Check Out DJ Kim’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to DJ Kim.

Hi DJ Kim, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I had a pretty diverse background growing up: a Korean boy who was brought up in an American school located in Bangkok, Thailand from the age of 10. I went through the 00’s golden generation of Emo music with My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and so on. Even before its popularity, rock music always had a special place in my heart that is impossible to put into words – the kind of emotion that makes you feel excited to be alive, and consoles you in the toughest times. After graduating high school, I went to Seoul, Korea for my university education. This was an extremely tough time of my life as I had a very difficult time fitting into the culture and the people. Emo is, and still is a term that does not exist in Korea – “emo” in Korean translates to “auntie” so every time I attempted to explain about the genre, people laughed at me for listening to auntie music. I started to doubt my own musical preferences, and found it impossible to fit in by the general public. I was struggling with an identity crisis.

My own friends who went to highschool with would make snarky comments about how I would “still has not moved on” that made me feel extremely lonely. At one point I thought if something was wrong with me, and pretended to listen to different music that was publicized on TV just to fit in. Obviously that did not work out and I came back to listening to the music I love the most – Emo- pop/punk – post hardcore.

Then I finally realized I do not need to be ashamed of loving what I enjoy the most, and it means so much to me personally. I did not have to live the life of others. I thought there must be others like me out there somewhere in the world. That is when I created an emo group online, and met my co-admin, Andrea. She is from Guatemala and we had similar experiences of being negatively judged for the taste of music growing up where she would even face forms of bullying from peers. Ever since, we went on a mission to find and connect people from around the world that share similar experiences and form a loving community who share the same interest. We were able to find lots of fantastic human beings along the journey like Bianca/ Skitty who has been operating the server out in the US.

We started in late 2021, and we currently have 469 members in the community. I was able to connect with so many cool people around the world, and people who believed in the vision to connect to a larger audience. I am grateful for the admins/ mods and all the members who are in this journey together. We went to festivals together, hosted virtual events, and became best friends. This is just the beginning as we would like to realize our mission to connect with more people and share the love.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it definitely has not been a smooth road. Some of the challenges we have faced along the way include:

• Time : All the admins have day jobs and it was difficult to dedicate a large amount of time to the growth of the community as much as we had hoped. We had been operating with passion but respecting individuals’ time and wellness had to be the top priority.

• Timezones : Being a global community with members being all around the world, it is impossible to avoid challenges of finding the right time to host events, meetings, etc. For instance, our Emo Valentines event is currently scheduled to start at 11 am PST which is 04:00 am in Japan/ Korea! We try to find the right balance between all 3 main timezone regions by taking turns on hosting events and activities.

• Starting from zero : When we were starting out, we had zero plans, connections, fundings to realize our goal at all. With just a handful of average people admins with common vision to connect emo lovers around the world, we have been taking a more “primitive approach”. This includes DM-ing asking to join our community, printing out flyers/ notes and sharing them in offline events, filming layman promo videos through our phones, and more.

• Expertise : There is so much to learn about managing and operating an online community that I was not an expert in. To catch up, I am reading books and researching about how to make a great community!

Despite the struggles, the problem solving aspect has made this journey very rewarding and fun. There is still a long way to go, and it is just the beginning but I am ready to take on whatever it takes to succeed!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am primarily responsible for managing the community’s engagement and marketing in a way that promotes growth and scalability. We have assigned specific sections of engagement and marketing to the admins and moderators, who take ownership of particular tasks. For example, Recolty creates the weekly emo discussion thread, Skitty manages social media postings, Takoyaki oversees server activity such as group music listening and movie nights, and Freak works on community branding using her graphic design skills. I ensure that everything is flowing smoothly and fill in any gaps in responsibilities. I am constantly seeking out opportunities for improvement and innovation within the community.

Our recent focus has been on empowering community members to take ownership of specific areas of work and feel recognized as proud members of the community. Each member has unique talents, and our goal is to guide them in using these skills to benefit the community. For example, we have a member who is passionate about discovering lesser-known emo albums and hidden gems of the genre. We created a special archive channel dedicated to this member, where he can share these tracks and albums with others. This has been a great success for both him and the community, and we are looking to do more of these types of projects.

While it is embarrassing to say, members, mods, and admins have called me the “fearless leader.” I believe this is due to my passion for constantly pushing for progress and improvement. Our mission is to connect emo lovers from around the world, and there is still much work to be done. That is where I find my drive.

My proudest moment was when a member openly shared that they would not trade the friendships they had made online for anything in the world. I have experienced magical moments where I genuinely felt a connection with community members and a sense of belonging. It is hard to describe, but these moments have shown me the true power of a community.

Finally, nothing sets me apart from others. I am an average guy who might have a slightly more passion and determination to succeed in managing our emo community, and feels excited about the people I (may) cross paths with!

What does success mean to you?
My individual definition of success is being honest and true to yourself in every situation and circumstance. As a community, I believe we can achieve success collectively through empathy and kindness. My ultimate goal is to spread this collective success beyond the scope of our community so that it can positively impact people around the world. We still have a long way to go, but I invite everyone who shares these goals to join us on this journey. If we can even slightly help someone feel more like themselves, then we are serving the right purpose. We are still hungry for more and remain committed to making a positive impact in the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://discord.gg/pjan7rKzkH
• Instagram: @x_emoisforlovers_x
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@emoisforlovers