Meet Yeakun Yoo | Media composer & CEO

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

Hi Yeakun, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
For me, the biggest risk-taking decision was hiring employees and working on my projects together with them. When I first started my company, I was going through the COVID-19 pandemic, and I had a duty to take care of my wife and children. Like other composers, I couldn’t invest all my time in composing, and I had to divide my time between work and family. However, I couldn’t refuse the many requests for game, film, and animation music that came my way.

So, the solution I came up with was to hire a trustworthy person, pay them a salary, and share my projects with them. Honestly, when I first hired that composer, I was very worried whether there would be enough continuous projects in the future to justify the salary. If there were no more projects in the future, I might have to fire that employee, but I didn’t want to push the composer in that situation.

However, once I hired an employee, in order to continuously provide them with a salary, I worked harder to promote my company, sending emails and DMs here and there, ensuring that work didn’t stop and striving for the growth of my company. Ultimately, that effort was effective and has become the valuable foundation that has grown my company to this point.

It was a really tough decision, but I believe that to make bigger leaps and growth, one must know how to make such risk-taking decisions. I anticipate many challenging decisions ahead, but I plan to carefully consider and make many risk-taking decisions.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The most common feedback I received from others while building my career as a media composer was that my unique musical language was not apparent, and my music sounded too generic.

As a media composer who needed to earn money and sustain a livelihood through projects, the most important thing was whether my music sounded good or not. Therefore, I focused not on creating my unique sound but on how I could produce good sound quality, which seemed to have dictated my approach. As I continued to work on various projects, my music eventually improved, and I became a composer who could earn money.

However, by being a copycat composer who followed others, I ended up not getting major projects. Big projects always preferred composers with their own unique musical color, and since I had not considered this aspect deeply, I repeatedly failed to be chosen in major project meetings.

So, two years ago, I began researching how to develop my unique musical color and continuously pondered what I was good at. Eventually, I began to identify my strengths and started landing larger game and film projects. What I excel at is creating perfect thematic melodies for projects and building beautiful counter melodies and orchestrations.

I plan to continue researching what I can do better. I believe that refining what I excel at, rather than imperfectly following others, is a quicker shortcut to success.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love my homeland, South Korea. Although it is not a vast country like China or the USA, there is so much to see and eat here. First and foremost, I would like to take my friend to the capital city, Seoul. Seoul has a lot of food options, and I particularly want them to experience street food. Street food includes a variety of items, among which tteokbokki, odeng, and sundae are the most popular and represent Korean street food well. Tteokbokki might be a bit spicy, but it’s a street food that best represents South Korea, so I highly recommend it.

Besides that, I think the most unique experience in South Korea is its public transportation. I’ve traveled to many countries, but I believe that none have public transportation as well-developed as Korea’s. I would love to take them on the subway, buses, and trains across South Korea to give them a great experience.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Whenever I get asked this kind of question, there’s always one person I mention. He is Garry Schyman, a game music composer who has been my mentor since I first started living in the United States in 2019. He explained to me how American film music composers think and live, and the attitude with which I should continue my studies. He listened to all the game music I composed, provided his feedback, and has helped me grow into a better media composer.

He is still the teacher and friend I respect the most and my idol. No matter what project I am working on, I always seek his advice, and every time, he generously provides feedback and guidance. He will continue to be one of the most valuable people in my life.

Website: https://www.ykmusicproductions.com

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yeakun-yoo-2b471b135/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yeakunyoo

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@yeakunyoo9989

Image Credits
Game credit

Lies of P(2023)
Lineage 2 Revolution(2023)
Starseed(2023)
Freestyle(2024)

Film credit

Western Avenue(2024)
Home (2024)
Family man in America(2023)
Virago(2023)
Iris(2022)