Photo by Seung Won Baik
Tell us who you are and what you do.
My name is Deborah Kim, 23, and work at a small family-owned company in the Garment District in Manhattan.
How did you first fall in love with music and performing?
I found my love for music at church when I was very young. My dad was the choir conductor and worship leader at our church, so I always sat in during their rehearsals and remember thinking that I wanted to be a worship leader and be a singer when I got older. At a young age, I was exposed to performing, musical theater, and dance through this youth theater school in New York called Helen Hayes Theater and fell in love with performing then. Since then, I’ve always sought to surround myself with music, performance, and other musicians.
What is your inspiration for creativity?
My inspiration for creativity comes from a bunch of different things. Instrumentally, I listen to a lot of different genres like rap, funk, pop, r&b, folk, K-pop, Kr&b, indie-folk, and combinations of all of those. Lyrically, my inspiration has been coming from personal experiences, my relationship with God and the seasons He takes me through, specific people in my life, and even walking through NYC! All in all, becoming more aware of my surroundings and making observations about people and circumstances have been giving me inspiration for my music.
You recently started something called “The Quarry”. What is it and what is it about?
The Quarry is a community of musicians who want to grow as artists through collaborative activities such as songwriting, production, showcasing, and workshop sessions. We came up with the name “Quarry” because in reality, most of us are still developing as individual artists, so there’s a lot of “digging” to do to get to the good parts. As a community, we get to give each other feedback and constructive criticism and accountability in the discipline of creating.
What was the dream behind starting it?
This group started a bit..serendipitously. Initially, my friend and I just wanted to put on a show, featuring some hand-picked musicians. After a couple days, we both realized how God’s hand was moving pieces together for us to put this show together. Our friends and family really backed us up and supported us. That’s when we both started getting vision for this group to become a community and a place to be sharpened, which was something we had both dreamed about for a long time. Being a musician can be a lonely road, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a famous quote that goes something like this: “You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with.” What if we created a space for musicians to grow together and have freedom to create with excellence? What if we walked out in our identity as musicians and empowered others to do the same? It seemed like it was the best time to make it finally happen.
Personally, I believe God has given me a certain set of talents and giftings that makes me fit to influence the sphere of music. I’ve always been stuck in fear of failure, so I never fully pursued music. However, last year, God began to highlight that area of fear in my heart and has given me the urgency and opportunities to walk out of it. One of the fruits of walking out of that fear is the Quarry. I want to empower people, wherever they are, to walk into the destiny that God has for them by walking in it myself, not as a musician or singer or worship leader, but as a daughter of the King.
How can people get involved or find out more info about it?
You can follow us on Instagram (instagram.com/thequarrymusic) or like & follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/thequarry.msc). We have 2 show coming up in May and July 2019! The details will be posted on those platforms.
How can people connect with you and your music?
You can follow me on Instagram (instagram.com/hali.em) or Soundcloud (soundcloud.com/hali_em)
I don’t really have a lot of content out right now, but I am in the process of writing songs. I’m aiming to get an EP out by Summer 2019! I’ll be posting any updates on those two accounts.