Interview: entoy, Producer Duo from Seoul, Share Music Beginnings, Collaborative Music Process, and More
International collaborations in the R&B and pop genres, a feature on Spotify’s ‘TrenChill K-R&B’ Playlist, and admiration from top K-Pop groups like MONSTA X's Kihyun and TXT's Taehyun are just a taste of entoy’s celebrated moments. entoy is a producer duo hailing from Seoul, South Korea consisting of producers siyun and tobii. Popular tracks like “never do me wrong” with singer Milky Day, “I Don’t wanna XX” with artists ciganatmain and minna, and “Don’t You Dare” with Hailey Loan, are just three of the many collaborations—and entoy is just getting started. After landing the Spotify editorial playlist with “Blue mood” with the singer suru, it’s no doubt entoy has the musical potential and talent to produce more songs new and current listeners will enjoy. HALSUG had the opportunity to dive into the world of entoy in an interview that explores who they are and their music aspirations.
Their friendship began 10 years ago after meeting at school at age 15. Their interest in music was mutual, but agreeing to work on music together started off as “some kind of joke, until we actually made it real.” At an early age, tobii got into music and played the piano, which eventually led to his interest in producing music. Meanwhile, siyun decided to pursue music production while serving his mandatory Korean military service, and once he was discharged, he immediately spent time developing his music career. siyun had perfected his music production skills by the time they became a team which influenced tobii to learn from him. entoy’s name stands for “entertain on the yard” meaning they will entertain people in the yard with their music.
When it comes to music production, entoy divides the different branches amongst each other. siyun mainly manages drums, synthesizing, sound design, and mixing, while tobii handles the piano, guitar, and bass when developing a track. However, their roles are not set in stone as they sometimes switch up their specialties to accommodate their tracks as necessary. After working on their respective sections of a track, the duo comes together to mix and master the track. It’s truly a collaborative process between the two, and their professionalism is reflected in their music.
From the debut EP Dialogue in 2020 to the recent 2023 single release “Falling stars” with artists ilipp and shaltt, entoy “realized that many people like to hear bright-mood pop style music.” siyun and tobii have been trying to make that type of music with their songs like “I'll be there” with Zach Oliver, and “Period” with artists oze and Clavita. The producing duo defines their growth in listeners, which has increased since last June, as a memorable moment in their music career.
“I’ll be there” is one of entoy’s favorite songs they made, and they claim it is a song that their listeners like the most. They also told HALSUG that working on this song “helped us make our unique form of music.” Looking into the future, siyun and tobii revealed, “Many artists have their own representative song, and we would like to make a song that represents us.”
entoy fans range from the average listener like all of us to mainstream artists like MONSTA X's Kihyun and TXT's Taehyun. Addressing the recognition from big industry names, entoy expressed: “We think K-Pop artists are the representative artists of Korea, and the fact that they actually recommended our music, it feels so great, [and we are] also so thankful. But it is the same for all listeners. Sharing our music with someone is one of the most valuable things to us.” siyun and tobii shared they are very thankful and happy when anyone listens to their music and continues to share it with others.
Gaining musical inspiration from the music they listen to, which they believe many music lovers can relate to, entoy revealed, “When we listen to our favorite music, we feel the urge to make something just like it, and we make it happen. And we also get inspired by the great sound from film music.” Although R&B and pop music are their main genres, trap and electronic pop are genres they would be interested in exploring. “One day we would like to try an album of [those genres] just like The Chainsmokers and Clean Bandit.”
The duo’s approach to collaborating with artists on music is based on their own vocal standards and what they seek in their music. “And that’s balance. We want the vocals to be perfectly balanced with our music. We want our music to stay close to each fan and for that, our music must be in perfect harmony with the vocals.” entoy shared some of their dream collaborations naming artists like GEMINI, Justin Bieber, KATIE, and Khalid, which they feel are “perfect for our music.”
entoy wanted to leave HALSUG readers and fans with the following message: “We are so thankful for [fans] having us, and we are so grateful to whoever listens to our music. Look forward to us, and we promise you we will be back with even better and even more my-style songs.”