Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| YB members: from left, Kim Jin-won, Heo Joon, Yoon Do-hyun, Park Tae-hee and Scott Hellowell ― attend the showcase of their 10th album 'Twilight State.' at Oil Tank Culture Park in western Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap |
By Jung Hae-myoung
On Friday, Korea's nationally ado rock band YB held a showcase of its 10th studio album at Oil Tank Culture Park in western Seoul, surrounded by forest and nature. The band chose the venue to raise awareness on global warming and environmental sustainability.
YB, released its 10th album "Twilight State," Thursday. The album consists of 13 tracks, buoyed by singles "Distraction," "Birthday" and "Sangsu." The band said it had experimented a lot, as well as keeping the old, for the album.
"We think it is the fate of the band, but it is hard to survive without making changes, no new things," guitarist Heo Joon said. "But we still wanted to keep making music that gives people hope, which was something we wanted to keep."
For this album, YB tried to focus on personal emotions rather than the big social issues they have been touching on previously.
"Our band has this national rock band image, but today's society flows like madness and we didn't know what to believe," frontman and vocalist Yoon Do-hyun said. "We therefore tried to pull out personal feelings such as anxiety, happiness and sadness et cetera in the lyrics."
The band also worked with Soul, a Korean member of multinational band Superorganism, and Jeff Schroeder from alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins.
"For the track Distraction, we were deeply inspired by Soul's narration in his band's song Something for Your M.I.N.D.," they said.
"Jeff from Smashing Pumpkins played the bridge for Night Carriage. We met Jeff as the opening act for their U.S. tour about three years ago, and thought it would be great if this guitar style appeared in our music."
Heo said if they were to pick the band's most representative song, it would be "Birthday." "For more progressive ones, it would be Distraction, Would You Mind? and Wish I Didn't Know," Heo said.
Asked why the band took six years to release a full-length album, bassist Park Tae-hee said: "Each time we produced a song, we kept thinking about making a better one. I think we wrote about 50 to 100 songs in total."
Meanwhile they have been also developing their YouTube channel. Yoon said they find it a good communication tool to show their performances more freely and make interesting content for fans.
The band experimented for its music video as well, trying out a VR version. At the showcase, the emcee put on VR glasses and the screen showed how one can watch the music video in a fully immersive environment.
"We realized the music market is changing fast, and we didn't have any idea except performing at concerts," Yoon said. "But by uploading videos, we were able to play everything without limitation."
Asked if they had any insights in the midst of K-pop and "hallyu," Yoon said playing music in Korea was the same as playing music in front of world audiences.
"With K-culture grabbing attention from many people around the globe nowadays, I think playing well in Korea is just as important as playing well in front of the world audience," he said.
Asked what advice the band had for junior rock musicians, Yoon humbly said his band should learn from the younger ones, not the other way around.
