Yim Jae-beum
'I'm a rocker to the bone' — Yim Jae-beom, in an interview with an MBC production team looking back on his years in 1980s rock bands
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
People at his side ⏳🌊
- FamilyIm Taek-geun
His father, once MBC's signature announcer; though they lived apart, when he died in 2020 Yim Jae-beom kept vigil at the memorial as chief mourner.
- FriendshipShin Dae-chul
A Seoul High School classmate and the leader of Sinawe, he introduced Yim Jae-beom to the world in 1986 as the band's first vocalist.
- FriendshipKim Do-kyun
The guitarist of Baekdusan, he led Yim Jae-beom's venture to Britain, urging that they take rock out to the world.
- FriendshipLena Park
She sang 「A Wound Deeper Than Love」 with him as a duet. In 2011 they also shared the stage on 「I Am a Singer」.
- FamilySong Nam-young
A stage actress and his wife, married in 2001, she died in 2017, and that loss carried into the mood of his 7th album, 「SEVEN,」.
- ProducerKim Hyung-seok
He produced the sixth album, “To…”. The two worked together in such a way that he took down the melodies Yim Jae-beom sang to him and arranged them.
I. The boy who played alone · 1962–1985
(Birth) He was born in October 1962 in Seoul, South Korea. His resident registration lists him as born in 1966, and his family register and school records disagree with each other as well, so his age has been reported in various ways, but he himself has always said he was born in 1962. His father was Im Taek-geun, who made his name as an MBC announcer. He was the son of a man known across the nation for his voice alone on radio and television, yet he did not grow up at his father's side. (Solitude) He later recalled that as a child he had almost no friends his own age and spent his time playing house by himself. His conservative father spoke to him in an authoritarian tone, and the boy, clumsy at expressing and receiving love, said he pushed himself out of other people's company. Many critics trace the raw, confessional feeling that so often clings to his songs back to this lonely childhood. (School) He attended the elementary and middle schools affiliated with Chung-Ang University's College of Education, then entered Seoul High School, though he did not graduate. He is said to have known the guitarist Shin Dae-chul since his school days. That friendship would lead him to the stage a few years later. (Influences) The Seoul teenagers of the 1970s and '80s, when he was growing up, came to British and American rock through U.S. Armed Forces radio and imported records. He has said he was influenced by hard-rock singers such as Deep Purple's David Coverdale. His aim was a style that drove the high notes with sheer force yet sank, thick as the blues, in the low register. In the mid-1980s bands such as Boohwal and Baekdusan were springing up one after another in Seoul. Looking back on those years, he later called himself a rocker to the bone.
II. The voice of Sinawe · 1986–1991
(Sinawe) In March 1986 he made his debut as the vocalist on “Heavy Metal Sinawe,” the first album by Sinawe, the heavy metal band led by his high-school classmate Shin Dae-chul. The record is counted among the starting points of Korean heavy metal. He made only one album with the band, but his vocals are said to be highly regarded to this day. (Lineage) After he left, Sinawe's microphone passed to Kim Jong-seo. Kim sang on the second and fourth albums, and the fourth featured on bass Seo Taiji, who would go on to form Seo Taiji and Boys. Kim Jong-seo is known to call him his elder brother to this day. Judging only by the names that passed through this one band, Sinawe was the place where the figures who led Korean popular music in the 1990s grew up. After leaving Sinawe, he completed his military service as a home-defense reservist. (Wandering) He then passed through rock bands such as Oeinbudae and Asiana. Kim Do-kyun, guitarist of Baekdusan, urged him to go to Britain and work there so they could conquer the world with rock, and he actually crossed over to England. Asiana opened for the Japanese metal band Loudness in concert but disbanded without ever properly getting going. (The turn) In 1991 he released his first solo album, “On The Turning Away.” For a heavy metal singer to put out a record built around pop ballads was radical at the time. The title track, “When This Night Is Over,” was greatly loved, and the album is reported to have sold more than 600,000 copies. It was an age when LPs and cassette tapes sold side by side and radio requests made the hits. Setting aside the shouting for a low, settled voice, he met for the first time a wider audience beyond rock.
The solo debut of a heavy metal vocalist who had given up band life and turned to the pop ballad. It led the first album, reported to have sold more than 600,000 copies.
- Listen to how he sings, mixing breath into the low register instead of the piercing high notes of his Sinawe days. You can hear what a rock singer pared away to sing a ballad.
- This is the sound of an early-1990s ballad, with keyboards and synthesizers (electronic instruments) laying the foundation. Its texture is plainly different from band music, where the guitar stepped to the front.
- The voice gathers strength as the song goes on. Where the restrained voice bursts out in the final chorus, the power he brought from rock still lingers.
- That the song became a big hit through radio and cassette tapes alone, though the singer hardly ever appeared on television, is itself a scene from its era.
III. Taking flight · 1992–1999
(Vanishing) After his first success he disappeared from broadcasting. Throughout the 1990s he stopped working several times, and he is said to have once stayed nearly a year on Odaesan. In an era when television music-chart shows made the stars, he was a singer who almost never appeared. As a result, his voice became known before his face. (Soaring) In 1997, six years after his first album, he released his second, “Desire To Fly.” Containing “Soar,” “A Wound Deeper Than Love” and “Where Are You,” the album is regarded as his signature work and is also considered the one holding the most hits. The title track, “Soar,” was heard as the story of someone who had wandered alone rising again. It seemed to echo the circumstances of the singer himself, who had long lived in hiding. The lyrics of “Soar,” and later of “Confession” and “For You,” were written by the lyricist Chae Jung-eun. At the end of that year the financial crisis struck, and a song about wanting to fly became a song of comfort for a generation that had lost its jobs. (Lena Park) “A Wound Deeper Than Love” was originally a song he sang alone. The following year a duet version the two sang together appeared on Lena Park's first album, and the song became the very byword for the male-female duet. It is also said to have been used in advertising. His bond with Lena Park did not end there. (Confession) In 1998 his third album, “Return To The Rock,” was, true to its title, built on solid hard rock. Lena Park contributed lyrics to several of its songs and sang the chorus on “Confession.” Blending the craft of rock with that of church hymns, “Confession” was a song that confesses love as though laying bare one's sins before God. It was a fitting form for him, a Protestant believer. Arriving as the CD became the center of the record market and karaoke rooms spread across the country, the song, which storms all the way up into the high notes, became one of those men most often attempted at karaoke.
The title track of the second album, released after a six-year silence. The story of someone wandering alone who takes flight again seemed to echo the circumstances of the singer, who had been living in hiding.
- It begins with a quiet, settled opening, and the notes climb in the chorus as if taking flight. The title is the song's structure.
- A rough, scraping timbre and long-held high notes live together in one song. Listen for the point where the power of a rock vocal blends with the pull of a ballad.
- In the wake of the financial crisis it was taken up as a song of comfort and encouragement. When Lee Seung-gi recorded and released it again in 2024, it reached a new generation too.
- The band arrangement (the way the instruments are fitted together), held up by drums and guitar, stands out clearly, bearing out the view that this was the album where he brought back the texture of rock.
First released on the second album as his solo, it became the byword for the male-female duet through the duet version on Lena Park's first album the following year.
- In the duet version the two trade lines and then layer their voices in the chorus. The contrast between a rough male timbre and a clear, supple female one is the heart of the song.
- Hear Lena Park's vocal bends (ornaments that slide the pitch) side by side with his straight-ahead drive, and the difference between the two singers' styles becomes clear.
- Listen to the original solo version and the duet version back to back. You can hear how the feeling changes as one person's monologue becomes a dialogue between two.
- It is remembered as a song heard everywhere in the streets and on television in the late 1990s.
The signature song of the third album, which returned to hard rock. Borrowing the craft of church hymns, it confesses love as though laying it bare before God.
- A song that mixes the craft of rock and church hymns (gospel). The chorus of many voices supporting from behind rings out like a church choir.
- It opens as a slow confession, and toward the end the notes climb and the emotion builds. The high-pitched cry near the close is the song's famous moment.
- It is counted among the songs men most often attempted in the days when karaoke rooms were spreading across the country. That is how demanding its high notes and breathing are.
- Its way of speaking directly to God, like someone in prayer, is distinctive. A love song, in effect, borrows the form of sacramental confession.
IV. For You · 2000–2010
(Ditto) In 2000 he released his fourth album, “Story Of Two Years.” The title track, “For You,” became even more widely known when it was used in the film “Ditto,” released the same year. It was a song in which a man, tormented by the way he keeps hurting the one he loves, pours out his heart. Its structure, opening in a low monologue and rushing toward a cry, displayed the full range of his voice. Songs he wrote himself are also said to have appeared on the album. (Marriage) In 2001 he married the stage actress Song Nam-young. It was a family for a man who had sung alone on stage. (Coexistence) In 2004 he released his fifth album, “Coexistence,” and held a solo concert. It was an album that put more weight on its message than the records before it. But the record market was already collapsing. CD sales fell sharply, and people listened to music as MP3 files and on streaming sites. He would not release another studio album for eight years, and he drifted out of the public eye once more. (Branded) In 2010 his voice was heard again in an unexpected place: “Branded,” the theme song of the KBS drama “The Slave Hunters.” Singing of scars carved into the body and a life on the run, the song meshed with the drama's mood and drew a huge response. In an era when drama soundtracks scored their hits on digital charts rather than through album sales, his long-forgotten voice reached young listeners again through this song. The great comeback that would come the following year began here.
The title track of the fourth album, used in the film “Ditto.” Sung again on his first “I Am a Singer” stage in 2011, it became the song that symbolizes his comeback.
- It begins as a whispered, low monologue and rushes to a cry in the chorus. The range of volume and emotion within a single song is very wide.
- It speaks as a man tormented by the way he keeps hurting the one he loves. It sounds like words to the other person and, at the same time, like a confession to himself.
- In 2011 his performance on “I Am a Singer” wavered in pitch and breath, yet it drew the most votes from the audience jury. It is still talked about as a moment when the power to move beat perfection.
- It has become a song younger singers choose to show what they can do, so much so that KCM recorded and released it again in 2024.
The theme song of the KBS drama Chuno (The Slave Hunters). It carried his long-forgotten voice back onto the streaming charts and to young listeners.
- A song about the wounds of the hunted. His rough, cracking timbre fits the plight of the drama's slave hunters and fugitives.
- A film-score arrangement laid over a broad carpet of strings. As befits a period-drama OST (music used in a TV drama), it builds a sweeping, epic mood.
- It became a hit by playing again and again alongside the drama's scenes, a good example of how OSTs in the early 2010s were consumed on streaming sites rather than on records.
V. I Am a Singer · 2011–2016
(The contest) In May 2011 he appeared on MBC's competition program I Am a Singer. Singers such as Lena Park, Kim Bum-soo, Yoon Do-hyun and Lee So-ra shared the stage, and their rankings were decided by the votes of an audience jury. His first performance, “For You,” was not flawless in pitch or breath, yet it drew the most votes from the jury. He himself was not satisfied, saying he had not sung so much as poured out a lament. (Empty Glass) For his next performance he reworked Nam Jin's trot song “Empty Glass” as hard rock and progressive rock (rock built on complex song structures and meters). His condition was poor and his voice cracked, yet Jang Ki-ho, head of the advisory panel, called it a world-class performance. Finally he sang Yoon Bok-hee's “Everyone.” The records show that it ranked first in every measure: advance preference, contest ranking, per-singer ratings and views of the unedited video. (Stepping down) Returning to television after so long put him under great stress. On top of that came an appendectomy, and after about a month he left the program. His appearance was brief, but in that year, when the contest recordings swept the streaming charts and clips of his performances circulated across the internet, he erased his long absence at a stroke. I Am a Singer was credited with restoring vocal ability as a standard to an idol-dominated broadcast scene, and he stood at the very center of it. (To) In July 2012, eight years after his last, he released his sixth album, To…. The producer was the composer Kim Hyung-seok. They worked by having him sing a melody aloud, which Kim Hyung-seok then set down in notation and arranged. The title meant conveying one's heart as if handing over a diary or sending a letter. In 2013 he went on a national tour, “As I Walk…,” and in 2015 he returned to television after four years on JTBC's Hidden Singer 4.
VI. Comfort · 2017–2026
(Loss) On June 12, 2017, his wife Song Nam-young died of thyroid cancer. In January 2020 his father, Im Taek-geun, died, and he kept vigil at the funeral as chief mourner. Since a 2016 concert he had been away from the stage. He later said he had considered giving up singing but was able to stand again thanks to his audience. (Comfort) In 2022 he returned with “Comfort,” the pre-release single from his seventh studio album, SEVEN,. The song, which seems to sit quietly beside a wounded person and speak to them, was especially loved by middle-aged and older listeners. The album also included songs about life's hardships, such as “Himalaya” and “Fall.” On October 29 and 30 of that year he gave his first solo concert in seven years at Seoul's KSPO Dome, drawing about 12,000 people over two nights. The second night came just after the Itaewon crowd crush. He offered words of comfort to those who had lost family, and when his voice choked as he sang, the audience carried the song on for him. (Successors) In 2023 he appeared as a judge on JTBC's Sing Again 3. His songs were reborn in younger hands: in 2024 KCM released a new recording of “For You,” and Lee Seung-gi one of “Flight.” In the age of streaming and YouTube, his old songs went from being the parents' generation's karaoke favorites to test pieces on which young singers prove their skill. (Farewell) His 40th-anniversary national tour, “I Am Yim Jae-beom,” began in Daegu in November 2025. On January 4, 2026, in an interview on JTBC's Newsroom, he announced that he would leave the music world at the end of the tour. On May 16 and 17 of that year, the encore concerts at the Olympic Hall in Seoul's Olympic Park became his final stage, forty years after he began as the heavy-metal vocalist of Sinawe.
The pre-release single from his seventh album, which broke several years of silence after the loss of his wife and father. It was especially loved by middle-aged and older listeners.
- In place of the screaming high notes of his youth, it lays bare the rough grain of an older voice. Listen for the passages where he lets go of force and sings as if speaking.
- Its manner is that of someone sitting beside a wounded person and speaking quietly. Heard with his own losses in mind, it seems the singer himself is being comforted too.
- At the 2022 KSPO Dome concert, the time he shared with an audience just after the Itaewon crowd crush remains a scene that showed, on the stage itself, what the song's title means.
Lesser-known stories
For a long time his age was not known for certain. His resident registration lists him as born in 1966, and his family register and school records do not agree with each other either, so each news outlet gave a different birth year. It was settled when he said he was born in 1962, but some sources still list 1963. His public records went astray because he grew up apart from his father. “A Wound Deeper Than Love” is usually remembered as if it had been a duet from the start, but it first appeared on his second album as a solo. The version that became the byword for a male-female duet is the one released the following year on Lena Park's first album. Lena Park later wrote lyrics for several songs on his third album and sang the chorus on “Confession.” Their collaboration ran far deeper than a single duet. He is known as a composer who makes melodies by singing rather than writing scores. His 2000 fourth album is also said to include songs he wrote himself. When making his sixth album in 2012, he worked by singing a melody aloud, which Kim Hyung-seok then set down in notation and arranged. That a singer known only for his voice was in fact someone who wrote songs by ear has stayed hidden in the shadow of his hits. His band years are usually remembered through a single record, Sinawe's first album. Yet he went on to pass through Oeinbudae and Asiana, worked in Britain at Kim Do-kyun's urging, and even played the opening slot at a concert by the Japanese metal band Loudness. Almost no recordings from this period survive, and as his solo ballads soon took off, these years were left as a brief footnote.
Glossary 📚🔎
Heavy metal
(Meaning) The English “heavy metal” means weighty metal. The name comes from the thick, loud guitar sound, like metal being hammered. (In Korean popular music) Rock music in which distorted electric guitar (distortion) rings out loud, the drums are played fast and hard, and the vocalist belts out very high notes with full force. In Korea, bands such as Sinawe, Boohwal and Baekdoosan first brought this music to a wide audience in the mid-1980s, and Yim Jae-beom was the vocalist on Sinawe's first album. Think of the energy of a cheering contest on sports day, pounding the drums and shouting at the top of your lungs. Heavy metal, though, polishes that sound with refined instrumental technique. (Elsewhere) In chemistry, a heavy metal is a dense metal, such as lead or mercury, that can be harmful to the body.
Hard rock
(Meaning) The English “hard rock” means hard, rough rock. (In Korean popular music) A branch of rock that arose in Britain and America in the 1960s~70s. It is marked by weighty guitar riffs (short, repeated guitar figures) and powerful vocals. It is the generation of music just before heavy metal, and more of the sticky feel of the blues remains in it. Deep Purple, whom Yim Jae-beom has named as an influence, is a classic hard rock band, and his third album, Return To The Rock, was also grounded in hard rock. In football terms, if heavy metal is relentless high pressing, hard rock is closer to a game of holding firm and waiting for one decisive strike.
Rock ballad
(Meaning) A ballad originally meant a song that tells a story. In popular music it came to mean a slow, lyrical song. (In Korean popular music) A song that adds rock instrumentation and powerful vocals to the frame of a slow, emotional ballad. Many begin quietly, then the guitar and drums burst in at the chorus as the voice soars to high notes. Yim Jae-beom's “Flight” and “Confession” are classic examples. It is like an essay that starts quietly and ends by shouting what it has to say in the final paragraph.
Gospel
(Meaning) The English “gospel” means good news, that is, the Christian Gospel. (In Korean popular music) Religious music that arose in Black churches in America. It is marked by a choir building harmonies in many voices and by a soloist and chorus singing back and forth. Popular music such as soul and R&B inherited a great deal from it. Yim Jae-beom's “Confession” is regarded as a song that blends the methods of rock and gospel. Picture a school choir contest, where the whole class adds harmonies behind a friend singing solo and makes the song swell.
OST
(Meaning) An abbreviation of Original Soundtrack. It comes from the strip (soundtrack) beside the film where sound was recorded, and means music made for that particular work. (In Korean popular music) A song made or chosen for use in a drama or film. Because it plays again and again alongside the scenes, the song often becomes a hit when the work does. Yim Jae-beom's “For You” was used in the film Ditto, and “Brand” in the drama Chuno. Just as hearing the music that plays when a boss fight begins in a game brings that scene to mind, an OST makes us remember song and scene bound together.
Arrangement
(Meaning) Pyeongok (編曲) means to weave (編) a piece (曲). It is the work of weaving anew which instruments and textures will carry an existing melody. (In Korean popular music) The work of changing the instrumentation, tempo, mood and development of a song while leaving the melody and lyrics as they are. Depending on the arrangement, the same song can sound like an entirely different one. On I Am a Singer in 2011, Yim Jae-beom caused a stir by arranging and singing Nam Jin's trot song “Empty Glass” as hard rock and progressive rock. It is like the same instant ramen becoming a completely different dish depending on whether you boil it with cheese or stir-fry it with black bean sauce.
Audience jury
(In Korean popular music) A system in which ordinary audience members seated in the hall vote directly to rank the singers on a competition program, or those audience members themselves. MBC's I Am a Singer used this system in 2011, so even well-known singers had to win the audience's votes every episode. Yim Jae-beom drew the most votes from the audience jury with his first performance, “For You.” It is like classmates watching a school talent show and voting for the best act, except that here everyone on stage was a singer with decades of experience.