Dear DΞΔN

SEOUL MCA PRESS JUNKET, MAY 2017

I was wandering around Hongdae when the faint sound of a familiar song urged me to walk a little slower. Playing in a club basement was DEAN’s “I Love It,” and nothing made me more excited than the thought of hearing it live come the weekend. The track didn’t manage to lure me into experiencing Seoul’s club scene, but it did make me skip and snap my fingers to a few beats.

Just a few blocks away, another track by the R&B artist was blasting from the speakers, and like its chorus, I needed someone to tell me what to do when I met DEAN in person the next day for a one-on-one interview.

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“I heard your songs last night as I walked around Hongdae,” I managed to tell DEAN, who was now seated a few inches from me. It was the second time I was seeing him that day, and unlike our first encounter (he pointed me to the direction of the bathroom), I didn’t freeze.

The ingenuity that is ‘K-pop’

The genre is backed by generations of fans who are vocal in pitting their idols against the industry’s long list of legends, because they are very much entitled to believe they can.

K-pop was always made for world domination.

Lee Soo-man—yes, the guy who owns SM Entertainment—saw that music was the next great export. He was a visionary for identifying music as the biggest cultural asset to invest in, as revealed in Vox’s “Explained” series which can be streamed on Netflix.

Come the year 1997, South Korea created a basic law for the promotion of cultural industries. It meant putting prime focus on bolstering the arts, and, in turn, promoting Korean cultural and entertainment productions as exports supporting the economy.

1992’s Seo Taiji & Boys are as much of a Korean revolutionary music symbol as BTS is now (in fact, their music are considered as bold criticisms of society, with BTS even covering Seo Taiji and Boys’ “Come Back Home”).

Seo Taiji and Boys

The group was considered as fearless trailblazers of K-pop groups, even preceding the 1997 law. Seo Taiji and Boys was replaced in the spotlight by agency talents H.O.T, Roo’Ra, Baby VOX, S.E.S, and Sechskies, which all soared to fame in the mid 90s.

LANY’s two-night stand with Manila

MANILA SHOW, APRIL 2018

This was the payout of LANY’s yearlong hustle: playing to a crowd of thousands in the biggest shows they have ever done. They strummed their guitars and played their keys for two straight nights in Manila—nights that they were quick to acknowledge as the best of their lives.

The alternative band has crossed more than 120 borders in the past year alone. Shifting from city to city on tour, leaving little time to spare for recording sessions. And yet they managed to put out a self-titled album bearing, of course, their breakthrough singles “ILYSB,” “Super Far” and “13.”

The story behind LANY’s ‘ILYSB’ makes us love it more so bad

WANDERLAND, MARCH 2017

We hit the shuffle play button on our favorite Spotify playlist. A few seconds into an unheard song and we’ve got ourselves a new track to play over and over. While this is a familiar routine of discovery for most listeners who stream music, it is also one untiring narrative for fans of the three-piece band  LANY.

And that’s how it goes for this band: most listeners are converted into fans when they hear “ILYSB” online.

The track is a pipe song. Its melody and energy are magnetic, with notes and lyrics that are sweet and idyllic. The song starts out slow and dreamy, with that familiar pop synth charm that makes it easy to fall in love with.

It’s a track that transports you to a Californian road trip, with the skies painted in sunset colors and the occasional blinding streaks of light. The car windows are rolled down as one aches to feel the West Coast’s refreshing breeze on their skin, while the locks of their hair are blown by the wind in a perfect disarrangement. Each passing moment feels warm and has the makings of the perfect Hollywood scene.