Chearin Im (AIF 2026) – The “In-Between”Journey: From Seoul to the Rotterdam Underground
Lees het interview met Chaerin Im in het Nederlands
Chaerin Im arrives at the interview in the middle of what she calls a sound-shifting phase: a period of deliberate restlessness, of pushing familiar ground until it gives way to something new. A pianist, composer and bandleader named “a defining voice in the new wave of European jazz” and “Young Artist of the Year 2024” (NRC), her work moves between contemporary jazz, electronics, indie and club music. She has spent years building a reputation for projects that resist easy definition.
This summer she takes the Artist in Focus position at North Sea Round Town, presenting concerts and events across Rotterdam that map the full spectrum of who she is. Chaerin explores a bold artistic shift: from jazz piano roots and the Korean classical piano scene, to the raw, industrial soul of the Dutch underground. A shift towards an electronic, synth-heavy sound that refuses easy categorisation. A musical journey through the in-between.
The programme maps the full range of who she is: the centrepiece electronic performance Phase Shift, a cultural evening at Fenix in collaboration with Korean restaurant Pocha, a trio concert at Batavierhuis in collaboration with former NSRT Artist in Focus Alessandro Fongaro, a deep-dive into music with Anton de Bruin at Operator Radio, appearances with her band Neon River at WORM, and much more. She is excited to explore the city, discover Rotterdam’s underground scene, enter into new artistic collaborations at Sonoor and Hoek van Holland by bike.
The thread running through it all? Curiosity, and the belief that you only find the middle ground by going all the way to the edge first. We spoke about background, instinct, the logic of going to extremes, and what it means to be genuinely curious.
Who are you — as a maker, artist, as a person — what can you tell us about yourself?
I’m a pianist and a composer. I make different types of music, and in the end I want to bring some kind of emotions into the music that people can move and dance to. The same mentality as with my band Neon River — we say our music has to move people’s asses and hearts. That’s really connected to my goal and vision for music as well.
I come from different backgrounds. I started as a classical piano player — a very deep learning of that, back in Korea. Then, because of my dad, who was always a big fan of metal and rock music, I was going to festivals from a young age. And at the same time, I was a big fan of the Korean indie rock scene. So, from quite early on I was living in these two worlds at once.
You have quite a layered musical history, from classical training in Korea, then jazz in Amsterdam, now electronics. How does that feel from the inside?
It’s always been shifting. In Korea it’s very common to learn piano as a kid, there are private academies everywhere after school. Piano, taekwondo, swimming. I was always a musician in some form. But when I was at the art school, I really wanted to make my own music, which wasn’t really the case with classical. So, I dropped out, which I thought was what rock stars would do. My parents were not very happy with this decision, as I was 15, 16 years old at the time.
I found a middle ground, to make them happy again. I went to university a year after graduating from middle school, and to get into conservatory I had to learn jazz. I started learning it and got super into it. Blues first, very rocky and expressive, then hard bop. Then I came to Amsterdam.
When I arrived here, I was completely shocked — there are so many genres I didn’t know existed. So many people doing inter-genre work, combining things you can’t define with words. There were concerts where I thought: what is this? It sounds great but I have no idea what it is. That really helped me understand that it’s possible, and it’s allowed.
In Korea, the education was strict and there’s not much space to search around. I thought when I stopped classical music that I had to completely stop that in order to do the other thing. Living here showed me there are no clean cuts. My background always follows me. There are so many people I admire that I can’t really say what kind of music they play. It’s just their music.
And where does that leave you today, as a maker?
Now I’m in the middle of a sound-shifting phase. The past years I was very active in the contemporary jazz scene, which I loved to be part of. It’s also a privilege that I played so much in that period. It helped me to understand what I miss from that kind of music and what I love about it. What I loved was really freeing myself on stage, and the high level of communicating musically with people on stage. I would really love to keep that. But I want more groove, more detail.
In jazz a lot of the music is made on the spot, improvising. I want to find my way to put the spirit of jazz — being free and open to understand each other on the spot — but in an electronic, more indie side of sound. That’s what I’m working towards. It’s also kind of scary because I feel like every step is quite different. People have been surprised when my records come out. For me those moves feel natural, but I understand from the outside they’re not obvious.
“There are no clean cuts. My background always follows me.”
What kind of impact do you want to create for yourself, and for audiences?
I want to create music that you can’t fully define, but it makes some kind of emotional impact, and puts everyone together in an outspoken way. Not sitting down doing intense listening, but you can drink, you can talk, be together, while something is happening to you individually. My goal has always been to inspire people, and the way I find out how is to remember when I was inspired. Every moment I was deeply inspired — heart beating or slowing down — it involved some kind of dancing. And music I couldn’t quite define, sometimes super cheesy chords, indie music I would cry at, maybe a little bit of “bad music”. But if it moves my heart and I still can’t say what kind of music it is, that’s very inspiring to me.
“If it moves my heart and I still can’t say what it is, that’s what I’m after”
This summer you are Artist in Focus for North Sea Round Town. Why you, why now?
On the very first call we had, there was something that moved me a lot — what you said about being curious about what I’m going to do. Not sure what it would be, but curious. Which is me too, actually! Every record or step is different. My latest EP was more piano trio, a bit of electronics, in between jazz and beats. The record before was very indie. I don’t know what I’m going to do next, but I know people are curious, and I’m curious. That curiosity is something we can always appreciate from any point of view. If you’re not curious, you don’t care.
There was also a great quote from the Edison Award when my record was nominated, which really emphasised that I created something that’s not expected from the outside. It was a great insight, and I was very touched that people could see it.
Edison Newcomer Nomination 2025
“Chaerin Im demonstrates not only her versatility as a musician, but also her desire to push artistic boundaries and embrace new sonic worlds.”
I think that’s also part of why this feels like the right moment. I’m in the middle of a real sound shift. Starting Neon River made me realise I should follow my instinct more in music, and this residency is the opportunity to do exactly that. The Artist in Focus trajectory allows me to freely explore all of this, and to do that freely, without having to fit into one box. That’s very exciting. And a little scary. But mostly exciting.
And why Rotterdam specifically?
There are a lot of alternative spaces in Rotterdam, which I look forward to exploring – WORM, Sonoor, Time is the new space, Batavierhuis. They don’t define a genre as a space, which I think is very cool. It gives a lot of opportunity for different people to experience different kinds of music.
The music scene in Rotterdam has this mentality of dancing and combining electronic music. I saw Anton de Bruin at the Super Sonic Jazz Festival, and I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know this kind of stuff was happening here in Rotterdam. There’s this spirit from quite some people: just do whatever you want, and there’s appreciation for that. I would love to explore the electronic scene more. I know there are small communities in Rotterdam where people really want to make things happen, and I’m genuinely excited to meet them during my residency.
I’m also really looking forward to sitting together with Anton at Operator Radio in June. Talking about music, playing some tunes, going deeper into each other’s projects. After seeing his set I’m very much looking forward to that conversation. I’m excited to meet him in his own world.
“I always had good memories playing in Rotterdam because people stay around. They really talk to you, which doesn’t happen so often.”
I’m also very much looking forward to actually staying here for a few days. Although I live in the Netherlands, I would just go to Rotterdam, play, and go back home. I always had good memories playing here because people stay around and really talk to me, which doesn’t happen so often. I remember once playing there with Neon River — it was kind of one of the toughest gigs we did, unfortunately, because there was a problem with the sound. It really wasn’t happening music-wise, but people were really into it. Normally if a gig goes worse than I expected I would feel a bit grumpy. But because so many people just came and talked directly — yeah, it was amazing, wow — it gives a huge difference in my perspective. I made some really nice connections through those random interactions. That’s what I’m looking forward to.
A lot of my NSRT projects here also involve people from the audience, constellation-wise. It’s not like the traditional stage and audience, we’re more linear, grounded, we have eye contact, and aim to just be there together.
And I really like the Chinatown here, the restaurants and the markets. It feels really authentic. A lot of people just bring their culture instead of adapting.
A Sonic Collision of Seoul and Rotterdam
Tell us about the centrepiece project, Phase Shift. What is it?
Phase Shift is a term in electronics: a signal passes through a circuit and comes back shifted in timing, or “phase.” When the signal feeds back in the right phase, it reinforces itself and can create a continuous wave. Like when rock stars hold their guitar against the amp and the sound feeds back into itself, building and sustaining its own wave. I like the idea of feeding one thing and watching it grow, each signal back, and back, and back, just rolling. I also just like the word, and I think it connects to my own story — the constant feeding between different backgrounds, different sounds, different phases of who I am. Everything I’ve absorbed comes back louder in some form.
That’s the project, but it’s also kind of the trajectory as a whole. It connects with the whole picture. It wasn’t an easy process, mostly fun, but also difficult as I’m really trying to make connections to the main idea, to get out of what’s comfortable and easy, meet new people, and put myself in an uncomfortable but exciting situation.
What will the audience experience?
At its core is a real-time collaboration with Rotterdam-based visual artist Muxingye Chen, which is very exciting for me because I’ve always dreamed of having produced visuals on stage. I worked with him once before, where he improvised with us entirely unrehearsed, he just showed up and improvised with what he had, like a jazz musician — it was amazing, it gave such a vibe. Even in a cosy bar he put these crazy 3D projections behind us and it immediately felt like being in a huge club.
For Phase Shift, the space is even more special. It used to be a Chinese restaurant, so there’s already a lot of Japanese and Chinese signage, food icons, restaurant signs, a whole visual world built into the walls. That’s already quite fever-dreamish as a concert setting. Having Muxingye add one big visual identity on top of that, sound and space will become inseparable: Rotterdam literally will shape what the audience will see and feel. It will be epic. I want people to step inside and feel like they’re somewhere between a ritual and a rave. Not just a concert, an experience. And when they leave, I want them to feel: that was super cool — but what was that?
I want people to feel: wow, that was super cool. But what was that?”
You’re dropping the piano for this show. That feels like a significant move.
It is. The piano is where I come from, the instrument I’ve played since I was a child. Committing to only synth for this project is a way of placing myself fully inside the sound world I’m trying to build, rather than reaching back to something familiar. It forces me to be fully in the new territory. Writing everything for synths is different and is a very new thing for me. Doing my music live only with synth and samples will be a very special occasion.
The line-up is myself on synths and samples, I wanted the rhythm section —Matteo Mazzù on bass and sound design, Jamie Peet on drums and beats. One more chordal player who can share some roles with me – I often feel I need two more hands and we have to be creative about it, as this time I wanted to really bring all my ideas into reality so I don’t have to compromise, therefore I invited Niels Broos on keys and synths, and as lead player, a special guest on saxophone for one more textural layer. Muxingye Chen joins on live visuals. I don’t envision a soloist in the band. It’s going to be the whole thing together, each layer feeding into each other – a Phase Shift.
What are you actually pushing towards with this project?
The core idea is to push as far as possible, while still keeping the core idea of making emotional and danceable music. If I bring an emotional song, I’m going to make it 100% emotional. If I make an industrial beat, it’s going to be 100% industrial. I will do everything I can to make it the max.
Finding a middle ground is what works for me because of my background. I feel like once I’ve first gone to the extreme, I then understand where to go next.
For me, because of my background, finding a middle ground really works when I’ve first gone to the extreme. Classical music, I did it to the max for four years, then I moved on. My album Midnight Resets – fully indie ambient, nothing else. The EP that came out right after was in the middle. I think this project will show me where the edges are, and what comes after will come from that. I’m very much looking forward to that.
The “In-Between” Journey: From Seoul to the Rotterdam Underground
Beyond Phase Shift, you’re presenting quite a few other projects throughout the festival. What else is happening?
There’s a really fun event happening at Fenix in collaboration with Pocha, a Korean restaurant in Rotterdam. It’s one of the best Korean restaurants I’ve been to in Europe. I tour a lot and try Korean restaurants in every city, so that’s a real claim. When I heard about this possibility, I immediately had to think of them. Lucas Sim works there, he’s one of my best friends, a great artist, part of the duo Kagami. With him you can really feel that he just loves music and that’s why he does it.
Through that community I also met Sunstroll, a Rotterdam-based artist originally from the Seoul underground scene – a world I’m very interested in but not yet part of, partly because I don’t live there. Sunstroll happens to be Peter’s (owner of Pocha) brother. Finding each other in Rotterdam while we’re both from Seoul is one of those things… It’s not just food and music, it’s a genuine encounter with a culture I carry with me but don’t always get to share.
The food is built around what I love most and miss most from home. On the way home from school I would always stop at a snack place and get tteokbokki for only 50 cents, a little paper cup with the rice cake and a skewer. That memory, that’s what we’re bringing to Fenix.
Lucas’ DJ set will carry the night’s atmosphere from beginning to end, with Korean City Groove, City Pop from the golden era of the 80s and 90s all the way through to 21st-century sounds that carry that same warm energy. Pocha will bring elements to really replicate the vibe of an actual pocha — a food tent with drinks. It’s a piece of home, somewhere to slow down and gather.
Will audiences also get to see the more classical and jazz-rooted side of who you are?
For sure. With the trio I will play piano, so that’s already closer to what people know me as. But I’m exploring the mixture of my background with the trio, playing piano, but with synth added. I’m exploring a kind of perfect middle ground there. That’s also what I did with my latest EP: strictly half piano, half synth, with double bass.
The evening will be at Batavierhuis. I was there a lot actually, a lot of concerts, rehearsals and recordings. I’m very familiar with the space. My friend and colleague Alessandro Fongaro will host us. I had to think about him naturally, because we play a lot together, mainly in the Sun-Mi Hong Quintet. He’s a great bass player and a former NSRT Artist in Focus. I thought it could be beautiful to share this evening with him.
When we play together, there are always moments in the quintet where he does these incredible solo bass passages, and for me it’s always a breathing moment where I can fully just listen and enjoy and forget about me playing. I wanted to experience that fully, not leading into a song or whatever, but just him doing his thing. He’s going to open the evening on his own terms.
What other encounters and collaborations are you looking forward to?
I’m bringing Neon River for the Space is the Place event at WORM. This band is probably my favourite thing to do right now. We all started together in Amsterdam, one from Belgium, one from Portugal, me from Korea, we met in school playing swing music, were very good friends, all feeling the pull toward something else musically. Matteo said: why are we not just doing it? Thanks to that we’ve been playing for a couple of years and now have a first EP out. Because I love this band so much, I’ve spent a huge amount of time building it, and that process made me trust my instincts more broadly in music. Neon River is where I first committed to playing only synth live, where I started really understanding what it means to make music that’s both emotional and physical. In a way, everything I’m exploring in the NSRT trajectory grew out of what Neon River opened up. I’m genuinely curious how people in Rotterdam will perceive it.
And there’s a lunch concert with Hayo Boerma, improvising together, piano and organ. I’ve never played with an organ. I have no knowledge about it at all, but it’s a beautiful instrument. We’re going to improvise together and it’s going to be epic. I’m very curious to see where that goes.
I will also enter into new collaborations with artists at Sonoor and the Hoek van Holland by bike tour. I want to explore what’s there, connect with people I don’t know, improvise together on the spot. It’s kind of low-key: just find each other there, see what happens.
If you zoom out across the whole festival trajectory — what is the thread that connects all of it?
The thread is the phase shift itself, both as the electronic concept and as something I’m living through personally. Every project is an experiment in pushing something to its edge: Phase Shift pushes the sound to the extreme, the Fenix event pushes into cultural identity and community, the trio explores how piano and synth can genuinely coexist rather than compromise. What connects them is the idea of feeding one thing into another and seeing what comes back amplified. I also hope that through this whole trajectory it becomes clearer – for me and for audiences – that there’s more going on about me than just piano playing. Each project reveals a different side, and together they make the whole picture.
Through these concerts I hope to make people understand that I’m trying something else than what they think. I was also a little bit shocked when I released my album and EP, and how much people were surprised by what I was making. Which is very fun, because for me it was a very natural process, which is not always obvious on the outside. I hope this whole trajectory gives me some kind of big reflection on what I should follow next. That’s very scary and exciting, I think.
“I hope this trajectory gives me some kind of big reflection on what I should follow next. That’s very scary and exciting.”
Stepping back from the music for a moment — where are you personally right now?
The past couple of years I felt like there was a storm behind me pushing me in certain directions, musically and personally. Which led me to great experiences and a learning process, but I had no time or space to look around and see what’s there. This year I really felt the urge and need to stop, look around, and look inside myself. To see what the next storm is.
I don’t run away, actually. I like that part of myself. The storm is either in front or behind, pushing me. I wouldn’t take a detour. I try until I can’t, and then I find a way to push myself again. Last year was probably one of the most challenging years I’ve ever had in my life, and also one of the busiest at the same time. Which is weird, because in this industry people think if you’re busy, you’re good. In a way my dream came true, because when I moved here nine years ago, that was exactly what I’d dreamed of. But I realised there’s something else I need to figure out. And I had this crazy urge to do my own thing. This opportunity coming in — this is the moment!
Looking back a year from now — when will this have been a success for you?
Having a little more connection in different scenes. Meeting new people — hopefully the collaborators from these side projects can open my eyes and open a door for me to step into a different community. And musically, what I’m going to do with Phase Shift will make me feel where I should follow next. Because it’s going to be very extreme — that’s at least my plan — and I’ll probably know: this was a bit too much, this can be pushed further. Whatever I make after this will come from those experiments. That’s enough for me.
Last question. If you hadn’t become a musician, what would you have been?
I have two answers. It’s also a fun topic for drinking with musicians — everyone asks at some point, when we run out of topics. Often when I’m super overwhelmed and busy, I say I want to become a kindergarten teacher. I love kids. Whenever I walk in the city and there’s a kindergarten, I look inside and say hi.
The other thing is that I would love to write about music. Not as a reviewer, but I’d love to make an online magazine or community where people can really share music and other aspects of art. I’m super into how artists dress — every project or album, people have their thing, their concept, their way of dressing. I love seeing those things and writing about them.
The premiere of Phase Shift takes place on Thursday 2 July, for which early bird tickets are available until 29 May. During North Sea Round Town (25 June – 12 July 2026), Chaerin Im can be seen across the city as Artist in Focus 2026, presenting a range of different projects. From mid-May onwards, you can find all concerts in our agenda.
Interview by Raluca Baicu (Programmer / Curator NSRT)
photo: credits by Mooeul Kim