Leevisa had lived in South Korea all her life before she recently immigrated to Toronto, Canada. It was a sudden and somewhat unexpected decision. The vague expectations of living abroad and the disparity that comes with it, the feeling of alienation being a floating stranger, and the internal reconstruction of the various music she had previously experienced as a native Korean. Leevisa’s first full-length, Metro Blue, encompasses the thoughts and experiences of a musician who suddenly left home. It depicts a certain everyday life that she looks back on as a stranger.
The album captures the sunlight pouring in on the Subway Line 4 over Dongjak Bridge, an omelette for lunch while working at a small printshop, an attempt to write a UK garage tune, the news of deaths during a busy commute, and the everyday life of people who have lost their normality.
A description of how it feels to live in everyday life in the modern world often takes on a negative tone—a dull, monotonous meaninglessness among the extraordinary moments. But if you look back at that sensation and time in more detail, you’ll find that it’s not made up of a colourlessness devoid of any vibration, but rather a series of small spikes. From positive joys to negative melancholy or pointless daydreams and burdening worries to fleeting sparks of beauty. Those are moments that are too brief and volatile to remain in memory for too long—often flattened by the iron of “everyday life”—but they indeed exist. So in ways both large and small, Metro Blue promises to serve as a time capsule of sorts, preserving the ephemeral sensations that punctuate the continuous flow of the everyday.
In Toronto, the sounds are different, the pace is different. The cacophony of the city, albeit similar to her hometown, harbours a distinct harmony that Leevisa has had to recalibrate to. Her music reflects this transition: the juxtaposition of familiar rhythms against the backdrop of new, uncharted territories. Driving beats synonymous with the hustle and bustle of Toronto intersecting with the subtle, lingering melodies reminiscent of her life in South Korea.
Metro Blue isn’t just an album; it’s an emotional scrapbook. Leevisa dives into the essence of what makes ordinary moments significant and curates them into musical pieces that speak intimately to the listener. She navigates through the labyrinth of her experiences, bringing forth a mix of nostalgia and anticipation, a compelling portrayal of change and adaptation—all echoed through her soundscapes.
Clubs, museums, Instagram, and SoundCloud are fragments where Leevisa hones her methodology, where Metro Blue breaks free—assembling an honest composition of attitude, shaping together her real-life experiences. In these places, her music doesn’t just exist; it interacts, evolving with each copyright note and visual gallery post. With every track, Leevisa charts the emotional terrain of her journey, creating a resonance that is both deeply personal and broadly relatable.
In an age where transitions are frequent and sometimes overwhelming, Metro Blue offers a sanctuary. It’s an invitation to pause, reflect, and cherish the fleeting instances that construct our daily lives, packaged in melodies that traverse both continents and emotions.
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Photos by @joel_eel
