- Jennifer Lee, also known as TOKiMONSTA, had a sit-down discussion with a group of aspiring musicians and producers.
- TOKiMONSTA shared her creative process as well as the challenges she faced with regards to her craft.
- Lee sends out an inspiring message to aspiring DJs, musicians, and artists.
Red Bull Music Academy alumna, TOKiMONSTA, Jennifer Lee, returned to Manila for an intimate discussion at 20:20 Nightclub in Chino Roces, Makati City. The event served as a platform for Lee to share her insights with a handful of aspiring, young musicians and producers. The discussion was followed by a hot energetic performance at the nearby XX XX.
Lee was raised in Los Angeles, California, where she grew up as a classically trained pianist. Lee began creating beats during her time in college. It was in 2010 when she got invited to London for the Red Bull Music Academy. Since then, Lee has released a string of successful albums under the name TOKiMONSTA.
“I think that when you make something personal as music, you’re not making it for other people,” Lee began. “You’re making the music as an expression of yourself and your own creativity. And it’s very vulnerable. You’re sharing some part of yourself that’s expressive. When you go to different countries and you see that people are resonating with your music, that means they resonate with a very deep side of you. I’m really humbled by it. And I get to see people also enjoy the music that I make and the shows that I perform. It’s a shared experience by all these different cultures. You start to see this commonality between everyone.”
Lee also discussed her creative process, saying that the creation of any piece of music compels total vulnerability. According to her, being vulnerable helps with creating something that is unique or has a unique sound.
This allowed Lee to really share the inner workings of her creative process. “Focus is really a point of contention. The commonality is that creatives tend to be very unfocused people, you know? I can’t force myself to make music if I’m not in the mood to do it. None of the music that comes out will sound inspired. So I can take upwards of several weeks not making any music, but then once inspiration hits, I’ll lay down five tracks in a week. And once I start a song, it’s very easy for me to discover that I’m very motivated to finish. I’ll work for about eight hours straight. That’s just the way that I work, everyone is different. You can’t force the focus, I guess. You just have to be inspired!”
While the creation of music is often the most attractive aspect of the job for many musicians, the process of putting their music out there can be very demanding. Lee added that one should learn to be comfortable with themselves enough to release their creations for the world to hear. The artist also said that social media is a great avenue for putting out your music as well as for self-promotion.
As far as Lee is concerned, surviving as a successful musician in the 21st century means becoming a lifestyle brand in-and-of-your own body of work. “Music has become a lifestyle brand. You as an artist aren’t just the music that you make. You’re your music, you’re your personality, taste in artwork, preferences, you share so much of yourself (on social media).”
Lee revealed that the secret of every successful artist is resilience. Being a female Asian-American artist in her genre, Lee’s career as TOKiMONSTA has been filled with a number of challenges, “The challenge has changed over the years. At the very beginning, I wasn’t very common. But my music was up to the standard of my male peers and all my male peers respected the music that I made. And even though I don’t set out to be an example, as an Asian female, I want to show that I’m making decisions. I want to be normal. I want to make music on the same level for everyone else.”
The biggest challenge for Lee, however, was returning to the stage after her battle with Moya Moya disease, a neurological ailment that required Lee to undergo two surgeries that temporarily impaired her ability to communicate and make music.
“As time passed, the memory of how to do things came back to me. So when I started going back out and playing shows, the most challenging part was the more emotional and mental part,” Lee shared. “I had isolated myself from everyone for two months. I had social anxiety. I couldn’t stay out for a long time. I became very sensitive. To go from not seeing everyone for a while, to a very traumatic experience, to playing in front of 20,000 people at Coachella, it’s quite a big schism to cross.”
For Lee, the process of creating a song isn’t just about capturing a single moment or an emotion. It’s about creating an experience, an adventure told through rushing bodies across the dance floor. Yet, despite all her success, Lee is aware that her music is not for everyone. And that’s something she can live with.
“I don’t want to force a feeling on anyone. Everyone is allowed to feel what they want to feel. If you don’t like it, cool,” said Lee. “When I perform, we’re going to have an experience together. At the end of the day, we’ll know that we went through a whole trip together and experience that together, whatever that feeling was. These are all unique experiences and there’s no way I’m going to recreate the experience that I’m going to have tonight.”
By combining her passion for creating musical experiences with her never-give-up attitude, Jennifer Lee/TOKiMONSTA has become one of the most widely respected acts in her genre. As an alumna of the Red Bull Music Academy, Lee continues to travel all over the world to share her music and her knowledge with the next generation of producers.
“My number one advice for anyone is to be yourself. Be unique. Hear your own voice. Just be yourself. Don’t be like everyone else. Everyone else already exists. You want to set yourself apart. You want to be someone with some level of integrity.”
