Electronic odyssey brings cyclist musicians to Korea
The members of Total Bike Forever / Courtesy of Total Bike Forever
By Jon Stein
Marathon cross-continental cycle tours, while unusual, aren't exactly unheard of; many adventurous individuals have sought to challenge themselves by crossing vast distances on their trusty bikes. And world musical tours are dime-a-dozen ― in this day and age, an artist going from country to country making music and playing shows hardly raises any eyebrows. Doing both at the same time, however, is definitely something you don't hear of every day.
Yet that's exactly what
― a musical duo comprised of Londoners Tim Stephens and Adam Faulkner ― have set out to do. The two spent the better part of the last year on an epic bicycle journey from London to Tokyo, making music along the way.
“We were part of an electronica quartet, Bear Muda, before, but it was getting really difficult to get together and work on music regularly, what with all of us having our own jobs and obligations,” Stephens told The Korea Times. “And me and Adam were getting tired of the rat race, and had talked about either taking a year off to work on music, or taking a year off to go traveling, and then we thought well why not combine the two?”
Traveling with limited gear ― recording devices and laptops ― the two collected sounds along their journey and then used software to transform those sounds into music. Initially, Stephens and Faulkner had not planned to incorporate live performances into the project, but following a successful impromptu live gig at a brewery in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, shows have become the main focus of the tour. Most recently, they played at the Tripp Festival in Hanoi.
Naturally, any journey this long ― the pair have cycled through 24 countries thus far, out of a planned 26 ― is bound to present challenges. When asked what the greatest challenge had been, Faulkner first laughed and said “Each other!” Turning more serious, he said “Crossing the desert. The heat, and how far apart places where we could stop and rest were, that was the most physically taxing for sure.”
“For me, it was Christmas time,” Stephens added. “At that point, we'd been away from family and friends for 10 months, and around Christmas that began to take a bit of an emotional toll, you know?”
Challenges aside, though, they both have clearly been enjoying the experience. “I really relish the strangeness of it all,” Faulkner said. “Especially going through really small towns, small places you would never see otherwise.”
“The people we've met have also been fantastic,” Stephens said. “Especially the musicians. We've been received really warmly everywhere we've gone.”
The pair are particularly excited about coming to Korea. “Everyone we've spoken to has said that people in Korea are super friendly,” Stephens enthused. “And we've heard the electronic music scene there is very strong so that's exciting... we're keen to meet up with the artists we'll be playing alongside ― Kirara and Livigesh ― we've been listening to their stuff and it's really good!”
“It's also a small country,” Faulkner added, “so hopefully we'll be able to see a lot of it before we leave.”
Total Bike Forever will be
, and Club Bbang, March 1.
“Korea, we're coming for you!” the two said. “Prepare yourselves for an electronic odyssey.”