Email: neill@outloudculture.com
A spinoff to the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before film franchise and book series of the same name from author Jenny Han, XO, Kitty is a series that follows Kitty, Laura Jean’s youngest sister, as she navigates love in Seoul, Korea. Jina Hyojin and Shirley Song created the show’s sound, which infuses pop-based music with the overall tone of traditional KDrama. In the new series, synths, vocal chops, and catchy pop beats meet a more traditional instrumentation of piano and strings.
Both Jina and Shirley are uniquely up to the task of melding these two soundscapes required for XO, Kitty. Jina is a trained violinist and violist, and often employs strings into her work. Shirley, a pianist, adds additional textures to the pair’s scores through experimentation with keys. Both women add their vocals to the soundtrack XO, Kitty.
Jina and Shirley, welcome to OLC! You both worked on the very popular Netflix TV series ‘XO, Kitty’. How did you both become involved in the series and what preparation did you take before sitting down to score the show?
We first heard from our manager Steve that the showrunners, Jenny Han and Sascha Rothchild, wanted to talk to us about potentially working on the score for XO, Kitty. We are both such huge fans of the To All the Boys film franchise and were so stoked to start the conversation. From our initial conversation, Jenny and Sascha wanted someone who was familiar with the Kdrama world and the musical style within it. They mentioned many Kdrama references and a lot of them were shows that we grew up watching. After crafting some musical ideas for the show, we finally were officially brought on board!
Talk me through the creative process when you’re scoring a show like this. How did you know what the initial sound of the show was going to be?
The show revolves around Kitty, the youngest of the Coveys, who has a very distinct personality that’s very different from her older sister, Laura Jean. We knew from the get go that we wanted to capture her fun, youthful, and outgoing personality in the score. The score is very modern, fun, and youthful to reflect not only the personality of Kitty and her friends at KISS, but to also capture the excitement of being in Seoul, Korea while complementing all the great Kpop needle drops.
XO, Kitty also addresses a lot of themes including love, loss, and family… So for a lot of these more nostalgic moments, we wanted to make sure the score was tender and emotional ,while also paying homage to the Kdrama genre. So that led us to using predominantly piano, acoustic guitar, and strings, with the occasional incorporation of vocals. Needless to say, there was a lot of dialogue between our creators and showrunners Jenny and Sascha, and also a lot of back and forth with our music supervisors, Laura Webb and Lindsay Wolfington. Together, we were able to hone in on the XO, Kitty sound.
What was the most challenging part of making the score for this show?
Our wonderful music supervisors of the show did amazing work incorporating hit Kpop songs in the show, ranging from Black Pink, BTS to ITZY… We had to make sure that our score had a sound palette that was consistent and up to par with these hit songs, while also making sure that the music works in an underscore setting. We did a lot of research on our end, but it was fun since we both grew up listening to Kpop.
I believe you both recorded vocals for the soundtrack of the show also?
Jina: Jenny and Sascha wanted to incorporate an original song for Kitty and Dae. Normally in the Kdrama world, there is an OST, a song that shows up throughout the show that becomes the theme and sound of the show–which often brings out that nostalgic feel even when the show is over. Once we read the script, Shirley and I talked about what kind of lyrics we wanted to incorporate. Then, I came up with the lyrics in Korean and sang on it! There’s also a diaper commercial in the show which we had to compose for. We needed to make it sound like a baby singing, so it was my first time singing trying to sound like a 3-year-old Korean baby!
Shirley: I just want to add that the Poopy Baby diaper commercial still cracks me up!
This is not the first project you’ve done together; you’ve also worked on Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star, Netflix’s romantic comedy A Tourist’s Guide to Love, and the Amazon film Five Blind Dates. Clearly, you both have great working chemistry together, so when and how did this friendship start, and do you plan to keep working together for future projects?
Jina: I’ve always been a huge fan of Shirley’s music since we were in college. I remember hearing her work during class and she never failed to pleasantly surprise me. She still does to this day, and I love working with her! We feed off of each other’s creativity and it’s such an inspiring and motivating process. It’s a lot more fun doing things together, we laugh more even during the most stressful times during a project.
Shirley: I met Jina in our last year at Berklee College of Music and she was so funny and I loved her sense of humor! It then came to applying for film scoring scholarships/awards and Jina ended up getting the grand prize and it was that moment where I was like “I need to hear this woman’s music!” Needless to say, I was blown away by her compositions and her musical sensitivity. There is just so much respect and trust in our friendship and I think that’s what makes our collaborative relationship work so well! Every single project that we have worked on together has been an absolute blast! Currently, we’re also working together on a new Netflix adult animation series and suffice it to say, we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves on that project too!
What advice can you give to aspiring young people about pursuing their dreams and staying
motivated?
Jina: I’d say learning to enjoy the walk, the process. The more you know, the more you don’t know and I think that’s what is so fascinating about this career. As much as we are dying to see the final result and the outcome, it’s so important to enjoy the daily learning and tasks of it all.
Shirley: Similar to what Jina mentioned, something that always stuck to me was what my Dad reminds me of, constantly, which is that “life is a marathon, not a sprint.” Enjoy the process, work hard, and always try to see the positives in situations! Also, find a hobby that’s not related to your career because it can get tough when your hobby becomes your career!
