[INTERVIEW] Indie band Daybreak - Part 1

From left, Daybreak members Kim Sun-il, Lee Won-suk, Kim Jang-won, Jung Yoo-jong [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

10Asia spoke to Daybreak, a four-man band formed in 2006, composed of members Lee Won-suk (vocalist), Kim Jang-won (keyboard player), Kim Sun-il (bassist) and Jung Yoo-jong (guitarist).

10: You've released your second full-length album for the first time in three years. How does it feel?
Kim Jang-won: There's always more to be desired when working on a song or an album but I think with this second album, I feel it the least. I've done all I can. (laugh)
Jung Yoo-jong: I think we feel more satisfied this time because we talked more about ourselves than we did in our previous albums.

10: How did you come up with the title song?
Lee Won-suk: I came up with the motif -- it just popped straight out of my mouth while I was making the guide lyrics. Of course, I had to be very careful with the pronunciation when recording the song (laugh) but we didn't think of looking for another phrase because the pronunciation and groove was too good.
Kim JW: I came up with the rest of the lyrics but I'm actually that falls for people pretty easily, particularly women. (laugh) Once, I was drinking with a girl that I like and we decided to start dating but she didn't remember anything the next day so I got embarrassed. I could feel my face turn red. That's why I said I'd try writing the lyrics this time. (laugh) I'm in charge of the incidents in Daybreak. I give every song its story.
Jung: Now that I listen to it again, it's not all that cheerful.

Lee Won-suk [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

10: Well in the case of "My hair is growing," I could really relate to the lyrics. So much that I read it closely several times.
Lee: Oh really? I do think it a lot of effort went into what was inside the song. That's why we didn't necessarily put an effort into shortening the song from seven minutes. Our experiences and thoughts are reflected into all of our songs, not just that one. I think it would all be a lie if that wasn't the case.

10: "Autumn, Again" has a similar vibe to "My Hair is Growing." I heard Kim Sun-il, you worked on it by even going on a trip alone.
Kim SI: I actually didn't go on the trip because of the lyrics. I went to the West Sea for a while to take photographs for the image of our band for our second album. In my case, writing lyrics is difficult so rather than thinking that I need to write, I started thinking that I want to write. And I too immediately came up with the phrase 'fall again' when making the guide lyrics for "Autumn, Again." Won-suk helped a lot with the lyrics.
Lee: I'm in charge of checking the lyrics in the team. (laugh)
Kim SI: 'fall' is a epicene word. It means autumn as well as the act of falling.
Jung: And falling in love.

10: I listened to the songs that you three worked on. Which did you work on Jung Yoo-jong?
Lee: Jung wrote "Fantasy." How the lyrics for that song came out were... Jung, you explain it yourself!
Jung: I got the motif from comic "Onepiece." It's a very immature comic but if you leave that out, it's very moving. I became very moved upon seeing main character Luffy do something. So I tried writing lyrics based on Luffy.
Kim: This guy has a comic-like sensitivity to him. (laugh)
Jung: I've always liked comics. Different from the past, I've become increasingly drawn to comics and have started buying and collecting them.

10: Like Kim Jang-won says, I think you're very sentimental.
Kim JW: Even now, while he was talking about the comic, he was completely into it. (laugh)
Jung: I'm very quiet when I talk about anything else.
Lee: He's in charge of being the cute guy in our team. (laugh)

10: Compared to your first EP album, I can see just by looking at the title track of your second album that your music has become more cheerful compared to your first EP album. Your first album "Man" had a very dark vibe to it but the title track this time is more light compared to "It's good" from your EP record.
Lee Won-suk: I think it's true how they say a band's fate follows the name of its title track. We really became a good band while promoting our EP album so I'm hoping we'll rock the music industry with our new song. (laugh)
Kim Jang-won: Wow, to think you'd refer to the music industry with it! I thought you'd answer that you'd hope to rock women's hearts with it. (laugh)

10: How dismal were your activities that you would say that?
Lee: We were with another agency for our first album but we were very frustrated because there weren't that many stages our band could perform on. I think performing in the Hongik University area was it? We really wanted to go to music festivals but they didn't ask for us. (laugh)

10: Why didn't you try expressing that to your company?
Lee: Of course we tried suggesting it. But the company can't always give us everything we want. But that's why we left the company and started performing on our own, when we auditioned for 'Hello Rookie' last November. We thought 'We have to do this!' because we can perform at the Grand Mint Festival if we get picked as the 'Hello Rookie.'