Fig. 1, Wonbin Yang at home studio, 2007.
Wonbin Yang moved to Chicago from Seoul in 2007. During this period of transition, he began making demo songs and beats using a simple home setup. After encountering a stack of M-Audio Keystudio 49 keyboards at a local Best Buy, he purchased one and started recording independently.
Around the same time, Yang met Thistown, an MC from Seoul who had also recently moved to Chicago. A mutual friend later asked them to write a song together. To record vocals, Yang purchased a $20 RadioShack model 33-30XX microphone and assembled a basic recording setup using a homemade windscreen and a simple mic stand. The first song was written collaboratively by all three, with Thistown performing the rap sections, their friend providing vocals, and Yang producing the track.
Following this initial collaboration, Yang continued working with Thistown throughout 2007 and early 2008, producing a series of demo recordings. He also developed solo works across various genres during this time. Many recordings from this period were lost due to a hard drive failure in 2008. The tracks presented here are among the few surviving demos from that era.
