INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY ALICIA ZAMORA ☆
CYRRCA IS ALWAYS FOLLOWING WHERE CURIOSITY TAKES HIM—With CYRRCA 2.0 Deluxe, CYRRCA is taking his HyperMeditative concept further, bringing in new artists and exploring more of what the project can become. Blending meditation with club music, he sees sound as a way to step away from everyday thoughts and become fully present. It's an idea that carries through the record, whether the music is quiet or fast-paced. While CYRRCA is his solo project, collaboration has always been a big part of it, dating back to his first album and the 13 Moons Ritual Gatherings exhibition. With each release, he's found more room to experiment and follow ideas he might not have considered before.
A lot of that openness comes from the years he's spent building a life in Seoul. After getting his start playing shows in Hongdae, he became part of the local music community through Used Cassettes and Loose Union, helping bring Korean and international musicians together. Those experiences shaped how he approaches making music with others and taught him the importance of understanding different creative perspectives. Living in Korea has also influenced his songwriting in smaller ways, from the sounds of the Korean language to the playful side of its culture. Even the everyday habit of drinking iced Americanos inspired “ICED AMERICANO FOREVER,” while his appreciation for Korean cuteness has started to show up in CYRRCA's music and visuals.
Beyond the records themselves, CYRRCA has grown into a project that includes an art book, visual album, exhibitions and even an 8-bit game. For him, it's a way to explore ideas that don't always fit into music alone. That curiosity has also kept him connected to Seoul's independent music scene, where he's recently found himself spending more time again through his band othersmayforgetyoubutnoti. While the first CYRRCA album was shaped by years of traveling, CYRRCA 2.0 took a more playful and club-focused direction. He doesn't know what the next album will sound like yet, and he'd rather let it come together naturally than force it into a specific direction.
With new music in the works for both othersmayforgetyoubutnoti and CYRRCA, he's continuing to trust the instincts that brought him from Michigan to Seoul in the first place. For him, the best ideas often come when he stops thinking too much about what he wants to make and simply starts creating. It's an approach that leaves plenty of room for change, which is exactly what keeps CYRRCA exciting.
Read Luna's conversation with CYRRCA below.
LUNA: You’ve been making music in Seoul for a long time now, and CYRRCA brings together so many different sides of your creativity. With CYRRCA 2.0 Deluxe now out, I’m curious how you’ve been feeling about this project and where it’s taken you so far.
CYRRCA: With CYRRCA 2.0 Deluxe, I pushed the HyperMeditative concept further and brought more artists into the mix. It feels like the full sonic vision of CYRRCA 2.0 has come to life, which is really exciting for me. That's largely thanks to the new artists on the record, who expanded it in directions I couldn't have imagined. Even though it's a solo project, CYRRCA has always had a collaborative, collective spirit, dating back to my first album and the 13 Moons Ritual Gatherings [exhibition].
CYRRCA is where I feel most free to experiment, follow my instincts and explore my imagination. It's also made me think more deeply about why I make music in the first place. I've come to see it as a space to keep discovering who I am while connecting with the world around me.
LUNA: I was interested in the idea behind HyperMeditative, especially the way it brings together meditation and club music. Do you find that making music can put you in a similar headspace to meditation, even when the music itself is loud and fast?
CYRRCA: There's a kind of awareness that emerges when you're completely immersed in sound, whether making music or listening to it. You enter a mode where time and place disappear. You're not really thinking about what you're doing anymore; you're just absorbed in the experience.
Breath is a common anchor in meditation, bringing awareness into the present moment. With music, the sound itself becomes that anchor. It's a gateway into the same kind of flow state, where you let go of your usual sense of self, free yourself from the story of thoughts, and release into the here and now.
That's at the heart of HyperMeditative. It doesn't matter whether the music is quiet and peaceful or loud and fast. It's about the quality of attention you bring: becoming immersed in the present moment through sound.
LUNA: “ICED AMERICANO FOREVER” is built around such a specific part of everyday Korean life. What are some other little things about living in Korea that you think would make their way into your music, whether intentionally or not?
CYRRCA: Iced Americanos really are a way of life here. There's even a phrase for it: 얼죽아, which is short for “Even if I freeze to death, I still drink iced Americano.” Koreans drink iced Americanos all winter long, and I'm fully on board.
I think the biggest influence on me living here in Korea is the Korean language itself. Language has something inherently musical about it. After living here for so long, Korean naturally finds its way into my songwriting, sometimes without me even realizing it. I love exploring its sounds, rhythms and phrases.
Another thing I've embraced is the fun, playful side of Korean culture, especially the way cuteness can be expressed so freely. Coming from a Western background, I wasn't used to that kind of unapologetic cuteness. Over the years, though, I've grown to love it, and I think it's increasingly finding its way into both my music and visuals.
There's an expression in Korea, “Cuteness can save the world,” which I love. There's something really beautiful about that idea, and it's a spirit I like bringing into the CYRRCA universe.
LUNA: Before CYRRCA, you were part of Used Cassettes and helped build Loose Union, connecting Korean and international musicians. Do you think those experiences changed how you approach collaboration now?
CYRRCA: I got my start playing shows in Hongdae, and that whole DIY, countercultural spirit has always been at my core. Used Cassettes and Loose Union shaped me as an artist, especially when it comes to collaboration.
With Used Cassettes, I learned so much about writing songs, making albums, playing with other musicians and developing my relationship with my instrument. We spent so many years creating and performing together, and I'm super grateful for the music and memories we shared.
When I first got involved in the scene here, integrating was challenging. The Korean and international music communities were also separate. I was curious about and loved the local scene, and through our collective Loose Union, we found ways to connect people, build relationships and create together across those cultural boundaries.
One of the biggest things I learned was how nuanced and precious creative collaboration really is. When people come together to make art, they bring their individual sensibilities, motivations and skills they've spent years developing. Learning to understand and respect different perspectives is key.
Those experiences also taught me so much beyond the music itself, from producing shows and albums to organizing events and making videos. In many ways, they laid the groundwork for everything I'm doing now with CYRRCA, both creatively and in bringing artists together.
LUNA: You've described CYRRCA as a multidisciplinary project, with the music extending into an art book, a visual album and exhibitions. Is there a part of the CYRRCA world that you wish more people knew about?
CYRRCA: I'd love people to know how many dimensions CYRRCA has beyond the music. On social media, people see only a small piece of a much larger body of work, so I hope more people explore the project's full scope. The CYRRCA website, beautifully designed by my friend Quentin Assandri at Prakt, archives the project in all its forms. There's even a "CHU NOW" 8-bit game, which is a fun little quest into the CYRRCA world.
There's also a mystical, seeker spirit that's run through CYRRCA since the beginning. The first album grew out of a multi-year journey of traveling, riding and backpacking around the world. So while CYRRCA is a music project, in many ways, it's also an art project and even a spiritual one for me.
The name speaks to that. It comes from "circa," the idea of an approximate moment in time. Something happened, something meaningful, but you can't locate it precisely. I think that's a lot like poetry or music. We're always trying to describe feelings and experiences that words or sounds can never perfectly capture.
Ultimately, CYRRCA is a very human project. It's a place where I can keep searching, experimenting and trying to make sense of the world through art.
LUNA: Having spent so much time in Seoul, you've seen artists and sounds come and go. Is there anything happening in Korea's alternative music scene right now that you feel particularly connected to?
CYRRCA: The live band scene is great in Seoul right now. There are so many rad groups: Sailor Honeymoon, Wah Wah Wah, Snake Chicken Soup and plenty more. The live clubs and music community in Hongdae are so vibrant, and I think a lot of people don't realize there's a whole world of raw, independent, amazing music in the Korean indie scene beyond K-pop.
Since our band othersmayforgetyoubutnoti started playing shows, I've gotten more involved in that scene again. I've always felt connected to it, because my musical roots are in that world, and it feels really alive in Seoul right now.
LUNA: You've built CYRRCA around ideas of time, mythology and personal exploration. Do you feel like you're getting closer to understanding what this project is, or does it keep changing as you do?
CYRRCA: At its core, CYRRCA has always stayed the same: curiosity, a seeker spirit and following my intuition. But the way it expresses itself keeps changing, just as I do. My first album was quite poetic and serious, shaped by years of traveling and searching. With CYRRCA 2.0, I wanted something more playful, simpler, collaborative and club-focused. With the next album, I honestly don't know where it'll go yet, and that's part of what keeps it exciting. So I don't think I'll ever fully pin down what CYRRCA is, and maybe that's the point. Like the name suggests, it's always circa: an approximate moment in time.
LUNA: You’ve taken quite a different path to get to where you are today, from leaving Michigan to building a life and creative community in Seoul. When you look at everything you’ve built with CYRRCA so far, what feels like the next step for you, both as an artist and as a person?
CYRRCA: I've always been pretty intuitive and tried to listen to my instincts. That's what led me away from Michigan, even though I always carry Michigan with me. It's what brought me around the world and eventually led me to build a life here in Seoul.
I think that same intuition, or seemingly random moments of inspiration, has always sparked my work. So for me, the priority is really to preserve that openness.
I'm really excited these days because we're writing songs for othersmayforgetyoubutnoti's first full-length album, and I'm also writing new songs for what will become the next CYRRCA album. I've noticed that whenever I spend too much time thinking about what I want the music to sound like, I rarely end up making something I'm happy with. But when I just start creating, without too many expectations, the sounds and themes emerge naturally through the process.
So I guess that's the plan, if you can call it one: to keep following my intuition, be fertile ground for inspiration and see where it takes me next.
