1970–97: Early life in Seoul, move to New York Whang was born in
Seoul and relocated to
Busan in the fifth grade of elementary school. In 1985, at age fifteen, she moved to the United States with her family. During her sophomore year in high school, she received an
acoustic guitar as a birthday gift and started playing and writing music in her diary. She then left college, without graduating, for an "extended tramp around the world to find herself and her voice", visiting Japan, Vietnam, France and Thailand. who joined her on the last track. she decided to take time off, and in 2003 she returned to New York and the Pratt Institute, to study sculpture, and graduated with a
B.F.A. in 2007. In April and August 2012, she joined other indie singers, led by Song Eun-ji, to perform three concerts and release the album
Please Talk, to benefit
comfort women. In 2013, Smacksoft received a second nomination for the Best Modern Rock Album by the Korean Music Awards for the album
Follow Your Heart.
As If Nothing Ever Happened ranked number 35 on the K-Indie Chart. She said she felt like producing "simple acoustic music" for a calming effect, to counterbalance some of the chaotic world events like the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the following
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that had upset her. ==Artistry==