With Her Bold New EP, Model Soo Joo Park Is Inventing Her Own Storyline

If Soo Joo Park looks a little familiar, it might be because you’ve seen her on the cover of Vogue Italia. Or walking the runway for Chanel, Moschino, and Fendi. Or in global ad campaigns for Tom Ford, L’Oreal, and Bvlgari. Over the past decade and a half, the Korean-born (but primarily American-raised) model has carved out a lane as someone designers turn to when looking to lend a little edge to their collections: With her bleach-blonde hair, striking 5’10” height, and razor-sharp cheekbones, she can make even a classic Chanel tweed suit feel somehow renegade.

With her new EP No Ghost, however, Park is hoping to become not just a face you might recognize, but a voice you might recognize too—by bringing that rebellious streak from her runaway appearances into the recording studio. While Park has made forays into music before—whether by releasing a cover of a ’60s Korean rock song in 2021, or performing live at a Chanel Métiers d’Art show under the moniker Ether—this time, she’s reintroducing herself under her own name.

“When I first started making music, I really didn’t want to compromise in any way, and I wanted to step away from what was ingrained, at least in my mind, of who Soo Joo the model is,” she says. “And then as I continued, I realized that these are all just parts of who I am. I overthink a lot, so I had to say to myself, Okay, take a step back. It’s just me. I’m making my own music, and Soo Joo can be my name for that as well.”

On No Ghost, Park takes an unusual constellation of sonic references—everything from ’50s country pop to ambient Japanese music to shoegaze—and distills it into five sumptuous slices of alternative pop, from the glitchy sensuality of “Kiss Me” to the thumping, ’90s-inflected club banger “Take It Off.” What unites them is their sense of otherworldliness: the looping melody of “Running Water” sounds like a kind of ancient chant, while on “Phuket,” the playful production and intricate percussion (courtesy of experimental composer Eli Keszler) also features snatches of birdsong Park recorded in the jungle. “It’s a little bit of back and forth between something a little more intimate to something a little more bold… and then back to melancholy, which is pretty much my life,” she says, laughing.