Life & Work with Moses Sun

Today we’d like to introduce you to Moses Sun. 

Hi Moses, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I guess I didn’t really have a normal childhood growing up — I am a South Korean native who immigrated to Senegal, West Africa, when I was just 8 years old and lived there until graduating from an American high school over there. Because of my parents’ work in non-profit, our family had our fair share of traveling and flying (especially since flying from Asia to Africa usually required a connecting flight somewhere in Europe or America), and so we were always surrounded by faces, cultures, and customs that were not our own. Fortunately for me, the three subjects I love most are geeking out on history and eating food from different cultures, so I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect childhood in that regard.

My third favorite subject — which is how I ended up in Los Angeles — was music, particularly playing guitar. So, with that internationally curious, smorgasbord-ish mess of a childhood in mind, it just made sense that I would eventually make my way over to California for college. And with LA being a hub for many creatives, I ended up sticking around to build my career as a professional live/studio guitarist and composer.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I had a lot of help from friends and mentors; first as a student, and then as a freelancing musician seeking work in a cutthroat industry that was Hollywood. It took me ten years before I started to finally become comfortable with the progress I was making with work and settling into my own groove. Then thanks to a bat virus discovered in early 2020, all of our work was virtually shut down within the next two months.

It was hard enough knowing how many lives the Coronavirus had claimed. What struck me close to home, however, was seeing my a few of my friends and colleagues — all great creatives in their respective fields — having to switch their careers because music and arts were no longer sustainable during what seemed like the apocalypse.

I was very fortunate that I had built a home studio before the pandemic, so I was still able to work somewhat even after losing most of my performing work. And the shift to social distancing also affected music in great ways as well, since at the time a lot of lessons and studio sessions were integrated into video conferences and remote file transfers for projects. I’ve also been transitioning from live gigging to more writing and producing work as well, which is an ongoing process that began before the pandemic. It has provided me with new friends, new work opportunities, and a very different lifestyle that my wife and I started — which I will elaborate more below.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I started out as a guitarist playing for live concerts and studio recording sessions. Artistically, my focus has predominantly been enhancing live music — from lush choral/orchestral settings to screaming rock band arrangements (and many somewhere in between the two). However, I started producing and writing a lot of what I mentioned above from home with the advent of Covid-19 and social distancing mandates. What would’ve been live arrangements for shows now turned into audio/video productions for online streaming.

And since distance is no longer a factor in the world of remote work, I was offered collaborative opportunities in the K-Pop scene as well. Even though I am natively a South Korean, all of my professional life has been in Los Angeles. So, it was quite an experience for me to work on producing, writing, and playing on a number of K-Pop artists’ singles — Harim, Solji from EXID, and Astro — to name a few. I am also finishing scoring some original musical cues for a Korean reality comedy show scheduled to be aired sometime next year as well.

My next goal is to enter into the crazy world of video game and film scoring. I feel that with my experiences and skills as an orchestrator, I would have a lot of fun scoring for the screen. Ultimately, I am grateful that I’ve been given a new opportunity to grow my career from what could’ve been a catastrophic end to my performing career, and that I can only move forward from this point on.

What do you think about happiness?
It’s no secret that living in the Golden State racks up hefty rent and living expenses. As a result, I imagined that happiness would come in the form of a mountain of work and gold and that I would only stop when I was dead from old age. Thankfully, marrying a family therapist helped me realize how unhealthy that idea was and put a dead stop to that faulty dream.

Realistically with both of us working in front of video screens for most of the day, my wife and I no longer needed to be physically present in Los Angeles all the time. So, when the opportunity came, we moved out of our apartment in Koreatown and opted to live full-time in an RV. We now rent (for less) in an RV/Marina resort near Los Angeles for over a year, and we couldn’t be happier in our new home. Sure, we had to Marie-Kondo half of our belongings, but I think it’s a healthy process every now and then. Things are a little more cramped than before indoors, but now we have an entire lot with a space for a tent and an outdoor garden to ourselves. And with a bike trail and the beach just a 5-min walk away, I think we have a good thing going on for our mental and physical health as well.

I’m now more focused on finding a healthy work-life balance and pursuing meaningful connections with clients and colleagues. And being away from the city for a little while has actually helped me get more creative with my work. I realize that I may not achieve what a lot of us spend a lifetime chasing the “American Dream” in the form of a house and a stable 9-to-5 job. However, the life I’m living right now feels like a dream and I am thankful, happy, and hopeful for what my future may hold.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/mosessunmusic
• Facebook: facebook.com/mosessunmusic
• Youtube: youtube.com/mosessunmusic
• SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/mosessunmusic

Image Credits
Rumee Sun