[INTERVIEW] Indie band "No Reply" - Part 1

From left, No Reply members Kwon Soon-kwan and Jeong Wook-jae [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Indie band “No Reply,” composed of two men -- a vocalist and keyboard player Kwon Soon-kwan and guitarist Jeong Wook-jae -- debuted through the annual Ryu Jae Ha Music Competition in 2006 for which they took second place. Singing mostly calm and sentimental songs, the group sang “What we weren't able to express then,” through “Song That Didn’t End (Kkeut Najianeun Norae),” a track in their first album “The Road (2009)." And then the group sang, “I wish to be that person who is there with you without words” through song “I wish I was that person (Nae-ga Dwe-eoteui-myeon),” in the second album “Dream (2010)” released last September. During the past four years the group’s sound has become richer, the musical color more apparent. But one thing has remained the same -- them singing of longing and restlessness which has left fans more curious about the male duo. What do these two who vowed never to give up expressing feelings through music feel and dream of? Here is the interview filling in the parts that haven’t been expressed in their songs.


10: The song “Don’t You Know” that you sang with actress Han Hyo-joo at the 2010 Grand Mint Festival was a very cheerful love song, the kind we haven’t heard since song “The Day I Confess My Feelings (Gobaek Haneun Nal).”
Kwon Soon-kwan: We worked on the song without having to go through much trouble and we were right in presuming her voice would be a clear tone so we worked together just fine.
Jeong Wook-jae: Han had a clear tone and also knew the basics to music so it only took an hour to record the song (smile).

10: Your first album “Road” and your second album “Dream” had similar concepts. Did you do that on purpose?
Kwon: We just wanted to offer stories that are common and easy to relate to for the general audience because what may be simple on the surface has a great amount of diversity within. The image of a road and a dream are always linked with each other. The theme of our song is universal but not light-hearted. I think it has to do with my personal tendency to mostly go against what's mainstream. One of the tracks to our second album “No Dreamer” also sings of a drab reality that demands one to study hard but do not guarantee happiness, and of people who continue with their work but are not happy.

10: There seems to be a deep sense of longing especially in your music.
Kwon: I believe that is because I tend to look back a lot and perhaps from influence by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami who is very good at describing an air of longing. Thanks to him, I too seem to get inspired by the surrounding air or a scene that I wasn’t able to feel in the past. Some think the song “I Shall Sing (Norae Hal-ge)” from the second album is linked with “Song That Didn’t End” in the first album but it is actually a song that contains my personal feelings. What I meant through the song was that although I can no longer look for what I want I will continue to sing for it -- another song of longing. If love is a feeling for a certain someone, longing is something that goes further to embrace not just that person but the air, the scent and the music that surrounds that person. In that sense it is the sentiment of longing rather than love that completes my music.

10: Don’t you have to be much more sensitive to be able to speak things as delicate as air or emotions?
Kwon: Not really. I’m not like that in character. I just have a highly developed sixth sense.
Jung: Kwon is like that regards to music and gets all mad when you disturb him when he's sleeping (laugh). I’m the opposite, easy-going and rough.

No Reply member Jeong Wook-jae [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

10: The latest album seems to have captured the different characteristics you two have.
Jung: Our first album was mostly based on piano music for which I went through lots of trial and error. I have become more adept at expressing myself since then. To be honest I have never had the scale of experience that Kwon has when it comes to expressing music and lyrics about love. I am much more comfortable writing about social issues or problems that most people usually go through regardless of gender. “Arm Chair (Anrak Eui-ja)” is a piece that sings about people who drift about aimlessly in everyday society.

10: You guys have become rich not only in terms of genre of music but also sound.
Kwon: In the first album we did everything from scratch, from playing the instruments to the programming. And for the second album we worked together with members from other indie bands including Shaun, and Naru from “Koxx” and Sun-il from “Daybreak” in arranging the songs and all.
Jung: We had decided we would be open to new ideas for our second album as soon as we released our first album. I think that helped make our music richer. We even received help from our music seniors on things outside music. Sun-il, like a big brother, was especially attentive to our worries probably because he is married and has a family. All these elements helped us relax more in releasing our second album.

10: What was behind your motive to be more open to new ideas? Was it the desire to make the second album commercially successful? Don’t most second albums have special meaning for musicians?
Kwon: There was much burden for the second album because you have to do a better job than on the last one. Listeners already have songs of our first album engraved in their heads so it tends to take a while for the second album to settle in as well. So rather than taking a risk we decided to experiment new things while maintaining the sentiment of the second album.

Reporter : Lee Ga-on
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Heidi Kim heidikim@