[EXCLUSIVE] Interview: Finding Home in Dailog’s Basecamp

If you met Dailog at a real campsite, he wouldn’t start by calling himself a musician. Instead, he'd probably say, “Hi, I’ll get the fire going if you bring some marshmallows. I’ve got a small guitar too, because music is what I love.” That’s exactly the vibe of his debut EP, basecamp, warm, and approachable.

Photo Dailog

For anyone meeting him for the first time: Dailog is a music producer, composer, and singer-songwriter based in Seoul. His name comes from daily + log, a small nod to the way he sees music as a diary of ordinary life, little snapshots of feeling and thought. After composing over a hundred tracks for K-dramas, K-pop acts, and indie artists, basecamp is his first time telling stories entirely in his own voice.

The EP didn’t begin as a grand plan. In fact, he wasn’t trying to make an album at all. At first, he was just jotting down thoughts, strumming a few chords, letting emotions spill into tiny musical sketches. But as the songs started piling up, one thing kept coming back: love. 

“That love made me feel like a child again—full of joy, hope, and courage, but also fragile at times.”

It was when he thought about love as a place of refuge, tied to the nature he adores, that the word basecamp clicked. And suddenly, the scattered sketches became a story.

And what a story it is. The six tracks of basecamp unfold like a single day in music: “morning twist” shines like sunlight seeping through a tent flap, “campfire” glows like the last warmth of fading flames. Between them, you find surf-rock bursts (boyscout), tender lo-fi moments (doodle), and breezy coastal vibes (pajama party). 

Photo Dailog

“I wanted the album to feel like a diary of one day,” Dailog explains. “In a way, it was my answer to the question: why does an album need to exist as an album?”

Coming from a world where songs often need to hook listeners in 15 seconds—having worked with idols like SEVENTEEN’s DK, TWICE, and Red Velvet’s Joy and Wendy—Dailog found freedom in taking his time. 

“Honestly, it was very freeing. I did worry: what if people don’t even make it to the chorus? But I believe if music has something real to say, people will listen, whether it takes 15 seconds or 30.”

Equally freeing was the choice to abandon his “comfort chords.” Where some producers sneak in familiar sounds as signatures, Dailog deliberately broke his habits here. He wanted new textures, something more vulnerable and less polished. The result is an EP that doesn’t just sound like him, but feels like him.

Photo Dailog

Even if you muted the vocals, the record would still hum with life: a campsite alive from sunrise to nightfall. 

“It would probably tell the story of a campsite from sunrise to the early hours of the night,” he says.

“You’d hear hope, joy, courage, happiness, and even a little bit of longing woven in.” But it’s not all introspection. His playful side peeks out, too. If one idol could crash the dreamy “pajama party,” it would be NewJeans’ Hanni, chosen partly for her energy, partly because… he admits it, he’s a fanboy.

Photo Dailog

Beyond the music, Dailog’s real basecamp isn’t in a recording studio. It’s by the Han River, where people gather in all sorts of ways: couples sitting together, joggers passing by, others lost in their own music. 

“Walking slowly among them makes all my complicated thoughts fade away and leaves me with a peaceful mind,” he says.

It’s the same feeling he hopes listeners get from basecamp: a small, safe space to breathe.

And if he could leave a little doodle on the album cover? It would be a bright yellow sun. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had the habit of drawing suns above people’s heads. It feels like a natural addition,” he says. You can imagine it hovering over the cozy campsite of his songs.

He even thinks about what he’d bury in a time capsule at his life’s basecamp right now: a camera, his Mac Mini, and—if it would fit—a guitar. Tools for memory, creation, and music, tucked away for the future.

And, of course, he leaves one last life tip: “Don’t fall in love—you’ll end up a complete fool who knows nothing. But then again, that’s exactly the beauty of love.”

Photo Dailog

With basecamp, Dailog builds more than a six-song EP. He builds a tent big enough for listeners to step inside, share warmth, and laugh a little at the silliness of love. Or, as he puts it: “Thank you for stepping into my basecamp. I hope it feels like a small tent where you can take a break, laugh a little, and find some comfort.”

Dailog

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