Ram Han

Stories about and by emerging Asian artists. 

A portrait of CIFIKA sprawled across a studio floor awash in a beam of light. 

Jaded Presents: CIFIKA, an electronic-pop artist emerging from the Korean underground onto a global stage. 

JADED PRESENTS: CIFIKA

I always dreamed of being an artist as a kid. I used to go to a movie with my dad every weekend when I was growing up, and because of this, I started having interest in visual art.

My greatest supporters of all time are always my parents. I grew up listening to great music because of my mom. And my dad always encouraged me, and let me learn whatever instrument or class I wanted to take.

All I knew was how to sing, a little bit of basic music theory, and how to play piano. After I became serious about music, my biggest challenge was to become ‘professional’ as a musician.

My turning point was when I heard this comment from my professor, Dr. Setziol, during my singing class final exam. After the exam, he asked me to not leave yet, and said “You will make people come to listen to your voice, so you should become a musician. People will pay to hear you sing.”

I felt, maybe if the professor says so, I have a chance to try it out. I will regret it forever if I don’t. So I packed my stuff, and told my parents that I’m leaving for Seoul.

Electronic artist CIFIKA is living her childhood dream.

WHAT IS YOUR ORIGIN STORY?

The name CIFIKA came from Pacifica, where I used to drive all the time in San Jose. I chose it solely for the beauty of its pronunciation - there’s no symbolic relation to Pacifica at all. I don’t want my name to mean something.

My professional career as a musician started in May 2016, when my first debut single “OOZOO” was released. Before the debut, I had put out some music on Soundcloud, and started making friends in the music field…at that time I was living in the States, but the friends I made through the Internet were from everywhere around the world.

When I first started making my own music, I listened to a lot of James Blake, Flume, Washed Out, Grimes, FKA Twigs, Darkside, Lorde, London Grammar, Marvin Gaye, Arca, etc. I don’t listen to them now because I literally listened too many times.

My first show ever as CIFIKA was held at a small club called “Henz” in Hongdae [in Seoul]. It was a party hosted by Stüssy Korea, and I remember that was also my first time getting free clothes for my performance. Lol.

Every bit of my music career was a challenge to me. I didn’t know what an audio interface was until my musician friend suggested that I get one. That’s like the most basic gear you need in order to produce music… so I lacked all the basic knowledge of actual ‘music production’.

[Now] I have achieved my initial goal, which was to become a full-time musician. I’m a full time musician, I don’t do anything else than making music to make a living.

Photo of CIFIKA in front of water with a field recorder

CIFIKA's name was inspired by Pacifica, California. 

WHAT WERE YOUR CAREER BEGINNINGS?

Anything can become an inspiration, and can be used as an inspiration, but these days I like to study different modes of scale and try to make melodies within that scale. Sometimes a movie poster on the street can be an inspiration for my new piece, or a rock that’s standing in the middle of a wilderness. I would say nature is the easiest way to get inspiration.

I like the sounds of waves, sounds of rain, sounds of fire cracking, I even like the sound of leaves rustling… [In nature] I can be no one, I can be nothing. I love everything there is with no reason, or no plans - it’s just there and I’m just there.

These days, I’m thinking a lot about really cool words that contain double meaning, words that have a history of ancient gods, words that have a fun negative and positive space around their type, words with cool affixes/prefixes.

I like to first think visually, and translate that image to music. Because I majored in visual art, I like to think about the scene of a story first, and make that into music.

Visuals and music are inseparable to me - it can be a good aid, or sometimes it can fulfill the missing part of music. It’s like choir music that has to be sung with different parts that make up one song.

Picture of cifika in the fields with a recorder

CIFIKA is most inspired by nature, a place where she feels free. 

WHAT INSPIRES YOU AND YOUR WORK?

I really like the connection between the ‘ancient’ and ‘present’, like ‘past’ and ‘future’. I like to share videos and articles with friends about ancient artifacts and monuments that were made by humans. Some of them look like they've been cut with laser machines and built by computer calculations. It makes me think about what ‘technology’ is and how it can be applied to art.

[I’m most excited about] the evolution of Artificial Intelligence. I want to live long so that I can have an AI partner, AI friend, AI pet, AI secretary, AI producer...

I think AI will first be an assistant of different fields, like it will never be the primary role or source of any kind of work. But as you can see, more and more jobs are being altered by AI. For now, we utilize AI to generate outcomes based on data that we ‘give’ them to study, but later in the future, AI will give us an outcome, and we won’t be able to figure out where the outcome came from. I want to see that within the music and art fields.

CIFIKA in orange light against a black background

CIFIKA is really excited about artificial intelligence.

YOU'RE REALLY INTO TECHNOLOGY. CAN YOU TELL US MORE?

My goal now is to become a ‘happy musician’. Half of my music career for the last 5 years, I wasn’t happy. I went through struggles, and wasted a lot of time worrying about things that didn’t happen.

I think success is to have peace in your mind of what you do. I know you will never get satisfied with your own work - I think the rule for an artist is not to fall in love with your own creation, but you can enjoy the moment of creating something from scratch, and be thankful for the people who work with you and for you. There are many ways to see success, but for me [success] is to have peace inside while you are living in your career.

My ultimate career goal is to be sensational, and new each time. It can mean in terms of style in music, style in fashion, style in performance... I want to always experiment with different elements of CIFIKA.

I don’t want to make music that is too serious, but rather something that is catchy and easy to listen to. I do work on some experimental music with installation artists and galleries, but for CIFIKA, I want to present works that are not too deep or completely experimental.

[I want to create] a project where all the people from different countries gather, like an arena in ancient times, or the Olympics in modern times. I want to create a show that’s universally pleasing and enjoyed. I love the energy of “fusion” or “union”.

I want to make something that will just last long. Something that can be loved many times by many people.

I want people to remember my music as good music, [like the] music that changed my life, music that was so good I had to listen to it over and over again!

My dream for the future is to constantly stay creative, come up with beautiful thoughts, and execute the way I want.