Veteran singers promote indie bands
Lee, Yoon launch projects to support young musicians
Veteran pop singer Lee Seung-hwan has joined hands with CJ Culture Foundation to promote indie musicians and his first collaboration will be held Oct. 21 at YES24 LiveHall with rocker trio iamnot.
Lee picked iamnot as a frontrunner of this project to hold a solo concert, where the band is given a mission to fill up the 2,000 seats at the event hall.
The band vocalist and guitarist Lim Heon-il knows this is not an easy challenge for his band which has been drawing 300 people to their shows mostly.
“We have been playing music for 10 years and there are many iamnot fans out there. The number 2,000 is seven times our normal audience size. We feel the pressure but at the same time we are thrilled. I hope this project can give more opportunities for indie musicians and promote various stages for them,” Lim said.
Lee agreed that this project has to go viral in order to give hopes and dreams for more musicians from the indie scene to join the mainstream.
“I picked iamnot as the first participant of this project because they play easy music that anybody can love listening to,” Lee said during a press conference at CJ Azit in Gwangheungchang, western Seoul, last week. “Their music can certainly captivate audiences in a hall that can hold up to 2,300 people, and bands which play music that is too ‘difficult’ are not an option for the next candidate.”
The members of iamnot previously performed in a five-piece band called Bremen in 2006, but they soon went their separate ways. In 2015, the three members Lim, Yang Si-on on bass and Kim Jun-ho on drums reunited to form iamnot.
CJ Culture Foundation included iamnot on their program “Tune Up” supporting the 17 hottest musicians last year, and the band released its first studio album last June and participated in Jisan Rock Festival and the 2017 KCON show in Los Angeles.
Lee worked with iamnot on different shows last year and invited the band to his concert. The veteran rocker is continuing to sponsor the indie musicians and he will collaborate with iamnot for their upcoming concert.
“There are many bands in the indie scene that play original music with different colors that can attract many audiences like iamnot. But playing good music doesn’t always mean communicating with the public well. We need to help them attract more audiences to come listen to their music and pay for the music,” Lee said.
“I also want to share my knowhow on planning and directing concerts and provide a chance for indie musicians to perform on various stages.”
Lee not only helped planning the iamnot show in October but also lent them his best equipment and instruments.
Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Yoon Sang is also making efforts to discover and support young indie musicians by opening the music contest “Digitalian Mix-up” in July and offering prizes to the winners. He picks one electronic dance music (EDM) group every month to help master their tunes and give a chance to release a digital single.
Yoon provides his “stem files” for free as well. A stem file is a vocal or instrumental track. EDM producers develop their skills by remixing tunes but it is difficult to find stem files owned by individuals as it is illegal to use them without the original musician’s permission.
The veteran singer said he has done what he could to create the best environment for young musicians to freely create music and share them with the public.
Yoon Sang is a leader of the Korean EDM scene as he has been producing for the genre since the mid-1990s. He formed EDM group No Dance with the late singer Shin Hae-chul in 1996.