Band Jannabi… attracted the public with refined old pop, even ranked 1st place on charts without ever appearing on broadcast
‘My heart is easy to read/you can read through it as well…I place a bookmark on this night that will be memorable/and take a look at it when no one is looking.’
It’s not a Yoo Jae-Ha song. It’s the lyrics of Jannabi’s new song, the band that has 5 members born in the Year of the Monkey, 1992. Jannabi who released their 2nd album ‘Legend’ on the 13th of last month took over mainstream music. Without even appearing on TV they ranked 1st place on music charts, they also completely sold out tickets to their first Nation-Wide Tour. Jannabi is an old Korean dialect for ‘Monkey’.
They’re in their 20s but their sentiments are of 50s~60s. They enjoy listening to Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Beatles, and play with instruments made between 1950~70s. Kim Yun-ha, mainstream music critic described them as, “A retro band that revives old feelings with a band sound.”
On the 29th of last month we met up with Jannabi who are called ‘The Beatles of Korea’ with their refined retro sound in Daegu. You can feel the ‘Retro’ from the members whole body as they stand in front of the concert hall. Large glasses, flared jeans, all the way to curly short permed hair. Their title song ‘For Lovers Who Hesitate’ ranked 1st on Bugs Music chart. It’s the first time an indie band ranks 1st place on music charts after ‘Jang Kiha and the Faces’. Even amongst idols they’re maintaining a rank in the 10s on Melon and Genie music charts. Guitarist Kim Dohyung expressed “it’s because we’re doing what we like”
They said that when they debuted in 2014 they tried to make a hit by following trendy hit song. They said they even imitated Maroon 5′s music and said “it felt like we were wearing clothes that didn’t fit us”. With their first full-length album in 2016 they decided they’d just do the music they like. That’s when the strong old pop songs were born. What’s the reason that people born in the 1990s are so deeply into 70s and 80s music. The bassist Jang Kyungjun said “The type of music you heard in the back seat of your parents car as a kid, something like that!”. They said that these days they listen a lot to ‘The Beach Boys’ the 1960s first American rock band to come out with surfing music.
Calm and lovely lyrics is Jannabi’s feature. There are only two lines in English in the whole 2nd Album. Vocalist Choi Junghoon, who writes the lyrics said “We think and speak in Korean, it only makes sense that we write the lyrics in our language”
Their studio is in Bundang. While they were going to middle school and high school in Bundang they were part of the school band and that’s how they got together, they were reluctant to join the indie scene in Hongdae. Choi Junghoon said “We thought wherever we were, as long as we could do music it’s fine” and “we were the only ones in Bundang so we got even more together”. The passion for education in Bundang helped shape the band. Being in a rock band, It’s the norm to run away from the house once in a while but they said “We obeyed our parents, got our allowance and were active in the band”. They said these days their biggest break away is “Eating jjampong and going to the sauna”.
Now you can tell it’s “Jannabi’s music” just from hearing the instrumental but when they appeared on ‘Superstar K’ in 2013 they fell miserably. Yoon Jongshin who was in the panel at the time said “I don’t know what type of music you guys make” and eliminated Jannabi. after that they became “a band that works hard”
Choi Junghoon said “I hate the word ‘diligent bug’ the most. It feels like they’re mocking us.” he said just the beginning of this title track took them a month to write. Kim Dohyung said “to make sure we don’t regret it later we tried countless other things”
What’s the goal of these men in their 20s who already wiped out the music industry. “Our music stopped at Kim Kwang-suk, Yoo Jae-ha and Sanulrim, we want to be the ones after them”