[uni Tomorrow] Interview with the band ‘hyukoh’. I listen to hyukoh lately
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Source: Uni Tomorrow, July 10th, 2015, Jo Ara. Your music is being played in the background, do you have time to feel your popularity? Oh Hyuk: We can’t feel it. When you perform you receive a feedback, and we haven’t performed in a while. Our awareness isn’t something great, either. I think we’re being asked for because of our musical colours. We performed as the opening act at Erlend Øye’s Korea concert recently. As we’ve received influence from his music we kept trying to impress to him. In May we opened for Canadian singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco, and we kept expressing how much we like him. The show was fun and the after party was very gratifying too. hyukoh’s popularity is rising. If it’s not an insensitive question I’ll ask you this. Are you being pursued by female fans, or has there been a change in your daily lives? Hyunje: I have a girlfriend, so.. of course there are those of us without one as well. Oh Hyuk: I don’t have one. I look like this, so. (Laughs) Most girls are scared of me. I’m curious as to how you 23 year olds ended up doing music together. Hyunje: All of us have been doing music continuously since we were middle school kids. And the members didn’t know each other. We came together because this friend (Oh Hyuk) wanted to form a band. In my case, I met Hyukie for the first time when he was performing as a one-man-band. I worked with him as a sessionist. So when he was searching for a band, he suggested I’d join on guitar. Donggun’s the boyfriend of a close friend of Hyukie’s. It seems music came up in conversation privately. Donggun: I also haven’t worked with anything other than music, as I’ve been doing music since middle school. I heard Inwoo’s a ‘drum genius’. Inwoo: Sorry? I’m not a genius. Hyunje: It’s true that he’s a genius in art, music and athletics. Have you seen the photos of him speed skating? He’s good at everything. He’s good at sports, and he played piano well too. What was it that made you all willing to accept Oh Hyuk’s offer? Hyunje: His music was good. I thought there was an unpresedented side to his voice, and I was sure it’d be fun working with him. I could sense it’d turn out well. Inwoo: I also liked Hyukie’s voice. I joined the band as he asked me to play drums for him again. ‘hyukoh’ is Oh Hyuk’s name flipped, did all of you agree with this name? Hyunje: No. (Laughs) We couldn’t possibly. But there was no other suitable name. We had to release the album, and we were closing in on the deadline of wrapping things up. We didn’t have much time to consider it. We thought it’d be cool going with “hyukohâ€. What were some of the names you were pushing individually? Inwoo: “Oil moneyâ€? (Laughs) Hyunje: There was “Smith†and such too. Most of your songs are in English, I’m curious of why that is. Oh Hyuk: I lived in China until before I turned 20. Naturally I didn’t get to hear Korean a lot, and the music I encountered was all in English. I’m not terrifically good at English, but that’s also why I’m more comfortable writing lyrics in English. And I believe that if I’m to write lyrics in Korean they need to be really well written. I heard you wrote ‘Wi ing Wi ing’ after your university entrance exams. With what mindset did you write it? Oh Hyuk: It’s not a song I wrote during a difficult time. I had submitted all the documents needed to enter university, and I wrote the song during the time I was waiting for the results. I had really nothing to do. My parents were working, and I was drinking with my friends every day. Anyhow, I was in a state where I had done everything I could to reach my goal and now all I could do was wait. What were the school days like for the rest of you? Hyunje: I went to a music school. Naturally the atmosphere was different to a regular high school. One class was around 20 students, and we had freedom. There were no time constraints either. Of course I studied hard, since I had to get into university. Oh Hyuk: And so he entered Seoul Institute of the Arts as a top student. What are the pros to entering as a top student? Hyunje: There’s nothing good about it. (Laughs) They just give you a scholarship for one semester. Inwoo: Only a single semester? Oh Hyuk: There’s pride to it, it shows you’re the best guitar player amongst your peers. Hyunje: That’s useful? It’s all useless. Oh Hyuk, you study art, right? Oh Hyuk: Yeah. I’m studying a field derived from German modern arts. School life is fun. I was president of our class, too. Hyunje: I hear you were a tyrant. Oh Hyuk: I cussed people out, too. Hyunje: I hate that the most. (Laughs) Oh Hyuk: I did it for the better of the department. I persuaded the students saying “If you don’t show up it’s your fault I get criticisedâ€. I’m curious if you have any hobbies contradicting with your cool image. What do you do when you’re not working? Drinking soju and eating sashimi or such. All: Soju and sashimi…. is really great. (Laughs) Hyunje: I hang out with my girlfriend, and play pool or games. Donggun: It’s beer for me. I like laying down. Hyunje: Inwoo goes clubbing. Apparently a pretty girl at a club grabbed his hand and wouldn’t let go. Inwoo: That’s not true. People refer to you with the word ‘hyukoh-like’. What does that mean? Donggun: I think whoever called us that knows best. (Laughs) Hyunje: The meaning of ‘hyukoh-like’ will always change, because what we want to say will change. People look at us and call us “coolâ€, but we don’t want to keep only that one image. We want to break expectations, not follow expectations. I believe we’ll appeal to people if we keep trying out interesting things. Oh Hyuk: We have to do what’s coolest, in what we can do. I heard that those who want to stand on stage have a large desire to receive love. If that’s the case, they end up caring about the public’s tastes, don’t they. Do you tend to adjust to the public’s demands? Oh Hyuk: We don’t do either of that. We’re realistic. We’re all men. We don’t want to live sloppily as we get older. We’ll reach an age where we’ll have to take care of a family, and we’ll have to live honourably by providing financially. Knowing something won’t work out and clinging to it just because you love it is foolish. Saying that, we can’t rid ourselves of our colours. Hyunje: Maybe we’re fanatic, but because the public is accepting us it’s not difficult. So we don’t adhere to the public’s views. What songs do you like the most amongst your own songs, and which do you dislike? Hyunje: I don’t have any that I dislike. It’s difficult to dislike the songs you’ve worked so hard on to create. Oh Hyuk: I like Hooka on our new album <22>. Hyunje: Does everyone agree? Inwoo: I like Hooka too. Oh Hyuk: It means 물담배 (hookah). It was a temporary title without any particular meaning from when I was making the demo, but it felt right so I left it. Hyunje: So he says. I like Panda Bear. It was fun making. Usually when arranging we pay attention to the details, but for this song it felt as if it all came together at once. Oh Hyuk: In the beginning working on songs took a really long time. When saying “try putting this over that cord†it would result in nonsense, since the members are all different…. Now as time has passed we produce songs at a steady pace. We’re like a matching outfit. Hyunje: A matching outfit? Inwoo: He came up with a saying. Rather than brightness, I sense a calm, settled, dark feeling in your music. When you work on songs do you intentionally change the mood for the darker? Hyunje: That’s something that completely originates from Hyuk’s inclinations. He’s more familiar with darker music than he is with bright music. Do the rest of you agree with Oh Hyuk’s direction? Hyunje: We can’t agree a 100%, since we all have our own identities. But we can’t tell him to write bright songs. Clearly the songs coming from his own experiences are good. Of course, after he’s changed on the inside, he could also be able to make new songs whether they’re brighter or darker. I can’t imagine a middle-aged hyukoh. What will you be like when you’re 40? Inwoo: I think I’ll grow old like this. Oh Hyuk: I need a romance in life. Donggun: If I have a son he’s gonna tease your son. Hyunje: That’d be fun. He’ll have to say this, “Where’s your baldy daddy now? Where did he get pierced this time? His nose?â€
Credit: http://bandhyukoh.tumblr.com/post/163838956102/uni-tomorrow-interview-with-the-band-hyukoh-i
