songwriters don't do it.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Oh nice, Ronnie icon is eliminating the competition. That's not
what I meant, But now I was like, I know.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I meant it from a goof place, like save yourself
the heartache.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Ya. That's exactly yo. That's literally what I tell people
who are like, oh my god, like buma, what would
you like tell people who want to be a trainee?
I'm like, don't like you have to be ready, like
really really brace your art because it's like, like not
a lot of people are able to make that transition.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Like you said, the thing is, are you willing to
make turn what you're passionate about into your profession?
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Because that I.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Don't know if I starting out realized that I would
break my hobby in doing so, you know what I mean,
Because obviously I'm still excited by it. Otherwise I wouldn't
be doing it. But it's also now it's your job.
It's your work, and you have to be willing to
(26:39):
do it even when you're not when you don't feel
like doing it.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right right, That's actually how I felt about dancing. I
was like, it's so in love with dance, Like I
would like, literally wake up like and like freestyle to
like my alarm clock, like I would like live and breathe, dance,
and then like like now, at like a certain point,
I'm like, wow, like this is kind of like tiring.
My knee hurts, and I still have to like go
(27:05):
and clock in and like do my hours and do
my rehearsals and all these things. So it's like like
now that becomes a part of my work life balance.
And then like my hobby falls into work and I
have to separate that from life in order to keep
myself sane. Like do you like feel yourself struggling with
like the same thing.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Well to some extent, you know, like for example, when
I'm with friends hanging out or whatever, or maybe even
a better example is when I'm in Korea on a
writing trip and everyone is like, oh, let's go out.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
For drinks and shots whatever.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I'm like, I'll be the first to probably go back
to the hotel and say, okay, guys, see you in
the morning or not. But I'll be there in the morning,
fresh with a fresh voice.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, so you got to make some sacrifices in that
way when you went to Korea, you worked with any
like direct like K pop artists. Uh some yeah, sometimes
what was that process? Like, uh, well, obviously you now
you have a goal in mind. Uh so it helps
to focus what you're doing. Yeah, but it's at the
(28:19):
same time it's the same process, but now you're well,
first of all, leave thus being star struck at the
room at the at the door right right, because that's
(28:40):
that's that's not helping the situation at all. But I
think I tend to be good at being chill.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Okay, Oh so you still like you'll still like feel
like a little like it's like, oh wow, this is
like someone that I've seen online.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, of course that that's still uh it doesn't affect
the situation at all, and it wouldn't weird about it.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
But that's like that's like shit, that's such a human
thing to say and like and like admit, that's that's
like that's awesome, dude, because it's like this is like
keepop is something that you enjoy and like really love
then uh yeah, well I've also broken that hobby. But yeah,
oh okay, wow, that's that's so beautiful. Like I mean,
like when I ask you for like advice for like
(29:25):
a young songwriter and like all these things. It's like, yo,
don't do it. But honestly, bro, you're such an inspiration
like for you to like like like there's so many
kids who are watching right now who's in the exact
same situation that you were in when you were like
in like all the way back in twenty thirteen, just
like listening to music and be like, oh this is keepop,
(29:46):
Oh this is something cool. And I like to have
like a like a dream of like writing songs and
all these things. And it's like you had such like
a humble beginning, you know, and now you're like freaking legendary. Dude,
You've hit the pinnacle of like songwri keep. Like literally
the groups that you have written for have toward the
entire world with your music, Like that is so beautiful
(30:07):
and you've come to such like a long way and
it's like there's kids who are looking up to you,
you know, Like that's that's such an amazing thing. You
should be man. You know, I'll record you a message
to play every morning. Yes, I'll freeztyt to that. We
(30:28):
got to do a song together, man, let's go. I'll
record you a song and it's just me. It's just
me doing this. I'll sample this podcast Ronnie is there
before we wrap up. What's what's next in your journey?
Are there any exciting projects that you're working on right
(30:49):
now or any anything personal or or or anything you
want to share.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
No, it's it's it's funny because you give me all this,
all these accolades whatever, and I get this from my
from my management slash publishing as well. They're like, you
should celebrate more because I'm always so what's the word
(31:14):
blase about achievements? Because I'm I I want to keep
reinventing the wheel, right, So I'm I'm I'm always trying
to push and search for what is the next thing,
or work with people that have no prior affiliation with
(31:35):
K pop just to source some like inject my own
music with something new. So that's I guess that's always
on in my on my immediate because I'm I don't
want my music to get stale and I I just
want to constantly give. I want to surprise people.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Wow. So so you're you're despite all that you've accomplished,
you're still looking to like inject sounds outside of K
pop to amplify the art that you already have like
you're still growing, is what you're telling you. I mean,
I have to, because.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
You know it's I I've been I've had a very
good streak. But then there's also a lot of other writers.
And it's so hard to not compare to what other
people are doing, right because even though I am one guy,
but I'm comparing myself to the entire world of writers.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
And all of a.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Sudden you start to realize or realize or feel how insignificant,
uh it is in the grander scheme, even though these
songs I know have not been insignificant, but I want to,
you know, maintain the same level of success. So I'm
just yeah, it humbles me and it fuels me to
(32:59):
keep pushing.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
M hmm. And the trends in K pop changed like that. Yeah,
like like the next day, the next year, it could
be someone there, there could be someone else exactly. I
don't want to be that has been so I better.
That won't happen. That won't happen. Good. Next year there's
gonna be a song and be like, I'm gonna call
you out and be like, Ronnie, is that your voice
(33:21):
in the bag? I hope? So, man, we'll make it happen.
We have like an album coming out and it's like
eight songs long, and we have like a sound really.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, of course I checked out your song Dance under
the Moonlight mm hmmm yeah yeah, interesting vocal tone as well.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Thank you. Yeah, I like it and I saw you
worked on the looking great in the video. Yeah, it's cool.
We'll email. We'll email you a bunch of stuff. Then.
Thank you so much for Yeah, man, freaking awesome. Thank you,
Thank you so much for today. I had a lot
of fun. I love it was so nice talking to
you today. I love your work ethic. I love the
(34:03):
way you approach like artistic, like you're kind of like
you kind of have like that like Kobe mentality, but
then you bring it to like art and music like
you know, you know Kobe Bryant the Lakers. Yeah, yeah,
you're like yo, everybody's outdrinking, but I went back to
the hotel earlier to preserve my voice, like and it's
(34:26):
like having that drive of like always wanting to grow
and like get better. I'm really rooting for you and
and and thank you for sharing your expertise and sharing
your wisdom with us today and just inspiring a generation
with your music, with your story and and just everything. Yeah,
thank you, Ronnie, thank you so much man, thanks you.
(34:47):
Thanks to you for having me. This was fun and
I'll see you next week. I love you, guys,
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the K Factor Everything
k Pop. I am your host, Bomhan and just a
(00:20):
little reminder that you can listen to this podcast on iHeartRadio, app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Today we
have a very special guest. He has an incredible talent
who's been making waves in the K pop scene since
two thy and nineteen. He is a multi platinum number
one Billboard charting songwriter and producer whose work has helped
(00:42):
shape the sounds of some of the biggest names in
the industry, from Stray Kids to NCT one two seven,
Twice Lseraphim, t xt En, hyphen and many many more.
His songs have reached millions of fans all over the world.
Known for his ability to adapt to different styles and
(01:02):
always leave his mark, he's one of the most exciting
creative forces in K pop right now. Please welcome Roddie
Icon who like moving on, Ronnie, I'm good, How are you?
How did that intro feel for you? Oh? Strange?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
You know what, I'm never really the person to get
a lot of I mean, being a writer, you're the
one working for the people that are in the center
of attention.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
It's usually a more like behind the scenes thing. And
actually when we were like kind of like trying to
like do more research on like your story and all
these things, you like really embraced that background role and
like you like deleted your digital footprint and try to
So I mean, this is this is quite a step. Okay, Yeah,
(01:53):
like what like sparked that, Uh well, you guys hit
me up and I was like, you know what.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
But I mean it's I feel like it's always it's
such a delicate balance as a writer as well to
be because I think a lot of cool writers also
have cool artist projects. But I specifically chose not to
be that guy because I don't know, it feels risky
at the same time, and and in this way, I
(02:23):
get to be through different songs, you get to be
different characters, and you get to embody all of these
different groups. So I don't want to put my own
identity out there too much because you also kind of
need to be somewhat of a blank slate some of
the time.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's beautiful. That's like, that's like commitment to your art.
Oh my god. We honestly, if I if it wouldn't form,
wouldn't be for my writer's career, I probably wouldn't have
social media in the first place. Oh okay, So it's
like it's something that kind of came naturally to you
that reminds me a bit of like acting, Like like
an actor will like really try to embody their role
(03:04):
a method actor. Yeah, yeah, like you're like a method
writer maybe, like I was. I was reading your your
bio and your intro, Like you've really accomplished a lot,
Like a lot of this is a lot of people's dreams.
Like do you ever like kind of like like sit
back and be like, wow, yeah, that's me sometimes icon
(03:25):
the icon, you know sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
But you know what, It's also weird because I in
the Netherlands, k pop isn't that huge. I'm from the
Netherlands and it's not that huge. It's not as huge
as as say in obviously Korea or other places in
Asia or now the States as well. So I've had
to do even when I was already getting success, I've
(03:50):
had to do so much explaining to the people around
me to even what it is that I do and.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
What this genre even is.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
So I don't feel I don't feel like a star
or anything, which is probably a good thing.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
If you do you feel like a niche writer, like
in your space in the Netherlands. It, yeah, I kind
of do.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I mean, there's there are more writers now jumping onto
the bandwagon, which is you know, which could be fun.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
But it's nice to know that I was here early,
right like and we found we found that you like
were here super early, like all the way back in
like twenty thirteen. Like can you talk about like when
you first discovered K pop? Yeah? Sure, I knew that.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I always knew that I wanted to do music, okay,
because I you know, as a kid, I was obsessed
with anything music and had a little keyboard and was
even writing songs back then. However crap they were. And
at some point I started I dropped out of college
(05:03):
and I started working full time. And after a couple
of years, I was like, I need to take the
opportunity now if I want to, you know, make something
out of my career. I felt like the time was taken,
even though it really wasn't. But that's when I decided
to enroll for a music college program. And the second
(05:24):
time that I auditioned, I got accepted. And that was
like four years of this you know, full time school
where I could just develop and do whatever I wanted.
And I didn't know about K pop at that moment,
but I because I I first wanted to just be
a producer and I wanted to make video game soundtracks, okay,
(05:47):
and then I started doing more pop music because I
was always obsessed with pop music anyway growing up. And
then I found out I didn't I basically I didn't
know what I wanted to do. And then I saw
K pop and I was like, this is so broad.
There's so much, so many different genres meeting in this
particular space that I just felt like that's something that
(06:11):
I wanted to do more with.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow. So you kind of like you've kind of you
started off as like someone who's interested in a lot
of things, and then you stumbled onto K pop. You're like, Wow,
this is a lot of things. This is a lot
of things. Yeah, okay. So when you write for like
K pop songs and stuff, do you do your top
lines and your references in English? Yeah? Yeah, I do. Okay,
(06:36):
it's what language they speak in the Netherlands, Dutch.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
But I read this statistic or whatever that we are
the most English proficient. That is not native English. Okay,
so it's naturally a second language, right, like like more
(07:01):
so than like if you were to like be born
and like like like like if you were to be
like Hungarian, like probably I mean okay, probably, yeah, I'm hungry.
So you said that, like the K pop scene in
Netherlands is like kind of small, but like some of
the like my first like my first band club was
from the Netherlands.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Oh was it. Yeah? Yeah, So like like they're always
telling me, like, come to the Netherlands, and I've always
wanted to come. Passionate niche Yeah no, yeah, no exactly.
So there's like there's like a weird like full circle moment.
That's cool. Mm hmm. Well okay, so we actually found
(07:39):
out that you used to do your own music and
used to post original covers. Oh man, you got the FBI.
Oh my yeah. We were like, oh my god, is
Ronnie icon? Because I actually I'm kind of like a
little bit like fanned out right now because some of
your some of your like writing credits. I'm like genuinely
like those are songs like my playlist, like those are
(08:01):
like my favorite songs at all time, like Strake his
chic Chen boom. What is it? Actually? What is a
song that like you remember working on and like really
really falling in love with. Do you know what?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You do so much music, and often it tends to
be the ones that the ones that I love the most,
are the ones that you get the most attached to,
are the ones that you have to keep pitching because
no one's taken them.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I'm like, how can no one take this song? This
is brilliant.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So if there's probably anything that's not been released, even
though obviously I love what's been released, but there's Yeah,
you listen to your own songs over and over again
with your own vocals on them.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah. So it's like the song Truest to Ronnie Icon
hasn't been released yet. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I don't because I don't I wouldn't even know how
to define truest to Ronnie Icon. I mean, I know
I tend to be I tend to be strong in
certain genres or certain places vocally, to do certain styles.
(09:16):
But at the same time, I wanna, like I wanna
I want to I want to do I want to
perform best in places that I know I'm good at.
But at the same time, it's I don't want to
be typecast in any specific genre, so yeah, keep going
for that chameleons role.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
That chameleon role. I was listening to a lot of
your like, like I went through all the like I
went to your Genius page and then I just listened
to every single song, and I'm like, there is a
bit of like a Ronnie icon sound, but also you
should tell me what it is. Yeah, it's like it's
(09:54):
like like a lot of your souls also have like
Japanese adaptations, and it's like very like like very broad.
And I was gonna say, like, there there is I
like I can I feel like I can listen to
a song and be like, yeah, I feel like Ronnie
Kon could like has taken part in this. And like
now that I've like been more familiar with your work
in the future, I feel like I could clock out
(10:16):
a little bit. But also your range is also still
very wide. Like you'll do like a song for for
ny On, you did Love Countdown, right, Yeah, and you'll
do You'll do Love Countdown and then you'll go to
stray Kits and do Chick Chick Boom, And we're like, wait,
like Ronnie, like is really a chameleon like when you
(10:37):
when you when you take on that role, it was
like a lot of like your other songs, like they
kind of like, I don't know it has it has
a vibe like you.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
You don't think so, I mean, obviously, I sometimes have
people telling me, or like co writers that are more
intimately familiar with how I work or how I write.
They might tell me when a song comes out, oh
I really heard you in this or or friends that
tell me, oh, this is your backing vocals in this
song or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
But it's gould be me soon. I'm gonna be I'm
gonna start hitting you up. Sure, But you know I
thought of this.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Have you ever seen the paname Blue Lock? Where's about
the soccer team soccer.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And the egos and all these things.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Right, so they're looking for the perfect striker or something
in Japan, but they have all of these teams. All
of these guys have different talents. So one guy is
like amazing at jumping, one guy is the best dribbler,
one guy is the best, and then.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
The main character, he's like.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He does everything sort of well but not not better,
not one thing better than the one that's the best
at that one thing. But he can smell a goal, right,
that's like the thing. Yeah, so I'm maybe I am
that I can smell a hit record. It's weird to
say about myself, but I think that's that's what my
(12:07):
overarching strength is, knowing what makes this a good song,
a great song.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
That's beautiful. Dude. I the one of the most the
closest person to me on my team right now. His
name is Damon and he did all my life and
that was the number one record across the entire world.
And when I first met him, he was like, Yo, man,
(12:38):
I'm be honest, I don't even listen to music like that.
I can't produce, I can't do anything. But the one
thing I can do is I can smell a hit record, right.
I know what a hit record sounds like. And it's
like that was the first time I heard anyone say
those words outside of Damon. Oh you see, I thought
that was original here but no, but like that's a
huge honor like that. That's a wonderful group of people
(13:01):
to be in, you know, and I believe you, like
all the all of your credits have been smashed records
and like songs that I like has gone into my world.
You know, I'm just like some random kid from New York.
You're you're in You're in the Netherlands. Like how does
your work reach me? You know? And it's because of
this talent that you have. That's very sweet. Thank you
(13:22):
so much. That's really that's so incredible. That was so beautiful, dude.
I have a question when you write, Uh, you say
you take on this chameleon row, But what do you
think about when you start writing, Like, do you like
before you pitched, or you like, Okay, I'm gonna start
writing for TXT now and like what would TXT like?
(13:44):
Or like do you start thinking about like certain musical
elements and then be like, oh, this kind of fits
in with this person.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Well, there's, of course, there's different situations. Sometimes you write
for a specific group with them in mind, and you
gear the song towards them. And sometimes you just write
something because you think it's gonna do well and it
will be uh, it will be a good fit for
a couple of different artists and we'll figure it out
later at the end of the writing process. But what
(14:13):
is always constant is why would a label take this song,
Why would an artist want to sing this why what
makes this better or stand out from the thousands of
other songs that are going in that that's always at
(14:33):
the forefront of my mind.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
And what what do you what are those elements that
you think stand out kind of like the same throughout
your work or is it different each time like all
the old Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
No, it's I don't think it's different, Oh I do.
I don't think it's the same every time, because it
can be.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
It can be.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
It's a hook basically, right, a hook. The hook can
be many different things. It can be an instrumental thing,
it can be a spoken thing, it can be a
song thing, it can be a melody somewhere in the track.
So a hook is literally what's gonna hook you into
the song, And ideally for a great song, you've got
a couple of those throughout the song that will make
(15:19):
it stick out even after you've finished playing it.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Something that sticks okay. So something that I personally consider
a lot when I listen to K pop is kind
of like the visual elements, Like there's a lot of
storytelling in the way that like the sections are broken down,
and with like choreography and dance being such a huge
(15:46):
part of K pop, do you ever consider, like, oh,
how a choreography might turn out when you're writing a song,
like for example, like Chick Chick Boom, it turned into
like a huge TikTok dance like across the entire world,
Like do you actively consider that possibility as you're writing
or is just kind of like, oh those nice?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I definitely take the choreography seriously. I'm not a dancer myself,
but I know that it needs to be dance a
bull so unless I'm aiming for something else that's on
the album and that's not the purpose of the song,
but I know that nine times out of ten they'll
want to be able to dance to it. So if
(16:26):
there's too much downtime, like I literally did this today
with sitting with the producer, I'm like, can we add
some percussive elements to this even though it was a bridge,
because I wanted, you know, if there's too much downtime,
what are you gonna do on stage? You know you
can't keep I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I appreciate that the percussives during the bridge. I really
really appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
You need something to keep the momentum going right, So
that is something that you actively because yes, that's like
so interesting. I think it's kind of like, well, I
don't see it this way anymore, but I think a
good way to explain kpop to people that are not
familiar is like it's like ADHD music. You need constants, stimuli, stimuli, right,
(17:23):
Maybe that's why I'm in K pop?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Right? Maybe? All so, you've written for huge board groups
and you've written for huge girl groups. Do you have
like a like what what do you think is like
a big difference between writing for like the two different
kind of groups.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, I've been writing professionally for a couple of years now,
like six six years ago, the difference was bigger than
it is now. I think what what tended to be
the case was that boy groups would do stuff that's
more experimental, maybe for we're thinking, and girl groups would
(18:06):
catch up, especially with to any one in Black Pink
at the time, they were the ones doing most of
the hip hop, and then the rest of the girl
groups would more girl groups would maybe follow after that.
I think these days it might be more interesting to
(18:26):
flip sometimes when you hear a track and you don't
know whether it should be for a girl group or
a boy group. But it's given girl group, maybe it's
more interesting to write it for a boy group or
the other way around, and you get something, you get
some interesting color that way. So I don't think it
matters as much anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Okay, so you've had the experiences where you like, you
wrote for a girl group and then like a boy
group will like pick it up and it just becomes
a super interesting blend.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well, I think A and rs will want to hear
a song in the you know, if a boy, if
a boy, if it's a boy group, they'll want a
guy to have sung the demo. So we do need
to consider what do we want to do with this song.
But one of my first songs that ever got cut
was for Twice, and I actually recorded that as a
(19:17):
male group as myself with my own vocal and now
and then later I considered, you know what, revisited this
song and I was like, we should record this with
the girl in mind, and then we rewrote a little bit,
and then we had a girl recing the demo obviously
transposed it up and uh and that, yeah, kind of
(19:41):
opened my eyes to the idea of don't think too
much in boxes, because anything could be possible, is that the.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Only experience you have of like the end product being
completely different from like what you pitched.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Uh No, because sometimes labels will come back with uh
with notes that that maybe they'll want a different section somewhere,
or they'll want something to have been rewritten. But most
of the time I think the demos are pretty close
to the final results.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Okay. You have you ever had like a like a
group like wildly put their own spin on like a
on like a song and then you're like surprised by it.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Lyrics wise, maybe okay, but obviously because I write the
songs in in uh in English, and then someone else
will help out with Korean lyrics and try to capture
the same sonic essence of what I wrote, but obviously
a lot of it will be in Korean, so a
(20:47):
lot of it goes over my head.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Anyways, I thought that you were writing completely in like
Korean and Japanese because both yeah, Because I was like, Yo,
like every song that Ronnie wrights, there's like a Japanese version,
So I thought you were pitching these songs in Japanese.
I was like, like, my first question company was like, Yo,
are you poor Japanese? No? No, man is there like
(21:13):
a is there a reason why, like your songs like
often have like these Japanese adaptations, do you think you
have like A Well.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
They tend to do that with singles with title tracks.
Whenever the group would release an album in the same
time frame in Japan, they might have as a B side, Uh,
the Japanese re recording of the title track.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So I just had a couple of title songs. So
you're just you're just you're just pushing out hits. That's what.
Maybe that's it. I didn't want to say that, but
you're just good at what you do. That that that
Japanese like like kind of interpretation like surprise. A lot
(21:57):
of my team members like, oh, like they always do
like a CD in Japanese. You know, like like what's
something that like fans would be surprised to learn about
like behind the scenes, like like like behind the scenes
or like making like K pop music. What is something
that you think like surprise the fans.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Oh, that's a good question. Thinking about the creative process,
I don't know. Maybe what's surprising is that you write
a lot, and most of what you write doesn't get
released because there's just this huge abundance of music circulating
(22:42):
from you know, from email to email, from laptop to laptop,
And yeah, these A and rs have a tough job
of sifting through all of these music, all of these songs,
most of which is up to a certain standard. So
(23:03):
now it's a matter of picking between a lot of
good songs. What's the the best fit for the artists
in that specific year, specific month, what's the trend, what
do we want to what's the image that we want
to go for, And obviously sometimes that we write based
(23:25):
on a general direction that that is being considered for
a certain artists. So yeah, I think what might be
surprising is how much music is out there. And that's
actually I'm still surprised by that I have. I don't
even know how much music is out there. Maybe it's
good that I don't.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Like. Speaking to the other writers. They tell me a
lot about like the writing camps that happens for these
like KP hop groups, right, And it's like they'll be
like breaking like like whole team of writers producers, and
they'll work on like these songs for like a week.
They'll pitch it and like there's like a possibility that
none of it ever gets picked up. You know, yeah, yeah,
(24:06):
how how often are you like doing these camps and
how often? Like what's like the success rate of these
things where like, okay, we gotta we got a job
out of it? It?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Well it really are you per person?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You mean? Or yeah? Song?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Because I've had to do a lot of investing upfront
obviously and in terms of hours as well. So I
was I was serving tables for the longest time before
the checks came in to the point where I could,
you know.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Quit my job. Wow. So I was serving tables.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
First it was six days a week, and then one
day do the music for the entire day, and then
maybe it became two days of full time music, and
the balance started shifting till I could eventually quit that
job even though I loved it, but obviously I knew
that this was the long term plan. So it takes
a lot out of time. But I think more often
(25:05):
than not, probably people don't actually succeed in making that transition. Yeah,
because there's there's just not a lot of spots available
mm hmm. It's it's really competitive.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Well, So with that being said, do you have any
advice that you would like to give to like future
artists or like future songwriters don't do it.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Oh nice, Ronnie icon is eliminating the competition. That's not
what I meant, But now I was like, I know.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I meant it from a goof place, like save yourself
the heartache.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Ya. That's exactly yo. That's literally what I tell people
who are like, oh my god, like buma, what would
you like tell people who want to be a trainee?
I'm like, don't like you have to be ready, like
really really brace your art because it's like, like not
a lot of people are able to make that transition.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Like you said, the thing is, are you willing to
make turn what you're passionate about into your profession?
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Because that I.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Don't know if I starting out realized that I would
break my hobby in doing so, you know what I mean,
Because obviously I'm still excited by it. Otherwise I wouldn't
be doing it. But it's also now it's your job.
It's your work, and you have to be willing to
(26:39):
do it even when you're not when you don't feel
like doing it.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right right, That's actually how I felt about dancing. I
was like, it's so in love with dance, Like I
would like, literally wake up like and like freestyle to
like my alarm clock, like I would like live and breathe, dance,
and then like like now, at like a certain point,
I'm like, wow, like this is kind of like tiring.
My knee hurts, and I still have to like go
(27:05):
and clock in and like do my hours and do
my rehearsals and all these things. So it's like like
now that becomes a part of my work life balance.
And then like my hobby falls into work and I
have to separate that from life in order to keep
myself sane. Like do you like feel yourself struggling with
like the same thing.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Well to some extent, you know, like for example, when
I'm with friends hanging out or whatever, or maybe even
a better example is when I'm in Korea on a
writing trip and everyone is like, oh, let's go out.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
For drinks and shots whatever.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I'm like, I'll be the first to probably go back
to the hotel and say, okay, guys, see you in
the morning or not. But I'll be there in the morning,
fresh with a fresh voice.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, so you got to make some sacrifices in that
way when you went to Korea, you worked with any
like direct like K pop artists. Uh some yeah, sometimes
what was that process? Like, uh, well, obviously you now
you have a goal in mind. Uh so it helps
to focus what you're doing. Yeah, but it's at the
(28:19):
same time it's the same process, but now you're well,
first of all, leave thus being star struck at the
room at the at the door right right, because that's
(28:40):
that's that's not helping the situation at all. But I
think I tend to be good at being chill.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Okay, Oh so you still like you'll still like feel
like a little like it's like, oh wow, this is
like someone that I've seen online.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, of course that that's still uh it doesn't affect
the situation at all, and it wouldn't weird about it.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
But that's like that's like shit, that's such a human
thing to say and like and like admit, that's that's
like that's awesome, dude, because it's like this is like
keepop is something that you enjoy and like really love
then uh yeah, well I've also broken that hobby. But yeah,
oh okay, wow, that's that's so beautiful. Like I mean,
like when I ask you for like advice for like
(29:25):
a young songwriter and like all these things. It's like, yo,
don't do it. But honestly, bro, you're such an inspiration
like for you to like like like there's so many
kids who are watching right now who's in the exact
same situation that you were in when you were like
in like all the way back in twenty thirteen, just
like listening to music and be like, oh this is keepop,
(29:46):
Oh this is something cool. And I like to have
like a like a dream of like writing songs and
all these things. And it's like you had such like
a humble beginning, you know, and now you're like freaking legendary. Dude,
You've hit the pinnacle of like songwri keep. Like literally
the groups that you have written for have toward the
entire world with your music, Like that is so beautiful
(30:07):
and you've come to such like a long way and
it's like there's kids who are looking up to you,
you know, Like that's that's such an amazing thing. You
should be man. You know, I'll record you a message
to play every morning. Yes, I'll freeztyt to that. We
(30:28):
got to do a song together, man, let's go. I'll
record you a song and it's just me. It's just
me doing this. I'll sample this podcast Ronnie is there
before we wrap up. What's what's next in your journey?
Are there any exciting projects that you're working on right
(30:49):
now or any anything personal or or or anything you
want to share.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
No, it's it's it's funny because you give me all this,
all these accolades whatever, and I get this from my
from my management slash publishing as well. They're like, you
should celebrate more because I'm always so what's the word
(31:14):
blase about achievements? Because I'm I I want to keep
reinventing the wheel, right, So I'm I'm I'm always trying
to push and search for what is the next thing,
or work with people that have no prior affiliation with
(31:35):
K pop just to source some like inject my own
music with something new. So that's I guess that's always
on in my on my immediate because I'm I don't
want my music to get stale and I I just
want to constantly give. I want to surprise people.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Wow. So so you're you're despite all that you've accomplished,
you're still looking to like inject sounds outside of K
pop to amplify the art that you already have like
you're still growing, is what you're telling you. I mean,
I have to, because.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
You know it's I I've been I've had a very
good streak. But then there's also a lot of other writers.
And it's so hard to not compare to what other
people are doing, right because even though I am one guy,
but I'm comparing myself to the entire world of writers.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
And all of a.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Sudden you start to realize or realize or feel how insignificant,
uh it is in the grander scheme, even though these
songs I know have not been insignificant, but I want to,
you know, maintain the same level of success. So I'm
just yeah, it humbles me and it fuels me to
(32:59):
keep pushing.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
M hmm. And the trends in K pop changed like that. Yeah,
like like the next day, the next year, it could
be someone there, there could be someone else exactly. I
don't want to be that has been so I better.
That won't happen. That won't happen. Good. Next year there's
gonna be a song and be like, I'm gonna call
you out and be like, Ronnie, is that your voice
(33:21):
in the bag? I hope? So, man, we'll make it happen.
We have like an album coming out and it's like
eight songs long, and we have like a sound really.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, of course I checked out your song Dance under
the Moonlight mm hmmm yeah yeah, interesting vocal tone as well.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Thank you. Yeah, I like it and I saw you
worked on the looking great in the video. Yeah, it's cool.
We'll email. We'll email you a bunch of stuff. Then.
Thank you so much for Yeah, man, freaking awesome. Thank you,
Thank you so much for today. I had a lot
of fun. I love it was so nice talking to
you today. I love your work ethic. I love the
(34:03):
way you approach like artistic, like you're kind of like
you kind of have like that like Kobe mentality, but
then you bring it to like art and music like
you know, you know Kobe Bryant the Lakers. Yeah, yeah,
you're like yo, everybody's outdrinking, but I went back to
the hotel earlier to preserve my voice, like and it's
(34:26):
like having that drive of like always wanting to grow
and like get better. I'm really rooting for you and
and and thank you for sharing your expertise and sharing
your wisdom with us today and just inspiring a generation
with your music, with your story and and just everything. Yeah,
thank you, Ronnie, thank you so much man, thanks you.
(34:47):
Thanks to you for having me. This was fun and
I'll see you next week. I love you, guys,
Host
Beomhan
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