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| Korean punk musician Jinu Konda and his wife Krista / Courtesy of Jinu Konda |
By Jon Dunbar
Most wedding ceremonies in Korea are done quickly at chintzy assembly-line facilities, but punk musician Jinu Konda and his wife Krista decided that's not for them.
Instead, they're having a party this Saturday at Skunk Sindang, a newly reopened punk club previously located in Nogosan-dong, Sangsu-dong and Mullae-dong.
"There will be no rings, no vows, no cheesy speeches ― only rock 'n' roll and booze," Jinu told The Korea Times.
The two already registered their marriage on paper earlier this year.
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| Korean punk musician Jinu Konda and his wife Krista / Courtesy of Jinu Konda |
Titled "Till Death Do Us Party," the show will feature Pop Ents, Merry Hey Day, 18Fevers, Gorymurgy, Thunders, Rumkicks and acoustic trio The Jonnybirds.
It will be a lot of work for Jinu, who plays guitar in The Jonnybirds, and also serves as a guest musician for Pop Ents.
"I'm not a regular member of Pop Ents. I'm like an on-and-off boyfriend. They wanted me to be a regular member but I told them that I'm kinda polygamist when it comes to music. But I'm not proud of it and it's actually my problem that I want to fix eventually."
While he will probably perform with Pop Ents at this show, he will also have to play a full set with the acoustic band The Jonnybirds.
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| The three members of The Jonnybirds pose outside The Studio HBC after a set, April 29. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar |
The Jonnybirds got its start in the early days of the pandemic, after Jinu met the other two members at a jam night in Hippytokki, a now-closed Hongdae music venue. Alan, a Chinese Canadian singer-songwriter, said he had some original songs and wanted to start a band. So Jinu joined, and so did Alex from Germany.
They started out with a borrowed acoustic guitar and a broken djembe drum, but they upgraded to a cajon, a percussive box originating from Peru, played by Alex.
"Back when we first started, we were mulling over band names at a friend's cafe, when a guy randomly popped in with a little bird in hand ― he said he'd found it exhausted on the street, and didn't want to leave it to get hit by a car," Alan said. "He then plops the bird on the veranda and fucks off. Someone quipped that we would name it Jonny ― and we collectively had a moment of, 'Huh, The Jonnybirds ― that's a catchy name.'
Alan added that he believes the original Jonnybird survived. "Last we saw, he'd managed to fly back onto a telephone wire after a bit of rest," he said.
Jinu is also kept busy with his solo career, as well as working as a session musician, plus playing in the punk bands Vanmal and Pokeman chi.
That latter one is a newly formed oi punk band that just began playing shows earlier this month. Jinu says its name is supposed to mean "violently drinking and drunk as fuck."
"But it's so hard to pronounce if you're not Korean," he said. "So when I told Krista this name she didn't understand and went like 'What? Pokemon chi?'"
He thought it was funny, and eventually, this became romanized as Pokeman chi. He was quick to add that the band's logo is written in Chinese characters.
The doors open at Skunk Sindang this Saturday at 6 p.m. Tickets cost 15,000 won in advance or 20,000 won at the door.
Visit thejonnybirds.com for more about the band, or @skunk_sindang on Instagram for information about the venue. Buy tickets at bit.ly/Kristajinu.
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