[INTERVIEW] Indie band 10cm - Part 1

Indie band 10cm's Kwon Jeong-yeol (vocal, jembe) and Yoon Cheol-jong (guitar) have known each other for 12 years. They were in the same band in high school, went to the military together, and ended up in 'Hongdae [Hongik University area]' where they formed their band. After slowly gaining recognition by performing on the streets of Hongdae, they started to perform in clubs, and one of the songs they sang, named "I'm Scared of the Dark Tonight," made it onto a compilation album. The song quietly spread through blogs and they finally released their first EP album. Recently, they played their music which they claim is 'Manhattan style' on KBS music program "Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook." 10Asia listened to the story of these two men whose music very gradually became known over a period of 12 years, as if they are small living forms of life which move ten centimeters a day.

10: You're a duo with one member who plays the guitar and another who plays the jembe. It's not a common formation.
Yoon Cheol-jong: It's because of Jason Mraz. I saw him appear on EBS' "Space Gonggam" and it left a very strong impression on me. His music seemed hollow yet at the same time was rich. And that's when I saw the djembe so I wanted to try playing it.
Kwon Jeong-yeol: I'm not interested in instruments but that was the first one I fell in love with. We made our music thinking of Jason Mraz's position too.

10: But I don't get the vibe of Jason Mraz from your music. (laugh)
Kwon: We failed. We wanted to show that we had been influenced by him but it didn't work out. We said, "Is it this difficult to be like Jason Mraz?" Something weird kept coming out instead of Jason Mraz. That's how a couple of our songs came about, like "Americano" and "I'm Scared of the Dark Tonight."

10: It was a song that reminded me much more of the dark rather than Jason Mraz.
Kwon: We had originally wanted to do happy and cheerful music but it didn't quite work out.

10: "It's Snowing" is a song like that in particular. It's music you should listen to when you're alone in your room at night.
Kwon: I made that song a long time ago when we were super big losers. (laugh) I'm still a loser but I was an even bigger loser back then.

10: How big of a loser are you talking about? (laugh)
Kwon: We basically lived at a bar in Shinchon. In a way, you could say it's the hometown of our music. We were really broke back then.
Yoon: We ate ramen everyday because we didn't have money to buy other food.
Kwon: It was to the extent that the owner there said that if we want to drink beer, we should pour it for ourselves since we're poor and don't have money. That's when we wrote "It's Snowing." And that's why when I was singing it, I thought, "This has to sound absolutely pitiful." There's nothing as pitiful as the lyrics to this song. It's about painting over memories about your past lover with romance and there's nothing that's as pitiful as that.

10: I could really picture you guys in a really bad state, sitting at home alone, when I listened to the song. (laugh)
Kwon: It was really bad. And it snowed back then too. (laugh)
Yoon: We made a song like that because it was snowing. (laugh)

10: I think you write songs and lyrics which reflect the emotions you feel at that very moment. With the lyrics in particular, you seem to write about thoughts that brush past your mind rather than talking about a particular story.
Kwon: We don't really think too deeply when writing them. (laugh) And I like to write as if I'm doing free-association.

10: But the lyrics themselves are very detailed. You write comfortably about moments that others would make an effort to make sound pretty.
Kwon: That's us trying to make it sound pretty. (laugh) But the lyrics are mostly fiction, not about ourselves.
Yoon: When we sing at karaoke bars these days, I don't think are that many songs you can relate to. So we also want to make music that people can relate to.

10: Is that why you sang "I Might Die"? It's a song you made after you made a girlfriend and it sounded like you live in a completely different world from when you sing "I'm Scared of the Dark Tonight."
Kwon: They're completely different. We're completely different from when we made a song like "I'm Scared of the Dark Tonight." (laugh) I made it when I first came to Seoul from the city of Gumi and I almost died back then because I was lonely. Seriously, we make music that's about good things when we're in a good state and write about bad things when we're in a bad state. Recently, we even made a song called "Hug Me."

10: Does the process you go through to make music also change depending on the situation you're in? I think you guys would talk to each other while making a song.
Kwon: That's right. We've been working together since high school so we constantly talk to each other while making songs. And we're never fixed on what we're going to make. We freely think of the songs we want to make and then talk about them when we meet up. When one said says they have so and so for the song, we talk about that and develop on it. There was only supposed to be one "Americano" in the song "Americano" but we finished the song the way it is talking while hanging out.

10: I guess you guys really have good chemistry. (laugh)
Kwon: I think the fact that we've been working together for so long is a huge advantage and while we have similarities, we also have differences. I'm more of the have-fun-and-enjoy style but Yoon is a hard worker. (laugh)
Yoon: I live separate from my family so I have to work hard. I teach students in school too. I work in private education. (laugh)
Kwon: I think our music goes outside the box because we're so different. When we first look at the stuff that we've thought up, it's quite ridiculous. But the product gets better the more we talk about it.

Senior Reporter : Kang Myoung-Seok two@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@, Lee Ji-Hye seven@