[INTERVIEW] Indie band 10cm - Part 2

10: I heard that you first met at your high school band and ended up even going to the military together. How have you managed to stay friends for so long?
Kwon Jeong-yeol: We didn't spend the whole time together. We were in different bands at one point, although we stayed close friends, but when I came back from the military, my band had disbanded. That's why we decided to work together. And we did music together during our military days. What proves that the military has become a better place is because I could take my guitar (laugh) so I worked a lot while I was there. I usually worked in the office on base with a guitar but I went to church too because I wanted to do it more properly. I wasn't a believer but I pretended to be. I would praise God once and then use the amp or speaker. (laugh) Our team was named Seven Hills back then because that was the name of our unit in Korean. (laugh)

10: Do your personalities also get reflected into your music?
Kwon: Totally. (laugh) I obsess over very simple things. And I like lyrics that are repetitive and loose. But Yoon is very meticulous so he's like that with doing the arrangements for our songs too.

10: "4 a.m." or "Healing" were like that in particular -- the theme was loose and repetitive yet the arrangement and playing was meticulous.
Kwon: And quietly without fault. (laugh) There are usually several people on a band so in that case, it might've been tiresome to have such different personalities, but it's comfortable for us because we're a duo.

10: I heard that you had originally thought of forming a band. Why did you decide to go as a duo?
Kwon: Because of unnecessary confidence. (laugh) You're supposed to look for members to join your band if you want to form one but we thought they'd come to us. We were just so full of confidence. And that's also why we called our music 'Manhattan style.' (laugh)
Yoon: I think we could've found someone to join our band if we had tried. I think our attitude on life is the problem. Because it's not ordinary, not many people agreed to the way in which we wanted to take our band.

10: Did the process of how your band formed influence your music too? Your current EP is centered around folk but a lot of different styles are mixed in it too. I think "Healing" could be good to be rearranged for a band because there' s a strong bluesy feeling to it.
Kwon: Our songs are inconsistent -- one of them was even written while we were in the army. Us deciding to form a duo came much later.
Yoon: In the beginning, we also made songs for bands but some changed to folk after we decided to become a duo.

10: But there is definitely a certain consistency about it. When listening to your music, I feel the space in which you're singing the song, rather than each and every sound.
Kwon: We what we intended on. We wanted to make the music sound three dimensional so that the listener can feel the space.
Yoon: But everybody seemed to hate it. (laugh)

10: Personally I liked it. (laugh) The music wasn't recorded very clearly but it brought out a sense of the space you're in. It made me become curious about where it was recorded. In a room by any chance?
Kwon: That's right. We did it at home. Because it doesn't cost any money nor time. We did both the recording and mixing at home.

10: It did feel like I was listening to music in a room.
Kwon: With "It's Snowing," we wanted to deliver the feeling of someoneone in their room when it's snowing outside. When it's snowing, you can't hear the snow [falling] but sort of can somehow feel that it's snowing when you close your eyes. That's what I wanted to express. Although it was actually sleet that was falling on the day of the recording. (laugh)
Yoon: I am a bit ashamed to say that we didn't do a great job of the recording itself. Because we did it in our room, if you raise the volume while listening to our album, you can hear a bus passing by.
Kwon: We did the mixing at home too, saying all that matters is that it sounds good, because we didn't have much time after having tried to bring out what we're trying to do and since it was our first time doing this. That's what I wish we did a better job of.

10: Such situations get resolved with an improved economical situation. How's your income these days?
Kwon: (laugh) What would be best would be us to have as much fun as we are having now and be able to wonder, "Ah, where is all of this money rolling in from?" (laugh) But that's not easy. If we sign with an agency, we need to have responsibility, come up with plans relating to making our music successful, and there will be an aftereffect depending on the outcome. We're not interested in such things yet.
Yoon: We also receive more offers than we expected, to have our albums produced but I think we'll need more time because we're not in good shape yet. And we can do our own job ourselves so I don't see the need to split it by however many more heads go into it as of yet. (laugh) I don't want to change the beautiful system that we share right now.
Kwon: That's right. That's why until recently, we had said we should form a band in the future but such talk has disappeared after a certain point. I want us to go in this formation even if we may have to have a guest member.

10: What are your plans for the future?
Kwon: We have to release an album. And I hope it's better than this one. We want to keep writing songs to release many albums and I hope one of them makes it big. (laugh)
Yoon: Make them buy one out maybe 100 albums. (laugh)

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