1986–2011: Early life Joo Woo-jae was born on November 28, 1986, in
Changwon,
South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, as the youngest of two sons. In , he received "A+" grades in solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, and thermodynamics, and was tested to have an
IQ of 137 at the time. For his tertiary education, he studied at
Hongik University in
Seoul for
mechanical engineering with an academic
scholarship for ranking within the top 5%, following his father who worked in the automobile industry and older brother who completed his studies in the same department. With one semester left, Joo requested a leave of absence to enjoy life before graduating and preparing for a job at
Samsung. He started an online clothing store for which he modelled and scavenged the styles himself from the
Dongdaemun Market, SSRL (에스에스알엘) (formerly Siesta). Stemmed from his love for music evoked by the radio since childhood, Joo also bought equipment which included a
stereo mix and
microphone to broadcast his own radio show through
Winamp. Joo worked on his online store during the day, and broadcast his radio show titled "You, Give Me All the Burden" (그대, 모든 짐을 내게), for two hours at midnight. With 1,200 concurrent listeners per broadcast, he was offered to host an offline concert; accepting its offer, Joo programmed the show and invited musicians to guest, including Acoustic Collabo,
Cheez,
Giriboy, and
Nucksal, amidst others, ==Other ventures==