“Watch Me Make Music”
That’s the slogan I came up with to describe what I’m up to here. I am a songwriter. This publication is my answer to my reluctance to create a ton of disposable social media content aimed at garnering attention for my songs. It’s an experiment I hope you will enjoy.
Do you have a moment to watch my 45 second publication trailer?
I’m Ryno / 라이노
That non-english bit just above is my name, written in Hangul (Korean). I just made you read my name twice. In 2022 I left Long Island City, NYC, after 16 years, to live in Seoul. My wife and tiny dog (Sunny) thankfully allowed me to follow them.
I Make Songs.
I’m always making songs. I’ve done this as a hobbyist since 1993. I’ve had some success. One of my songs was featured in The Walking Dead (S10xEp21) in 2021, for example.
*If you want to hear my music, please visit my website (top of page navigation), or click here. There’s also a truckload of links in the Index 목차 page of this site.
For the most part, my songs have been a somewhat private passion project–until now. I learned a great deal about myself and life by building songs. It’s come to be one of the most rewarding pursuits of my life. I can’t imagine taking another breath without this profound activity. Much like skateboarding, I highly recommend it to everyone.
Songwriting is not a lucrative a passion, though people who do it say they cannot quit. This is true for me. I don’t write songs for the money and I’m not on substack to get rich.
For a living, I’ve allowed my love of cameras to lead me towards choosing film production as a practical vocation. While I’m here in South Korea, attending a foreign language school, I’m directing my film skills towards my songs with lots of video content.
I took a small business course once that asked us all to write down our ‘vision statement’. Mine read,
“Make all the fascinating shit you can before you die”.
Everything you find here is part of my songs.
I ❤️ Albums.
This place is centered around the creation of albums. I have multiple albums already planned out, with many songs already written. This is not the norm in today’s single-by-single streaming culture. Songs take a long time to write, and albums take an even longer time to coalesce, which leads to big time gaps in releases. My hope is that Behind the Lights will fill this temporal void.
Are albums are better than singles? In so many ways. For me, single by single releasing makes songs more ephemeral and lonely. If songs are cities, than albums are countries. Also, is there anything better than that random B-side? No way that song gets released as a single.
Nowadays, if you release an album, streaming services focus on one of the tracks, and overlook the rest. I don’t think humans do this, so I’m not afraid to bunch up my jams. I love song collections too much. Knowing a song is part of a set changes everything about it’s creation. It’s the best.
If I could release my albums between 1967-1973, I would. That’s the bygone era of music I’m most enamored with. I’m keen on big harmonies, as well as exotic stereo effects, but I mix in my love of late the 1990’s acoustic drum-kit sounds, huge splashy cymbals and explosive buildups.
The ♫ Pretty City Lights sound
I believe you can enjoy this place and loathe my music at the same time. I intend this place to be more about the wonder of discovery.
As a band, we are just getting started, but I’m not new to songwriting. Until the first songs debut, you can enjoy the song demos being crafted in real time, in a series I call, Demotrons.
The new band name is called Pretty City Lights. I used to make music as Amateur Blonde. Most would say my songs could be classified as: Alternative Rock. I struggle with this label, but it’s pretty close. I’d add the term ‘Psychedelic’ to that genre classification, much as one would when describing David Bowie (Psychedelic Rock).
My Creation Process
My creation process is specific and full of procedure, which you get to learn about. I’m doing all things for these songs myself. Studios are expensive–drums especially. I love the sound of real drums and cymbals, played by a human. I make elaborate demos with single mic sketch-drums before going into a professional recording studio. In the studio, the goal is to capture final (huge) drum recordings, with 17 mics. Following the studio, I take the final drum sessions home and build out songs over the top of them. This takes time.
My Home Studio
On the 17th floor, inside a tiny bedroom of a typical Seoul apartment tower, I’ve created a mini audio visual DIY recording studio. The sole purpose for this is to enjoy making music on a deeper level. I’ve become very good at home recording, editing, and mixing. Rather than rushing it inside an expensive studio, I get to savor the process. I believe it makes my songs exquisite. Most of what you will hear and see from me comes from this room, which I’ve got rigged up like a radio city music hall.
What I’m doing here.
Initially, my idea for Behind the Lights was a simple fan-club/newsletter for people who like my music. But Substack’s vloggy nature changed the scope of my endeavor from newsletter, to an online universe for my new music creation.
Behind the Lights is quickly becoming part of my songs. I’m merging my songwriting workbench with my video cameras, and delivering the discoveries to your email inbox. The goal is to become more communal about the solitary process of song and album creation, which I have always found fascinating, yet hard to share out. I’ve always wanted a place for this:
I am releasing all my music here first.
Additionally, I’m creating exclusive, one-of-a-kind content that dives deep into the fabric of my songs, giving Behind the Lights subscribers a front-row seat to watch me make music.
Free Posts (and Types)
I’m making this publication free, but you can become a paid subscriber (pay what you want). Some call this method the “Freemium” method. Know that I’m not saving up for a yellow corvette. All funds go into future music. All sales from our store do too. In the future, some posts might be paywalled, but for now, your kind attention is my reward.
This Behind the Lights substack aims to let readers ‘watch me make music’. I enjoy putting in the work. I do this mostly by myself–for myself. These songs are my children, and I do everything for them. I’ve come up with some basic types of posts, but I’m sure it will evolve.
Post Types: To learn about various types of posts I make, please visit my very 1st post, called “Listen to the Lights” here.
Live Shows
We perform my songs live here too! These are usually special events, where we perform at a local venue and get great video. That video get’s shared here too! These are collaborative events, with band members. They are usually very different versions of my songs, which is exciting. Sometimes we all go into the studio together (Want to book us? go here).
Live Streaming? This is a new feature of Substack that I try.
Band Members
I have a team! When I play live shows, I do so as a power trio with 2 amazing musicians from Korea (booking inquiries here). They are so much better at their instruments than me. They are notably much younger too. Funnily, if you add up their ages, they are still younger than me. None of that matters when we begin to play. I find it fascinating creating alternate ‘live show’ versions of my songs with them–and I’ll share more about that.
Drummer 진수용 - Instagram here.
Bassist 방성광 - Instagram here.
Whatever brought your here, welcome!
I suppose I’m like many others out there, searching for balance in my life while I strive toward greatness. Music is my chosen path, though it took a long time for me to finally choose it. I love making songs. I’m focussed on learning and improvement as a human being. I invite you to judge my creations for yourself.
BTL Target Audience:
People who wanna watch Pretty City Lights make songs from scratch
People who are exhausted by 'rockstars'
People who enjoy chilling out, listening to albums
People who might lift weights while listening to classical music
Songwriters, DIY recording artisans, musicians, camera people, and home studio gear heads–or people just starting out
Folks who might enjoy watching a car rebuilt slowly over time
Those who need real drums in their lives, played by a human
People dying of middle age
People who need a break from headlines and politics
Those who agree, music is THE ultimate magic
One last note for this ‘About’ page:
Music making can get lonely.
I consider this place a chill spot where readers can relax from political talk, pop-culture drivel, and shocking news headlines–and watch me focus on the pleasure of building something unexpected and full of emotion. I’m making my adventure in music discovery–plain and vulnerable. Sharing like this gives me the feeling of leaving my cave. I hope you like what you find.
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.
To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.
Emails
Please note that Behind the Lights occasionally sends emails to you from our band email: music@prettycitylights.com
