Interviewer: Young-gyun Heo_CEO of One Degree Celsius
Interviewee: Sanggyung Lee_groove&

groove&, a Korean traditional music group focusing on percussion presented a showcase successfully at WOMEX and Mundial Montreal. At these events, where Korean groups including suːm, Jambinai, ADG7, and Dongyang Gozupa previously participated, groove& demonstrated the additional potential that Korean music has. The perception of Korea has been gradually changing around the world, and this has led to a new wave of interest in Korean music. Since the beginning of their musical career, the group has been dreaming of taking their music to the international stage. Now, based on solid preparation and strong initiative they are working together with producers to be active in the field as they are gaining more recognition in the international music market. .


groove&’s International Breakthrough: The Beginning and The Preparation

Young-gyun Heo: Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed with 《TheApro》. We asked for an interview with groove& because we thought it could provide good insights for artists who are interested in taking their career to the international stage. Firstly can you briefly introduce your team?

Sanggyung Lee: Thank you for having us. We are a Korean traditional music group of musicians who studied at the same school. Thank you for having us. Unlike most Korean traditional music groups, which have more than four members, our team has three members, which is rather unique. Jang-gu and Ggwaeng-gwa-ri are the bases, and in addition to unpitched percussion instruments, we make music using pitched percussion instruments. The name groove& has "&" at the end because we wanted people to use their imagination to go further when they listen to our music. 

Young-gyun Heo: Despite the restrictions that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed, you were very active on the international stage. I wonder how you made it possible. Tell us about your professional journey since the group was formed.

Sanggyung Lee: We formed the group in 2017, and performed for the first time on the stage of the "Fully Blooming Youth" at National Jeongdong Theater. We were selected as the artists of the month, and it gradually gave us more opportunities. In 2020, we won the grand prize at the 21C Korean Music Project. And that gave a big boost and we started performing very frequently. We put together music and other materials that we collected during the past three to four years of our career and applied for WOMEX, and we just got accepted at the first attempt just like that. 

Young-gyun Heo: I heard that it is not easy for artists who are applying for the first time because there are many things one must prepare for. Is it because you were pursuing to work on the international stage since you first formed the group?

Sanggyung Lee: An international career was a vague dream. The fact that we named our group in English was also a reflection of that dream. Some teams get attention as soon as they are formed, but we didn't. For 2-3 years, we continued making music without making a big break. Then, by chance, we participated in the 21C Korean Music Project, a program of Gukak FM, and won the grand prize, which opened many doors for us including the support to make a new album. 

Young-gyun Heo: I am curious about the details of the process you went through in order to take your music to the international stage. 

Sanggyung Lee: Cheon Jae-hyeon, CEO of 'Boboo Agency and Platform', which manages various performing arts groups including ADG7, held a festival in 2019 for promising new groups. We were also invited there. Because it was a festival mainly targeting Korean performing arts producers, we were able to meet independent producers, international exchange coordinators, and people from various foundations. After performing at the festival, we attended a business meeting that followed. There, we met Lee Seung-cheol, our current producer. During our chat, we talked about working internationally, and I remember us making a strong appeal that we would like to work on the international stage. After six to seven months, Mr. Lee called us and shared his know-hows that made ADG7 and Dongyang Gozupa's international breakthrough possible. 

Young-gyun Heo: Is that the background of how you applied for WOMEX?

Sanggyung Lee: Yes. However, there were in fact more things that we needed to prepare for than we expected. There had to be more than 5 pieces of music and one or two one-hour long performance videos... there were materials that a group that had been active for 1-2 years couldn't provide. On top of that, there were conflicts amongst us over what kind of music we wanted to present. Since we mainly work in Korea, I felt it was right to pursue the direction of music that Korean audiences wanted, but the international audiences’ perspective of our music was very different from that. Once we went abroad and experienced it first hand, we were able to develop an eye to discern what the international audiences wanted.
 

Performance at WOMEX ⓒJacob Crawfurd

Working with Producers - Different Perspectives that Led to Growth

Young-gyun Heo: I think finding a good producer was also a stepping stone towards the international breakthrough. As you said, cooperation between a producer and an artist is an important element in making it on the international stage. Can you share how that played out for you so that it helps other artists?

Sanggyung Lee: The producer's biggest goal was to introduce us as artists, so his perspectives on how we would be presented were tuned to the international market as much as possible. He had to promote our music and us as a group from Korea. Some of the international audiences are not familiar with Korean music, so they asked many questions about the original sound, i.e. the traditional music. They wanted to know whether goove&'s music is Korean traditional music. To them, any music that was played with unfamiliar Korean instruments was Korean traditional music. 

Young-gyun Heo: To us, Korean traditional music is not creative music, but it is passed down music, and you play them while wearing hanbok, the Korean traditional costume. But the way they saw it was different, right?

Sanggyung Lee: Yes, that's right. The producer told us what international audiences like, but some of it was difficult to accept for us as someone who majored in percussion. So in the early stages, we inevitably had a lot of discussions to come to an agreement. What we disagreed about most was the volume rather than the music itself. Because we would perform in a venue, we could not play the percussion at full volume. Normally we perform at a very loud volume. It was fine for our ears, but the producer thought it was too loud. Ggwaeng-gwa-ri was the biggest issue because it was too loud. The producer requested us to play Ggwaeng-gwa-ri at a lesser volume. However, we didn't want to give up on the way we play Ggwaeng-gwa-ri because we love playing Ggwaeng-gwa-ri music so much. Luckily, Ggwaeng-gwa-ri music was the audience's favorite. The audience response was different from what we see in Korea, so it was very interesting. 

Young-gyun Heo: You said people's perception about Korea or the level of influence that Korea has on people changed because of media such as Netflix. It means that we can access a new market. 

Sanggyung Lee: Yes. People used to think of only China or Japan when they thought of the East. However, in the last few years we could feel that people are more aware of Korea.

Young-gyun Heo: I heard that you put much effort into it as a team. You have attended over 100 meetings in 4 days during the event? Is that right? 
 

First day at the booth at WOMEX Ⓒ Courtesy of groove&

Sanggyung Lee: That's right. From 10 o'clock in the morning until six in the evening, we met over 100 people at our booth during the four days introducing ourselves and giving out our albums. We tried really hard to promote ourselves. It would have been better if we had performed on Friday because we could have had the business meetings on Saturday after our performance. But unfortunately, we were given the last spot to perform, which was Saturday evening. So, we didn't receive much feedback about our performance. 


Korea and Korean Music

Young-gyun Heo: What about their interest in other Korean artists?

Sanggyung Lee: For those who have experience with Korean music, Jambinai is the band that has set the standard. Jambinai is a popular group in Korea, but they were sensational when they appeared on the international stage. They are called the legend of WOMEX, and because of that, the standards for Korean artists' music are quite high. And having seen groups such as ADG7 and Dongyang Gozupa, people expect to see something different from a Korean group. People having such high standards for Korean music performance put us under pressure, but it also made us feel proud. In their eyes, because we don't use electric guitars or amps, and we play with instruments that they have never seen before, it looks more like traditional music in comparison. 

Young-gyun Heo: Korea Arts Management Service provided a booth for you at WOMEX and hosted the opening night at Mundial. How did that support from KAMS help the artists?

Sanggyung Lee: The biggest thing is that we have less financial burden because KAMS provided airfares and accommodation costs. When we do a showcase for promotion, we feel a bigger sense of duty because the support we receive is coming from the taxpayers' money. Of course having a big success on the international stage would be great, but the biggest help is giving artists who do traditional music an opportunity to show the world what kinds of music there are in Korea. Also, since the Korea Arts Management Service is an organization under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, when we promote ourselves at the booth, it works in our favor that people know that we participated with the support of the Korean government. 

Young-gyun Heo: Do you have any funny anecdotes you’d like to share?

Sanggyung Lee: The producer told us repeatedly that we need to buy soju. We didn't understand why, but it turns out that producers and other participants were having a casual wine party almost every day during the festival. So, we bought a lot of soju and Korean treats, and people really loved it. Most booths set up by European countries had wine, and probably most of our visitors drank soju for the first time I reckon.  

Young-gyun Heo: That’s really interesting. Was there anything that left you wishing for more?

Sanggyung Lee: Most countries where the festival is held usually have good weather from May to August. Therefore, most festivals are held during that time and they tend to overlap. July is the most packed month. Because of the overlapping, we need to make a choice, and that limits how active we can be.

Young-gyun Heo: Shall we talk a little more about Mundial?

Sanggyung Lee: In Mundial, contrary to WOMEX, we were the first to perform. The opening ceremony tends to get crowded, so many people came to see our performance. The business meeting was at nine o'clock in the morning on the next day of our performance, and we were invited to the festival right away on that day. There was a dinner event for producers planned before our performance, and we heard that KAMS staff had put in a good word about our performance there. Thanks to that, we had a lot of producers and agents coming to watch our show when we performed.  
 

Lively exchange at the business meeting  Ⓒ Courtesy of groove&

Artists’ Effort - To Be Ready For The Preparation

Young-gyun Heo: You must have put in a lot of effort yourselves as artists. Even if there is support from an institution, it is up to the artists to actually create something and put this together as artistic expression. 

Sanggyung Lee: I think it's important that you continue to archive all your work. Korean groups mostly use Instagram, but groups from English-speaking countries supposedly still prefer Facebook. We always leave records of our work in English on our social network pages. We also run a YouTube channel. One thing that cannot be emphasized enough is your English skills. Being able to communicate directly is one of the most important things. I would also recommend learning Spanish. When we are in North America, we really feel how relevant the Spanish language is. We know this because emails are normally sent to our producer, but a lot of times I received them directly. 

Young-gyun Heo: So, you are saying that the success path is to manage the channels that would serve as records and a portfolio, and improve English and Spanish so that one can communicate directly as an artist. 

Sanggyung Lee: Yes. Setting up a SoundCloud profile is a must since we are in the music industry. We made around 120 promotional CDs and brought them with us, but they were all gone at WOMEX. People who run radio channels still use CDs when they play music, so CDs are still a relevant medium. They were used like a business card. 
 

Album Cover Ⓒ Courtesy of groove&

Young-gyun Heo: This interview will serve as a big learning lesson for artists who want an international career. Your CD looks very stylish. It is also less likely for one to lose a CD unlike a business card.

Sanggyung Lee: We used an image of Korean traditional instruments for our CD cover. People were very curious about it because they've never seen any of the instruments before. 

Young-gyun Heo: What are your plans for this year?

Sanggyung Lee: At the end of March, we will participate in the World Music Festival in Chile. We also received an invitation from another country in South America, but unfortunately it is for when we are supposed to be in Chile. Our work in Korea is as important as our work abroad. So, we are preparing to release a new album. Thankfully, we are nominated for new album of the year, which is a great motivation and we are working hard on it. And in June, we are participating in a music festival in the Czech Republic because we were selected at an open call hosted by Center Stage Korea (CSK). We’ve met the organizers of this festival before when we were at WOMEX and Mundial. For about 5 weeks from the end of June to July,  we will visit Europe and Canada to present our music. In November, we are to perform in the UK. 

Young-gyun Heo: It seems like you will be away from Korea for the most part of the second half of the year. As one of your biggest fans, I will be looking forward to seeing you a lot on the stages inside and outside of Korea. Thank you so much for sharing the details of how you've made an international breakthrough and also the stories behind it. It was very informative. I think it will be of much help to artists who want to take their music to the international stage. I will also follow you on YouTube.