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[INTERVIEW] Indie band Vodka Rain - Part 2

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From left, Vodka Rain members Lee Haewan, Seo Sangjoon, Joo Yoonha and Ahn Seung-joon. [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

From left, Vodka Rain members Lee Haewan, Seo Sangjoon, Joo Yoonha and Ahn Seung-joon. [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

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10: I think “Midnight Bistro” may be a breather amongst those songs where one’s emotions are expressed in earnest. It’s more cheerful than the other songs as well.
Ahn Seung-joon:
Because you do need to eat even if you’re on your way to the past. (laugh)
Joo Yoonha: When we first added the song into the album, I was worried it may suddenly lift the overall dark vibe of the album. But just like sad movies are not sad when they keep trying to force the tears, we felt that it would be necessary to soothe people’s emotions to a certain extent.

10: The lyrics for it in particular is fun. The part where it says “Woori sah-ih [pronunciation of Korean translated into ‘our relationship’]. Ah, shy” at a glimpse sounds like Asahi beer.
Ahn:
It’s about how one feels happy after drinking beer and misses someone. That’s why we wanted to use the word ‘woori sa-ih’ and play with the word ‘Asahi’ as well. I actually like Asahi beer. (laugh) My happiness index goes up when I drink it.
Lee Haewan: But it’s so expensive that we can only drink it when we have plenty of money.
Ahn: We’re happy when we’re drinking it because we don’t get to drink it often. (laugh)
Lee: We drank it a lot when we went to perform in Japan this time.
Ahn: Every bar in Japan has an event where you can drink unlimited beer for two hours. And every one of us likes fresh beer so whenever the owner would say “Last call,” we’d out shout out “20 glasses! 20 glasses!” even if our own glasses were full. (laugh) I think we all drank at least ten glasses of 500cc beers.
10: How do you usually work on a song?
Ahn:
We usually make the melody first and then come up with the lyrics. After Yoonha and Haewan create the melody, we’ll try to figure out the message that melody delivers and come up with words that associate with it. We worked together a lot to find the suitable words for our third album as well, constantly brainstorming for ideas.

”Perceptions towards musicians can only change when there exists a reasonable profit structure.


Vodka Rain member Seo Sangjoon [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Vodka Rain member Seo Sangjoon [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

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10: Have there been any changes to the way you work together while producing seven albums?
Ahn:
In terms on efficiency, I think we miscommunicate less and less. There are things we find easier to do and on the other hand, we’ve been looking to come up with new ideas as well because communicating efficiently doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see good results.
Lee: Every time we produce a new album, we need to make new songs so having worked on a lot of albums doesn’t mean it’ll take us less time to complete it. And we feel the pressure every time.

10: During the past five years that your band has matured and improved while producing albums nonstop, there actually hasn’t been much change to the indie band market. That’s why I think there must be a lot that you felt from performing in Japan recently.
Lee:
What we envied the most when we were in Japan was the treatment artists receive. In Japan, people who love music are highly respected but in Korea, they’re still quite regarded as people who are just out there to have fun. And in Korea, the Seokyo Music Labels Association is an association of the 40 indie labels but I heard there are 1400 indie labels in Japan and over 7000 indie bands. The market needs to become bigger for people like us to have more chances to perform so that’s what I quite envied.
Joo: The size of the market could be a factor but I don’t think that’s the only reason. There’s a structural factor as well, the profit structure. People’s perceptions toward musicians can only change when there exists a reasonable profit structure off of which musicians can succeed just with music.
10: But the reality is that in Korea, there are less ways to make indie bands known to the public. For example, more and more televised music programs such as MBC’s “Lalala” and KBS’ “Music Warehouse” are getting shut down.
Ahn:
We actually took part in a pre-recorded session for “Music Warehouse.” And I was thinking that it’s great that such music programs exist but got to hear news of its shut down a few days later. Cultural content should receive long-term support and operate separately from market logic so it’s perplexing to see that a show’s ratings is what decides whether a show gets shut down or not. Those music programs are also good in that musicians can just do their music instead of having to show other individual talents as well.

10: Individual talents?
Lee:
On radio or variety shows. More so on radio shows because all people get to hear are our voices so they want us to prepare something else. Sometimes even skits. (laugh) But we had fun on KBS 2FM’s “Night Restaurant” recently because we got to talk only about music from start to finish.
Ahn: It’s a relief that radio shows like “Night Restaurant” will be around. When we look at other programs, they invite musicians or singer-songwriters to their shows and make us do the same things that idol stars do. But we won’t be as funny as comedians when we tell jokes and stories about our first loves won’t be as interesting as when they’re told by a handsome actor. I wish they’d ask us to do something we’re great at. And that’s the only way the public will start recognizing the value of indie musicians and singer-songwriters.

Vodka Rain member Lee Haewan [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Vodka Rain member Lee Haewan [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

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10: Then Ahn, you sometimes post up song recommendations on social networking portal Cyworld. Is this part of “what you do well”?
Ahn:
It’s my own way of communicating with our fans. Fans or the public heed more attention because they’re recommendations by musicians. I want to inform people of good music that hasn’t become well-recognized yet.

10: In what ways are the rest of you communicating with fans?
Seo Sangjoon:
I’ve been uploading comics these days. Everybody communicates through different ways -- Seung-joon through words, Yoonha through music and Haewan through photography. I wanted to try doing it too but in a different way. I have a friend that can draw cartoons so he draws them for me when I give him the subject matter. I think I’d be able to communicate with fans by telling people about our band through comics.
Lee: It’s only been about two to three years since I’ve started enjoying photography. But I’m the type that falls in love with something once I start liking it. I recently went to the zoo in Japan’s Ueno and took tons of photos. Gorillas in Korea are always caged up and sitting down with angry expressions on their faces but the gorillas in Japan looked cheerful and moved around actively.

10: You hold the ‘Romantic Vodka Rain’ show every year. How did you come up with this?
Ahn:
We wanted to show people that rock music can be romantic and heartwarming as well. Being able to show the audience a fun time and good energy is good but ‘Romantic Vodka Rain’ is an acoustic show people can listen to while sitting down comfortably.
Joo: We rearrange all our songs into acoustic versions for this concert we hold once a year.
Lee: Of the songs in our third album, we plan to rearrange "Never Gonna Be Fainted," "Memory is like a Flower," "Midnight Bistro," Sincerely," and "Moment." "Moment" in particular is a song we approached with a maniac attitude but you’ll be surprised at how different the rearranged version will sound.

10: Are there any other types of concerts you’d like to hold?
Ahn:
They’re still in planning stages but we’re looking into collaboration shows. Whatever the combination may be, it’s always fun to produce something new. We might mix a solo singer with our band or may perform on a small theatrical stage rather than a big stage. We’re also always looking for the chance to work with Lucid Fall. (laugh)



Reporter : Lee Ga-on
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@, Lee Ji-Hye seven@
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