Rocking with Titín – Episode 1 – Julia Dream

Welcome to the first episode of Rocking with Titín!

This section will go over all the Korean indie scene, which I passionately love. And this first episode is dedicated to one of the best bands (I don’t say “the best of all” because I still have a lot of bands to see…but…WAAA I LOVE THEM): Julia Dream.

Almost two months ago, actually, wait, I do remember the date, it was the 4th of July, I went to an indie festival in Freebird 2 and, completely out of the blue, I ran into this awesome band.

Why was this totally unexpected? Because the only reason why I attended that festival was because of Life and Time and Space Papa, and, to be honest, I didn’t have any expectation for the other bands. It turned out that, in the end, I was amazed but almost all of them. And specially, by Julia Dream. I almost had a heart attack.

[Side note: probably most of the expressions sound too much or too overreacting but I come from South America. We are passionate people and when we like something, the world has to know. We scream and go crazy, but I swear it is normal (for us) I SWEAR I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE. And I admit, in the post I wrote in Spanish…I let all my groupie side go crazy as fuck. For this one, I will try to play it as cool as I can.]

[Side note No2: I am still new to the indie scene. I haven’t seen many bands yet so I can’t compare or say if this band was better before or that kind of analysis. I came to Korea a few months ago, but as I am a backpacker, I can’t afford to go to every concert I’d love to. That’s the only reason why I am so behind into knowing all the bands, it’s definitely not because I don’t enjoy the music. On the contrary, I just love the Korean indie scene.]

Anyway, going back to Julia Dream.

I am the kind of person who truly enjoys instrumental bands. Actually, these are the kind of bands I prefer to see performing live, because they just play and make me feel they are just a bunch of friends having fun in a rehearsal room, and you are the privileged spectator. A band that after the show you can tell they are doing what they love.

And that goes without even mentioning that to see Julia Dream live is an experience on its own.

Actually pointless warning: this trying to make professional music reviews thing is making me nervous. Why, you may ask *no one asks because they know her all along*. Yes, yes indeed. I’m just happy with their music, completely fascinated with their music. Thus, this is not gonna be objective at all…on the contrary…this is pure subjective style but at the end, you will know I’m just telling the truth.

Anyway.

These guys are just epic. I’m listening to their CD just now, while translating the interview and writing this post and it is just impossible. I can’t help but being transported to the showcase and all I can think about is seeing them again. Why? WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO MEEEE?!?!?!

*calms down*

Because, on the top of it all, on the top of them being such incredible performers, they are the most humble musicians I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I don’t know if it is because I am used to musicians being too arrogant. Sometimes it feels that once a band gets a bit of recognition they automatically forget where they came from.

After the performance I talked with JunHyung, lead singer and guitarist, and he said: “Why would they [musicians] do that? I really love when people share my music. I always feel thankful when people are interested in our music. Arrogant attitude should stay on stage.” How can’t you not like and respect them? HOW?!

God. I really need to calm down.

Let’s get to the important thing here.

Last Sunday we had the privilege to attend Julia Dream’s official release of their EP Lay it down on me. *crow goes crazy*

Dear readers…I just can’t. Can’t control the feelings. It was disturbingly incredible.

Before Julia Dream’s performance, we had the chance to see Life and Time

And Telefly

Both bands played a few songs each.

The whole showcase was definitely more than I expected. I remember getting drew in by Julia Dream the first time I saw them, but apparently I was not remembering it as clearly as I thought. Because this showcase blew my mind. Not only could you perceive the energy of the guys on stage but the audience was just as energetic. Eli and I included.

They are the kind of band that goes on stage and only after a few minutes, you feel like they just told you Ok, we are here now, you will to listen to our music, enjoy it, feel it, and go crazy with it. And you go all SIR, YES SIR, and do as you were told.

That’s presence all along! No need to be arrogant if you make your music speak for yourself.

I know, I know, it looks like the band paid me to say only good stuff about them but I swear they did not. If you have the chance to see them live, you would be going all crazy groupie style as I am.

Their presentation lasted for about an hour and a half, but of course it felt like only twenty minutes. STOP IT ANGIEEEE.

They opened the night covering Pink Floyd’s Julia Dream. Followed by one awesome song after the other, between covers and own songs, the show went very smoothly (as you will see on the videos.)

I don’t know if it’s because of JunHyung’s voice, Sang Hoon rhythm, or ByungGyu excellence but all you can do after the show finishes is just clap your hands out, and wait for the next one.

Ok. This has to be said again so I don’t sound like an obsessed teenager (of 26 years old). I love bands that just go along with the instrumental parts, that when they play live they just play and play as if they were in a rehearsal room, and I love deep voices: ergo, I just love Julia Dream.

Back to the show.

I am sure that some music expert will notice if they have something to work on, and I guess they might do as they are quite a new band, but for me, a normal spectator, what I saw was enough. I had some expectations, and they were fulfilled.

And to make everything even better, when the show was about to finish, 김인후 came back to stage to perform some songs with the guys.

Damn it, I just realized this is taking longer that it was supposed to. But I have this problem that I just keep talking and talking, never knowing when to shut up…that I think it should be now? Ok.

I will just say another stupid girl thing, because it is worth saying (I will grow up someday, I promise…but not now.)

I had three Argentinian bracelets to give to the guys of Julia Dream, which I managed to do after the show, but as there were lots of people getting their album signed and it was a bit chaotic, I couldn’t really explain what it was for and I even gave them to each of the members separately.

Anyway. The following day, I was talking to the guys to arrange the interview when suddenly they sent me this picture.

The heart attack I almost had when I first saw them live came back all over again. And I think this time I had two. Two little heart attacks. I am not used to musician being this nice. I have to get over it. I know. Or Julia Dream will kill me for real.

Getting back to the important stuff. I present to you *her heart bits faster*, the first interview Julia Dream gave to a Latin American blog:

• How would you introduce your band to someone who has not heard it before?

We are pychedelic rock band in korea. Pieces are usually long; but, you would be able to enjoy our music if you listen as if you watch movie or theater piece.

• Can you tell us a bit about yourselves? How did you meet? Why did you start with the band?

We are all born in 1986, Leader vocal and guitarist Park and drummer Yum started band together when we were 25 in Hongdea area. Since then, we were in 2~3 bands together. In the Summer of 2012, ‘JunHyung-Park’ and ‘SangHoon-Yum’ prepared for new band and auditioned bassist for 6 months. At that time, Bassist ‘ByungGyu-Son’, who did military service(military band) with SangHoon-Yum and recently graduated from college, auditioned and joined our band. (In Korea, it is required for male to serve military for 2 years.)

• As you know, you have many fans who are not Korean-speakers, how does that make you feel?

We are sincerely flattered and happy. Koreans, especially young generation may not take out music as highly appealing. This is the one of the reasons why we are so thankful and glad that we have fans who are non Korean. Of course our songs have English-written lyrics, but it is from different continent. We appreciate support from foreign fans.

• Have you ever dream about getting your band known abroad?

We always dream of performance outside of Korea. If we have chance, we would be more than glad to take it. However, we have financially issue to deal with performance outside of Korea. FYI, we plan to have tour in California and Seattle during March 2015. Some of the fans from states decided to help us with accommodation. We are already excited for the tour.

• Guessing from your band name and your music, we can tell that Pink Floyd is definitely an influence in your music. What other bands do you listen to?

Of course. As you can see from our name of the band, we love Pink Floyd along with various bands and musicians. We love King Crimson and enjoy listening and playing Blues. Other than Blues, we like classic rock, psychedelic rock and progressive rock from 60s and 70s as well as 90s British pop. Moreover, we listens a lot of funk, jazz and classic.

• What is like to be an indie musician in Korea? Is it easy? What do you think about Korean indie scene?

Korean indie musicians encounter numerous trouble to live as a musicians. In past several years, Korean indie scene developed; however, most of Korean do not know about indie bands. We would like to put all of our time into music; but, it is touch to make a living out of only music. Most of musicians work part time jobs or private lessons to maintain life financially. K-pop’s growth cannot be related to indie scene. Korean listeners have tendency to only listen music that are short and memorable. That is why it is touch to make a living as experimental musicians in Korean indie scene. Still, we respect those musicians doing their own music silently.

• Tell us about the presentation of your first Single! Were you excited? Did you fulfill all your expectations?

First of all, we are so excited to release the first single ‘Lay it down on me’. Originally, we were 4 man band including keyboard. We were planning to release album during last year; but one of the members dropped out and plan was frustrated. Still, we were trying hard to build an album. Financial troubles and other issues stopped us from making it. Anyhow, we are glad that we made through this far for the release of the first album.

Album contains 4 songs. But, in fact, it is only 1 song. We wanted to portrait greed, frustration, collapse and recover by nightmares that people encounter daily. (Internet streaming will have gap between songs, which ruins our original intention. We recommend listeners to enjoy our music by CD or Gapless play.)

Moreover, part 2 (Echoes and Dance) of this album contains hommage of pink floyd echoes. It has long running time of 6 minutes and has appealing impromptu musical performance.

Second, third and fourth tracks were recorded in one take at LP Bar in Hongdae. Thus, it is rough; but, you could enjoy instant energy.

• What are your plans from now? For this week, we plan to chill as we had show case yesterday.

It was such a fantastic time all thanks to our fans. We are planned to have life performance at FF, BigBird and Strange Fruit in 9/13, 20 and 27 respectively. We also have Evans Lounge Monday Project in 15th and 29th. Lastly, Incheon Glastonbury live is lined up in 3rd of October. We plan to release more than one singles by end of this year and official album by the first half of the next year.

• Please say hi to your Argentinian fans!

We sincerely appreciate sudden visit of fans from Argentina during last month. We were curious how our music was appealing to you guys and were so thankful for the support; even though we did not have opportunity to show live performance.

We were moved by tour support during the preparation for the show case. If the opportunity comes, we would love to have a performance in Argentina.

We will keep try to make awesome music. Thank you.

Thank you all for reading ^^

Now I leave you with the video, I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Angie!