Meet Chris Yang | Arranger, Composer, Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Yang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I was born in Ohio, USA and went back to Korea with my family when I was 3. Then I spent almost my whole life(over 20 years) on one of the beautiful islands in Korea called Jeju island. Thanks to my parents for giving me an inborn ability, and their hard effort on teaching me how to speak in Korean, now obviously I can speak both languages and that ability eventually led me to study abroad. As a kid, I liked singing and I once dreamed of becoming a singer but I changed my mind to become a composer or producer after I saw a demo version of FL Studio, one of the Digital Audio Workstations(DAW), in my high school years. It was fun messing around something with it when I got back from school. Eventually I got into a university in Seoul majoring in Industrial Chemistry, and as a fun fact, I joined a pop-rock band which is a university club. I had a great time there playing music, preparing the shows, and so on. Two years later, I got back to Jeju to serve my military duty and it was not a pleasant thing that I had to go through, to be honest, but I learned a lot about responsibility from there. As soon as I got expired, I decided to apply to Berklee College of Music which was my biggest lifetime dream ever that I always wanted, and after a year preparing for the audition, I finally became a student there. I learned a really vast amount of knowledge in Berklee and I would say all the time I spent here is not only the highest point of my music career but also the time where it made me who I am.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I would say I’m proud of becoming an arranger. Humbly speaking, I still think I need more experience to become a professional arranger and it definitely was not an easy path to get through. So, before I got into Berklee, I learned how to use notation programs(especially Finale). I mean not just knowing how to use it but also thinking deeply how to make everything done fast. As a solution for that, I forced myself using some key commands and experimenting a few ways in order to build my efficient workflow. Then after learning more about Finale and arranging from the college, I luckily got selected to two Berklee shows and those were my first steps as an arranger. The hardest thing I had to get through was time management. Let’s say you know how to write for all instruments and you get roughly two weeks to get done an arrangement of a song. If the instrumentation is like Vocal, Electric Guitar, Bass, and Drum, it’s not that difficult but if it is like Vocals, 5-horns, and rhythm sections(Electric Guitar, Piano, Bass, Drum), then it’ll be a different story. So as I went through the experiences, dividing workflow became my solution. I worked on really easy tasks first, such as writing text information, working on basic score setup, putting melodies, and so on. Then I started arranging a song, and as it was finished, I took a look at the score from top to bottom to see if there were any mistakes on it. Obviously, I had to take a lot of time to figure out what is the most efficient way for me to get everything finished by deadline and some experiences broke my heart as well but I still treat those experiences as a fertilizer for my professionalism on arranging rather than bad memories. All the experiences gave me breakthroughs in interesting ways. Watch a lot, listen a lot, and feel the energy of other peoples’ arrangements a lot.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I usually don’t go out and travel often but Coolidge Corner in Boston would be my recommendation to my friends. The place gave me a really interesting feeling as I got off the train. It feels like I’m in Europe, especially Germany for some reason, and I suddenly forgot the fact that I’m in Boston. My favorite place from Coolidge Corner is a Korean restaurant called Bap Korean Bistro. There are a lot of options on the menu so you can see various Korean foods. They have a good portion as well(at least in my perspective). Recently, I also found one interesting place with one of my friends as he recommended me and it was so good. The place is called Michael’s Deli, where you can have New York style sandwiches. My mouth is watering as I remember the day me and my friend went there and ate the fine sandwiches. As I mentioned in the beginning, it is really good to see the view of the place as well. There are few skyscrapers or tall buildings so we can see a beautiful clear sky and the roads are so quiet that the place made me want to live there. I really recommend you all to visit there one time if you want to have a peaceful day.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Before I answer this question, I truly want to give thanks to Jason Ryu for recommending me as an interviewee of Shoutout LA. My answer for this question is that everyone is my inspiration and gave me various types of meanings in my life either they were positive or negative. I pick up ideas not only from my instinct or natural phenomenon, but also from people. By interacting with them, by observing them, and by looking through their mind, I get inspired every time. Moreover, I really want to thank one club from Berklee College of Music called “Berklee Malaysian Association”(BMA). The club made me who I am as an arranger and I’m so grateful for working with people in BMA. Thanks to their effort and support, I got known as one of the good arrangers in school and it gave me one of the big meanings in my whole life.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yjh_chris_b/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgaRrqDwD5dhzjD1Xdz_QlA

Image Credits
Hongyi Wu, and Berklee Malaysian Association