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83 bands in Hongdae just play their set and leave, but Les Sales are al- ways down to hang out. So, it seemed like a pretty natural union. We like each other’s music and we like hanging out; let’s put a ring on it and make an album. What challenges do you face as a foreign band in Korea? Davis: It’s hard to play outside of Seoul and it’s not practical — you don’t really make any money. When you factor in train tickets, motels and practice, you’re losing a lot of money. If you stay in Seoul you can save up to make a recording. It sucks, but that’s realistic. I hope it changes. Sometimes when we get gigs it’s just when they are looking for a token foreign band. There are quite a few foreign bands around that don’t take themselves too seriously and just want to have a good time. ... That’s fine, but bands take a lot of time, so for us we want to make sure we’re doing it as well as we can. Tell us about some of your memorable gigs. Waddell: Our shows are really dependent on the crowd; they’re generally easier when people are drunk. We have played at club DGBD a bit and the sound guy there is great; he is really easy to communicate with. We played at City Hall once for a peace festival. We’re not sure what kind of peace … Maybe world peace. Davis: We played at a college university festival out in Cheongju last spring. It was in the middle of a baseball field and there were heaps of people there for a fashion show before our gig. The emcee of the event was a fucking idiot. We were in the middle of playing a song when he stopped us; nobody had any idea what was happening. There were maybe, like, 100 people left in this huge K-pop type stadium. We freaked out. We had no idea why he stopped us mid- song. There were just a bunch of ajummas clapping. It was weird. You put a lot of thought into your lyrics. are you bothered that many of your listeners can’t understand them? Davis: We have one song about Jesus, and Korean people seem to under- stand those lyrics. We don’t worry about it if people can’t understand all of the lyrics, though. I like a lot of Korean rock and I can’t understand the lyrics. What on earth is your song “Jesus’ bed” about? Davis: I was listening to that podcast again — “Stuff You Should Know.” They were talking about mirrors and how, in the biblical ages, mirrors were very rare, and I thought that was a cool way to start a song. Waddell: It’s about how Jesus invites you over to his house and says, “Lets go drinking tonight.” Then the chorus slowly gets more and more specific. “You can sleep in my house, you can sleep in my room and you can sleep in my bed.” Eventually it’s about sleeping in Jesus’ bed. Davis: When I wrote it, I didn’t think people would pay attention to it, but they did, and now it’s a bit embarrassing. What inspires you to keep creating music? Waddell: I have been playing since middle school — it’s just what we do. If I didn’t play music, I would feel empty. It’s a no-brainer. Davis: I have to have some creative outlet, and these days music is it. When I started playing music it was because the stuff I liked was so simple, that it seemed silly of me not to play it. I think anyone can play punk rock to a certain extent. What do Table People have planned for the future? Davis: We are heading to Busan for New Year’s. We’ll record in the spring and hopefully have another album by next fall. We have a new drummer, I’ve improved on guitar and Min-woo has started singing, so this new material should sound totally different to the stuff we did before.