Artist Spotlight: Fromm
Fromm has been on the Korean Indie scene since 2012 when she released a digital single album titled Wasn’t it Love. Since then, she has released a full-length album and two digital single albums. Fromm’s musical abilities and vocal strengths are present throughout her songs, showing different vocal tones on her songs. She sometimes even sounds similar to female Western singers, but aside from those brief instances, Fromm’s vocals are her own. She doesn’t sound like any one person.
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Fromm moved to Hongdae where she was able to create the music she wanted to create without any higher power telling her how to do things, hence the reason she is in the Indie scene in Korea. In Hongdae Fromm could create anything and no one would care how it turned out. Her talents as a vocalist and musician have dubbed her the Queen of Hongdae, a title of which she does not enjoy. Either way, it helped her gain more recognition and popularity.
In 2014 Fromm was nominated for Best Pop Album at the 2014 Korean Music Awards for her album Arrival. Fromm released her first full length album Arrival in the fall of October 2013. The album provides listeners with a variety of songs from upbeat and peppy, to slower and more emotional, to mellow and chill.
Each song showcases Fromm’s engaging vocals and musical abilities. She writes, composes, arranges, and produces all of her own music, which may be one of the reasons why she hasn’t released anything new since August 2014. Because Fromm creates her music from start to finish, it shows off her abilities beyond her vocals and gives the impression that she is passionate about music in general and proud of the music she releases (as is the case with any artist who has complete creative control).
Fromm’s vocals are definitely her own and do not sound like anyone else. There are brief instances where she sounds very similar to some Western singers such as Feist and Alisa Xayalith of The Naked and Famous. Even with these brief moments, it’s clear that Fromm isn’t imitating these artists. Her vocal tone at times is reminiscent to their voices. Fromm describes her voice as boyish, meaning that it does not sound pure and light like many other female vocalists.
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Her boyish voice is quite evident on her digital single Under The Daylight Moon. The three tracks are different in tone from her full length album, but they still capture her artistic and musical abilities nicely. In Her Sea of Happiness is a digital single released in August 2014 that is much lighter than Under The Daylight Moon with the use of strings, ukulele, mallets, and horns. Her vocals are much more upbeat and light hearted.
Hopefully Fromm will release new music in the very near future. The small catalog she does have is a great starting point for the Indie musician and shows her skills and creativity beautifully.
