BANDS ON THE RUN

Oh Hyuk: The first song I heard from them was “My Jinji.” At first, I didn’t even realize they were an Asian band. I really liked it. But if I had to choose one, “Burgundy Red” stands out—it feels incredibly dense, almost spicy in a way.
Kuo: I love “Gondry,” especially after Oh told me it was inspired by The Strokes’s demo “I’ll Try Anything Once.” That made me appreciate it even more. Sunset Rollercoaster’s songwriting process is usually more layered, with a lot of chord changes and intricate arrangements. But “Gondry” is the opposite—super simple chord progressions, where the melody leads everything. It really captures the soul of the song.

Oh Hyuk: It was actually ten of us, including our coproducer Junkyard. [He was also part of team RM.]
Kuo: The real challenge was the lyrics. We love layering sounds, and with more people, we could push that even further. But when we write demos, we usually hum along with random words, and we get attached to how they sound. So when it comes time to write real lyrics, it’s tricky—we have to find words that fit both the meaning and the original flow of the melody. But at some point, we just let it happen instead of overthinking it.

Oh Hyuk: I think this is mostly happening in Korea, and it’s temporary. Hip-hop’s decline here has left a small opening for bands, but overall, I feel like the band scene is shrinking. Of course, I can’t predict the future, but with more musicians emerging, bigger productions, and growing budgets, the landscape is shifting.
Kuo: Playing in a band feels like a romantic pursuit now. Our keyboardist Shao-Hsuan Wang runs a rehearsal space. It used to be full of young kids jamming and covering songs, but those numbers keep dropping. Playing in a band is starting to feel like a vintage activity, almost like a classical symphony.

Learning instruments is also expensive, so forming a band is becoming a privilege for those from wealthier backgrounds. Meanwhile, kids with smaller budgets turn to computers and MIDI keyboards to make music. But band culture still has an edge—it’s cool, and people are still doing it. During COVID, when everyone was stuck at home, guitar sales surged, and that’s kept the scene alive. So while it’s hard to say what will happen in five years, for now, there’s still a small but bright future for bands.

Kuo: My all-time favorite is Stone Flower by Antônio Carlos Jobim. I’m heavily influenced by bossa nova, and while some people see it as chill, bourgeois music, I think it can be incredibly aggressive. It’s progressive, too—deeply poetic yet rooted in traditional South American sounds, fused with American jazz.
Oh Hyuk: The albums by The Whitest Boy Alive still have the biggest influence on me. Because of them I met our engineer Norman Nitzsche. I still listen to those records—they’re organic, minimal, but have an incredible density.
Junkyard: A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile.

Kuo: My biggest critic has always been myself. My inner voice was my biggest enemy. Right now, we’re working on a new album and usually it’s just me and my producer figuring out the vocal direction. But since I met Oh, I keep asking him to help me refine it. He pays attention to every little detail, which means I can’t just sing the way I always have—I have to train, to be precise. I think once I push through I’ll get to where I want to be.
Oh Hyuk: I used to be affected by those people, so I cut them out of my life. I just stopped seeing them. But at the same time, I also struggle with self-doubt. Those two things—outside voices and my own—have weighed on me a lot. But I think that’s just how it is.

Oh Hyuk: I always say that’s the beginning of becoming someone I’d like to be.
Kuo: But I also think that’s a very Asian thing. The way we were raised—it’s built into us. When we were kids, even if we got an A, our parents would ask why it wasn’t an A+ [laughs]. It’s hard to develop self-esteem when you’re constantly chasing a standard that keeps moving. We want validation, but we have to earn it the hard way. Even now, I don’t know if I can call myself a successful musician. If you look at the numbers, maybe. But I still don’t feel it.

Kuo: One of our absolute favorite spots is Da Shi Xiong, a beef noodle restaurant. It’s a bit of a hidden gem—definitely not the cleanest or most polished place, but it’s so authentic and has this kind of DIY, homey vibe. I used to go there all the time when I was practicing nearby, and when I brought the guys there I wasn’t sure if they’d like it because of the environment but it turned out to be one of our favorite spots.

Kuo: There’s something in Taiwan called Black Magic, or Nirvana Audio. It’s a USB device that claims to use quantum physics to enhance sound. You don’t even have to plug it in—just placing it near your setup is supposed to improve the audio.
Oh Hyuk: Yeah, that’s been one of the biggest topics we’ve been discussing.
Kuo: It’s beyond AI. It’s 50 years ahead of AI. It’s almost like Schrödinger’s cat—if you don’t observe it, you don’t know if it’s working or not. It all depends on belief. Maybe it’s just a psychological trick, but that’s what makes it so interesting.
Oh Hyuk: It’s basically about faith [laughs].

Oh Hyuk: I recently met this young guy called Jose Wong from Hong Kong—his band is called ABCD. He’s only 23 or 24, but he has a really sharp vision. I heard he used to work on designs for MSCHF, and his whole approach is really fresh.

Oh Hyuk: Yeah, we did the ping-pong inspired pop-up in Japan, Seoul, and Taiwan. Before working on this project, I wasn’t too familiar with Taiwan’s streetwear scene, but by the end of it I really came to appreciate these brands. nul1.org, LTTT, Plateau Studio, Wisdom, and PRETTYNICE—they’re all doing interesting things, and I think they bring something fresh to the table. It was cool to collaborate with them.

Oh Hyuk: Someone sent it to me and at first the views were just normal. Then suddenly it blew up. I heard that after his review, the track “Aaaannnntttteeeennnnaaaa”—which is really just a slowed-down version of “Antenna”—became the highest-streamed song on the album. So yeah, shout out to Derrick Gee [laughs]. It’s rare for something like this to happen, especially with ambient music. This version was never meant to be a hit—it’s slow and almost no one would listen to it. But here we are.
Kuo: It actually started as a mistake. There’s this function in Pro Tools where you can slow down a track by half to check edit points. Our engineer James used it while making adjustments, and the moment we heard it we thought, “Wow, this actually sounds cool.” The digital slowdown brought out all these unexpected details—the low end felt deeper, almost like a massage for your ears. We ended up keeping the idea but rearranged a lot. It wasn’t just a simple slowdown; we added layers and built something new out of it. That said, ambient music doesn’t really have hits. The only ones that do are Brian Eno’s Music for Airports or something by John Cage.

Kuo: There are still cultural boundaries, but I think music has a unique power to cut through them. It’s almost like a lower language—something that exists beneath words. Even if we don’t share the same background, we can still connect on a deep emotional level through sound.

Even between Korea and Taiwan, there are small but noticeable cultural differences. For example, in Korea, when a band finishes practice or a recording session, everyone goes out to eat together—it’s non-negotiable. In Taiwan, we do that sometimes but the pressure isn’t as strong. It’s not a good or bad thing, just a reflection of different histories and traditions.

But in the end, music transcends those differences. A song made by a team from Korea and Taiwan can resonate with listeners in Japan, Thailand, or Singapore. That’s the beauty of it—it moves freely across borders, even when people can’t.

Oh Hyuk: We’re focused on working on our new album right now. After finishing the tour, we’ll dive into that and hopefully stick to our release schedule. It’s a busy time—after we release each album by HYUKOH and Sunset Rollercoaster, and then we might move on to AAA’s Chapter 2.