Coker Looks Back at His “20s” in His EP STUDY, Proving to be a Name Worth Keeping on Your Radar
Fresh off the press, as they say: the new EP from the indie Korean singer Coker (코커), released January 22, immediately piqued our interest. STUDY comprises four songs that you can go through in about 15 minutes - it won’t take much of your time, but definitely will call for some attention.
In the credits of the album, as they’re also mentioned by the singer himself on his official Instagram page, we can appreciate how the songs are entirely made by Coker, with the help of 로쿠 roku and @deadpaints (we’re going by the reported nicknames, but please feel free to tell us more, if you know!).
The tracks, in order, are: “Ceason”, “20s”, “Soju”, and “Cloud”. The one we’d like to highlight is the second one, whose sound manages to stick out more than the others, and that seems to best represent the theme that the whole EP explores; that of the singer who just entered his thirties and reminisces on his life as a twenty-something.
The mood is set right at the beginning: we know we’re going to drift away to the sound of this smooth and relaxed vibe. It’s a mellow R&B tune, with a slow beat, peppered with a few lines of soft rap. This is delivered in a delicate and high-pitched tone that indie audiences might have appreciated before. In 2023, Coker released a couple of singles (“Fragile” and “Glass”), while the previous EP dates back another year (My, or “나의”, 2022).
As Coker himself explained on his social media, the STUDY EP is the outcome of a personal reflection on his twenties: “It's a collection of some of the most personal stories from my 20’s, and I hope that everyone, whether you've made it through your 20’s or you're still struggling to get through them, love your life and be happy”.
The singer, born in 1995, debuted on November 8, 2019, with the single album OUT. In another post on his Instagram feed, he further elaborates on the theme of STUDY: “Hey, we're in our thirties now, and looking back on it, I was so immature and reckless, and after all the crying and hurting and regret, and all the laughing and talking and giving and receiving love, I think I'm finally seeing the real me. It hasn't been easy, and there have been times when I've wanted to let it all go, but I don't think I could have done it any better if I had to start from scratch.
It's been really hard, but it's also been really fun."
The “we” he mentions in the caption presumably refers to roku, the collaborator who started working with Coker less than a year ago, with their first joint effort being the aforementioned “Fragile”.
In another picture uploaded on Instagram, Coker reveals a bit more of the process involved in crafting the “Study” EP: “It's been 10 months since my brother Roku @roku6.0 and I started studying together with the idea of meeting once a week to make music. Every week, we share each other's work and arrange it together, and we have a lot of fun making music. My new album is titled STUDY, and it contains the most honest and personal stories, and I did my best to cover a wide range of genres!”.
Truthfully, “Ceason”, the opening track is more of a whispered and intimate ballad, made mostly of subdued singing that gets support from a more structured sound only in the last third of the tune. “Soju” doesn’t stray away from the vibe of “20s” but falls a bit shorter in comparison, due to a more repetitive nature. “Cloud”, is a mellow rock ballad, where Coker gets to showcase a wider vocal range, but never losing the delicate approach that’s so distinctive of his style.
Ready to wind down to this 15-minute-long study on the critical rite of passage into one’s thirties?