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From working as an English teacher to founding his own K-pop label, Paul Thompson opens up about his journey, struggles and dreams for his new girl group, VVS
Before Paul Thompson became one of K-pop’s most prolific songwriters, penning hits such as Exo’s “Love Shot,” NCT U’s “The 7th Sense” and Taeyeon’s “Fine,” his musical roots were planted far from Seoul — in the backseat of his parents’ car in the Bay Area, where Motown was the soundtrack of his youth.
“When I was really young, I loved Motown because my parents loved Motown. But eventually, as I got older, hip-hop,” Thompson said in an interview with The Korea Herald, May 15.
“I loved Dr. Dre, I loved The Game, Tupac, all that stuff. I was also from the Bay Area. There’s a specific genre of music from the Bay Area called Hyphy music. It’s like the most unique style of hip-hop. It influenced all of the southern hip-hop and, like a lot of the slang that you hear to this day, comes from the San Francisco Bay Area,” he added.
The spark — K-pop through SAT tutoring
Thompson first encountered K-pop while teaching a Korean family in the US that had recently moved from Busan, Korea’s second-largest city, for a couple of summers between 2007 and 2008 in his hometown of Stockton.
“Every time they would have a break time, students would watch K-pop and then they would show me what it was. I remember JYP, I remember they showed me ‘Nobody’ by Wonder Girls,” Thompson recalled. “But up until that point, I hadn’t known anything about K-pop.”
His impression of “Nobody” was that it was a clear homage to American R&B groups like The Supremes and the Temptations — and that curiosity stuck with him.
Years later, when he came to Korea to teach English in 2013, because his music career in LA didn’t work out and he needed to pay off student loans, he remembered JYP Entertainment and decided to send the agency his demos, just to see if there was still a shot at a music career.
Reigniting his passion in Seoul
After just eight months of teaching, Thompson realized he couldn’t let go of music.
He bought a keyboard at Nagwon Sangga, a mall with the largest collection of music-related stores in Korea and began playing in his room. “I got passion again,” Thompson said.
He looked up K-pop and started applying to local music labels. His previous experience as a headhunter at a Silicon Valley tech company helped him navigate the industry.
“When I was applying to K-pop agencies, I remembered JYP. I contacted, like, all the top people from JYP on LinkedIn,” Thompson said.
One of the JYP songwriters asked for a few tracks. Thompson submitted a demo he had written back in LA, and that track would later be released as “Once More” on singer-songwriter GSoul’s debut EP in 2015.
“This was within a week of me signing (with) JYP,” Thompson said.
Frustrations and rejections at JYP
Despite the promising start, Thompson’s two-year stint at JYP Entertainment proved difficult. Though originally contracted for three years, the company let him go early.
“When they originally signed me, I think they were excited because I had that one song (Once More) that ended up getting placed very quickly. But after that, I got nothing else for two years,” Thompson said.
He didn’t know much about K-pop at the time — let alone the JYP house style. He submitted many songs for 2PM, Got7 and Miss A, but none made it to the albums.
“They told me, like, ‘Paul, why don’t you listen to what’s on the charts and tell us what you think you can make?’ I remember specifically listening to Red Velvet’s ‘Happiness,’ Exo’s ‘Overdose’ and Taeyeon’s ‘I.’ I started to realize ‘oh, I can make this stuff,’” Thompson said.
He told JYP, but the company said those were songs in SM Entertainment’s (SM) style. A few years later, Thompson would get his chance there.
Hit after hit — but with compromise
At the end of 2015, Thompson joined SM through a deal with its sister publishing company Ekko Music Rights. There, he found a more fitting creative home.
Back then, SM’s sound was heavily influenced by early ’90s R&B, according to Thompson.
“I remember what really sparked my interest was when I discovered SM was working with huge R&B legends and pop writing legends from America such as Teddy Riley and Harvey Mason Jr. — ones that I looked up to,” Thompson said.
His first placement at SM was “Until Today,” a B-side on Taemin’s debut solo studio album, “Press It,” in 2016. That same album included “Drip Drop,” another track he worked on.
“I started to learn it, specifically SM style. They had a very fusion style (of music) because, at that time, they were the only K-pop company working with Koreans and foreign writers together,” he said. “I picked that up pretty quickly and then developed that sound with them.”
Thompson went on to write some of K-pop’s most iconic songs: “Ko Ko Bop,” “Tempo” and “Love Shot” for EXO; “Fine” for Taeyeon; and tracks for Girls’ Generation, Red Velvet, Super Junior and TVXQ. He also helped shape NCT U’s debut with “The 7th Sense,” one of his personal favorites.
But not all of his favorites made the cut.
“As a creative person, sometimes your favorite stuff is not what the company wants,” he said. “Especially when you’re working for a company — you’ve got to give them what they ask for, or what they need.”
Launching MZMC and VVS
In January 2019, Thompson left Ekko Music Rights to launch MZMC, an independent label and production team with six international songwriters.
One of the label’s first major projects is VVS, a multinational girl group formed through a global audition in 2020 with members from Korea, Japan and the US. The group officially debuted this month with its first EP, “D.I.M.M.”
“The reason why I wanted to do my own artist is because I wanted to make stuff I wanted to make. I wanted to make music that I want to hear and like,” Thompson said.
He had always wanted to produce a hip-hop, R&B girl group — a concept he believes hasn’t been central in K-pop girl groups.
He also wanted to do something different with VVS.
The group’s debut rollout began on April 7 with the “5 C’s Debut Trailer,” a 10-part cinematic teaser series introducing the concept and members. The videos featured stylized animations and action-driven visuals, with choreography by Koji Kawamoto, best known for “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
“I’ve always loved film and television and I’m an English literature major, so I’m into storytelling. I felt like one thing that used to be a part of K-pop a little bit more was storytelling in idol music.”
On the state of K-pop today
During his 13 years in Korea, Thompson has witnessed a dramatic evolution of K-pop. He wonders if today’s K-pop is chasing global relevance at the cost of its identity.
“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” he said. “But I don’t see a massive group in this new generation yet. When K-pop was just exclusively more Korean, you had legendary groups like BTS, Exo, Blackpink, Twice and Girls’ Generation.
“Now, what are the legendary groups that everybody knows their songs? I can think of groups that are big and they sell out arenas and they have strong fandom, but the general public can’t name their songs,” Thompson said. “I think that’s what NewJeans brought back … you could have a fandom, but also the general public knew all the songs and everybody can sing along.”
Thompson also worries that in chasing the goal of becoming next BTS or Blackpink, new groups may be losing the very soul that once made K-pop resonate.
“I am interested to see this next generation. Are they catering too much to trying to be the next Blackpink or BTS — like the western big hit? And are we losing the idea of what K-pop used to be, which I think made bigger artists back in the day,” he said. “There are more groups. It’s more spread out and it’s not concentrated, maybe. But where are the iconic groups of the new generation?
“Maybe it has to do with people trying too much to cater to the West or maybe it’s just a lull and some of these newer groups are going to end up taking off,” he added. “I don’t know.”
