[INTERVIEW] Indie band guckkasten

My name is guckkasten. It's a German word meaning Chinese-style kaleidoscope. Our band is composed of vocalist Ha Hyun-woo, guitarist Jeon Kyu-ho, bassist Kim Ki-bum and drummer Lee Jung-kil. We're all close friends who have been doing music since a long time ago. Jeon Kyu-ho is the eldest.
We took part in both the Pentaport Rock Festival and Jisan Valley Rock Festival this summer. Of those, we probably did better at Pentaport. The sound was on and off somehow at Jisan. We also took part in the Busan International Rock Festival and Jecheon International Music & Film Festival. So we're taking part here and there but whether it'll pay off... we don't know.
Each member likes different musicians. Hyun-woo isn't selective -- he listens to everything from tango-style music by Gotan Project to Canada's Arcade Fire, Kyu-ho likes technicians like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, Jung-kyu likes Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich and Ki-bum likes bassist Flea from Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Our band's guitar riffs are quite on the heavy side so our bass line tends to become a bit smothered in it but I don't have any qualms about it as a bassist. The mistakes I make when we're doing live show less. Hahaha. It makes things easier for me.
We re-recorded our first album. The Korea Creative Content Agency picked us as a project to introduce Korea culture to Japan but we had lost our first album which had been saved on a hard disk. That's why the second time, we recorded at a much better facility. Sound-wise we really like it because you can hear each instrument clearly. But we became broke because we use used so much money. We were speechless for about three seconds when we got the bill.
The day after we perform at the Jecheon International Music & Film Festival, we all watched film "Not 2 Bad" in which Hyun-woo appears.
We recently filmed the music video for "Manicure" which will go in our second album. It was tremendously hot and we got bitten by so many mosquitos. The location was amazing but we were worried everytime we breathed because there was a pile of asbestos on one side.
Appearing on public networks are good in the sense that we can make ourselves known. But I wish we could be given more time to prepare for joint performances with idols groups. We were given a bit of rehearsal time with f(x) for an MBC music show but when we went on Mnet's "M! CountDown" with Kara, we didn't have any time for it at all.

Reporter : Wee Geun-woo eight@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@