Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jonathan Um. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jonum, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

As a musician that has labeled himself as more of a producer/audio engineer, I was making a lot of music for others and putting a majority of my time to develop people I believed in. It was a very fruitful time I will admit, but it took a lot of creativity away from my own projects and music. I recently started a boyband with a few of my collaborators I had similar interests with and now I feel like I am making music for me and the feeling has never been more clear in my life.

Jonum, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Jonum and I am a musician from Houston currently living in Los Angeles.

To put it simply, I was that asian kid who played the piano, the drums, the cello and all that jazz. My parents put me in private lessons when I was a kid and I played at church so I was definitely understanding my competition, my environment and my inspirations a bit more than most growing up. However, my young self didn’t taking things too seriously as I would rather be in popular social clubs and meet people (and girls haha) outside of orchestra and jazz band. I wanted to make connections and relationships at a human level first and then find people who had similar interests.

When it came down to it after high school, I decided to B.S. my way thru college at a university studying music production. I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life yet, all I knew was that music was something I was always doing. Turns out I ended up liking music production and had great relationships with my collaborators so I decided to learn everything on youtube and drop out of university and move to LA

I got into the music industry when I first moved out to LA in 2020 with a K-Pop/Rap producer named Big Banana. He took me under his wing as an intern and showed me how to run the ins and outs as an independent producer with his own boutique studio space. During the pandemic I wasn’t able to go to the studio so I basically made beats everyday at home and posted to Youtube and also recorded my roommate so I could be ready when the world opened up again.

After the lockdown had ended, I applied to as many studios in LA as I could and hit up as many people on instagram to session and make music. I ended up working at more studios with high profile artists and producers and really started to sharpen my skills up as a professional. Through all the internships, I learned how to make beats, record artist, mix and master songs and provide basic marketing strategies to promote music organically. I turned my living room in my apartment into a functional and well sounding studio and I went on a rampage for literally 3 years making music for so many artists locally or remotely around the world.

Fast forward to 2023, I am currently still on a rampage but learning to slow down and find balance in my life (the music industry got hands). I am confidently able to say that I can solve most of anyones audio needs, including but not limited to: producing beats/compositions, recording vocals/voiceovers, mixing full on pop tracks and more. What sets me apart in my opinion is my intuition and versatility that I have with music. Recently I have been calling myself a musician only because I can confidently take care of any musical situation that an artist or collaborator brings to me. A lot of my projects recently have been artists coming to me with projects that they are 50-75% happy with and asking what I would add or take away to create movement and more feeling in the music whether it is the vocals or instrumentation. I feel like Rick Rubin in a lot of ways haha.

But despite all the projects I have worked on, I have learned to touch base with my own creativity for the music that I want to make and brand for myself.

I started a boyband with my friends called Townewest and I want to break all your perspectives that you have about boybands. Townewest is a brainchild of me and a friend, Bouquet, and we both push each other to produce excellent art in the music and visuals. We’re coming at you with songs that enclose memories and nostalgia, beat tapes that tie with short films we’ve made, vlogs of our daily life to connect at a level with our audience, visuals that make you feel something.

At its core, Townewest is just experimental enough where you can listen and appreciate the uniquely familiar feelings we wanna provoke. Our first EP, ‘Save Sara’ provides a smooth listening experience with tones between hip-hop, anti-pop, alternative and even some jazz while our beat tape, ‘Garden Audience’ makes you envision a whole movie in your head.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I labeled myself more as a music producer and engineer my first 3 years in LA and I definitely feel like I boxed myself in because of that. I knew that I could be an individual entity myself and create and curate my own work of art, marketing strategy, image, brand and all that stuff that musical artists do.

As a producer/engineer who has worked with so many people, I had all the resources and conversations right in front of me to become my own artist. I started to realize that being a producer and engineer for other is very fulfilling and would be something I do till I die, but I needed to create a legacy and brand for myself that puts me in a better position of leverage on the business side so that I can continue doing what I love to do. It’s like the airplane crash security protocol where you need to put your oxygen mask on first before you help others.

So I started my own boyband and I’m going to do it the way I want to, with the experience and knowledge of the industry that all my music friends talk to me about. And what’s crazy is, I know I can sing louder and better than 75% of these artists. I’m out here to take what’s mine.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

One of my missions as a creative is to genuinely pass on my creative energy and inspiration to the people around me and the ones I will meet in the future. Let me explain.

My number one inspiration, as cliche as it sounds is my parents and more specifically, my dad. He’s been the best role model I could have ever asked for and he has inspired me in the most creative ways I never would have imagined.

My dad wanted to be an audio engineer growing up but technology in Korea didn’t permit at the time. So instead he got into vinyl records and Hi-Fi systems and has been collecting and building his dream set up his whole life. I listened to the classics he would put on in the mornings before school and because he knew what he was doing, it sounded so crisp and you could really feel the music.

My dad didn’t make or record any music but he had such a strong appreciation for it that it translated into my life. He would always talk about how great artists of every generation fought for what was right and defied oppressing social norms. He was inspired by artists such as Janis Ian, Queen and even Beethoven as all had great stories and music. My dad showed me what he was so addicted to and I felt the exact same way, but I think the key difference is, I had a laptop with garageband and he didn’t.

So because I make music and collaborate with others a lot, that creative energy exchange that my dad has given me has made its way to everyone I’ve worked with. I’m able to share the same love me and pops felt about music with others. And what’s crazy is my dad’s creative energy was probably passed off from some cool ass dudes my dad met throughout the years.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @imjonum @townewest1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@townewest
• TOWNEWEST SHOP: https://townewest1.myshopify.com/

Image Credits
@hydapa @manduruyo @jouquetjord