ÅNGEL 004, A Southern Heart With a Seoul Soul

By Alisha Proffitt • Photos Provided

ÅNGEL 004 has been making music for most of her life. She started writing songs around middle school age and quickly found herself performing at small country jamborees across rural Kentucky. These were gatherings where the whole town showed up, kids and grandparents included, just to listen. At one of them, she won a local talent contest, beating out a long list of competitors. That moment caught the attention of her grandfather, who raised her and became her earliest motivator. “Ever since then my grandfather was like, ‘Okay, there’s something here.’” 

By her late teens, ÅNGEL had already recorded two albums, written her own material, and performed throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, and Nashville. It was a lot of juggling. During the week she was in school, captaining her lacrosse team. On weekends she was on the road, performing under a country pop moniker that she could no longer relate to. When she turned 18, she made a choice that surprised those around her. She stopped. And what started as a break stretched into years, with music becoming something she did privately and for herself. 

During that time away, ÅNGEL went on to earn a master’s degree while working full time, building a career in project management, branding, and partnership development. She learned how systems work, how ideas get funded, and how creative labor is often undervalued. Those lessons would later influence how she approached her own career. When the 2020 pandemic hit, music found its way back in through a side door. She began DJing and performing under the name ÅNGEL 004, easing back into live audiences without returning completely to songwriting. 

Eventually, that format felt limiting. “I kind of hit a level where I was like, there’s more that I want to be giving in my performances that I don’t feel like the format of DJing really allows me to give,” she said. And so, she began producing her own music for the first time, learning how to create songs from the ground up. That process unfolded inside a shared artist house known as ALLSHOUSE, where musicians, fashion designers, filmmakers, and visual artists lived and worked together during lockdown. Art and expression were part of their daily lives. Meals, ideas, and projects were shared freely, and the influence of that environment still inspires her work. 

Around the same time, ÅNGEL began caring for her grandfather as his health declined. The experience was a lot for her to digest. “He was dying every day. I feel like this dream that he had for me was coming back into my body, for music, and it was getting stronger every day, and it was weird. I was like, “ s***, I know exactly what’s happening here. 

This weird energy that he had was pushing me, because he really did push me. And I think that’s maybe what made me quit, because Iwas not ready for it. But it was like my gosh, it’s going into me. It’s no longer like a dead dream. I can feel it. And so we took care of himat home for 2 years.” When he passed, she stepped onstage the day after his funeral for one of the biggest shows she had ever played.

ÅNGEL 004’s sound reflects a wide range of influences that make sense once you know her background. She grew up singing gospel hymns and country music while secretly listening to artists like Missy Elliott. Her vocals still have traces of classic country and gospel, while her production leans pop-forward and experimental.

“I think for me, my biggest inspiration is my love for people and my love for storytelling. And also, just understanding the big experiences of life and death and loss and love, those types of themes, I feel, really push themselves through a lot of my deepest art,” ÅNGEL said ofher music. “Even when it is given in a really cheeky way, everything I’ve written has been pretty deep and has a really big backstory layer to it. I don’t think I’ve ever written and been like, ‘those were just like throwaway lyrics.’” 

Though she now splits her time between Kentucky and New York, ÅNGEL consistently uses her platform to support Louisville’s creative community. Many of her shows double as fundraisers for local organizations, particularly those focused on music education for young people. She frequently invites other artists onstage and creates opportunities for emerging voices to be heard.

In March, ÅNGEL will release a new EP through sonaBLAST!, a Louisville-based label, her first official label deal. The release includes a visually ambitious music video made entirely by collaborators from ALLSHOUSE. Shortly after, she will tour South Korea, a major step for her as a Korean American artist. That tour will be documented and filmed, following her experience performing in Korea for the first time and later tracing her life back to Kentucky to show how the place has influenced her work. 

Her live performances are evolving as well. Upcoming shows are immersive, carefully designed environments in place of standard club sets. One New York performance will transform a church into a fully mapped visual art space with dancers, projections, and invite-only attendance. ÅNGEL’s promotion style is fun and clever. She uses projection mapping with collaborator Mimic Visuals to light up buildings and public spaces in Louisville, basically turning the city into her own little billboard without any messy posters or signs. One of the coolest parts is she projects her hotline number (1-844-ANGL-004) and people can call it to get exclusive EP leaks and demos. It’s like a secret club vibe, and it makes the whole thing feel more like an experience than a marketing campaign. 

ÅNGEL’s Derby season antics are a perfect example of how she turns the city into a stage. She’s known for staging surprise pop-up performances around Louisville. Last year, she got a U-haul donated and transformed it into a mobile stage, decorating the interior, setting up battery-powered speakers, and inviting fellow artists to perform while driving through the city with the back open with collaborator Velvet Gardens. They made stops at major Derby events and even crashed a well-known Derby brunch in Goshen, in hopes to bridge the gap between Louisville-local musicians and the fine art world of Louisville. This year, she’s taking the concept even further by applying to the Pegasus Parade with a pull-behind trailer stage.

Looking ahead, ÅNGEL is developing many, many, longer-term projects. One explores her Korean and Southern roots through sound and visuals with a major figure in the K-pop world, and it’s a pretty big deal. She connected with Peter Rafelson, who is known for helping influence the global pop sound and even played a key role in how K-pop became a worldwide phenomenon. He’s been mentoring her, helping her navigate the music industry and understand the business side of being an artist, like how to protect her rights, avoid predatory deals, and build a sustainable career. That kind of support can change the trajectory of a career. And knowing ÅNGEL, she’s going to take it and turn it into something uniquely her own. She has coined the term “K-Belle” to describe her unique sound, Korean Southern Belle.

Another project rethinks touring altogether, proposing a model where artists earn income while traveling by partnering with regional goods and trucking infrastructure. “So, I have a concept for a project, a company, basically an enterprise, called POPSTÅR TRUCKERS. I’m trying to create a business model that allows up-and-coming touring artists to get a CDL license and get rental of semis or small cargo trucks that allow them to take Louisville or Kentucky goods across to different cities and make drops and make money along the way, doing that as a trucking business,” she described. “ It’s also a reality TV show.”

She’s also working on a really sentimental project with Grandmaster Hwang. Grandmaster Hwang is a highly respected taekwondo master who has spent years building cultural connections between North and South Korea. ÅNGEL is partnering with him to bring the North Korean taekwondo team to the United States, which is a major undertaking and a rare opportunity. She will also be performing at his Korean Cultural Festival in March.

ÅNGEL adds that there is something else to look forward to in March. “I’ve spun up a listening party for my new EP ‘I SEE YOU’ for March5th at La La Land in collaboration with sonaBLAST!.” The EP and music video will be coming out on March 6th, so stay tuned!

ÅNGEL 004 is doing things her own way, mixing old-school with new-school, and it’s honestly going to be exciting to watch.

Special thanks to: 

My family, friends and partner who love and support me. 

SonaBlast! Records and Gill Holland for providing me with my first label deal. 

KY Creative Collaborators (in no specific order): T Pharo, Kactus Kuzco, Aria Baci, Zach Jett, Slyk, DJA, The Web Has No Weaver, Saba Gray + BioGlitz, Stivan Widick, David Jester, Nanae Itoi, Timmy Singer, 301 Sanchez, Eden Jade Lyra Otis, Crestview Studios and all dancers involved, Out Loud Louisville, Wandering Tree House, KXD, Tigresse Bleu, Jaymin Kumar, AHC, Michael Vettraino, Casey Powell, Caleb Perry Photographer ++ many more). 

Thank you to my mentors and guidance council; Shelly Zegert (rest in peace), Larry and Ladonna, Eleanor and Worth Bingham, Patrick Cummins, and Peter Rafelson. 

Anyone who has come to my shows, touched my art, supported online, or been involved in the creative community of Kentucky in any way - keep creating and may your creativity be blessed.