Musician pursues lifelong passion

Choi Suk-hyun

By Kim Bo-eun

Choi Suk-hyun made his debut as a musician last year, but music has been a central part of his life for a long time.

With the release of his first single last December, Choi is now known as “Super Guitar.” Since then, he has released two more songs.

His most recent “Jjajangmyeon Guy,” released earlier this month, is about his personal experience from many years back.

“I walked into a Chinese restaurant and there sat a girl devouring a bowl of jjajangmyeon. She didn’t even realize that she had sauce on the corners of her mouth, but she was beautiful,” said Choi.

“She ate with zero regard to people around her; she was so free, so beautiful, she thrilled me,” he sings in the song.

As such, Choi says his songs are about experiences in his daily life and are easy to listen to. They convey the pure sound of the guitar and the natural sound of his voice.

“Food is also an important subject of my songs, because of its familiarity to people. My aim is to make songs that can be enjoyed by a wide audience, from young to old,” he said.

However, Choi hadn’t always been the type to stand in front of people.

He had been considerably shy until high school, but an incident helped him overcome his shyness and start singing.

“When I was in high school, I really liked my biology teacher, but wasn’t any good at studying. The day before her wedding, at the school’s 20-year anniversary festival, she called on me and asked me to sing, and that’s when it started,” Choi said.

Choi has been busking for most of his life, and playing music in the street still remains one of his greatest joys. For years he performed in Sillim and Noryangjin, often substituting meals with ramen. Nowadays he heads out to Itaewon or Hongdae.

Choi says he plans to continue focusing on making new songs with comic elements, referring to Chinese actor Stephen Chow as his inspiration.

“When you watch Stephen Chow, you can obverse a variety of emotions, but the actor is perhaps most associated with humor. Like Chow, I want to convey humor, but through my music,” he said.