Stanford Creates: Singer-songwriter Mica Kim ’28 shares the joy of composing

In “Stanford Creates,” columnist Emily Chen ’29 highlights student endeavors in the arts and how they‘re brought to life at Stanford.  

Mica Kim ’28 is a songwriter whose creativity and artistic joy resonates through every open mic and practice room at Stanford. From performing at On Call Café to collaborating with musicians across campus, Kim shares catchy, vibrant and colorful tunes with fans and listeners. 

Kim grew up playing guitar and drums and developed an early appreciation of music through gaming. Through rhythm games like Stepmania or Dance Dance Revolution, Kim was introduced to tracks by electronic artist Porter Robinson — but “wouldn’t be able to comprehend how [they’re] made,” Kim said. 

That changed in high school. When Kim took an elective course that introduced him to the Beatles, the band inspired Kim to create as they had.

From then on, Kim’s enthusiasm for music took off. 

“I was lucky enough to have parents who would buy me gear and encourage me…and friends who would bear the adolescent phase of my music-making,” Kim said. 

Sometimes, Kim said, the songwriting process comes easily. In his recent song “Hi!,” Kim tried to “capture the feeling [he] got from a Sam Fender song.” 

“The chords came really naturally to me,” he said. The sophomore said he finished “Hi!” within an hour. 

However, songwriting is typically murkier. “I don’t know what this song is going to be about, so I’m going to write three words that I wouldn’t have thought of usually,” Kim said of his songwriting process. “It’s a lot of probing into the void and seeing what creates the biggest cracks and following through.” 

Kim challenges himself to try new things in order to spark creativity. 

The musician also tends to revisit his old ideas. Some projects that fall through can always be revived later with “lots of Frankensteining,” Kim said. 

Aside from his past work, Kim cited many other influences, including Prince, Kimishima Ozora, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles for guitar. For drums, Kim looks to J. Dilla, D’Angelo and Tony Allen, and for songwriting, Kim draws inspiration from Nick Drake and Adrienne Lenker. 

“There have been multiple times where I’ve played a song and then someone I didn’t really talk to came up to me and was like, do you listen to Nick Drake? Because it sounds like you do,” Kim said. 

Art and narratives outside the music industry also inspire Kim to create music. Kim once made a concept album around Dante’s “Inferno,” which he described as being “really awful.” However, the desire to finish a project based on an existing framework improved his skills rapidly. 

Collaboration is similarly an essential part of Kim’s creative process and philosophy. Kim recorded the track “Cobblestone” with singer-songwriter Sasha Zhang ’28, whom he met on an online forum for gap-year students. 

“The process is very much just sitting in a room together playing instruments and throwing ideas at each other until something is unforgettable for us,” Kim said. Kim said he holds a deep respect for his collaborators.

“If I’m collaborating with someone there’s always going to be someone there way better than me [at something],” Kim said. “[If] I can’t sing this passage, I’ve got possibly one of the best singers I know right here.” 

“[Mica’s] just always down to do anything, and it’s so much fun to work with him,” said friend and collaborator Zachary Guo ’28, a composer who also plays piano and organ.

Kim also recently worked on sound design for his friend Heechan Lim ’28, a filmmaker. Kim was on the team for Lim’s short film, “Pentimento,” a story about romance and connection filmed at Stanford. 

“Whenever I think of somebody who embodies an artist in both spirit and product, Mica is a very good example,” Lim said. 

Kim views song-writing strictly as a hobby, finding that the process becomes stressful once he produces music for money. To him, it all circles back to the joy of music. 

The musician’s goals are simple: “I just want to make cool [stuff] that very few people hear, [or gets heard by] just the right amount of people,” he said. 

And for Kim, that is more than enough.

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