[INTERVIEW] Coreyah breathes life into traditional rhythm

Members of "Coreyah," a gugak (traditional Korean music) crossover band, pose near their office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Wednesday. From left are geomungo player Na Sun-jin, percussionist Kim Cho-rong, vocalist Ham Bo-young, guitarist Ko Jae-hyeon, wind instrument player Kim Dong-kun and percussionist Kyungyi. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Park Ji-won

In July, Coreyah, a Korean gugak (traditional Korean music) crossover band, appeared in NPR's Tiny Desk, one of the most famous online live music series by NPR for both A-list musicians and emerging artists. They were the second group of Korean performers on the show after SsingSsing and before BTS. They played three gugak-inspired songs, which may not be familiar to most international listeners, including "Till the Dawn" with a Korean take on a jazzy 5/4 rhythmic cycle. Ham Bo-young, vocalist of the group, showed a skilled "minyo" vocal style ― folk singing ― harmoniously supported by other traditional and Western instruments.

So far, they have received 67,000 views on YouTube with many positive comments from all over the world. One comment reads, "I don't understand what she says when she's singing but I'm able to vibe to their music."

NPR wrote on Coreyah that "It's an uninhibited vision of Korean traditional music with some psychedelic rock, Balkan gypsy, even sounds from South America and Africa."

Not many, including Coreyah itself, expected that the band could perform on an internationally famous show, as their music is somewhat experimental; the band describes themselves as a "South Korean psychedelic folk rock pop dance music group," even though many young artists are now bringing gugak elements into their music.

"Being archived in the NPR series was just an honor for me as a musician. It is one of the craziest things that happened to me," Ko Jae-hyun, the guitarist of Coreyah, said during an interview with The Korea Times at the band's office in Mapo District, Seoul, Tuesday.

"Bob Boilen, the director of the series who had an eye on us, contacted us through our U.S. agency… After the series, we received a lot of interview requests," percussionist and Coreyah leader Kyungyi said.

The appearance made headlines in the Korean media because it had taken three years for a Korean musician to appear on the show again after SsingSsing, a Korean gugak crossover rock band made the first appearance in 2017 and went on to enjoy international popularity after the appearance. SsingSsing's unprecedented drag queen fashion style and uniqueness in combining Korean traditional vocal and music elements with Western music was sensational; their video has attracted more than 5.5 million views on YouTube as of Oct. 7. The third group was K-pop sensation BTS on Sept. 21, whose video already received 17.5 million views in the same period.

Coreyah performs in a concert in Seoul on Dec. 14. Courtesy of Plankton Music

But fame did not come overnight. It took 10 years to build their career after spending four years in the U.S. and performing in 51 cities in 34 countries ― so far.

Debuting in 2010 as a six-member project band, consisting of traditional and Western instrument players ― one vocalist, one wind instrument player, two percussionists, one guitarist and one geomungo player ― the group originally aimed to break barriers between traditional and popular music when there were very few doing so on the scene. The name of the group means "whale" in Korean and also sounds very much like "Korea" in English. Three musicians, percussionist Kyungyi, wind instrument player Kim Dong-kun and percussionist Kim Cho-rong are original members while Ham joined the band through an audition in 2016 and geumungo player Na Sun-jin and Ko joined the band in 2019.

As they are paving a new experimental path in both indie and gugak musical areas, their four albums are all musically different. The first album "A Whale of a Time" put an emphasis on rock sounds while adopting traditional sounds and vocals. The second one "Songs of Our Ancestors" recreated the traditional minyo from reviewing archives of hundreds of traditional folk songs. The third album titled "Seoul Folks" expresses the ups and downs of life in Seoul through its lyrics. The fourth and latest album "Clap and Applause," released in July, focuses on clapping sounds based on traditional Korean rhythms.

But what they prioritized the most in making the album was using traditional instruments and sounds with distinctly Korean rhythms, which differentiates them from other bands. Koreans are familiar with various traditional rhythms, but still it is very rare to hear them used in popular songs because they are difficult to perform. Even Leenalchi, one of the most famous gugak-inspired bands in Korea, is based on Western rhythms and doesn't feature any Korean traditional instruments in their music.

"While making music, we realized that traditional instruments don't go well with Western popular musical rhythms, for example, like a 4/4 beat. The Korean instruments are best when performing traditional rhythms such as Jajinmori. And it has become our principle when making music," Kyungyi said.

Ham, who majored in popular singing in college, joined the band out of curiosity. She was trained as a pop vocalist but had been honing her musical expression through the minyo singing style for four years since she joined the band to fulfill Coreyah's musical vision.

"When we sing in the minyo style, we use our thoughts more than when we sing pop music. It is tough to introduce the style, but I think it makes Coreyah more unique," Ham said.

But, as many traditional rhythms are inaccessible to the general public, it has been a task for them to express their music with an easier style for both musicians and audiences. So they picked some simple rhythms and made music with percussive clapping sounds, which became the theme of the fourth album, which also has psychedelic overtones, group members say.

"I was looking for ways to better express our rhythms which are rooted in traditional music. While performing in overseas festivals, I witnessed that many artists from other countries use a lot of clapping in their shows. I thought clapping itself may be able to give a group vibe while making it easier for audiences to approach than playing only with instruments. So, we tried to introduce clapping sounds from the third album, which ended up becoming the entire theme of the fourth album too… When we ask audiences to follow the rhythm with claps while performing, they found it difficult in the beginning. But it doesn't take long for them to resonate with our vibe. I think Coreyah's music is psychedelic in terms of giving transformative and shamanistic experiences through the sounds of Korean traditional folk music which somewhat focuses on mediating between being god and a human," Kyungyi said.

"Psychedelic music transforms the perception of time and space by twisting sounds. Korean traditional instruments have the power to do so especially in opening the space, which is key in creating psychedelic music," daegeum player Kim Dong-kun said.

Many shows have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are set to showcase experimental shows in the near future. The band is preparing to perform in "Fantasia 1950" in December where they select some exotic old Korean songs from the 1950s and recreate them into something new.

It has been not easy for the band to continue its musical activities for 10 years, but the members are poised to keep moving to come up with unique music which can satisfy both audiences and themselves.

"It took 10 years to release these four albums. We found the best ways to support each other in music and life. So we are so excited to make our fifth and more albums in the future… I hope that people remember us as the musicians who created the Coreyah genre," daegeum player Kim Dong-kun said.

"It is hard to sell albums these days. But releasing good albums is the job of a musician; we spent the last 10 releasing albums. We want to continue to release good albums and performing in front of our audiences," Kyungyi said.

Coreyah performs in a concert in Seoul on Dec. 14. Courtesy of Plankton Music