[INTERVIEW] P.Keys Poured His "Art & Soul" Into His New Album

P.Keys (Paul Kim) is back with a new album and we couldn’t wait to hear all about it! The artist reveals some fun stories behind the process of making it and how he has grown as an artist over the years. P.Keys has officially released his new album Art & Soul and it has a total of 11 new tracks. Today is also special because it is his birthday so be sure to give his new album a listen and wish him a happy birthday!

Getting to know P.Keys (Paul Kim)

HypnoticAsia: Please introduce yourself to HypnoticAsia readers.

P.Keys: Hey everyone! My government name is Paul Kim, which I use for most of my Youtube content, but I go by P.Keys for my original work and new material.

HypnoticAsia: How did you get into music?

P.Keys: Growing up in East San Jose, we were all just huge hip hop and R&B heads. And when I’d sleep over at friend’s homes, their parents would be playing old school artists like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Donny Hathaway. So once I got introduced to Soul music, I fell in love with it. I also was forced to try out for choir at church, and the director really wanted me in it, even though I couldn’t even read music. I guess he bent the rules for me.

HypnoticAsia: If you weren’t doing music, what do you think you’d be doing instead as a career option?

P.Keys: I’d probably be homeless, singing on a corner for pocket change. Kidding! Honestly, music kind of just fell into my lap. I was studying to become a teacher when I got my first record deal. I’d definitely be doing something nerdy like a history professor or botanist.

HypnoticAsia: Have you always believed you’d be sharing your music with the world or did you have another career option lined up growing up?

P.Keys: As a kid, I really thought I’d be good enough to play in the NBA. I was sorely wrong. Once I reached about 15, I realized I wasn’t as good as I thought I was haha. But that was my dream all the way up through high school. Basketball was my entire world.

HypnoticAsia: Currently who is your favorite artist and why?

P.Keys: Honestly, I’ve been on this huge kick of artists like Dean, Crush, Sik-K, Jay Park, Hoody, etc… The production value on their music is out of this world. They’re doing something right over there.

HypnoticAsia: Who are your musical influences?

P.Keys: Way too many to name here. It’s probably easier to say genres like Jazz, Soul, R&B, Hip Hop, and K-Pop played a huge role in influencing my sound.

HypnoticAsia: Is there a producer you have always wanted to work with? Why?

P.Keys: Definitely Pharrell Williams. Total pipe dream, cuz he’d never work with a nobody like me. But his production with The Neptunes was unbelievable.

HypnoticAsia: If you could choose only one artist to collaborate with, who would it be and why?

P.Keys: Such a hard question, but off the top of my head, the first name that came to mind was Drake. I just think we could come up with a crazy unique sound on a collaboration.

HypnoticAsia: How do you decide which songs to cover next on your YouTube?

P.Keys: I’ve never publicly shared this, but I drop a cover every once in a while just cuz I’m bored and want to make something. I never chased the same model everyone else does of scrambling to cover the same top 40 pop hit for views. I enjoy taking a song I like, old or new, and really flipping and rearranging it to my style and making it sound like a completely different song. Doing covers is just a form of karaoke in my eyes. If you’re not making it it’s own unique piece of art, it’s just karaoke lol. One of the pitfalls of youtube as a platform for musicians is a majority of it users are too focused on the singing aspect of a song. There’s so much more to being an artist than JUST being able to sing well. Production, writing, arranging, mixing, mastering. The true artistry gets overlooked a lot on youtube, which is why I enjoy other platforms like spotify.

The New Album

HypnoticAsia: We heard you are releasing a new album on the 26^th of March, tell us a little about what we can expect from your new music.

P.Keys: The album is called “Art & Soul” and is an embodiment of me, sonically. I think the listener will hear elements of all the music I’ve loved since childhood. I wanted to fuse sounds like jazz, soul, 90’s r&b, 2000’s neo-soul, along with modern production with a sexy spacey vibe.

HypnoticAsia: What was the process like when making the album?

P.Keys: I made sure all the tracks had jazz chords as it’s foundation. If you listen carefully, really weird jazz chords exist within the production. I enlisted the help of all my producer friends Dale Keano, Chops, Z.Woods, John Ho, Brian Demby, and Nine Diamond. After discussing with them exactly what sound I wanted, we crafted some super vibey records. I really obsessed over each and every sound, the EQ on every element, and the mix. And for this album I wanted to make sure I did all of the writing of the songs. There were no co-writers on this project. And I also engineered and recorded everything myself.

HypnoticAsia: How long have you been working on the tracks on this upcoming album?

P.Keys: Over a 6 month span, I wrote more than 30 songs for this project. Every single night after my day job, I hunkered down and worked until early morning on the album. I averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night over this 6 month period. There were times I just broke into tears from being so exhausted and frustrated, but this is me. Music is my one true love, and something kept pushing me to keep going. After I felt I had come up with a project I loved, I cut the album down to a selection of 11 final songs. And the mixing/mastering of those songs took another two months. My good friend John Ho handled that aspect of it, so all credit goes to him for that.

HypnoticAsia: Tell us some stories from making the album.

P.Keys: Ok, I’m going to admit some funny stuff here. I wrote all of these songs in my kitchen, sitting at the breakfast bar, with a crystal glass full of whiskey on the rocks in my hand. One other thing I’m a little embarrassed to admit is that I recorded all these songs in a spare room at my mom’s house. I have my own studio at my house, but the acoustics in that spare room at my mom’s is amazing. The sound quality in there is better than many million dollar studios. I think many of you will notice the sound quality on this album. Personally, I think it’s cool that I was able to create a major label quality album on my own, with my own hard earned money. I never did a GoFundMe asking people for money. I wanted to do this on my own, on my terms.

HypnoticAsia: What inspired you to come up with some of your favorite tracks on this new album?

P.Keys: I really wanted to bring back love songs. Most of the popular music of today is all about drugs, side chicks, and showing off. There are people out there that still want to fall in love. But there isn’t a whole lot of love songs out there for them to choose from. I talk about this stuff in depth on the song “Lost In Translation”. Speaking of Lost In Translation, it was the film that inspired the storyline behind the song “Sleepless in Tokyo”. and I tied many of the songs together. You’ll see on the track list that The song “Passport” precedes “Sleepless in Tokyo”, which immediately leads into “Lost In Translation”, and that chapter of the story concludes with “Fluently”. One of the musts for me on this album was to make sure every song had a quirky and clever concept.

HypnoticAsia: Which song are you most excited to reveal from this new album?

P.Keys: I can’t say I have a favorite. It’s like having children! They’re all my babies haha. It’d be impossible to love one child more than another. All 11 songs have their own style and vibe, and I love them equally.

HypnoticAsia: Why did you decide to drop the new album on your birthday, March 26^th?

P.Keys: Gotta be honest here again. I had no plans to drop this album on my birthday. The original target was to drop this on Valentine’s Day, but I obsessed so much over the mix of these songs, that I went back and had revisions done to many of the songs before they were completed and mastered. But hey, since they were done shortly before my birthday, I figured my gift to my supporters would be an album on my born day.

HypnoticAsia: Who created your album cover and can you tell us where the inspiration came from to use the cover?

P.Keys: My friend Patty Lin created it! Isn’t she amazing? She also made the artwork for my first album, “My Word”. I asked her to create an image of me in an anime style, because I love the artistry behind anime. It has such a recognizable style, and evokes pride for me because it’s quintessentially Asian. And as a lot of people know, I love tropical plants, so I wanted elements of tropical foliage in it as well.

HypnoticAsia: Your last album was in 2015, do you think your music has changed at all over the years? If so, how and in what way?

P.Keys: I feel like I’ve definitely grown as an artist since my last album. And as proud as I am of that first project, I’ll admit that some of the songs were chasing trends. This new album is different because I just did me on it. Every aspect of it reflects me and my own unique style and sound.

HypnoticAsia: Does your music tell a certain story in your life?

P.Keys: For sure. I’ve lived through these things, and put them into song form. The alternate title for this album was “Painting Sounds’, because I wanted every song to tell a story in a way where you can picture all the scenarios; as if it was an audio film. My music is like a public journal. And I hope many of you can relate to what I’ve experienced as well. This one is for you guys!

Concluding Fun

HypnoticAsia: Pepsi or Coke?

P.Keys: I used to love Diet Coke, but I gave up soda after the new year!

HypnoticAsia: Favorite drink at Starbucks?

P.Keys: I also gave up coffee as a new year’s resolution, but I always ordered a hazelnut latte from the Bucks haha

HypnoticAsia: Favorite food?

P.Keys: Sushi sushi sushi. My supporters know about my obsession with sushi!

Android or iPhone?

P.Keys: Sadly, I am an iPhone stan. But hey, I got love for team android too.

HypnoticAsia: Is there anything else you’d like your fans and readers at HypnoticAsia to know?

P.Keys: Can I just say how thankful I am to everyone who takes time out of their day to listen to my art? I’m so grateful and humbled that anyone would like something I pour my heart onto. And can I also send a huge hug to HypnoticAsia? You guys have supported me from day one, and words cannot express how blessed I am to have your cosign of love. Thank youuuuuuu!

Get his new album “Art & Soul” on: