South Korean indie band Wave To Earth will be holding its debut concert in Singapore on Monday (4 Mar).
The band, which has quite a large cult following, sold out its show at the Capitol Theatre within a day of ticket sales opening.
Its arrival comes amid a slew of other international acts taking the stage in the Lion City in the coming months.
Ahead of the concert, MS News sat down with Wave To Earth, who commented on the booming K-Pop industry from the perspective of an indie band.
An indie rock band hailing from Seoul, South Korea, Wave To Earth consists of lead singer-guitarist Daniel Kim, bassist John Cha, and drummer Dongkyu Shin.
Source: @wave_to_earth on Instagram
Asked how the band feels about selling-out its first-ever show in Singapore, Shin expressed that it is “awesome” to be bringing their music to the Singaporean audience for the first time.
Cha concurred, saying in jest:
There’s a Singlish expression I’d like to use to describe the feeling: Aiyo! We sold out our Singapore concert lah!
He added: “It’ll be our first time in the country so it’ll be a new experience for everyone.”
As with many other visitors to the Little Red Dot, all three members also expressed excitement to trying the various food options available in the country.
The band debuted in 2019 with its single ‘wave’. It then followed the release with two EPs, ‘wave 0.01’ and ‘summer flows 0.02’ in 2020.
In April 2023, Wave To Earth launched its first studio album, ‘0.1 flaws and all’. The members have been on tours around the world in support of the record since its release.
Having conquered its North American tour, the band will now embark on its ‘The First Era Concert’ in Southeast Asia, which includes a sold-out stop in Singapore on 4 March, 8pm.
The Korean wave has been making its way around the world, with many diehard fans falling in love with its culture, dramas and of course, its music — most notably, the behemoth known as Korean pop (K-pop).
The billion-dollar industry has riveted industry watchers thanks to its meteoric rise, and the fact that it is now looking beyond Korea for its next generation of idols.
Given the buzz and the fact that K-pop group Fifty Fifty’s recently held an audition in Singapore to recruit new members, MS News asked Wave To Earth how they feel about the booming industry and what it means for indie bands like theirs.
“The primary difference I can see is probably the music production process,” Cha noted.
“For us, we make our music from scratch — from writing to mastering — by ourselves. On the other hand, artistes in K-pop usually have more people involved in the process.”
There’s also a difference in the band’s music-making routines, compared to that of K-pop’s — that is, the latter is more structured and rigorous, to say the least.
There have been several reports in the news already, talking about the punishing pressures and gruelling training schedules — a dark side of the K-pop industry.
“We don’t have any routines,” Kim said with a laugh.
Cha added that K-pop artistes can churn out hundreds of songs a week as they take part in songwriting camps and have other producers and composers working alongside them.
“Because we write our own music — Daniel here writes most of our songs — our routines and songwriting process will naturally take longer than the turnover time you see in K-pop,” he said.
However, that is not to say that K-pop music is of low quality. In fact, Kim pointed out that a lot of the songs that come out of the K-pop curriculum are “very good, and many people all over the world can enjoy it”.
“I don’t think this is unique to just K-pop, because their processes are basically a replica of what the Western music industry does as well,” Cha elaborated.
Source: Wave To Earth on Facebook
Asked how the band feels about industry executives looking outside of Korea for the next K-pop star, Kim replies that he thinks this is a positive sign, as it shows that diversity exists within Korean music.
“This has been happing for a long time but it is only gaining more public attention now. I also think it’s not a bad thing — personally, I like Hanni from NewJeans,” Cha revealed, referencing the Vietnamese K-pop idol from Australia.
That said, Wave To Earth does not believe that a K-indie band such as itself is in competition with K-Pop.
“Because our processes and end product are completely different and the opposite of what K-pop artistes make, there’s more of a juxtaposition rather than competition,” Kim said.
Cha agreed, adding: “If anything, because our production is so different, we have a slight advantage because it is charming in that way.”
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Featured image adapted from Wave To Earth on Facebook.
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