67page

67 Groove korea: how has your sound devel- oped and changed over the years? Annie Ko: We still have the punk base, of course, but we decided to dig deep and fig- ure out what we really wanted to do. Skate punk is good and always will be, but that doesn’t really complete us. It’s us wanting to be something that we’re really not. So, we talked a lot, and figured out that we all love ’90s alternative. When we bought our first synthesizer, we instantly knew we could make our new sound fresh and interesting, so we developed our style from there. you recently returned from your first tour of the u.s. and Canada. how was your ex- perience? Honestly, we didn’t want to come back. It was that good! how were you able to make the tour pos- sible? At first, we got invited to Cincinnati’s an- nual MidPoint Music Festival. Everything started from there. After that we also got invited to CMJ Music Marathon, Indie Week Canada and New York’s MEANY Fest. We decided to do a tour around those festivals. Which was your favorite gig and why? We really enjoyed Bar Matchless in Brook- lyn, New York. The sound there was awe- some, and we met a lot of great people. We also got to perform with our friends Late Cambrian. We were really impressed by the audience’s reaction at our show in Detroit, and all of us are seriously in love with De- troit. We also really enjoyed the studio live session with American Apparel’s Internet radio station Viva Radio. how did you find the american and Ca- nadian audiences compared with those in korea? They were very open-minded, very free with their expressions and very active. I wish Korean audiences were more like that. you were among the first wave of artists announced for the mammoth south by southwest music festival in austin, tex- as, in march. tell us about it. We got the message when we were in NYC. It was so surreal! We are very excited for the show. Hopefully we meet more peo- ple and build up our career even further. It will be a great stepping stone for us! What is the creative process behind your tracks? Generally, Toby starts off with a great gui- tar riff, and then we write our songs togeth- er. Sol adds his own groove on the bass lines and I write the lyrics. Till now, we recorded and managed everything at our little studio, but if we had a larger budget, we would re- cord, mix and master outside of our studio. do you find that non-koreans/foreigners get into your music more than korean people do? Yes. We really don’t know why, but Ko- rean audiences usually don’t know how to react at our shows. Maybe it’s because of our looks? Our English lyrics? Our sound? I don’t know. So we get a lot of those “jaw- drop” and “stand still” reactions a lot. how have you found being an indie band in korea? It isn’t easy; to be in a band in Korea can be very challenging. The scene isn’t really here yet, and everything costs too much, so it’s an expensive hobby to have. But from the beginning we have been determined to make it work. in september, you released your third ep, “Glow.” how has the response to it been? The response has been great, especially in the U.S. where people really dug our second track “Fly Over.” Our music video for “Fly Over” will be released very soon on YouTube and Vimeo. how does “Glow” differ from your previ- ous eps? It is a more calculated sound; we want- ed to show that we can produce well-made songs that have potential to be huge in the future. It is smarter than our previous work, but we didn’t have much time, so we basi- cally made the album within a month. That was a crazy schedule; I’m never going to do that again! Which is your personal favorite track on “Glow”? Why? I like “Fly Over” the most. It’s made out of only two chords so it’s really easy to listen to and it’s super fun to perform on stage. future plans? Our dream is to do only music for a living. We’re slowly getting there. Our new music video “Fly Over” will be released very soon. It’s directed by pop artist Vakki (playvakki. com), so stay tuned for that one. We are preparing another tour around SXSW. We have new songs coming out soon. 2014 will be a great year.