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INTERVIEW Wave to earth shrugs off K-pop, indie labels: 'a band, that is enough'
Clockwise from left are members of wave to earth: Kim Daniel, John Cha, and DongQ. The Seoul trio released its new album "bad pieces" on Aug. 7. Courtesy of WAVY
By Pyo Kyung-min
Seoul trio returns with 'bad pieces,' album named after Lennon, Ono's 1969 bed-in
For two years, wave to earth has been introduced abroad as proof that Korean music extends past K-pop, and at home as a band that never quite left the indie circuit.
Asked which description fits, vocalist and guitarist Kim Daniel offered neither.
"A band. That is enough," he said in a written interview with The Korea Times.
The Seoul trio, made up of Kim, bassist Cha Soon-jong and drummer Shin Dong-gyu, who perform as Daniel, John and DongQ, released its new album "bad pieces" on Aug. 7, its first record in two years. The 11-track album arrives ahead of "the pieces tour," the band's largest run to date, which opens Sept. 4 in Vancouver.
The album title is a play on the "Bed Peace" sign that hung behind John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their 1969 bed-in against the Vietnam War.
"The photos of the Lennon and Yoko bed-in protests were something we stumbled upon while discussing the direction of this album early on," Kim said. "Lennon and Ono stayed in a bed and called it peace, and we liked that the gesture was that small. This album is a bed on a messed up earth."
A scene from the music video for "courage," one of two title tracks on wave to earth's new album "bad pieces" / Courtesy of WAVY
The band's 2023 debut album "0.1 flaws and all" was built around accepting imperfection. Kim said the distance between that record and this one is measured less in theme than in who wrote it.
"The biggest difference is that this album had the most input from John and DongQ than ever before," he said. "We are all near thirty now and it feels like the first chapter of our lives is closing. We want to keep a child's innocence while that happens. That is the message of the album and also something we are saying to ourselves."
Cha said the shift had been the plan since the beginning.
"We have wanted to be a band where everyone writes and brings something ever since we started, like the Beatles. This album is the first time it actually looks like that, and the variety on it comes from the three of us bringing very different kinds of songs."
From left are members of Korean band wave to earth, DongQ, Kim Daniel and John Cha. The trio opens "the pieces tour" on Sept. 4 in Vancouver. Courtesy of WAVY
That expansion extended to the instruments. Shin listed nylon guitar, Mini Moog and the CP70 electric grand piano, none of which the band had used on a record before.
"We were toying with them for quite a while," he said. "We're excited to show our fans how these new instruments shape our music and vice versa."
The album carries two title tracks, "courage" and "hyang," a decision Kim attributed to indecision as much as design.
"It was very difficult choosing title tracks, because all songs felt like they could be the title," he said. "'Courage' and 'hyang' were ... the first few songs we wrote for this album, so I felt like they were the closest to the core of this album's message."
"Hyang" sat in his voice memos from 2024 under the working title "hyang-gi," the Korean word for scent, before he trimmed it.
A scene from the music video for "courage," one of two title tracks on wave to earth's new album "bad pieces." Courtesy of WAVY
The band has drawn more than 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify, with breakout track "seasons" passing 500 million streams, and played over 100 shows across the 2024 to 2025 cycle including Lollapalooza editions in the United States and India.
"The pieces tour" takes the band to 21 North American cities before an Asian leg across eight cities in November, with stops at Radio City Music Hall in New York and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
Shin said the venues were ones their heroes played. Cha measured the distance differently.
"Our first show was on a rooftop in Seoul for about 70 people, and I still do not really know how we got from there to here," he said. "My goal has never been a specific room. It has always been to keep doing this for a long time. So a night like that is not a finish line for me, it is one more night we get to play."
As for the gap between how the band is received overseas and at home, Cha was unbothered. "We don't really mind how we get described by other people, as long as they care about us, that's really more than enough for me."
Kim was shorter. "Regardless of how people view us, we'll be playing music."
From left are members of wave to earth John Cha, Kim Daniel and DongQ. Courtesy of WAVY