Japanese psych rocker celebrates 60th birthday in Korea

Sato Yukie performs with the band Moyu at The Studio HBC, Dec. 17, 2022. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

By Jon Dunbar

• Published Aug 29, 2023 1:15 AM KST
• Updated Aug 30, 2023 3:39 PM KST

By Jon Dunbar

One's 60th birthday is traditionally a big deal for Koreans. It's also a pretty significant milestone for Sato Yukie, a Japanese psychedelic and folk musician who has lived in Korea since 1995.

He'll celebrate his “hwangap” with a series of four concerts with his band Kopchangjeongol from Wednesday to Saturday.

In Korea, where the music scene didn't really explode until the 1990s, it's somewhat rare to find people of Sato's age at live shows.

Sato pointed out that there are many good musicians in the scene who are still playing. But he also acknowledged that most of the people around are younger.

“Of course, many young people play here (Hongdae). I am almost the same age as their parents. I am stimulated from them, and I preach 'learning from the past' to them,” he told The Korea Times.

While acknowledging that age is very important in Korea, the Japanese singer with a youthful mind also let it be known that this simple number doesn't affect his social life.

“As it is more important that musical taste matches, the age has nothing to do with me too much, I think,” he said.

Sato was in his late 20s when he first came to Korea in 1995. That first visit was just for sightseeing, as he chose to come here simply due to its short distance, as well as a love for food.

He did a lot of shopping for Korean music, buying many vintage Korean records as well as CDs, which at the time weren't in as great demand. “The owners of the used record shops were surprised and pleased,” he said, describing how he was received when visiting record shops.

While there wasn't much interest in retro music in those days, that has changed significantly since then. “Sometimes looking back on old days, the fashion of the past may revive,” the record collector said.

After he returned to Japan, he listened to one of the albums he bought, by Korean psychedelic rock legend Shin Joong-hyun. “I was very surprised as soon as I listened to his music. What on Earth is this? I thought that I must study this,” he said.

Sato is known as a voracious collector of vinyl records.

When asked what makes vinyl special to him, he couldn't really give an exact answer.

“It is so difficult to answer this question exactly. Of course, as for the convenience, LPs cannot match CDs and mp3s. But if I give my opinion about the difference between digital and analog, it will be extremely long. Therefore, I stop it here. I will say only one thing, vinyl records are the best ideal recording medium for recording sound.”

After that first trip, he formed Kopchangjeongol, an all-Japanese psychedelic rock band named after a Korean hot pot stew with intestines. He moved to the peninsula in 1999, bringing the band with him for its Korean debut that year. Also in 1999, the band released its debut album “Annyeonghasimunika?” Notably, the song included three covers of songs by Shin and one of Sanullim, as well as two originals.

But in 2005, Sato was

deported from Korea for performing music while on a tourist visa

. But he only stayed away for about half a year.

“A person of Immigration of Korea said, 'Get married immediately,' so I filed for marriage, and came back about the half a year later,” he said.

Today, he is still married to a Korean national and has become a permanent resident.

Kopchangjeongol has certainly made its mark on the Hongdae scene. Sato's former bandmate, guitarist Hasegawa Yohei, later played guitar in the Kim Chang-wan Band, led by the namesake former frontman of Sanullim, and he also joined

Kiha and the Faces

, helping drive the band's distinctive Korean retro style.

Additionally, one of Hongdae's best-known vinyl bars, started by a Korean friend of Sato, also bears the name Kopchangjeongol.

Although Kopchangjeongol the band doesn't play shows that often these days, Sato has a lot of other music projects going on these days. He's an important part of the

Bulgasari experimental music concert series

and is pretty active with the Japanese-style band Yunawa Aidoru. He also rattled off a lot of other performers he does duets and other support with, including singer-actor Park Gil-su, pansori singer Kim Jeong-eun, avant-rock band Sue, a Japanese trot singer named Mariko and a Japanese retro rock cover band called Mojo and Yukie.

Sato will celebrate his 60th birthday at Haroo Music Bar this Friday. The details about what will happen remain vague. “Of course we play, and maybe some other guys play, too,” Sato said, somewhat mysteriously. “We haven't decided. We don't know what will happen.”

Kopchangjeongol will also perform at Club Bbang on Wednesday, with opening performances by Kim Jeong-eun and Bbongjjak Mania featuring Ju Won-a. Then the party moves to nearby Strange Fruit on Thursday, for a show with the Ukrainian Canadian band Balaklava Blues which is in Korea for Seoul Music Week. Finally, on Saturday Kopchangjeongol will play at Lazy Lizard in Sinchon, along with Yunawa Aidoru and Mariko & Yukie.

For this latest concert series, Kopchangjeongol will feature Sato and his Japanese bandmates Akai Kojiro and Ito Koki, as well as Kwak Gyeong-mok on guitar and guest vocals from Soul Train vocalist Lim Yun-jeong.

Visit

fb.com/Kopchangjeongol

for more information.