Band SsingSsing hits US with 'minyo rock'

Lee Hee-moon, center, minyo (Korean folksong) singer, of band SsingSsing, which blends authentic Korean traditional vocals with rock band music and extravagant visual style, performs during the globalFEST in New York, Jan. 8. / Courtesy of Lee Hee-moon Company

By Park Jin-hai

Band SsingSsing is not like other Korean bands.

The six-member band, led by front man Lee Hee-moon, wearing glittery Bowie-like make-up and stylish costumes with stockings and heels, reminds audiences of glam-rock. After a funky, reggae music intro, this eccentric and visually-pleasing band goes beyond the audience’s expectations once again _ they sing “minyo,” Korean folk songs deeply rooted in tradition.

After a performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk, which invites high-profile celebrities such as Adele Adkins and John Legend to perform, this fusion minyo band, comprised of two cross-dressing male vocalists and one female, has gained immediate media attention in Korea and abroad.

“It was unexpected fame,” 41-year-old Lee, born to Gyeonggi minyo master Ko Ju-rang, said during an interview with The Korea Times. “We were in the middle of our U.S. tour and had a free day, then the radio show’s producer asked us to perform and we said yes. We didn’t expect it would have such huge repercussions afterwards.”

The band’s September performance on the station’s official YouTube channel has been viewed over 1 million times.

Singer, producer and creative director Lee says SsingSsing is the second band team he created in 2014 for his total three-part “Order-made Repertoire,” he named to highlight traditional music reflecting changes compared to conventional “ready-made” traditional music. “The second theme was about pleasure. Since I wanted to show that minyo originated from shamanistic music but with some modern touches, I tapped into rock music sessions.

“The colorful costumes came from the images of shaman who like to wear glittering jewelry and vividly colored clothes. Cross-dressing has been created to express the male shamans’ genderless quality, because it is as if they are mediums channeling both male and female, and young and elderly spirits,” said Lee. “Since I could be a different me, I become wilder and more confident on stage. I like the explosive energy that my different ego has.”

But, he said he was not all that happy about the sudden fame. “SsingSsing’s music is like traditional songs wrapped in different packages. It is of course fun to perform, but it is more like stress-busting and breaking all social taboos. Breaking what a man should be like, including his physical appearance, made the band appear as a shock to audiences and experts who even tried to find the social meanings of our band.

Minyo singer Lee Hee-moon performs during the Deep Sarangbang Love: Sagyechuk (Four Axes) at Space Seoro, in Seoul, in November. / Courtesy of Lee Hee-moon Company

"But I feel like that’s putting the cart before the horse,” Lee said. “As a minyo singer having done various experiments with folksongs, I didn’t like it that all the attention goes to the visually shocking quality of the band. The other two vocalists and I have our own minyo expertise and we thought that if our band performs merely to please our audiences, there might be problems, so we thought of breaking up. In the end, we agreed we will perform occasionally and not try to publicize the band through television.”

Although he has grown up with his mother’s minyo performances, he is a late-comer since he decided to follow in his mother’s footsteps at 27. For 15 years, he has been experimenting with various project groups, including SsingSsing, a collaboration with jazz band “Prelude” and male minyo duo “Nomnom.”

Lee, who says he doesn’t like the word “gugak” (Korean traditional music) for its inclusive character, says that SsingSsing is just a vehicle to show audiences that there is music other than K-pop.

“On local online music sites, K-pop music ranges from hip-hop and reggae to rock and jazz. Even within rock you will hear ballads. But for gugak, there is only one inclusive category of gugak. There are pansori and samulnori but by using this broad term, not properly giving names, I feel like the genre is not growing.”

Lee says the biggest charm of minyo comes from its lyrics. “Previously, I used to think that old things were quaint. But the older I get, I think differently. While pansori inclines to be more story-telling-based, minyo is very much like poetry. The same word can give different feelings to the same audiences as they age. Minyo is something that one shouldn’t get tired of listening to,” he said.

Asked about tradition in an era with many young traditional musicians blend the music with other genres, he said tradition should evolve. “The current cultural properties system gives the feeling that it is hurriedly registering things that are doomed to dissipate by naming them as cultural assets as if they are stuffed animals. But I think what if those things could live and evolve, whether in good ways or bad. The good will survived and the others will go by the way.”

“To the people questioning our band following tradition, I say tradition evolves and what I’m doing now is tradition, because it can be called tradition a hundred years from now.”