A Chat with Senior Dunce (21.08.25)
Senior Dunce is a Korean producer, sound designer, and educator with over 20 years of experience, celebrated for his eccentric style, love of kick drums, and wryly self-deprecating persona. Blending past scars with present curiosities, he crafts genre-defying soundscapes that challenge norms and reframe failure as freedom. His latest single, ‘Romantic LLM’, featuring South Korean R&B/soul vocalist DORA, pairs shimmering 80s-inspired synths with heartfelt pop hooks to explore love, longing, and intimacy in an age shaped by algorithms. We speak with him about ‘Romantic LLM’, technology in music, and much more.
OSR: Senior Dunce is a fascinating character, part philosopher, part outsider, part prankster. How did this persona first emerge, and what keeps you returning to it?
Dunce: In fact, Senior Dunce is simply a distilled version of my own life. I didn’t hide or change much, just added some dramatic touches through outfits and lyrics. I struggled in school with ADHD and depression, and I was often the target of bullying. Even in art school, where many unusual students gathered, I didn’t quite fit in. Was I good at music? Not really. I wasn’t a strong performer either because of stage fright. When I was younger, I wanted to project a cooler image, like many other musicians, stylish and glamorous. But that was never truly me, and it felt like a lie. Returning to the figure of the Dunce felt natural and actually made me happy. Now I just want to keep showing my honest self, and I hope people like me can find courage in that – knowing it’s okay to be exactly who you are.
OSR: ‘Romantic LLM’ is such a striking title. What first inspired you to reimagine ‘Large Language Model’ as a metaphor for love?
Dunce: To me, this theme isn’t that unusual in art. Think of the film Her. At first, I wasn’t very moved by it, but after using LLM services recently, the idea of Senior Dunce eventually marrying an LLM suddenly felt like a perfect fit. Another narrative I liked was the idea of Dunce, who always gets rejected by women, accidentally meeting a stunning beauty, only to discover she’s an AI robot. When I write songs, I always start with the Dunce character. His desperation and misery naturally lead to extreme storylines. And since English isn’t my first language, when I write lyrics in English, they sometimes come out sounding robotic. So when I write about love, it almost feels like a robot describing it. That’s how Senior Dunce became someone who could fall in love with an LLM.
OSR: The track plays with irony and sincerity at the same time. Do you find yourself leaning more toward one, or do you prefer to live in the tension between the two?
Dunce: That’s a really good question. Looking back, I think I try to express both. Ironically, humans can never love in a truly unconditional and perfect way. Yet the word “love” itself suggests something unconditional and perfect. So in reality, human love is always imperfect, always conditional. In a broader sense, Senior Dunce represents “the limits of humanity.” When people face their limits, they often feel foolish. Out of that comes sincerity, sadness and loneliness. Maybe it’s what you could call “true sadness” in an ironic world.
OSR: The production has a strong ’80s shimmer but feels very contemporary too. Were there particular sonic references or influences you drew on?
Dunce: I don’t usually set out to copy a particular sound. Instead, I try to capture what Senior Dunce is feeling and translate that into sound. I was aiming for a dystopian atmosphere. I drew some inspiration from Kool & the Gang, Electric Youth, and Daft Punk. But even when I borrow from the past, I always want to reinterpret it in a new way. With this track, I feel I’ve arrived at a genuinely new form of music.
OSR: DORA’s contribution brings a warmth that feels crucial. How do you choose collaborators who fit into the Senior Dunce universe?
Dunce: I usually create a lot of songs first and then look for vocalists. In DORA’s case, she’s a highly skilled singer who’s clearly studied and refined her technique. Many K-pop vocalists share a similar tone, but she has her own unique voice. Since this track was designed from the start to reject anything ordinary, I could never have asked a typical Korean vocalist to sing it. Honestly, the lyrics and music were unusual enough that I would have understood if she had declined. But she delivered professionally, recording in just one hour and perfectly capturing the feeling of a machine’s emotion.
OSR: There’s a bittersweet humour in falling for an AI “out of inevitability”. How much of that reflects your own worldview about human relationships today?
Dunce: Humans often justify their actions as inevitable, but in truth, it’s about our own greed. Why do we love? Couldn’t we simply not? Yet we insist on love, even through machines. Big tech companies will keep inventing new forms of need, just to make us use their technologies. It may sound humorous in the song, but in reality, it’s a frightening glimpse of our dystopia.
OSR: If an AI could truly write a love song, what do you think it would sound like compared to ‘Romantic LLM’?
Dunce: I think it would sound very familiar. Current AI music is technically impressive – you enter a prompt and it creates something new. But it doesn’t really invent new styles. It tends to recycle samples and sounds we already know. In contrast, I design or layer every drum sound myself, always trying to express things in ways that don’t already exist. I often break away from conventional patterns and instrumentation, but I also don’t want to make music that’s incomprehensible. AI can mimic Miyazaki Hayao’s drawing style, but he’s the one who originally created it. I don’t follow AI. AI will follow us.
OSR: What’s the most ‘human’ moment in ‘Romantic LLM’ for you? Whether it’s a lyric, a chord, or a vocal line?
Dunce: For me, the most human part is the intro and outro. They share the same vocal lyrics and a bathroom-style reverb, while the middle of the song has no such reverb. I wanted the beginning and end to feel connected. This idea came from Buddhist concepts of reincarnation. It’s the kind of arrangement I believe AI could never come up with.
OSR: You’ve been in music for over two decades. How has your relationship with technology in music shifted over time?
Dunce: When I first started making music, virtual instruments were just emerging. Hardware companies were collapsing while new software companies appeared – it was a time of upheaval. I think that shift changed music completely. In the Middle Ages, pens and paper were so rare that only the wealthy could write poetry or novels. Music equipment was similar. Now, software instruments are like pen and paper – anyone can have them. And now with AI, people can create music just by typing a prompt. The same is true in photography, film, media art, and digital art – we live in an age of creative inflation. Unlike in the past, when everyone listened to a handful of major artists, that unified experience is fading. For independent artists, I think it’s becoming less about reaching thousands or millions and more about finding meaning in the act of creating itself.
OSR: Looking beyond this single, what directions do you see your music taking in the next year or two?
Dunce: As I said earlier, I see value in creation itself. I’ll keep enjoying the process of making music and releasing new work. I want to portray Senior Dunce in ways that bring hope and connection. That might mean music videos, multimedia projects, or works that engage with social issues. There are already so many skilful and good-looking musicians out there. What I want to show is that even someone like a dunce can exist as a shy musician.
Many thanks to Senior Dunce for speaking with us. Find out more about Senior Dunce on his Instagram and Spotify.
