Few artists wear failure as a badge of honor quite like Senior Dunce. With a persona rooted in self-acknowledgement rather than self-deprecation, the enigmatic musician crafts songs that teeter between vulnerability, irony, and philosophical inquiry. His latest track, Romantic LLM, blurs the lines between storytelling and sonic experiment, meditating on the possibilities of AI love, the awkwardness of human desire, and the honesty that drives his creative process. In conversation with Urbanista Magazine, Senior Dunce opens up about embracing flaws, finding inspiration in late-’90s British melancholy, and why honesty—not irony—is his sharpest instrument.
“Romantic LLM” has a strong narrative quality. Do you approach songwriting more like storytelling or more like sonic experimentation?
I always begin with the virtual character “Senior Dunce.” Most people are not models or charmers, which means that at least one-third of humanity struggles to find a partner, making love feel especially precious. If someone were Senior Dunce, what would they prefer: AI or a human? I am certain they would choose AI. Today we recognize several sexual orientations such as straight, homosexual, and bisexual, but in the future we may define a new one, which I call “AI-sexual.”
Your music often meditates on failure and awkwardness. Why do you think these themes resonate so deeply in our current cultural moment?
Actually, this theme already existed in 1990s British culture. I am 100% sure that nowadays, Korean musicians and songwriters (and artists around the world) grew up listening to late ’90s British music like Radiohead, Portishead, Massive Attack, or Suede. Didn’t they already talk about failure, futility, and meaninglessness? They already awakened us to our flaws through depression. But in our current cultural moment, I would prefer to reduce depression, because I want us to love ourselves and respect each other, even when we are dumb. I mean self-acknowledgement.
Do you think irony is a shield, or can it also be a form of vulnerability in art?
I actually expected this kind of question. Many people assume that I have some amazing strategy, or that my use of irony and noise marketing is calculated—but that’s completely wrong. All of this comes from honesty. I’m not a celebrity or a K-pop star. I’m just an unknown artist, deeply immersed in my subconscious, my inner world, and the joy of making music. In my opinion, honesty is naturally a form of vulnerability in the music industry. How many flashy artists truly want to be superficial or exaggerate themselves? Fans don’t want to see images of someone in a poor condition. Nevertheless, I choose honesty to express my ideas. So, to return to the original question: before irony becomes a shield or a form of vulnerability, my answer is honesty. I hope readers can understand this.
What role does philosophy play in your creative practice—do you begin with a question, or does the question emerge once the track is done?
It varies with each track I create. If you call my story “philosophy,” that might be a bit of an overstatement. Anyway, regarding my creative process, sometimes a sound in my head creates a story, sometimes the story comes first and I make the music around it, and sometimes the story comes first and I select from music and lyrics I’ve already made. The interesting thing is that a story is always important in my music. I have a very active imagination. From my perspective, having a vivid imagination often means facing conflicts in a corporate or group environment. Even extremely smart people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or someone like Steve Jobs have to navigate internal conflicts within their own companies. So what if someone like me has no extraordinary abilities but a rich imagination? It tends to make people see you as an eccentric. I feel fortunate that I can channel this tendency into art.
Collaboration with DORA feels essential to the song’s balance. How did the partnership come about, and what does her voice bring to the track that you couldn’t achieve alone?
There is a singer-songwriter named Gimpado, whom I often admire. He collaborated with DORA on a track called AUDIYA, and after hearing it, I always wanted to create a song with her. If you listen to my tracks, you’ll notice that DORA’s vocal tone is very unique, deep and rich, yet soulful. It’s not the uniform type of voice you often hear in K-pop. I intentionally wrote the lyrics to have a mechanical feel, and the moment they came out of DORA’s mouth, I thought, “She really sounds like a machine.” It even felt like a convincingly produced AI vocal. I had somewhat expected it, but I didn’t anticipate it would fit so perfectly.
Do you think technology is reshaping not just how we find love, but how we feel love itself?
The way we find love has been changing throughout human history. It will continue to change in the future, but the way we feel love itself probably won’t. Robots and AI will strive and research ways for humans to experience love more fully. They will be customized for each individual user using big data. They might even be more attractive than humans. In the future, real relationships with actual people might become almost unbearable. When we put robots on a production line, they work without vacations or strikes—doesn’t that make you uneasy? It’s the same with love. That robot could have the face of a BTS member, cook like Gordon Ramsay, be kinder and more polite than the Pope, and be as protective and dependable as Conor McGregor. Everything about them. size, shape, abilities can be optimized. Are you ready to compete against those AI robots to win her heart? Actually, there’s no need to compete—you could simply get a new machine to love.
Your persona as “Senior Dunce” has always been self-deprecating. Does this track carry elements of that character, or does it move closer to something personal?
Of course, this track is also a story of Senior Dunce. I always have to start from the perspective of human flaws. But it’s not self-deprecation—it’s self-acknowledgement. All humans have flaws. No matter how close to perfect someone may be, they can always feel small when compared to others. Usually, we dislike ourselves for being less capable than others. Some people say, “You may not be good at this, but you’re good at something else, so keep going!” But what if there’s nothing you’re better at than anyone else? Not every person with ALS can have a mind as brilliant as Stephen Hawking. The important thing is that we tend to feel too much sadness when we fail to contribute to society or lose in competition with others. If you live a life like Senior Dunce, life can be a bit exhausting, but you still need to find ways to feel gratitude and happiness while moving forward in the environment you’re given. In fact, this was also part of my experience with depression treatment at the hospital. So I say in this song, ‘Love with AI is fine too. If love makes you sad, you can just be with AI.’
Much of your music explores failure and awkwardness in creative ways. Do you see “Romantic LLM” as continuing that theme?
Sure, I always do. And I want to offer comfort so that people can overcome that sadness. It would be great if I can also find a way to do that. There’s a self-deprecating song called Trash by Suede, and a healing song like Fix You by Coldplay. In fact, just as our lives and emotions are not fixed but keep changing, my music will probably express the feelings of each moment. And perhaps it will also offer solutions. There are people like Bono who show us the path we should take, aren’t there?
If the “Dunce” character could give advice about love in the AI age, what would it be?
I always have this sentence in my head: “Humans are imperfect, greedy, and always make mistakes.” So you don’t need to worry or get stressed—everything will be fine, because we’ll find a way to solve the problems someday. This isn’t just about love; it’s general advice for life.
What do you hope listeners feel when they hear “Romantic LLM”—on the dancefloor, in their headphones, or late at night?
I hope listeners can enjoy this track with a light heart. Although there are many threatening messages in the song, I don’t want our attitude to be too serious all the time. We may accidentally create great disasters, but in the end, we will solve them and evolve anew. In that process of evolution, there might be love with AI, or there could be wars and mass layoffs. I’m not a futurist, but whether or not you feel uncomfortable with this idea, the reality is something we already have to accept.
