In Her New Music, DEVYN Is Finally Embracing Her Most “Authentic Self”
“I am such a strong advocate of being your unapologetic self and embracing all sides of who you are,” DEVYN says in this exclusive interview.
Back when DEVYN was a model, she was a muse who operated for other people’s ideas. Despite being a self-trained artist with years of experience, her ambitions were often overlooked. She dreamt of becoming a multi-dimensional, professional artist whose work could shift across mediums: acting, singing, even fine art. But DEVYN was rarely given the autonomy to be herself.
“I was very easily influenced and swayed,” she told me recently on Zoom from Los Angeles. “I felt very boxed in and confused because I felt like I had to play a role that wasn't necessarily who I wanted to be just so I could get the booking or please those around me.”
This image-making, one that DEVYN did not have a hand in, meant that the singer spent the better part of her first few years in Los Angeles playing a role that others saw her in. But in 2020, the pandemic crept into America and life slowed down. DEVYN began to question what she was doing.
“I had time to think and reflect about who I wanted to be,” she said. She wanted more from her artistry, even if she wasn’t entirely sure how to get there.
One person who she kept in touch with from home, and who always believed in her, was Natalie Huyen, an outgoing creative director and visual artist.
Like many millennials, Huyen got her start at a young age advocating for bands on MySpace and attending shows. “I’ve always had a knack for seeing the potential in people. That’s why when I was young I was going to underground shows to support any way I could, and the artists I went to see many years ago are now playing stadiums.” Huyen said, adding as a reason for this work’s mission, “I want to see people win.”
Today, not only does Huyen manage DEVYN, she is also the Creative Director and producer of their visuals and content.
“When we first met, we saw how similar we are. We had the same musical taste and love for alternative rock, K-Pop and R&B,” DEVYN recalled. “We always had this gravitational pull to edgier visuals and music.”
DEVYN’s previous manager and her parted ways during the pandemic , and it was then that Huyen asked if she could manage her.
“She asked me how I wanted to see myself as an artist; not as a model, just as an artist or a person,” DEVYN said. “And it was completely opposite of how I was representing myself at the time.”
They feed off each other’s creative energy. Their tastes are eclectic and pull from a wide range of sources. Put together they knew they could create something powerful. It felt essential that they create work that spoke to DEVYN’s identity not just as a woman, but as someone who is half-Korean and who, for years, felt muted.
“What are you doing then?!” Huyen coaxed DEVYN. “Let’s get started!” From there, Huyen gathered her inspiration, artistic references, and resources to start pushing DEVYN into this new direction.
Before beginning this new journey, “I was led to believe I had to be soft and easily digestible,” DEVYN recalled.
DEVYN grew up in Washington State, but her family moved around some as her father was in the military. He met her mother while stationed in Korea, where DEVYN was eventually born and where her family lived until she was seven years old.
Her identity was something that she struggled with growing up. “I’ve always felt insecure being white and Korean,” she told me. “I felt like I didn’t fit in any space.” Though she might not have known it at the time, DEVYN’s sense of displacement is a shared feeling for many Korean Americans. The feminist writer Cathy Park Hong observed these feelings akin to “frantically paddling my feet underwater, always overcompensating to hide my devouring feelings of inadequacy.”
Instead, DEVYN felt most comfortable as a performer. “My aunties and uncles in Korea were always asking me to sing and put on a show,” she said, “and I would always do it without hesitation.”
Growing up, she was the most artistic one of her friends: participating in choir, rehearsing in dance classes, embracing acting, singing, once even taking a pottery class. “Some of my friends made fun of me because I was always singing to myself and in these certain artistic classes and clubs,” she said with a wry smile. “But I’ve always had a deep appreciation for the arts.”
She started modeling in Seattle, but the work wasn’t fulfilling. “I have been told what people wanted from me for so long, but didn’t hear as much of what I wanted; what my vision was or how I see myself,” DEVYN said. “I was led to believe I had to be soft and easily digestible.”
In 2020 when DEVYN and Huyen began working together, the friendship was as much of a “relief” as it felt like a “safe” place for DEVYN to finally be herself. “I started that journey, then, of being my most authentic self and accepting all sides of me,” she said.
Huyen encouraged DEVYN to be as “unapologetically herself and as authentic” as possible, and DEVYN quckly wrote her first song for this new era, a track called “WHO”. That song became part of an EP, which she wrote herself, titled the same name. This EP explored the nuanced, complicated sides of DEVYN. “Far gone in the deep end,” she sings on “Too Comfortable”. “I know I need to end it, but we’ve lost all of our senses.”
This time, DEVYN didn’t have to be a heroine or the perfect girl. She could simply be herself: a hopeless romantic, a woman dealing with the complicated feelings of love and finally, the messy freedom of growing into her own person.
DEVYN wrote in an Instagram post to announce the song, “[This is] one of my most intimate songs. Wrote about self discovery, acceptance of change, and most importantly embracing WHO I was, WHO I am, and WHO I will be.”
“I’m gonna love that song forever because it represents so much,” she said. She looks back on the time as a period “when I was realizing and embracing who I was and who I’m gonna be.”
“WHO” welcomed a new era in DEVYN’s career. She began to take ownership of her art, and embraced the complicated pieces of her past. Today, she wants other young women to know their worth and purpose. “I am such a strong advocate of being your unapologetic self and embracing all sides of who you are,” she said. “You may not like all of you, but there is beauty in the imperfections. It’s what separates you from everyone else.”
"I see myself as a multi-faceted artist. I have so many interests in the creative and artistic field besides just making music and performing,” DEVYN explains.
DEVYN and Huyen have a powerful ability to manifest goals for themselves.
Every year, the women write goals for themselves and in 2020, GEMINI, a burgeoning K-indie singer, was on their list of artists they wanted to work with.
“I resonated with GEMINI’s music so much and I thought, ‘I’d love to open for him one day,’” DEVYN remembered.
DEVYN and Natalie Huyen backstage at GEMINI’s show.
“You have to open for Gemini. We will open for him someday.” Huyen encouraged her friend.
Three years later, GEMINI announced the STILL BLUE tour, his first North American tour. When Huyen heard that he didn’t have an opener for his show in Seattle, she pitched DEVYN to fill the slot “without hesitation,” she cracked.
“Natalie immediately pitched me knowing that I’ve never performed a show,” DEVYN said and with excitement, she was accepted as the opener. “And I started rehearsing for it.”
The show was both a homecoming and an affirmation that the three years of collaborative work is paying off. “As soon as I hit the stage, it confirmed everything that I’ve felt,” DEVYN said. “My whole family was there. My best friends were there. It was where I grew up. It was a full circle moment.”
In the weeks following the concert, DEVYN has been working on more music. This work builds on the lush, sophisticated songs she’s already released. “U”, a dreamy slow-burn of a song released in February, is remarkably self-assured for an artist who is still independent. She has another single called “Moon” dropping in June, which she describes as one of her most personal. She also has just released merch, which sold out at the show.
“I like to have a creative hand in everything I do,” she added. And she’s continuing to push her art: Shapeshifting into new looks, perfecting new styles of music, by reaching further into her identity to portray a woman who only answers to herself.
Huyen’s question launched DEVYN into the career she has now, but I wondered how she views herself today, three years after that pivotal question?
She paused, when I asked her this and held my gaze for a moment. “I see myself as a multi-faceted artist. I have so many interests in the creative and artistic field besides just making music and performing,” she said carefully. “I see myself selling out shows. I want to see myself on the big screens. I want to connect deeply with my fans and the support I have.”
But then she said perhaps the most important part, the piece that drives DEVYN to continue this work. “I just want to do what I love and am so passionate about,” she said, “to connect, create, and reach a deep level of vulnerability and authenticity.”
