The music on the disc was written and recorded between 2005 and 2006 while guitarist and vocalist Kim Kyoung-mo was studying in London, England. Wanting a distraction from his academic pursuits, he and his friend Joe Hollick started making tunes together. 

“Joe and I went to school together in London and were sharing a flat,” said Kim. “We had similar taste in music and started recording stuff without really thinking, ‘Right, we’re a band from now on.’” 

Quickly realizing how well they complemented one another once they began jamming regularly, the wonderfully textured blend of well-played hazy psych-pop, folk, and post-rock came about naturally and effortlessly. 

“I’m far from prolific,” Kim admits. “I write songs every couple of months. Sometimes I don’t write anything for a whole year as I never push these things. But working with Joe, I wrote new melodies every other week during that period.” 

The recording sessions for “EP” were a great experience as well. The two invited their mate Lucy Hayton to sing on the fantastic opener “Songstress.” Their local ice cream truck made a brief, unexpected guest appearance on the album, too. Driving outside of their makeshift home studio as they were laying down guitars, it can be heard at the end of “I’ll Write When I’m There.” 

“I wish I had a Happy Mondays-esque story involving sex, drugs, money, and alcohol on our recording days” Kim says. “But for me, the most interesting thing was how everything went so well during the recording of ‘EP.’ More often than not, you’re bound to have problems and agony when recording music.” 

Kim and Hollick eventually grouped together with Hayton and a drummer in hopes of becoming a proper performing act. Despite having rehearsals, they never played in public. They called themselves Little Shops for a while, and then adopted Hedren instead. Both monikers were only used to set up MySpace pages, though. 

“I actually had the name Sunkyeol in mind since 2005, but though it was an unusable name in London as it would’ve been too much of a hassle teaching people how to read and pronounce it,” Kim explains. “I knew back then that if I came back to Seoul and started a band to do gigs, I’d call it Sunkyeol.” 

Kim returned to Korea last year. Impressed with Seoul imprint Electric Muse’s roster of acts, he contacted the label and asked them to release the disc. They gladly agreed. Recruiting local players to help him play Sunkyeol’s music live, the band currently operates as a trio with Starry-Eyed’s Duck on drums and a high school pal handling bass duties. Still based in England, Hollick does not perform with Sunkyeol in Seoul, but Kim still considers him a member of the group. Sunkyeol want to make their first full-length in 2011 and the plan is to have Hollick e-mail his parts for the new tracks. 

“I guess you could call us a ‘collective’ as some friends join us from time to time for gigs,” Kim offers. “From my perspective we’re not giving out membership cards for being in our band, so it’s kind of blurry who is involved. However, it’s safe to say that Joe will be involved with our future works.”

BY SHAWN DESPRES
WWW.KOREAGIGGUIDE.COM

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