By Hasan Beyaz
To celebrate CLOSE YOUR EYES' comeback with 256th Note, we caught up with each member individually.
Among the seven tracks on CLOSE YOUR EYES' new EP 256th Note, "Drop That!" is backed by the heaviest history. It reinterprets Yoon Si-nae's "이 밤을 즐겁게," widely regarded as one of the earliest true Korean jazz-funk records, and runs it through the grit of 1990s street hip-hop.
For MA JINGXIANG, what mattered was capturing the energy he actually felt rather than performing a copy of someone else's. That same principle carries into how he thinks about jazz as a whole, like a conversation happening in real time between musicians who are actually listening to each other.
MA JINGXIANG describes himself as still building his own colour, testing genres the group hasn't fully explored yet. Around the members, though, that searching gives way to something more instinctive; he's the one who reads a quiet room and decides, without being asked, to lighten it.
Get to know MA JINGXIANG in our Meet the Member interview series with CLOSE YOUR EYES below.
"Drop That!" reinterprets a classic Korean jazz-funk song through a 90s hip-hop lens. What did you want to bring to a song that already has that much history behind it?
MA JINGXIANG “Drop That!” is a song with a lot of energy and a very strong vibe from the original track. So, I think the most important thing was to add our own color while keeping the charm of the original song.
Reworking something older for a new generation comes with pressure. Did you feel protective of the original at any point while recording it?
Rather than recreating the original exactly, I felt it was more important to honestly capture the emotion and energy we felt. So toward the end, instead of feeling the pressure, I enjoyed the recording with the mindset of “let's make our own 「Drop That!」.”
The whole album is inspired by jazz, a genre built on musicians reacting to each other in real time. Does that change how you think about performing with the rest of the group?
I think it changed a lot. What I find appealing about jazz is that it isn't just following what's already set – it's music where you listen to each other's sounds and movements and react in that moment.
What's one thing about your sound you still want to explore that hasn't shown up in your music yet?
I want to explore more of the many genres we haven't been able to show much of in our music yet. Right now I think I'm in the process of figuring out my own color, so I want to build my own sound as I try all kinds of music going forward.
What's a personality trait of yours that only really comes out around the other members?
When the members are having a hard time or the mood gets a little quiet, I tend to try to make them laugh naturally. The members are really comfortable friends to me, so when I'm with them my true personality comes out without me trying to show anything.