[INTERVIEW] Indie band achime - Part 2

Kim Dong-hyun [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

10: What sort of music do the rest of you like? What are you listening to these days or what did you grow up listening to?
Kim Su-yul (Kim SY): Like Sun-wook, Japanese music. I also like Quruli who’ll be coming to this year’s Jisan Valley Rock Festival and Toe.
Kwon: For Dong-hyun, it’s Metallica, Metallica. (laugh)
Kim Dong-hyun (Kim DH): I’m pretty sure that everyone in my group has listened to Metallica and Megadeth. (laugh) While it’s Japanese music for Sun-wook and Su-yul, for me it’s British rock. I hadn’t listened to a lot of Japanese music because I don’t really like Japan but I’ve been listening to their music more because of my bandmates. When it comes to British rock music, of course I’ve listened to Radiohead and Coldplay but these days, I like rock music that’s danceable. And I’ve been trying my best to reflect my such taste in music into achime’s music. I think that’s why our music is so diverse, although I’m told our music is noisy when I play my guitar so I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. (laugh)
Kwon: It’s good. I just like Dong-hyun. I like everything he does. (laugh)
Kim DH: And I don’t like this heartwarming atmosphere. (laugh)
Kim Kyung-joo (Kim KJ): I've loved pop music since I was young -- music by idol groups and I listened to a lot of music by Japanese idol stars like Morning Musme. But I had studied classical music for a long time when I was young so my parents or friends regarded it bad when I listened to such music. I also increasingly listened to more punk music but I like pop music the best these days. I'm listening to Kim Yeon-woo's albums all over again these days. I had liked him for a while and although I've never heard him sing live, I felt like listening to him all over again after seeing him on televised music contest "I'm a Singer."
Kim Jung-min: I used to love hip-hop and pop music when I was young but these days I listen to a lot of Japanese music or pop music like that of Beyonce’s.

10: I think that’s why some people say your albums are ambiguous or unfocused ? because you reflect the various taste in music each member has. Then I’m sure you could’ve tried to show people that you’re not unfocused but it seems that this EP too contains various styles of music. (laugh) So I’m curious to know why you maintain such a stance.
Kwon: It’s true that we’re trying to say, ‘Nothing is absolute.’ But I think we’re also trying to say that we’re at a certain place yet we’re not sure of where it is. I think we’re trying to say things like, ‘Where are we? There are values we have to strive for and a place we need to go to. So how far have we come so far and how further do we have to go?’ So I hate that we’re seen as being ambiguous. All we’re doing is trying to talk about what’s in between the start and finish line.
Kim SY: We’re aware of the split opinion on us and we sometimes wonder what we’re supposed to do about it but I just wish people would accept this as being our style.
Kim SY: It’s probably more so because we’re all so different from each other but nonetheless, we’re the ones doing the music. And we do it because we like it.
Kwon: Yes, people just talk a lot. (laugh)

Kim Jung-min [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

10: I think each of you must probably like different tracks to the album as well.
Kim JM: I liked “hyperactivity” the best when we were recording but I like “Rainbow at 02AM” for performing live because we did a good job of expressing the song and got good response for it as well.
Kim KJ: I like “Rainbow at 02AM” as well. But we need to play it very mechanically, as if it was recorded on a MIDI.
Kwon: But our Kyung-joo has been playing the piano since she was four so she’s very confident at playing it to sound like a MIDI. (laugh)
Kim DH: I like “hyperactivity.” It’s fun to perform live.
Kim SY: When I first listened to the demos, I liked “Rainbow at 02AM” so much that I listened to it for days but I like “hyperactivity” these days.
Kwon: Then I’ll say mine is “dissolve.” (laugh) And I call it a ‘free jazz’ piece because we made it with nothing set about it except for the guitar riff. And it ended up becoming standardized but we made it in the way that jazz people do, freely without a theme to it. That’s why I think that this song in particular contains sound that only our band can make.

10: I heard that this was the first time Boonga Boonga signed an artist based on their demo instead of connection.
Kwon: That’s right. It’s also the first place we sent our demo to.
Kim SY: And we didn’t even send in out music properly. We told them to come into our MySpace page to listen to it which they did and like it. (laugh) We had originally planned to send our music to several places. And we got contacted by a different agency as well, after we signed with Boonga Boonga.

10: So why did you sign with Boonga Boonga?
Kwon: Well we thought they’d be the easiest to approach. (laugh) But they even said okay to us right away so it wasn’t like we good go with a different choice. I think we were trying not to delay things. We were going for what we’d get instead of testing out the waters. (laugh)
Kim SY: We were also going for the side effect that would come from Jang Kiha and the Faces becoming very popular all of a sudden. And we actually did.
Kwon: Yes. We wanted to jump on the bandwagon. (laugh) Broccoli, You Too helped us out too.
Kim SY: We worked with them a lot because they like us so much.

10: The Indie scene has changed from when you released your first EP in 2009. There are now hit bands like Jang Kiha and the Faces, 10cm and No Reply, and whether it’s light or serious, you have more people who are interested in the Indie music scene. How has such change been for you?
Kim SY: It’s great. And such change makes us more ambitious. We would like to appeal to the general public more. We’d also like for our music to be acknowledged by people. And we want to become famous like 10cm and No Reply.

Kim Su-yul [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

10: Kwon Sun-wook and Kim Su-yul, you two are 29 so you have a bit of an age gap with the rest of the members of your group who are in their early twenties so I think they must think about their futures while looking at you two.
Kim DH: Well, it’s not that I think that I shouldn’t become like them. Of course, it’d be great if we become more successful. But I have thought that I’d have a hard time by just being a member of a band. And I still do. That’s why I do music instead of just band. Here and there, everywhere.
Kim KJ: Well, based on the pretext that achime will last a long time, I’m still in school so it’s very hard to do both at the same time. Therefore, I’d like to graduate as fast as I can and be able to focus on a single thing.
Kwon: What if you lose everything? (laugh)
Kim JM: I don’t know what to do at all yet.
Kwon: Jung-min is 22 so he’s still a baby. I envy him. There’s so much he can do.

10: On the other hand, I think that you two, Kwon Sun-wook and Kim Su-yul, must have a lot of thoughts regarding life in general since you’ll be turning 30 soon.
Kim SY: I think I did more when I was in my early twenties but I think I’ve given up now. My mind is at ease now. But I know that there’s no turning back. I think to myself, ‘Oh, they’re elsewhere’ when I see my friends working at companies and making lots of money. But in a way, they envy me as well.
Kwon: I do the same thing that Su-yul does. When I was around the age of 22, I used to weigh the importance of everything, behind and in front of me, but I can’t look back anymore. So that’s sad in a way but a good thing as well.

10: Well, like you said yourselves, achime is a band that gets told a lot of things by a lot of people but I’m sure there’s something that you want to say too.
Kim DH: I think it’s time that they start listening to our music for what it is. Not say this and that about our music but just listen to it.
Kim SY: As music.
Kwon: We’ll have to work harder too. I’m hoping that you can be understanding enough to at least recognize the passion the five of us have to work hard.

※ Any copying, republication or redistribution of 10Asia's content is expressly prohibited without prior consent of 10Asia. Copyright infringement is subject to criminal and civil penalties.

Reporter : Kim Hee Ju fifteen@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@, Lee Ji-Hye seven