Indie band 10cm's Kwon Jeong-yeol (vocal, jembe) and Yoon Cheol-jong (guitar) have known each other for 12 years. They were in the same band in high school, went to the military together, and ended up in 'Hongdae [Hongik University area]' where they formed their band. After slowing gaining recognition by performing on the streets of Hongdae, they started to perform in clubs, and one of the songs they sang, named "I'm Scared of the Dark Tonight," made it onto a compilation album. The song quietly spread through blogs and they finally released their first EP album. Recently, they played their music which they claim is 'Manhattan style' on KBS music program "Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook." 10Asia listened to the story of these two men whose music very gradually became known over a period of 12 years, as if they are small living forms of life which move ten centimeters a day.
10: You're a duo with one member who plays the guitar and another who plays the jembe. It's not a common formation.
Yoon Cheol-jong: It's because of Jason Mraz. I saw him appear on EBS' "Space Gonggam" and it left a very strong impression on me. His music seemed hollow yet at the same time was rich. And that's when I saw the djembe so I wanted to try playing it.
Kwon Jeong-yeol: I'm not interested in instruments but that was the first one I fell in love with. We made our music thinking of Jason Mraz's position too.
10: But I don't get the vibe of Jason Mraz from your music. (laugh)
Kwon: We failed. We wanted to show that we had been influenced by him but it didn't work out. We said, "Is it this difficult to be like Jason Mraz?" Something weird kept coming out instead of Jason Mraz. That's how a couple of our songs came about, like "Americano" and "I'm Scared of the Dark Tonight."
10: It was a song that reminded me much more of the dark rather than Jason Mraz.
Kwon: We had originally wanted to do happy and cheerful music but it didn't quite work out.
10: "It's Snowing" is a song like that in particular. It's music you should listen to when you're alone in your room at night.
Kwon: I made that song a long time ago when we were super big losers. (laugh) I'm still a loser but I was an even bigger loser back then.
10: How big of a loser are you talking about? (laugh)
Kwon: We basically lived at a bar in Shinchon. In a way, you could say it's the hometown of our music. We were really broke back then.
Yoon: We ate ramen everyday because we didn't have money to buy other food.
Kwon: It was to the extent that the owner there said that if we want to drink beer, we should pour it for ourselves since we're poor and don't have money. That's when we wrote "It's Snowing." And that's why when I was singing it, I thought, "This has to sound absolutely pitiful." There's nothing as pitiful as the lyrics to this song. It's about painting over memories about your past lover with romance and there's nothing that's as pitiful as that.
Kwon: It was really bad. And it snowed back then too. (laugh)
Yoon: We made a song like that because it was snowing. (laugh)
10: I think you write songs and lyrics which reflect the emotions you feel at that very moment. With the lyrics in particular, you seem to write about thoughts that brush past your mind rather than talking about a particular story.
Kwon: We don't really think too deeply when writing them. (laugh) And I like to write as if I'm doing free-association.
10: But the lyrics themselves are very detailed. You write comfortably about moments that others would make an effort to make sound pretty.
Kwon: That's us trying to make it sound pretty. (laugh) But the lyrics are mostly fiction, not about ourselves.
Yoon: When we sing at karaoke bars these days, I don't think are that many songs you can relate to. So we also want to make music that people can relate to.
Is that why you sang "I Might Die"? It's a song you made after you made a girlfriend and it sounded like you live in a completely different world from when you sing "I'm Scared of the Dark Tonight."
Kwon: They're completely different. We're completely different from when we made a song like "I'm Scared of the Dark Tonight." (laugh) I made it when I first came to Seoul from the city of Gumi and I almost died back then because I was lonely. Seriously, we make music that's about good things when we're in a good state and write about bad things when we're in a bad state. Recently, we even made a song called "Hug Me."
10: Does the process you go through to make music also change depending on the situation you're in? I think you guys would talk to each other while making a song.
Kwon: That's right. We've been working together since high school so we constantly talk to each other while making songs. And we're never fixed on what we're going to make. We freely think of the songs we want to make and then talk about them when we meet up. When one said says they have so and so for the song, we talk about that and develop on it. There was only supposed to be one "Americano" in the song "Americano" but we finished the song the way it is talking while hanging out.
10: I guess you guys really have good chemistry. (laugh)
Kwon: I think the fact that we've been working together for so long is a huge advantage and while we have similarities, we also have differences. I'm more of the have-fun-and-enjoy style but Yoon is a hard worker. (laugh)
Yoon: I live separate from my family so I have to work hard. I teach students in school too. I work in private education. (laugh)
Kwon: I think our music goes outside the box because we're so different. When we first look at the stuff that we've thought up, it's quite ridiculous. But the product gets better the more we talk about it.
10: I heard that you first met at your high school band and ended up even going to the military together. How have you managed to stay friends for so long?
Kwon Jeong-yeol: We didn't spend the whole time together. We were in different bands at one point, although we stayed close friends, but when I came back from the military, my band had disbanded. That's why we decided to work together. And we did music together during our military days. What proves that the military has become a better place is because I could take my guitar (laugh) so I worked a lot while I was there. I usually worked in the office on base with a guitar but I went to church too because I wanted to do it more properly. I wasn't a believer but I pretended to be. I would praise God once and then use the amp or speaker. (laugh) Our team was named Seven Hills back then because that was the name of our unit in Korean. (laugh)
10: Do your personalities also get reflected into your music?
Kwon: Totally. (laugh) I obsess over very simple things. And I like lyrics that are repetitive and loose. But Yoon is very meticulous so he's like that with doing the arrangements for our songs too.
10: "4 a.m." or "Healing" were like that in particular -- the theme was loose and repetitive yet the arrangement and playing was meticulous.
Kwon: And quietly without fault. (laugh) There are usually several people on a band so in that case, it might've been tiresome to have such different personalities, but it's comfortable for us because we're a duo.
10: I heard that you had originally thought of forming a band. Why did you decide to go as a duo?
Kwon: Because of unnecessary confidence. (laugh) You're supposed to look for members to join your band if you want to form one but we thought they'd come to us. We were just so full of confidence. And that's also why we called our music 'Manhattan style.' (laugh)
Yoon: I think we could've found someone to join our band if we had tried. I think our attitude on life is the problem. Because it's not ordinary, not many people agreed to the way in which we wanted to take our band.
10: Did the process of how your band formed influence your music too? Your current EP is centered around folk but a lot of different styles are mixed in it too. I think "Healing" could be good to be rearranged for a band because there' s a strong bluesy feeling to it.
Kwon: Our songs are inconsistent -- one of them was even written while we were in the army. Us deciding to form a duo came much later.
Yoon: In the beginning, we also made songs for bands but some changed to folk after we decided to become a duo.
Kwon: We what we intended on. We wanted to make the music sound three dimensional so that the listener can feel the space.
Yoon: But everybody seemed to hate it. (laugh)
10: Personally I liked it. (laugh) The music wasn't recorded very clearly but it brought out a sense of the space you're in. It made me become curious about where it was recorded. In a room by any chance?
Kwon: That's right. We did it at home. Because it doesn't cost any money nor time. We did both the recording and mixing at home.
10: It did feel like I was listening to music in a room.
Kwon: With "It's Snowing," we wanted to deliver the feeling of someoneone in their room when it's snowing outside. When it's snowing, you can't hear the snow [falling] but sort of can somehow feel that it's snowing when you close your eyes. That's what I wanted to express. Although it was actually sleet that was falling on the day of the recording. (laugh)
Yoon: I am a bit ashamed to say that we didn't do a great job of the recording itself. Because we did it in our room, if you raise the volume while listening to our album, you can hear a bus passing by.
Kwon: We did the mixing at home too, saying all that matters is that it sounds good, because we didn't have much time after having tried to bring out what we're trying to do and since it was our first time doing this. That's what I wish we did a better job of.
10: Such situations get resolved with an improved economical situation. How's your income these days?
Kwon: (laugh) What would be best would be us to have as much fun as we are having now and be able to wonder, "Ah, where is all of this money rolling in from?" (laugh) But that's not easy. If we sign with an agency, we need to have responsibility, come up with plans relating to making our music successful, and there will be an aftereffect depending on the outcome. We're not interested in such things yet.
Yoon: We also receive more offers than we expected, to have our albums produced but I think we'll need more time because we're not in good shape yet. And we can do our own job ourselves so I don't see the need to split it by however many more heads go into it as of yet. (laugh) I don't want to change the beautiful system that we share right now.
Kwon: That's right. That's why until recently, we had said we should form a band in the future but such talk has disappeared after a certain point. I want us to go in this formation even if we may have to have a guest member.
10: What are your plans for the future?
Kwon: We have to release an album. And I hope it's better than this one. We want to keep writing songs to release many albums and I hope one of them makes it big. (laugh)
Yoon: Make them buy one out maybe 100 albums. (laugh)
Senior Reporter : Kang Myoung-Seok two@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@, Lee Ji-Hye seven@
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Source 10.asiae.co.kr
