London Korean Links

Anna Lindgren continues her series of interviews with interesting musicians

When only a few days remained of 2006, Korea’s most distinguished indie folk duo said “goodbye” with the release of their second full album. We were many that didn’t quite want to believe it - of course there were other prominent folk acts, but nothing quite like Bluedawn. The two members still make music on their own, however, and last month the male half, slowzz, released an EP that should make all former Bluedawn fans still restless feel more at ease. With much assistance from mrkwang I managed to perform an email interview with him to learn more on his solo project, The Invisible Fish.

slowzz, real name Jung Sang Hoon, has always enjoyed listening to music. He didn’t have any special training, but eventually just found himself doing music of his own. Making what his friends describe as “postnoisefolk”, the music of The Invisible Fish is influenced by post-rock flavoured American music, such as that of Low, Gregor Samsa and The Burning Paris, and experimenting Korean indie acts such as byul, Amature Amplifier and Underwear Band. While there are obvious traces of Bluedawn to be found in this solo project of his, as a listener I’ve found that his music has taken new and exciting directions: some sprawling folktronica here, some eerie drone pop there - all while keeping the beauty and mellowness intact. Though slowzz says he just changed the kinds of sounds and put them in other locations than usual, so it was just a natural progression that didn’t really seem all that different to him.

The debut release from The Invisible Fish, entitled Through The Glass Wall, is the first in a series of three. As he wanted to do everything by himself, he didn’t bother to go looking for a label but released the CD himself. It was a “fun & good experience”. The EP has a life and death theme, which is noticeable already with the first track as the title, 문턱, not only translates to “threshold” but also holds the meaning of a boundary between life and death. “Sometimes we give too much meaning for life”, he states mysteriously. While making the EP, slowzz wanted to add more songs as he went along, but out of fear of straying too far from the theme only nine tracks were pressed on CD. But Through The Glass Wall is more than just a CD: as a token of respect to those that purchase it, with inspiration from the additional online features often offered with computer software, a downloadable 4 track EP going by “20-C Stereo Radio” and some other goodies are included in the price.

While there are plenty of really good songs among those released by The Invisible Fish so far, there was one in particular that I just had to know the story behind. The track in question was 금 남로 - a fairly melancholic composition with news clips in English, German and Korean related to the Kwangju uprising - 18 May 1980. slowzz said he had done the basics for this song already back in 2006, but it was too personal to be a Bluedawn song. He was born in Kwangju - where 금남로 is the best known street - and while still very young he moved to Seoul with his parents in 1981. But as a child he never told anyone about his birth town as its citizens had been bestowed a communist stigma by Korean media. The intent behind the song was not political, instead it portrays what he “lived / experienced / felt” from that time.

The next EP will revolve around the love between man and woman - love, mind, time - and the title will be “Loss”. No sudden changes in sound or song structure are planned. After all three EPs have been released, slowzz would like to continue with an album. There have been no plans for The Invisible Fish performances yet, but hopefully there’ll be some later on. Beyond The Invisible Fish there isn’t much planned for slowzz right now - perhaps some freelance design jobs, or just helping some friend out. Most of his friends are movie makers of some sort so he’s done some film music even if it wasn’t as a “professional”. As for Bluedawn, the time had come for the two to go separate ways but there were no hard feelings. Perhaps one day we can hear Dawny (Han Hee Jeong) sing his songs again, but not now.

Links

• Read Anna’s review of Through the Glass Wall at Last.fm
• The Invisible Fish official website: fuzzpop.net
• slowzz’s blog at naver
• For Korean speakers, the original Korean version of the interview - the raw material for this article

By Anna Lindgren

In January, Korea’s premier indie label, Pastel Music, released a 5CD compilation to commemorate its 5th birthday. On those five CDs there are 71 songs in total. Needless to say there is plenty of good music on those CDs - I had expected as much when I pre-ordered it. What I did not expect was to find that the best song, out of all those 71 tracks, came from somebody I hadn’t even heard of till I read the tracklist for the first time. The song in question was 곁에 - an “early recording version” of it, to be specific - and the artist responsible was Zitten (짙은). With a little help from the guy that created the old Zitten web site I was able to make contact with the vocalist, Yong-Wook (below), and learn more about my new favourite duo. That is if you can still call it a duo with one member struggling on his own as the other is busy fulfilling his mandatory military service.

The beginning of Zitten can be traced to a hobby club for music where covers of Oasis, Radiohead and Coldplay were played. As the team dissolved, guitarist Yong-Wook and drummer Ro (below) decided to continue to play together just for fun. They recorded five songs of their own and took the name Zitten before putting them on an EP entitled “Rock Doves” in 2005. 500 copies were printed and it sold out in three months. Late 2007, Zitten won the band category at the 1st Pastel Audition and here we are. There is already enough material for a full album, but Pastel wants to make some changes - add some real strings here, record new drums there, etc - so it’ll be another while before it’s released. Perhaps in the summer or autumn, Yong-Wook says.

What is this music then, that sounds so fantastic even before Pastel has had much of a say in it? Yong-Wook enjoys listening to modern rock as well as the great folk musicians of the 1960s, whereas Ro is more into electronica. For the sound of Zitten, however, they have once again reached towards Coldplay to get the right sophisticated and reflecting atmosphere. Damien Rice and Lee Juck too have influenced their songwriting, the latter in particular for the upcoming album. Another change from the EP is that they are now making better use of the piano. Add that to a change in recording facilities and the result is a sound that not only is richer, but also somewhat jazzier. Both Ro and Yong-Wook write lyrics on different aspects of love and memories, but while Ro concentrates on partings and misunderstandings, Yong-Wook every now and then incorporates a “micro-political theme”.

Going political, I asked Yong-Wook about this alleged death of indie bands that the obligatory years in the military is said to bring. He admits that there is some truth to that and comments that the Korean army isn’t really familiar with creativity. Three months ago, Ro, as many other musicians, went into the military to serve as a “military music soldier” so it’s not all that bad for him as he gets to play guitar and brass instruments. He can not have a computer, however, so it is difficult for the two band mates to work together. Yong-Wook stresses that Ro is a very important member of Zitten, with good skills in programming of and performing on various instruments, but now Yong-Wook is working on overcoming his own weak points as it has become more of a solo project on his part: performances nowadays are informal and carried out alone at cafés or bars he used to frequent. Yong-Wook has already finished his service, so let’s hope that all goes well for him now and that Zitten will prosper once the duo can reunite.

Links

• Zitten’s Cyworld page
• Track listing of Pastel’s 5th anniversary compilation CD “We will be together” at Yesasia

By Anna Lindgren

There’s a consensus among Korean indie music lovers that Pastel Music offers high quality music. One of the main reasons why this consensus arose is Tearliner. Thanks to orienkorean and his cousin I was able to make contact with Liner, who kindly agreed to answer my numerous questions on Tearliner and his other projects.

Liner, who’s real name is Park Sung Hoon, says he never got any musical education and that he doesn’t even read sheet music. Instead, his listening habits have given him a natural sense to understand and write music - his love for music isn’t bound to specific genres, and today he consumes about 30 new albums each month. The inspiration for Liner to write music comes from life, often moments in the past, and everything he’s listened to and watched while growing up has influenced him.

When asked whether lyrics or melody is more important, Liner leaves no doubt that his answer is melody. Not until all instruments are already arranged is it time to add lyrics. Though if the lyric “hurts” the melody, he gives up what he wanted to say and changes it into something that allows for the melody to be maintained. “Lyrics can limit the area of imagination”, he explains. His intention is for people to feel the same song differently, in their own way. This is also why most of Liner’s songs have English lyrics - while they’re much harder for him to write than lyrics in his native tongue, they just don’t harm the melody as much as Korean lyrics would. When it comes down to it, vocals are just another instrument.

Onto Tearliner then. In January 2004, Tearliner formed as a six member band but it was soon reduced to a duo. Before the first album was finished, Tearliner had become a one man band. Nowadays it’s still just Liner, but his ‘liners’ - four back up members, sometimes an additional cellist and a violinist - help out when needed. Liner concludes that the music of Tearliner is some kind of dream pop after an attempt to describe Tearliner’s sound: “Music is like an oil painting on a canvas. Rhythm is the sea with smooth waves, instruments fill the air with a softening atmosphere, and melody is a ballerina dancing beautifully on the sea.”

Tearliner’s first album and single, “작은방, 다이어리” (small room, diary) and “Letter from Nowhere”, were released in 2005. Almost two years later, after some delays, it was finally time for the follow-up: the “Polaroid Life” EP. Split into an A and a B side there’s a total of 24 songs from the two MBC dramas where Liner has been the music director - “태릉 선수촌” (Taerung National Village) songs on the A side and “동네 한바퀴” songs on the B side. Fortunately the wait for another release won’t be as long. Liner will be the music director for another drama by the director of 태릉 선수촌 and that soundtrack should be released in July. In addition, 40 songs are already picked for Tearliner’s second album, with the temporary title “Ashy Garden”, which hopefully will see its release in November this year.

Besides Tearliner, Liner is also involved in Low-End Project with former Tearliner lead guitarist Jihoon Kang. They started out in 2005 “to make a masterpiece of folk rock”, but so far all that’s been recorded is the song 연애를 망친 건…바로 나라는 걸 알았다 (I notice it was me…who broke the love) (on Tearliner’s blog here) which was featured on last year’s Cracker comic soundtrack. They are, however, going to record another song soon and have plans on making “a beautiful album”. When asked what he thinks distinguishes Low-End Project from Tearliner, Liner answered that Tearliner sings about feelings, the inside of humans, whereas Low-End Project sings about relationships between humans. With acoustic guitars and harmony, they want their listeners to get warm feelings and be reminded of good memories.

For Liner, this is not all. It’s impossible for a full time indie musician to earn a living, he explains, and so he’s got a full time job as well. And then there’s Heroin Underground, a group he’s made for fun together with Jihoon Kang and Jaguar, bassist of The Hi-lights.

Currently, Tearliner is performing in the shape of an acoustic duo with just guitar and percussion at various clubs. There are two Tearliner songs on the “Siamese Flowers” compilation, which is awaiting a release in the UK from Robot! Records, so I asked if there’s any chance of seeing Tearliner on a European stage too: “It’ll be hard unless they invite us. But I’d love to. It is like dreams come true.” was Liner’s answer, then he continued: “My final dream is standing on stage at the Glastonbury Festival.”

Links:

• Homepage: http://www.tearliner.co.kr
• Blog: http://blog.naver.com/tearliner/
• Daum Cafe: http://cafe.daum.net/tearliner
• Read a review of the TV drama 태릉 선수촌 at Twitch

By Anna Lindgren

While I’ve come across some more or less experimental Korean music over the years, nothing had prepared me for itta (있다). I was swept away by the 11th track on her first official album, “11″, and asked her to do an interview with me. Fortunately, she accepted.

At 4 years of age, itta began to learn how to play classical piano. At Catholic church, she played the organ and sang alto in the choir. When she was at high school, she wanted to be a poet, and one of her friends suggested they start making their own songs. And itta did. Nowadays she does nothing but music: writing lyrics, singing lyrics, making album artwork, collaborating with other artists - every day she’s a musician, doing what she wants to do.

itta describes her music as very visual pop. Her first step towards a new song is to write lyrics and then she improvises her way from there. “Lyrics are not to change, but to deconstruct and reconstruct”, she says, although lyrics and sounds are equally important in her music. While itta wanted to be a poet when she was young, she has now become “a poet by music”.

It has now been 10 years since itta handed out her first demo cassette to friends, but she hasn’t always made the same kind of music. I asked her about 바람, a beautiful piano piece of hers, that I found on millim. It had been made as a soundtrack for a short movie, itta explained, and the plan was for her to make an album with such music four years ago. Then she was hit by a bus and had a stay in hospital, which caused that plan to disappear. After that accident, she “met experimental things” and changed, though she could not explain the music she made.

The scene for experimental music in Korea is very small, but there are some good artists, says itta. Her first meeting with an experimental musician was an event for free music where she played with Park Je Chon. Later she joined Bulgasari, a monthly event for experimental music which is sometimes visited by non-Korean musicians. Because of Bulgasari she met Japanese laptop musician Marqido, with whom she formed the unit “10″ (below). They have already released two CDs and toured East Asia together last year.

After hearing about Pink Flag, a sub label of Pastel Music, itta contacted them and got a record deal. “11″ was released on August 11 and features 11 songs. The first song is 0:11 and the song length increases with exactly one minute for every song, until the 11th track, which is 11:00. When asked about the obvious theme, itta answered that one day in November 2005, she had drawn two persons facing each other and it looked like “11″. Then she decided to make an album on the theme, with a love story. In fact, itta released the album herself that same month, with an additional VCD, after she’d spent 11 days making it. She already had several unrecorded songs and some of her friends helped with various things in the making, so the only difficulty with the theme was the first track, which because of the time limit couldn’t “express the hollowed space” as she had wanted.

When asked to put forward a song to represent her music, itta declared that all songs are her children, but settled for “nomad x 1900 = 1″ and “messenger” from “11″. “nomad x 1900 = 1″ was made in Korean, Japanese and English because she needs those three languages to love - “The lyric is making love”. As for “messenger”, both lyrics and sounds are ironic and have captured the feeling of fog as she intended. itta also mentions 10’s song “우주적 사랑을 실현시켜” (realize, the cosmic love) as a song she likes to sing. She says that the theme for that song is great as she wants to hug the universe.

“Keiji Haino”, was itta’s answer to the question on who is her favorite artist in the experimental realm. Along with Lee Sang, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Björk and Marqido, he’s also one of her biggest influences. While she has collaborated with several artists in various genres of music, she considers working with Marqido the most fun as he’s got “power and purity like the eyes of a child”. Many people have asked the two to come to Europe and play as 10, so now they’re thinking about it. Other plans for the future, on itta’s part, includes a new album or project with her other sides, featuring some pop artists. There seems no end to what she’s prepared to explore.

Links

• itts’a own site
• itta’s MySpace page
• 10’s MySpace page
• YouTube video of itta’s I Ya Gi (이야기)
• itta at millim.