Sheepa Miah interviews the headlining musicians from the recent K-Music Showcase in London.
I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing the three bands headlining this year’s K-Music London Showcase. It was nice to hear about the musicians that inspired them, their thoughts on the Korean indie music scene and their future plans.
Check out the interview below with the following band members:
- Gonne Choi Band: Gonne Choi and Hyunwoo Hwang
- Billy Carter: Jiwon Ki, Jina Kim and Hyunjoon Lee
- 3rd Line Butterfly: Sanga Nam, Namyoon Kim and Hyunjeong Seo
For audiences who aren’t familiar with your music, how would you describe it?
Gonne Choi: It’s difficult to describe, but I think the music speaks for itself.
Billy Carter: ‘Unfriendly’ music.
3rd Line Butterfly: We’ve been around for a long time, almost 20 years, so we’re on a voyage of genres, so we can’t really say what the genre is. But all throughout our music, there’s a little bit of melancholy and darkness in it, and that hasn’t changed.
Who are the musicians you grew up listening to? Who inspired you?
Gonne Choi: There are so many musicians who inspired me back in the day; each musician has a different attraction. For example Sting, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. The most inspirational person was [singer-songwriter] Rebecca Martin. I also like classical musician, Bach.
Billy Carter: Jiwon Ki: There are too many good musicians who inspired me, but if I had to only choose two, it would be The Clash and Patti Smith.
Jina Kim: Jimi Hendrix and Billy Holiday.
3rd Line Butterfly: Hyunjeong Seo: I grew up listening to Abba.
Namyoon Kim: Stereohead.
Which of your songs would you say best represents your music?
Gonne Choi: ‘Highlander’ from the 2-2EP Nomad Syndrome album.
Billy Carter: Two songs, from the album Here I Am. ‘You Ate My Brain’ – it’s a kind of fierce, rage song and I think that represents us, maybe more on stage. And ‘We Can Fight’ – this song is what we want to shout out to the world.
3rd Line Butterfly: Sanga Nam: Every member has a different opinion, but for me it’s the 1st track on the Divided By Zero Album, ‘Awaken’.
Is there a song out there that you wish you had written yourself?
Gonne Choi: Ed Sheeran – Shape Of My Heart. And Radiohead – Paranoid Android.
Billy Carter: Pink Floyd – I Wish You Were Here.
3rd Line Butterfly: Michael Jackson – The Girl Is Mine.
What’s the difference between your Korean fans and your international fans? Do you notice many differences?
Gonne Choi: First thing is the different languages. International fans have more focus; they are really great to perform in front of. In terms of our hardcore/super fans, they’re at a similar level in Korea and internationally, so we’re really proud and happy.
Billy Carter: We’ve become friends with fans after gigs in the UK so far. With Korean fans, they give us little gifts, like things we can eat. Whereas fans in the UK buy us beer!
Korean audiences appreciate gigs a lot, maybe because they don’t have as many chances as here [in the UK]. I can feel that they’re really concentrating on the performance. But here, we mostly play in pubs, and I can see how music is just a part of their lives, so they just enjoy it very naturally.
3rd Line Butterfly: After a gig, Korean fans are really appreciative and say thank you to the band members and leave right away. Whereas international fans will listen to the songs carefully and ask about the songs.
With mainstream music, like K-pop, it gets a lot more exposure on TV and radio than indie music. What are your thoughts on this?
Gonne Choi: It’s not about the genre of music, it’s more about capitalism because broadcasting is run and driven by the capital – money. So this is why mainstream idols or K-pop are exposed more to it. We have to continue to pursue our music and get ourselves in front of them. But we’re not at a stage right now to say it’s a problem, however this is all slowly changing. We’re still exposed to a bit more broadcasting than other indie bands.
Billy Carter: Jina Kim: It’s hard. We don’t know what the public want to listen to, but TV and radio show K-pop and similar styles of music, and not so much indie music. We don’t know how this is going to change.
Jiwon Ki: I don’t think it’s weird, [because] it’s very obvious there are consumers for it and there are a lot more platforms. What we have to think about is not why there’s nothing for this, but what we can do to make more platforms, opportunities and [think of] different ways.
3rd Line Butterfly: It sucks. We’re trying to be on many of the Korean TV shows that broadcast indie music as well, but there is a lack of these shows. So that’s one problem that we face. But if we’re offered any chances, we’ll be on it. There are more opportunities coming up, mainly online, which feature indie bands specifically.
Are you working on any new music and what are your upcoming plans?
Gonne Choi: I’ve been touring for the past few weeks in Europe and am recording right now. We don’t have a fixed release date, but it’s coming. It won’t be in 2018 though.
Billy Carter: We want to tour more. We’ve released one or two albums almost every year. This year we’re not going to record soon, but we’re thinking of releasing a full length album and maybe a single before that.
3rd Line Butterfly: We’re trying to get some new material whilst on tour, and then we’ll go back and arrange the music.
