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| Fashion model and disk jockey Kim Ki-bum / Courtesy of YG KPLUS |
By Kim Jae-heun
Model Kim Ki-bum is one of the hottest disk jockeys on the Korean fashion scene who is in his fourth year of turning music at almost all the luxury brands' pop-up store opening events here. Kim has played tunes at presentations of new collections for Chanel, Dior, Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors. Italian luxury brand Gucci contacted him privately to play at their party after watching footage of him playing the turntable on his instagram that 229,000 fans follow currently.
Kim was only a popular fashion model before he lost nearly 25 kilograms in a month to walk on the runway. He was only an 18-year old high school student then.
Although he was not desperate to become a model in the first place, his determination to be top in his field led him to debut through the Caruso collection in the first appearance on the local fashion scene. Caruso is one of the most prestigious designer brands in Seoul, led by designer Chang Kwang-hyo.
"I gain weight very easily and even now, I run on a tread mill every day," said Kim during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Gangnam, Seoul, last Tuesday. "It's really boring and hard work to work out regularly and music helped me endure it.
"I liked listening to house music and it was then I began to search for various kinds. I soon fell in love with the progressive house genre, especially with the Swedish disk jockey team Swedish House Mafia. They were like the big names in the field and I liked their song Don't You Worry Child," said Kim.
Since then, the fashion model has listened to all albums of the Swedish group and looked for similar types. When he met his friends at their favorite restaurant, Kim played his music there connecting his phone to the speaker, because people liked his musical choices.
"Then I thought why not play music on my own? and I bought a small turntable called GO DJ. I watched YouTube and learned how to manipulate the machine by myself. I practiced mixing music by following the skills that my favorite disk jockeys showed through video clips online," said Kim.
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| Fashion model and disk jockey Kim Ki-bum / Courtesy of YG KPLUS |
Then, he had a chance to play music at his model agency's party and the company began to give him jobs at fashion events after witnessing his decent DJ-ing skill.
Kim is now an established DJ playing music at local big name clubs like Octagon, Answer and Syndrome. He is also working on producing music, for which he uses Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) work.
Twice a week, Kim goes "digging" for new songs on the music streaming service "Sound Cloud." He checks out all the new tracks that his favorite artists have shared online or recommends or downloads recorded podcasts of high-profile disk jockeys and learns their tricks.
"Playing music as a DJ is no longer my hobby. It is becoming a job for me but that doesn't mean that I am satisfied with my level now. One day I want to play music at a music festival in Miami.
"When I only worked as a fashion model, it was really competitive and I could barely breathe. DJ-ing was like a resting point where I could relieve my stress. Now it has given me another talent to distinguish myself from models without an identity," added Kim.
