Boys in the Kitchen named K-Rookies 2015 champs
Boys in the Kitchen, winner of the 2015 K-Rookies program / Courtesy of KOCCA
By Jon Dunbar
Garage rockers Boys in the Kitchen emerged victorious as six bands wrapped up the 2015 K-Rookies program with a battle of the bands, Saturday.
The program by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) concluded its fourth run with the final concert, held at AX-Korea in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul on Jan. 23. Each year since 2012, the government-backed program has incubated six talented Korean bands every year before squaring them off in a final competition.
"Korean music is mainly known for K-pop stars," said Kim Jung-seok, a member of KOCCA's music team, "but we know there are many less-well-known competent musicians in Korea.”
The six bands in the 2015 program were Boys in the Kitchen, all-girl jazz/funk act A-FUZZ, female-fronted blues rockers Billy Carter, rock duo Dead Buttons, brass hip-hop band NP Union and pop-rockers the Stray.
The top three bands played for cash prizes, with the top winner receiving 5 million won, followed by 3 million won for the runner-up and 2 million won for third place, respectively. The winners were selected by two groups of judges _ the concert audience and a group of music experts, based on stage presence, musical endeavor and potential.
The mood among the bands was spirited but hardly competitive, with A-FUZZ members saying “We did root for each other inside.”
The winning band, Boys in the Kitchen, had earlier won runner-up in the Hello Rookie finals last year and their track "Bivo" was nominated for Best Modern Rock Song at the 2015 Korean Music Awards.
About what they’ll do with their prize money, bassist Nam Na-ri said, “I’m going to Thailand in a few weeks, going to buy some shots for random people there and get wasted myself as well!”
NP Union took second place and third went to A-FUZZ, who'd previously beaten the Boys at Hello Rookie 2015.
The six participating bands were selected from among hundreds at an open audition held last July.
"Unfortunately Korea has too many great bands even more than the audience," said Kim Ji-won, vocalist of Billy Carter. "I respect all those good musicians and their own way to be musicians."
To qualify for the incubation program, bands must not have released any full-length albums more than a year before auditioning. They must also not have ranked top in previous K-Rookie programs.
All six bands were provided various benefits by KOCCA, including recording opportunities for albums and music videos and four hours weekly of free rehearsal time in a studio.
"It's a great opportunity to take part in more activities through this program," said Kim. "We had to save a lot of money ― for us! ― to record our first EP and it was absolutely exhausting. But we didn't need to worry about money at all during recording the second one."
Billy Carter released a music video for their song “I Don’t Care” and will put out a new album Jan. 30, through the program’s support.
“It would have been almost impossible to do it on our own, but we are grateful for the opportunity,” said members of A-FUZZ, who had a new EP “Moonshine” and a music video for their song “Rescue Me” produced through the program.
The final concert, recorded by OBS TV, will be broadcasted next month through Naver's V App. The program also opens other doors for the bands, offering support for them to play overseas music festivals and other future opportunities.
"We make efforts to provide musicians with better industry environments based on care and incubating programs." said the KOCCA representative. "Finding talented musicians is the most important step."