We’re back with a new interview, and this time we interviewed Brian Shin about his latest album ‘Runner’s High’. The album came out towards the end of December and from the very first listen we added a couple of tracks to our ambient playlists.
“I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno’s music. This album is ambient, but I’ve tried to add some jazz flavor to it, since I’m a jazz musician.”
Brian Shin is a musician and composer. He plays the trumpet, tuba and the sousaphone, but majored in guitar; He’s studied at Pasadena City College, Berklee College of Music and obtained a master’s degree from Dongduk Women’s University Graduate School.
Runner’s High
As a musician Shin has worked on many different projects. He’s the creator of Brian Shin & the Swing Makers, but he’s also a soloist. “When I work as a band leader, I try to focus on the band sound. I try to bring out the right sound from each member of the band, so that the complete sound comes out right. When I work as a solo artist I just try to express my emotion to the music.”
For the album ‘Runner’s High’ he wore many different hats. He was the producer, composer, arranger and mixer, while also playing the instruments. Some of his prior experience comes from working as a sound engineer doing mixing and mastering for other people, including his church for many years.
The album contains 11 tracks and clocks in just over 40 minutes. It’s a lovely listening experience as the tracks transition smoothly into one another. Shin explained: “I just want people to have many different emotions while listening to the album. It could be happiness or sadness. They could even just relax to it.”
His personal favorite is track 4 ‘달무리’. “Even though it’s not the title track, I just love the sound of it. Every time I listen to it, I feel different emotions.”
The only feature on the album is RAINBOW99. “First of all, RAINBOW99 is a fucking genius. When I asked him to work with me, he was just like, ‘okay, it will be fun’. He told me he only took a couple of minutes to get the tracks done. He really put some awesome sounds to the two tracks. I love his work.”
You can find the album on Spotify here.
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