Shin Hae-chul

Biography

Shin Hae-chul prepared his victory at the 1988 MBC Campus Music Festival, a televised contest, according to a plan. He wrote “To You” (그대에게) for the competition: a bright intro, a simple melody anyone could pick up at the first hearing, and four minutes without a pause. A few months earlier he had failed at another contest, and he analysed that defeat as a lesson. By his own account he composed the melody on a child’s melodica, under a blanket so that his father would not hear.

He was born on 6 May 1968 in Seoul, into the family of a businessman who had earlier worked as a pharmacist. As a teenager he played in school bands and took guitar lessons from Kim Tae-won of the band Boohwal. In 1987 he entered the philosophy department of Sogang University but left to pursue music.

The band Muhangwedo (“Infinite Orbit”) came together in 1988, when he was in his second year. After winning the contest it released a single album, “When Our Lives Are Almost Over” (1989), and broke up. In January 1989, still a student, he first sat in front of a radio microphone: that was the start of his long career as a host.

His first solo album came out in 1990. The song “Goodbye” (안녕) included an English-language rap, a daring thing for Korean pop at the time. The album was a hit, and for a while Shin became a teenage idol, won television network awards and hosted a late-night show on MBC FM. On his second album, “Myself” (1991), he composed, arranged and recorded the music almost single-handedly using MIDI; the disc is considered the first in Korea made this way. He is still described as a pioneer of Korean computer music.

In 1992 he founded N.EX.T and moved from pop ballads to rock. The debut, “Home”, was a concept album; in “City People” (도시인) Shin spoke for the first time about the pace of urban life, whereas before he had written mostly about love. The second album, “The Return of N.EX.T Part 1: The Being” (1994), was built around the theme of existence; the song “The Ocean: About Immortality” is still regarded by fans as one of his most important. The line-up kept changing, and he alone remained constant. At the same time he produced other musicians, recorded the joint project Nodance with the singer Yoon Sang, wrote the music for the film “Jungle Story”, and in 1996 founded the label Big Bang Music.

In 1997 the ballad “Here, I Stand for You” sold about 500,000 copies. In November came “Lazenca: A Space Rock Opera”, the soundtrack to the animated series of the same name. After it Shin disbanded the group and went to London to study music production.

There he took the name Crom, after Cromwell, and in 1998 released the techno album “Crom’s Techno Works”. In 1999, with the guitarist Chris Tsangarides, he recorded the project Monocrom, which combined heavy metal with Korean folk music, rap and lyrical ballads; the lyrics were mostly in English. He then moved to New York, made live recordings and music for Korean films, and in 2000 formed the trio Wittgenstein and wrote the song “Zergs Are Coming” for a StarCraft compilation.

In 2002 he returned to Korea and wrote songs for other performers and for film. For the football World Cup he wrote “Into the Arena”, which supporters still use today. From 2001 he hosted the radio shows Ghost Station and then Ghost Nation on MBC, and it was here that the nickname “Mawang” (“Demon Lord”) stuck to him, although a newspaper item using the nickname had appeared as early as 1998. In 2002 he publicly backed Roh Moo-hyun in the presidential election. In 2004 he re-formed N.EX.T with different musicians and released the double album “개한민국”. Then came the jazz solo album “The Songs for the One” (2007) and “666 Trilogy” (2008). He also hosted television programmes and appeared in the series “Hello Franceska”.

His last album, “Reboot Myself”, came out on 26 June 2014, after a six-year gap. The first single, “A.D.D.a”, Shin made as a one-man a cappella piece, layering more than a thousand vocal tracks.

He died on 27 October 2014 in Seoul. The funeral service took place on 31 October, but before the cremation fellow musicians asked the family for an autopsy, and the ceremony was halted. The cremation took place on 5 November. The doctor who had operated on him was found guilty of medical malpractice, and as a result of the case Korea changed a law, known as the “Shin Hae-chul Law”.