Korean pop music and all of its boy bands have been taking the world by storm, have you ever wondered about all of other music scenes out there? We recently got the chance to interview South Korean band GoryMurgy, who are planning to start a conversation about a different type of sound: K-indie. GoryMurgy is made up of guitarist/vocalists Tommy Powell and Kim Kimin and drummer Josh Rohrmayer. They currently have three singles and a demo released, and are set to release their first EP soon, which we listened to early and inquired them about. Do you think the world is ready for Korean indie rock?
TOMMY: I don’t know about the world, but Korea isn’t ready for it. I don’t think I’ll offend anyone by saying homegrown indie or rock bands don’t draw massive crowds here. But that’s kind of liberating in a way for us, there are no trends or fashions to follow, no one looking to pigeon-hole us or label us as this or that. There’s no one trying to define what we should be, so we can do what we want. KIMIN: Korean indie rock? I don’t even heard that kind of genre. Well, you mean, “Korean-Acoustic-Ballad-Singer-songwriter?" Because that’s what indie means to most Korean people. JOSH: I think the world is as ready for Korean indie rock as it is for any other country's indie rock. A lot of it will actually just feel like throwback nostalgia stuff to hip music connoisseurs around the world. There's honestly not a ton of cutting edge stuff happening here. The lack of irony or hipster posturing might be refreshing for some people, though. What was the songwriting process for your EP like? Do you have any first release jitters or anxieties about it? TOMMY: Kimin or I will usually come up with a melody and basic structure for a song, then we’ll all add bits or take bits out of it...like any band I guess. Personally I don’t really ever set out to consciously ‘write a song’, I’ll just be at home doing something and something will come to me and I’ll grab a guitar and hit record. Then think nothing of it but later listen back and forget having ever even made it, but figuring it sounds all right. I think Kimin, you said you do something similar? KIMIN: Yeah, I usually do that too. TOMMY: In terms of anxiety about this EP... when we started out 2 and a half years ago, for me I loved music and really wanted to be in a band, but it always seemed like it was something I wouldn’t be able to do. Like something other people do. But I like making songs with Kimin and we knew the songs were good at least so we enjoyed the challenge of playing live. And playing live became what we loved doing. But without there being a ‘gig going’ scene much in Korea, no matter how how many shows we play (and I think we’ve played around a hundred shows now) we’re kind of hitting a wall now. So this next step is making these recordings and seeing what happens. I don’t think there are jitters about releasing them, but it’s a new challenge for us. KIMIN: When i was writing the songs, I just made that about our life. And jitters or anxiety...No? Never. JOSH: I don't write any of the songs and no, I'm not nervous about releasing the EP. Is there a certain song that you’re excited for people to hear the most? Why? KIMIN: All 4 songs...or mammal tree. No reason. If you like that song, then you can love our other songs. JOSH: ''1인가구'' (furniture for 1) because it has interesting dynamics between different feelings, sounds, rhythms, pacing, etc, rather than a more typical rock or pop song. TOMMY: All of the four songs are kind of different from each other I think. We’ve been tweaking the recordings for so long that for me each has had periods of time when it was my favourite or when I got so sick of listening to it over and over that I had to avoid it for a few days. If I had to pick one, it’d be ‘is this happening’. I made a demo of it a while back, but it was badly recorded and really fuzzy sounding. But still something about that recording of it resonated with me and we’ve tried to re-record it a few times since then, trying to find that original feeling, but in a slightly cleaner form. Also it sounds a bit different from what people might expect from an indie band, so it’ll be nice to see what people make of it. The artwork for your EP, and your other singles are designed by Kimin, a member of the band. What do you want people to take in from the art, and how does the art represent the sound of your music? KIMIN: Did you see the “ring...symbol?” I mean, the symbol on the character’s face in our first EP and in some other artwork. It means eternal life. and... yeah I just wanna Eternal Art Life. And when you see the arts and when you listen to the music, there’ll be some feeling. Please accept the feeling directly. I think it doesn’t need my description. Our favorite song currently on your bandcamp is “There’s Two Guys Always There.” Can you explain the meaning behind that song? KIMIN: There’s so many different meanings in this song’s lyrics. And here’s one of the key points of the lyrics from that song “그 방의 더러운 유령을 죽이고 달아나야해” it means: “You have to run away after killing the ghost in the room” Reject the laziness! TOMMY: The chorus for that, Kimin had a melody, but he said he wanted the chorus in English, so I just listened to what he’d recorded and wrote down what it sounded like he was saying. We’ve done that with a couple of our songs, just kind of sing a melody into a our phones and babble speak the lyrics, then later go back and try to hear what it sounds like we were saying. Letting the subconscious take over songwriting duties. And then it’s fun to go back and try to analyze what it sounds like the song might be about. Anyway looking at ‘two guys always there’. ~The kids don’t make up the stories that I don’t believe in all that naaaaah~ It sounds like there’s some meaning in there. Like ‘don’t take bullshit from the man, maaan, the cool kids know what’s up’ that kind of thing. Do you like the attention your country is getting lately from k-pop? How has it affected the indie music scene there? KIMIN: I only listen to 2NE1 among k-pop songs. And...I have no idea. I think k-pop and k-indie are too far apart. JOSH: I don't know, really. It seems like most indie bands in Korea generally reject K-Pop or most of it anyway, but now and again you'll see someone cover a popular ballad or something. We even used to play a Gorymurgy-ized version of a K-Pop song during practice once in a while. It's about the same relationship the North American or UK or continental European indie scenes have with mainstream music as far as I can tell, ranging from abject hatred to "ironic enjoyment" to genuine enjoyment and everywhere else in between on this spectrum. Which artists would you consider your inspirations? Who are your favorite bands? JOSH: Historically, the usual suspects like The Beatles, Nirvana, The Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, Pavement, and hundreds of other well-known and obscure artists and bands spanning all kinds of genres. TOMMY: Guided by Voices, the replacements, deerhunter, pavement. And I guess the English indie bands that were everywhere in the 2000s. Also Shin Jung Hyun, who I first heard about a year after moving to Korea. I would say he’s to Korean music what the Beatles are to British music. But for whatever reason people don’t really listen to him a lot these days. Before I heard him, I thought Korea didn’t really have much going on musically, but since listening a lot and loving his music, I’ve realized Korea does have a great rock and pop music history, and that got me more interested in the culture in general. So he’s probably the reason I’m here playing in a band now. KIMIN: Uhuhboo-project, The Blackskirts, Pavement, The Cribs, Sonic Youth etc...I listen to Car Seat Headrest these days. Which do you prefer more: singing in English or Korean? TOMMY: Furniture for 1 is the only one I sing in Korean... maybe this question is more for Kimin. KIMIN: It just depends on the sound. Where in the world is your dream gig? KIMIN: Japan. Or...North Korea...maybe. TOMMY: Glastonbury or Reading Festival. JOSH: A big festival in a cool place like the Roskilde Festival in Denmark or the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan with a bunch of our still living musical heroes on the same bill. We'd like to thank GoryMurgy for letting us ask them some questions! Follow them on Instagram and check out their Bandcamp to prepare for the release of their first ever EP.
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