South Korean dramas Parasite and Squid Game have been worldwide hits — and Jung Jae‑il’s scores have played a key role in their success.
Jung Jae‑il’s score for Squid Game is so perfectly in sync with the Netflix show’s unique imagery, it’s hard to believe that the South Korean composer hadn’t visited the sets until well after the thriller had become a worldwide phenomenon. Jae‑il finally got the chance before he began scoring seasons two and three “under extreme confidentiality. They had all the cameras on my phone taped up.”
The third and reportedly final season of Squid Game has been one of the most highly anticipated TV events in recent years.This didn’t hinder the composer’s process in any way, it turns out, because his inspiration comes from an entirely different source. “For me, film is an art of editing, so I don’t get inspired as much from physically visiting a set. What is written into the script is what inspires me more, and I match that with the scoring and the scenes. I must say, though, the deadline is what really inspires me the most!”
Creating On The Clock
Jae‑il has been learning to create within practical constraints since he was a young child. By the time he was four he was already playing the piano, and before he became a teenager, he had taught himself to play all of the instruments on Metallica’s Master Of Puppets. An impressive feat, especially since this was well before YouTube provided music tutorials on tap. He became a professional musician aged 12 and was soon touring the country as part of a funk band, learning about performing for an audience and what it meant to work with an ensemble.
Jae‑il himself doesn’t appear to find any of this particularly exceptional, because all he was focused on at the time was earning a living as a working musician. “There were days when I was practising my guitar and I would go at it for 10 hours a day; I was completely absorbed by it and crazy for it. And then, I think anyone who has been in a band will know that because of the nature of what it’s like to be in a band, you pick up on other instruments, right? I wouldn’t say that I mastered any of them, it’s just that I can play them. I know how to play them, but I don’t think I could be paid to play them.”
When he wanted to study orchestration, he taught himself, starting with a deep dive into a piece that had moved him as a child: Mozart’s Requiem. He has since worked on several orchestral scores, including the Baroque‑inspired soundtrack for the four‑time Oscar‑winning film Parasite, but the lack of formal training posed challenges that Jae‑il is acutely aware of. He says of his process, “Because I was self‑taught, it’s very messy. To be very honest, I always wanted to learn formally, but I was hesitant and I missed the opportunity to do so. I didn’t get into the school and that’s why I ended up having to teach myself. There is a lot that is not in line with the theories taught in school, and it takes a lot longer for me.
“I will say though, the strength of being self‑taught is that I once had a director say to me, when they heard what I had created, ‘Hey, they teach you in schools not to do this, but it actually sounds really good!’”
Jae‑il progressed by learning from what he loved, absorbing lessons from the electronic sounds of Björk, the hypnotic bass of Massive Attack and the ambient magic of Brian Eno, and incorporating it all into his musical language. He scored his first feature film at 15, released a solo album at 20, and spent the next couple of years writing number one pop hits for Korean artists like Park Hyo Shin and IU. He had achieved his goal of becoming a working musician.
Left Field
Jung Jae‑il’s first taste of worldwide success came with his score for the Oscar‑winning movie Parasite.Then, in 2020, as the world was closing down thanks to the pandemic, Jae‑il’s world was about to start really opening up. Parasite made history at that year’s Oscars as the first non‑English movie to win the Best Picture award. Then Squid Game seemingly came out of nowhere to become Netflix’s most‑watched show ever and a legitimate global phenomenon.
Jae‑il’s multi‑genre score perfectly complemented the thriller’s impossibly bright colours and stylised costumes. Children’s instruments such as recorders and castanets sat next to traditional Korean instruments that made way for distorted guitars and delicate piano, creating a world that neither looked nor sounded like anyone expected. Take ‘Way Back Then’, the title track from season one, for example. It started out as a backup tune that Jae‑il worked on but was nervous to present to the director because of its unconventional instrumentation. He performed a simple melody on a recorder, built around a 3‑3‑7 clapping rhythm that is popular as a sports day cheer in South Korea. His lack of recorder playing skills meant that he hit a D# when he meant to play a D, but the director liked it, and it made the final cut, eventually becoming one of the show’s signature pieces.
The standout piece ‘Vote I’ underscores one of the tensest sequences in season two: a vote, the outcome of which could literally be the difference between life or death for all involved. Jae‑il eschews histrionics and lets the music hang in the air, ripe with tension. “When you think about the act of voting, it can reveal the duality of human nature. Sometimes it makes way for insanity, where the conflict between your side and the other side becomes extremely intense, and then there are also concerns of a betrayal that may take place within your own side, too, so I wanted to portray something that was more subtle and minimal rather than have something dramatic.”
The effect is powerful. When an emotional piece leaves space, the listener can sit with their emotions rather than drowning in big, sweeping strings. Jae‑il’s deliberate use of silence comes from his own experience as a viewer of art. “When you look at certain paintings from Asia, especially those created during the Ming Dynasty, you will see mountains, a forest, and then, mysteriously, where there is nothing that has been drawn into the space, you get a feeling that you see a waterfall. It’s magical! It’s a very strange and astonishing experience and I like creating that kind of mood.”
Jae‑il’s tool of choice for creating that kind of mood is reverb. “You know that feeling that you get when you enter a very old cathedral? It’s almost as if there are angels above, singing in heaven. Those sounds and feelings are created by using reverb. Sometimes when you’re at a cathedral, there will be reverberations that last for almost 15 seconds. And I believe that when I bring that element into my film scoring, you can create a space between notes, which means it gives you room for dialogue as well; that’s something that I purposely intend for at times.”
He considers the late Ryuichi Sakamoto’s score for The Revenant a great example of reverb done right. “When you listen, in between the notes, it’s almost as if you hear a story; you hear a harmony. It is a beautiful experience, it’s very moving, and that’s what I like to aim for. I would feel too embarrassed to say that I did a great job in using that technique. However, I do believe that when you use a great reverb, that is the kind of sensation or feeling that you can create through music.
“Reverb was probably one of the last techniques that was computerised because it’s so hard to bring to life. I was always drawn to physical reverbs before, and I often used the Lexicon 480L, but since I started using [Audio Ease] Altiverb, I’ve been sticking with that. I am drawn to and prefer natural or organic reverberations, so Altiverb is something that I like to use often.”
Minimal Studio
Over the years, Jung Jae‑il has streamlined his studio to concentrate only on the gear that is essential to his music‑making process. “Someone might visit my studio and think, ‘This can’t be all there is to a music composer’s studio!’ There was a time when I was into collecting synthesizers and guitars but now I have only what’s necessary, so I have my laptop, a grand piano, and about three or four guitars. But because I am a film scorer, I do have a 200‑inch screen in my studio.”
Jung Jae‑il: What’s really important is that it cannot be boring, so I’m almost obsessive about making it dynamic.
Far from being an extravagance, the screen is a key element of his composition process. For example, Jae‑il is particularly skilled at writing very tense pieces that are also long, like the eight‑minute piece ‘The Belt Of Faith’ from Parasite. Maintaining tension through such a long cue is a challenging task, which Jae‑il tackles by composing directly to picture. “I will improvise on the instrument as I am looking at the screen and if something seems to work, we will capture that and then think about how we continue — how do we connect these different pieces? What’s really important is that it cannot be boring, so I’m almost obsessive about making it dynamic.
Jung Jae‑il’s studio is a relatively Spartan affair.
“For Parasite, I wrote a piece for an eight‑minute‑long sequence and back then I thought [director Bong Joon‑ho] really trained me well. However, working on Squid Game, [director Hwang Dong‑hyuk] broke that record quite easily. We were having a meeting about the score with a picture‑locked edit. Usually, how it works is that you watch it together and then discuss where you would like for the music to take place. But Director Hwang actually said, ‘For this sequence, I don’t think we should talk about where the music should be, let’s talk about where we don’t want music to be,’ and so he trained me pretty hard with Squid Game!
“In scoring, it’s extremely important when the music begins and when it ends, and there are certain directors who will control that to the very minutest detail. Also, this is something very fundamental, but I’m always thinking of how to use music so that it can amplify a certain emotion or a story. What kind of musical language do I need to use in order to create that effect? Honestly, I am still learning these things and still experimenting a lot.”
Jae‑il takes a similarly streamlined approach to virtual instruments and sample libraries, with 90 percent of his work done using Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere and Native Instruments’ Kontakt libraries.
He uses two DAWs to create his scores: “Logic Pro when I’m actually composing, and Pro Tools for sound mixing. I believe 99 percent, if not all, recording and mixing studios globally, use Pro Tools, so because there will be many cases where we have to go back and forth with files, I use it. It’s not only because Pro Tools is such a well‑made and great program, but I use it for its compatibility as well. The reason I use Logic Pro for composing is I’m not the most computer‑savvy person. If I get used to a particular tool I refuse to change it; it’s just that I’ve been using it for such a long time, ever since I was a kid.”
Jae‑il takes a similarly streamlined approach to virtual instruments and sample libraries, with 90 percent of his work done using Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere and Native Instruments’ Kontakt libraries. “I don’t have many instruments at home, and that’s because I have put everything into my computer. Especially for Kontakt, not only is there the library that’s built by the company, but also you can add virtual instruments that have been made externally and that means it has a huge library. I like to just add to it and stick to that.
“Because I use new instruments, I prefer instruments that are intuitive and easy to play. Some composers like to use their computer mouse to draw in the notes, but I like to play the instruments myself, so for example if it’s percussion, I would play that. Whether it’s a piano or a synthesizer or a guitar, I treat all of those instruments as if I am playing on a piano.”
Piano Wires
Jae‑il uses a Yamaha digital piano as his main source of MIDI notes. “Unfortunately I don’t remember the exact name, but I am a pianist, so I tend to play well on whatever instrument is most similar to the keys on a piano, and rather than using a MIDI controller, using a digital piano works better for me.”
The one thing he can’t recommend is a piano sample library because, “to be very honest with you, I’m actually someone who’s quite numb to sound. All it takes for me is it has to feel good. However, when it comes to the piano, I am the most sensitive, and so I have to tell you that I don’t use any sample library for a piano; I can’t give you any suggestions because of that.”
As well as an actual grand piano, Jung Jae‑il has a Yamaha digital piano which he uses as a MIDI controller.
What he can recommend is which mics to use to record a piano. “The main mics I use are the Neumann M149 and the AKG C414. I believe the mic you use is extremely important. I don’t have a soundcard that I prefer, but I think whatever recording studio you go to that has a great piano, tends to have great equipment to capture that great piano as well. So I like to just trust whatever the recording engineer will use. I am very picky with mics, though, so I will travel to recording studios that have these particular mics.
“When it comes to piano, I have to play the instrument to the point where I was willing to travel all the way to Norway just to record a piano piece. It was a studio in Oslo called Rainbow Studio that has produced legendary albums for ECM Records, including works by Keith Jarrett. The studio is particularly famous for its outstanding sound in jazz, classical music and piano recordings, and I worked with an engineer called Martin Abrahamssen there.”
The sound that Jae‑il most associates with Squid Game is Native Instruments’ Una Corda, “which is very piano‑like, but there’s one string, hence the name — Una Corda. I find this instrument invokes a wide range of different emotions: sometimes it’ll be very tense, sometimes it’ll be very serene as well. It feels very intimate, almost as if the piano chord is whispering a story to you. I used it for the ‘Vote I’ piece as well as a piece called ‘I Remember My Name’, in season one.”
Using the plug‑in version of the una corda gave Jae‑il one big advantage: he could control the level of instrument noise in the pieces: “Sometimes, because that kind of noise can interfere with the dialogue, I didn’t get to include that in the score for the screen itself, but we did include that noise in the OST. That kind of sound gives you a somewhat haunting feel to it, almost like a broken piano.”
Love Me Do
The human voice in Jae‑il’s compositions is often both heavily processed and layered. “I enjoy layering. Like if there’s the note ‘do’, I like to create different timbres using distortion or delay, for example, so that when you hear one ‘do’ note here, you also hear it from there; I like to use editing to create that effect. I enjoy using the delay, distortion and compressors that are embedded within Logic Pro. Also, when I get to the mixing studio, sometimes I wouldn’t exactly know what the plug‑in is in Pro Tools, but there are these techniques that only my mixing engineer knows how to do. So I like to explain in words: ‘This is what I’m looking for, this is what I want to create,’ and then he’ll work his magic. I think he likes to use plug‑ins from Waves very often.”
Jae‑il rarely uses hardware effects these days, for reasons of practicality. “When you use hardware, once you record it, it’s hard to go back in and adjust it, right? But if it’s computerised, you can go back and change the tone at any time. That process has partly to do with the fact that I create music for clients, so if they want to change something, I can go back immediately and change the tone. Also, there are many cases where I have to be on the go while I create music, so it makes it easier when you have your laptop and guitar and you can just create right away. I like to use [NI’s] Guitar Rig, among others.”
Jung Jae‑il is insistent on the importance of auditioning music on multiple monitoring systems, including his ADAM and Neumann speakers.
The other important step in Jae‑il’s process is testing the final mixes on a wide variety of speakers. “As a musician, you want everybody else to listen to your music on better speakers than you have, but that can’t be the case, and so the music has to be good, whether you hear it on your iPhone, laptop, or a speaker with the lowest specs. That does affect [my compositions], in the sense that I try to steer away from using too intense of a low tone or intense dynamics.”
Work Ethic
The most important element of Jung Jae‑il’s process, though, is just the act of showing up. When stuck creatively, he says, “There are many ways to combat that but I think I push through no matter what. I just drag myself in front of the piano, sit there, and make myself push through. Sometimes I will remind myself that all because of me, this project, that hundreds of people poured their hearts and souls into, can become a flop, so I will push myself. Sometimes I just like to sit there and let time go by, but I think it’s those times when I force myself to really push through, even though I’m stuck, that I break through and create something out of it.”
With season three reportedly being the final season of Squid Game, Jae‑il looks back on what the show has meant for his career: “I am very grateful for all of the different opportunities that it gave me. I was offered so many scripts, so many different projects, and I also got the opportunity to travel to many different countries as well. Having said that, because I am someone who composes music for a client and I also work alone, I don’t think it has changed anything to a point where I felt it sink in. So, regardless of success or failure, I think with every project I work on, I go back to when I first started out, almost as if I’m just beginning my career and I always feel very nervous and tense going into new projects. I thought that kind of feeling was going to go away, but apparently it doesn’t.”
Uncertain Futures
As a composer who works primarily with film and TV, Jung Jae‑il is acutely conscious of the changes that AI may bring. “I believe a media outlet made a list of occupations that AI is going to replace, and music composers were at number three. Also, there was a music composition competition where the grand prize was awarded to a piece written by AI and none of the judges could detect that... it’s a reality that is coming. This is undeniable, so I think that AI is something that we have to be very well skilled at. We have to learn how to utilise it. Personally, I feel both fear and excitement.”
Jae‑il also has mixed feelings about the technological revolution that has seen physical media superseded by streaming. “I used to collect records, I had tens of thousands of CDs, but thanks to these platforms, I now have access to hundreds of millions of CDs. As a music fan, I’m very happy about these developments and, on top of that, to have music be suggested to me, I think that’s all for the better. Algorithms and suggestions will differ by streaming platform, but I welcome these changes because the more genres you get to listen to, it’s going to bring us a step closer to achieving happiness in life.
“But I think it does come with negativity. These changes have led to [a change in] people’s attitude toward music; it’s made it a lot lighter and I think that’s inevitable, right? Because with just tens of dollars per month, you have access to hundreds of millions of different pieces of music. Back in the day when we would buy a CD, sometimes you would gravitate towards a particular CD jacket just because you liked the artwork on it, not knowing what the music was going to be about, and then end up loving it after you listened to it. Also, because it was so expensive, you treated each track so preciously; you would listen from the first track, all the way to the last track and those experiences gave you a lot of inspiration, but I think that’s gone these days. I’m right in the inbetween generation where analogue was transitioning to digital, and so I think I experienced it in a very raw manner. In that sense, I do think that it comes with its negative aspects, but all in all, I think for me and for my life, it has more pros than cons.”