KPOPALYPSE INTERVIEW – the failure files

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Over the years I’ve done many informative, insightful interviews with people involved in the k-pop scene, and I’m eternally grateful to those individuals for opening up and talking to me candidly about how they view the world of k-pop.  The following interviews however are nothing like this!  Read on for the failure files!

failhead

It takes a special kind of person to actually complete a Kpopalypse interview.  Many people don’t have the stomach for it, and chicken out partway into the questioning, once they realise that they’re not being interviewed for Stupid Cuntfaced Fangirl Bitch Monthly, and that I’m going to ask more than three questions and some of those questions might have a bit of depth to them.  Or, maybe they’ve heard about my outstanding reputation as a complete cunt and don’t want to associate themselves with Kpopalypse.  Maybe they feel scared about opening up about the strange underworld business that is k-pop, or maybe language barriers and schedules are just too tricky and get in the way.  Whatever the reason, the below are some completely crap interviews that I did, hopefully you enjoy them more than I enjoyed trying to squeeze information out of these impossible-to-converse-with individuals.

Sorry about the weird text formatting of these interviews, but trust me, they’re so shit that it’s not really worth fixing them.  Anyway, here we go with…

LUMI-L

K-pop ultra-ultra-nugu Lumi-L could use some publicity from Kpopalypse interview – or so I thought.  I emailed her questions back and forth, one at a time, just as I did with Sarah Wolfgang.  However Lumi-L sadly didn’t have the same determination levels.

Hi.  How are you?  Answer in as much or as little detail as applicable.

I’m good. I am actually taking a break from my previous job “singer”, and I am currently in my college. I go to School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). It is an art school, and I study photography and object design. I really enjoy making furniture, and I am planning to take making furniture class in next semester, with photography. My first semester was over a week ago, and I am traveling to another places in the States right now. I will take summer courses in Chicago in two weeks. Well, I will go back to South Korea when I’m done with my summer classes. I guess it will be around June.

When you return to Korea, will you definitely be returning to do music, or will you be looking at other opportunities?

I want to graduate first. Working as a singer and being a singer is a very important goal in my life. However, I want to be multi faceted. In order to be like that, I want to learn more and experience more. I want to make my own song and make my own album, like the cover of my album. I really want to be in part of making my music video too. This summer I will be doing my internship when I go back to Korea as a photographer.

How much of an opportunity under an agency do singers such as yourself get to be involved in the creative process?    Is it something that is offered to you if you have the skills, or more something that you have to request?

[A month later:]

I’m so sorry for the super late response. I am taking summer classes and I’ve been quite busy. I didn’t get what you are saying exactly by getting involved in the creative process. can you specify that please?

Sure.  I mean stuff like, do you get a chance to write your own songs, or have input in any other aspect of your public image.

[TEN months, and a few emails later]

am really sorry for the late responses. I’ve been super busy over few months, and I’m back in Korea. I had so much spams in this account and I haven’t checked the inbox. Thanks for publishing what you have, and let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks

If a measly three questions over a year was too much for Lumi-L I decided that I wasn’t going to take her up on the offer to ask her anything more.

KASPER

Since Lumi-L was so pushed for time, I had the idea of sending Kasper and future interviewees who specifically wanted an email interview questions in groups.

QUESTION GROUP 1:

Describe the Korean hip-hop scene as you’ve experienced it.  Do you think it’s a difficult field to succeed in?  Why or why not?

The Korean hiphop scene is great. It’s very diverse and interesting taking it’s short history into consideration. It’s very difficult to succeed in nowadays because so many people are trying to get involved.

The word “freestyle” has different meanings in different countries and scenes.  In some places it means completely improvised on-the-spot lyrics, in others it just means rapping over a different beat.  Which definition suits the Korean scene best in your experience?

Freestyle in Korea most commonly refers to rapping completely spontaneously and sometimes when rappers freestyle using verses they’ve written before, it is looked down upon.

Are you signed to a label at present, or completely independent?

I’m signed to a label called Baljunso.
How important do you think music video content is to Korean rappers, and why?
Music Videos are important not just for Korean rappers but musicians worldwide because it gives the listeners a chance to appreciate the music in a variety of media outlets.
 Gosh, that seemed to go okay, although she’s not exactly wordy, which seemed ironic for someone so chatty on v-logs and in raps.  I fired off more questions.
QUESTION GROUP 2:
What drew you to v-logging, and did v-logging come first or rapping?

Vlogging came first and it came from pure boredom!

You v-log on personal relationship topics such as going on dates, meeting guys, etc.  It’s interesting territory for someone who is also into hip-hop which has more of a “tough” persona.  How do you reconcile the two aspects of your public persona, or do you?

I think in both my music and my vlogs, I voice and represent my thoughts honestly. I don’t think there needs to be a fixated character in a person.

There’s been a lot of controversy about unfair record deals in the more mainstream end of Korean pop lately, that squeeze the artists out of making profits.  Do you think record deals are fairer for people in the hip-hop scene?  (Not speaking about your deal in particular here, but just generally speaking.)

Fairer, yes because rappers don’t sign contracts that are misleading in most cases. What I mean by this is, they wouldn’t (most likely) go into a company that would force them to do things they don’t want in the first place.

Who are your favourite Korean lyricists in hip-hop?

Tablo, TakeOne, and Verbal Jint.

When did you first decided you wanted to rap, and how did you progress from the point of wanting to do it, to where you are now?

I’m going to skip this question because I mentioned this so many times before, it’s getting redundant for me to repeat it over and over.
Do you think that there are any barriers to hip-hop for women in Korea than men don’t experience, or at least not to the same extent?
The only barrier I reckon exists is the one of prejudice. People judge female rappers pretty quickly.
She seemed to be getting a bit narky but I persisted and sent a third batch of questions, about half a dozen.  No reply.  A few reminder emails and four months later generated only this reply:
Sorry, it took me so long to answer. There were so many questions I got mixed up in the process. Can you just sum it up in one e-mail for me if possible?
Not sure how she could mix it up, it’s pretty easy to follow an email trail.  Anyway, to keep it simple and giving her the benefit of the doubt, I kept it simple and sent her just one email with all my remaining questions.  I never got a response.  Another reminder email I wrote two months later also received no reply.  Shortly after this, she was accepted into Unpretty Rapstar, so I just gave up on her completely, figuring she probably decided she didn’t need me at that point.

BASTERD

I reached out to Korean hip-hop group Basterd at around the same time.  They openly solicited for questions on their social media, so I sent them an email telling them about the blog and the interview process.  They replied:

ok give me a Q~

So I sent some questions, and… nothing.

PURFLES

I decided at this juncture to give up on interviews by email completely.  Purfles seemed keen to do an interview via audio to be broadcast on the Kpopalypse radio show.  “Great, forget that ‘waiting for emails with answers in them’ noise, let’s get this all done in one hit!”  I sent them an email pitching the idea.  A week later:

I’m so sorry too late.

we(crescendo music) need more time to discuss about radio show.

 

please, waiting for us.

 

thank you.

I told them that it was okay and I could wait as long as they needed.  That was in November 2015.

ASHLEY (LADIES CODE)

Ashley was doing a Twitter Q&A, to promote “Kiss Kiss”, this was about two weeks before the tragic accident that claimed the lives of her groupmates EunB and Rise.  As part of the Q&A I sent her 69 questions, all numbered.  She never answered at the time, so recently I decided to ask her these questions again via an anonymous webform that I linked here.  For the deeper story of this, plus the results, click here.

That’s all for this post!  Hopefully you enjoyed the Kpopalypse interview failure files!  Kpopalypse will return with more posts soon!

4 thoughts on “KPOPALYPSE INTERVIEW – the failure files”

  1. I messed up the first time and hit “Submit” after answering the first question only, so I really hope the second submission worked.

  2. Lumi-L probably didn’t realize how much work you end up doing in any decent art and design school before she agreed to the interview. SAIC is easy to get into, but still pretty grueling, from what I’ve heard. Still sad that she forgot about you, though. It would have been nice to see her thoughts on how much involvement nugus are allowed in the creative process.

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