Page 27 - BiTS_03_MARCH_2022

and he had many records, foreign as well as Korean. He had the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin,

Hendrix, and I got into Stevie Wonder so I used to save up lunch money and take a 45 minute train
ride to the closest big city to find CDs. I tried to learn more about jazz too but with very demanding
high school systems in Korea, it was hard to find time to do as much music as I wanted. Those days,
high school kids stayed in school from 8 a.m. till 9 p.m. or so and just studied, studied, supposedly
to go to a good college.

LL: Did you study piano or are you self-taught?

HP: When I was a little kid, taking piano lessons after school was very popular, I imagine maybe

because my parents were the first generation that could afford to do things like sending their kids
to piano lessons. Before that, Korea went through so much…Japanese occupation, then the Korean
war. Anyway, so I took those lessons when I was little, but I did not stay with it after a few years
because at that time, I wasn’t inspired to continue the type of lessons I was having; classical music,
mostly learn to play exactly like the books. But now I sort of wish I had continued, thinking maybe I
would have had more chops! I think I just did not know better and did not have the right inspiration
to see the beauty and value in those lessons.

LL: What drew you to the blues and who are your influences?

HP: As you can see, the kind of music my

dad was listening to is very influenced by the
blues although I did not know or understand
any of it before. After I moved to America, I
got to learn more about the blues, its roots
and history, and of course the sound itself. I
just love it. It really grabs me and gets right
to my heart. I knew I got caught by the blues

bug the moment I heard John Cole Blues
band several years ago in Rochester, New
York. It was one of those enlightening
moments when I said “Ah! This is it!”.

LL: From a pianist’s point of view, would
you tell us about how you interpret the
blues?

HP: Oh, this is somewhat hard to answer, as
I am still figuring out, though I suppose I always will be. So far, I just think regardless of what

instrument you play, or maybe you don’t even play an instrument and just sing, fundamentally we
are just all telling the story. When I play the piano, I try to approach it like I am telling the story
with my piano. Of course, there are technical aspects that support the story and give a certain
sound to the music that’s recognized as the blues that we are familiar with. I think both carrying on
the tradition by actually studying the building blocks and the history and telling your story all come
together.

LL: Let’s talk about your latest release Blues All Over My Shoes, produced by, and released on
Kenny Neal’s Booga Music label. Can you tell us about how you hooked up with Kenny, and

about your concept and vision for this work?

HP: I had met him a couple of times, once in Memphis during 2019 International Blues Challenge,
and again at a festival we both played where he was the headliner. One day he saw a short video of