Korean American singer-songwriter and DJ Namira (Amanda Villarosa, Kim So-young and Lee Ji-sun via Copacetic PR)


For Namira, being Korean American wasn’t a tidy blend of two cultural identities ? it was a constant lived experience of being in between.
“I grew up in a place where my family was the 바다이야기#릴게임 only Korean family for miles around,” said Namira, a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and DJ, during a Zoom interview with The Korea Herald. “You’re not American-American the way everyone around yo 게임몰릴게임 u is. But at the same time, you are American, but you also have this connection to this (Korean) culture.”
That in-between upbringing, she said, taught her to become comfortable with standin 릴게임바다이야기사이트 g apart from others, which later became the emotional and musical logic behind her debut EP, “California Fever,” released Jan. 16.
Written to honor her late mother, the four-track album cent 사이다쿨바다이야기게임 ers on what Namira calls “the decision to follow your dream,” framing the immigrant leap her mother took from South Korea to the US through a series of love songs that double as metaphors for risk and 야마토게임예시 reinvention.
When asked what made her want to create an album in memory of her mother, Namira cited the US’ changing cultural climate.
“We’ve recently shifted from a culture that celebrated all different types of identity and communities, a free society where you can be whoever you want to be, to one that offers (a narrower vision of) what America should be,” explained Namira.
In the current atmosphere, she began to feel that the kind of life her mother represented ? “a professional woman” who left what Namira described as “a set life” in her home country to pursue something freer in a different country ? was “dying.”
“I really wanted to bring the Asian American story into the bigger story of America,” she said.



The album cover of Namira’s debut EP, “California Fever” (Lee Ji-sun, Kim So-young via Copacetic PR)


EDM with guitars, heritage
With “California Fever,” Namira introduces a sound of her own called “California EDM,” which she describes simply as “EDM with guitars.”
When asked why she introduced her own EDM sound, Namira answered that she wanted to return to the genre’s early forms while also making Los Angeles heard through her music.
“Early electronic dance music incorporated samples of drum and bass tracks of music tracks from different genres. Now, I notice that there seems to be this desire to make entirely computerized music instead,” explained Namira.
She added that she wanted to bring back EDM sounds where dance and electronic music blend well together with their own distinct characteristics, citing tracks arranged by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding and the late Swedish DJ Avicii as examples.
“I call my track’s genre ‘California EDM’ because if you’re here in LA, you hear folk country music, dance music and rock everywhere. I wanted to make music that brought all the sounds of LA together into a cohesive track,” said Namira.
That same approach extends to heritage. The title track moves through rhythmic and melodic references that nod to Korean folk tradition ? such as her reference to the Korean folk song “Arirang” ? while keeping its dance floor backbone.
Namira added that “California Fever” also reflects what she sees as a “widening cultural dialogue between Korea and the US,” one where cultural influence moves both ways rather than in one direction.
“Culture goes back and forth as it’s a never-ending dialogue,” she said. “As a Korean American, I wanted to do (this) to contribute to the canon.”



Korean American singer-songwriter and DJ Namira (Emma Anderson via Copacetic PR)


'Cultural rescue'
Ultimately, she hopes her debut EP leaves listeners feeling encouraged to take chances in their own lives.
“I hope this EP helps (listeners) connect with that feeling you get in your heart when you want to express something or chase after a dream that you feel a little hesitant about. I hope the album inspires people to dream a little bit,” Namira continued.
As for the kind of artist she hopes to become, Namira shared that she wished to become someone who encourages others.
“I want to be the artist that encourages people to feel free and to try new things,” she said. “From what I understood through my mother, I know that there is a specific kind of cultural rescue that only music can still offer. What the Beatles was to my mom ? the soundtrack that inspired her American dream ? is the kind of music I want to keep making.”