[INTERVIEW] Indie band “Broccoli You Too” - Part 1

Indie band "Broccoli You Too" : Starting from left: Hyang-ki, Ryuji, Duk-won and Jandi [Lee Jin-hyuk/10 Asia]

A calm roller coaster - that is the phrase that would summarize the journey indie band “Broccoli You Too” has been on for the past five years. A year after they met in 2005, they failed at numerous auditions with their first demo album “Kku KKu Kku (2005)” but the group started to get noticed with their first EP album “No More Encore Request” in 2007 and sold over 30,000 copies (2009 estimate) of their first full-length album “Common Song (2008)” merely by word of mouth. But after the release of the first album, Yoon Duk-won (vocal, bass), Ryu Ji-hyun (drum), Kim Jan-di (keyboard) and Ban Hyang-ki (guitar) left their agency to set up their own label which is Studio Broccoli as we now know. And during this time period groundless rumors surrounded the group. The second album “The Graduation” released last month on October 25 signals the group’s efforts to take steps towards rising once again. “It was important we find our pace first,” said the members. Let us find out how they spent their past year.

* From now on the members will be addressed by their stage names: Duk-won (Yoon Duk-won), Ryuji (Ryu Ji-hyun), Jandi (Kim Jan-di), Hyang-ki (Ban Hyang-ki) and former member Gye-pi (Lim Gye-hwi) [Editor]

10: You held your concert for three days starting October 29 and it was your first time performing on stage after releasing your second album. How did it feel?
Duk-won: The performance was basically an extension from our record-making process. Only after the concert was I able to feel we’ve actually released another album. We brought our engineers and session players to best relieve the sound in the second album.
Hyang-ki: We played the title track of our second album “The Graduation” during the latter part of our concert. I felt the tension going high after having built up the mood in the first half.
Jandi: Hyang-gi actually shed tears (laugh)
Duk-won: I don’t think this will be the last time our emotions go wild when singing “The Graduation.” If not, that will be sad, too.

Duk-won (vocal, bass) [Lee Jin-hyuk/10 Asia]

10: Ryuji, you said you would like to get on with the online game “Sid Meier’s Civilization 5” after the concert. So did you? (Everybody breaks into laugher)
Ryuji: I played for only six hours that day and that was it. It wasn’t as addictive as the rumor had it.
Jandi: They say that its pattern is so simple that you can get addicted quickly but then get tired of it just as fast.

10: When recording for KBS2 music program “Yoo Hee-yeol’s Sketchbook” last week on November 9, I heard your group was prepared to perform the “Moonlight Fairy Come-From-Behind Grand Slam” composed by late-composer Lee Jin-won.
Jandi: We weren’t able to because we ran out of time.
Duk-won: We were going to sing ‘Lucky Guy’ and even prepared introductory comment beforehand (laugh). I wanted to say I was lucky to be a musician who was able to know Lee’s music and live in the same timeline as he was and that I will make the audience just as lucky by sharing his music with them in memory of him.
Hyang-ki: When he passed away the twitter time line was all plastered with that news and I was so sorry. I felt bitter that he got all this attention only after he died whilst nobody cared whether he released a song or an album in the past. We have to continue looking for ways to resolve this issue but both the indie music world and public seem to underline only the emotional part.

10: You didn’t sing your title track in Yoo Hee-yeol’s show, either. Was there particular reason?
Ryuji: That is a song that requires lots of emotions so I was against it.
Jandi: This may be beside the point but I have just heard on our way for interview that our “The Graduation” got banned by KBS.

10: Oh my, why? (laugh)
Hyang-ki: Too sensual, hahaha
Duk-won: But I don’t feel like changing the lyrics because of that
Hyang-ki: It feels like we have become a true rock band, I am actually proud. (laugh)

10: You didn’t consider the risk when writing the lyrics?
Jandi: We went through many issues this year that made us worry about things but I had no idea this would actually happen.
Duk-won: I mean, we did include expressions like “this insane world,” after all.

Jandi (keyboard) [Lee Jin-hyuk/10 Asia]

10: How did you decide the title of your recent album “The Graduation?”
Duk-won: I was not aware of it until I finished the lyrics but they were all about what we went through during our 20s. I pondered what would be the word to summarize all that and came up with the word “graduation. Graduation is a part of growing up and don’t most people go through that stage?
Jandi: There certainly is a world of difference from “admission”.

10: After the first album vocalist Gye-pi left and you created your own label company Studio Broccoli. That may have been your way of growing up. What was the process like?
Duk-won: Most people believe it was Gye-pi that left but technically it was us four leaving Gye-pi and the company. To put it naively the separation came from differences in taste. It was us four that did almost all the work for the first album, too. We maintained the feeling of “rocking” since the beginning but the company demanded a lighter tone centered on female vocal. There were many parts we weren’t able to be in charge of.

10: Although you kept up with your composing, outside the music scene there were lots of rumors about your group from suspending all the activities indefinitely to disbanding altogether
Duk-won: It is hard to control once the rumor begins. But it would be even weird if we rebuke that through media outlets. In order to truly show them with it was important to find our pace first. Working together at ensemble room five times a week helped our members to be even close with each other..

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