Such dramatic events or common 'One Hits' don't exist. The times when they would sing counting the audience off stage with their eyes, the name 'Jannabi' was introduced to the world.
Group sound Jannabi made up of same-age-friends born in 1992 who were raised in Dolmaro, Bundang-gu. In every interview they say "all members are born in the year of the monkey, the group name Jannabi means monkey in pure Korean." won't this year be the last time they introduce themselves like that? their 2nd album <Legend> peaked at 1st place on music charts, and their first nationwide tour was sold out within 2 minutes only. The constant offers that come to them from radio and T/V, Jannabi who scream of happiness because of that are definitely a 'hot band' now.
VK: While doing the outfit fitting for the photoshoot, I noticed that from the pants to the smallest accessories you discussed meticulously with your stylist. Seems like you have big interest in fashion.
Dohyung, Junghoon it's not that we dress well but we have some interest in fashion. We try to choose styles that suit Jannabi's music such as Vivienne Westwood or vintage clothes. it's not our goal to ‘look cool’(laughs). Outfits are an addition to express our music.
VK: So many people think of Jannabi as rookies who suddenly got successful. However, Jannabi released their single album in 2014 and it's already been more than 7 years since the 3 members, Junghoon, Dohyung and Younghyun started the band in Bundang.
Junghoon We made music together while eating and sleeping in our studio in Bundang. At first unlike bands who performed in the streets of Hongdae we didn't exchange any information and couldn't establish any connections so it was extremely difficult. In the major scene Jannabi is an 'indie band' but when we'd go to Hongdae we'd become complete outsiders. It's not easy to continue working where you couldn't be in the mainstream wherever you went.
VK: You started promoting as 5 since 2015. How did the last member, the only person who's not from Bundang, the drummer Yun Kyeol happened to join the band.
Dohyung, Junghoon Aside from Kyeol all the other 4 members grew up together and had shared their thoughts of wanting to start a band. We had the mutual agreement of “We don't have anything now but let's just focus on music until we do”. But it was completely difficult to find the last piece of the puzzle, the drummer. So many people talked about money first when we tried to talk about music. For a couple of years we passed by half a dozen different people, on certain occasions we'd even give the drummer all the money we earned from the gig. Then we got to meet Kyeol. He was talented but most importantly his priority was ‘I need to make music’ so we got along. Honestly, all of our members are ‘attention seekers’ so I also liked the look in his eyes that starved for attention. We all ‘chose’ music because we were desperate for attention(laughs).
VK: You showed good results on music charts without any special promotion or PR just from concerts and making music.
Kyungjun, Junghoon People slowly started to get to know our music after releasing the first album. That being said, there wasn't any major turning point. Honestly we went to so many events that we even thought amongst ourselves ‘is it alright for a band to be like that’. Always counting the audience, and trying to count how many people from the audience are our fans. ‘even if no one knows us, let's go wherever people call! let's just let them know the name Jannabi’ we we're determined to do that. As years went by like that we gained around 1 or 2 fans each time. We came all the way here witnessing the entire process. There was never a time where the audience suddenly got bigger one day.
VK: You can't leave out ‘stage mannerism’ when talking about Jannabi.
Dohyung, Junghoon We performed the same way wherever we went, we used to think if we did it like that our image could get tainted before we let our name out, we worried about that a lot. We gained pride in the fact that we were a band that dreamt and that's how we did it. But as time went by seems like that experience became our weapon instead. Amidst an event that's packed with old ladies that wore sun protecting hats ‘we need to make them enjoy our performance’ that's how we felt about it. Now whatever the situation is like, we're never worried. That's really great, when we go to concerts that are packed with Jannabi fans only we feel that it goes very smoothly. We can show the audience everything without any worries. In one word we can fly on stage now.
VK: in a few hours the vocalist, Junghoon's appearance on <I Live Alone> will go on air. Can you grasp the reality of your popularity these days.
Junghoon I still don't know. When I first started I said ‘Let's try it for 2 years only ’. Then when a year passed, once again I said ‘Just 2 more years’ ‘last 2 more years’ and now I'm here. Thankfully when I look back I can see that it slowly keeps getting better. These days I changed my goal to ‘As long as I can go’. The entire time our concerts were the only way to let our name out. Because we came this far without any rest, I'm so happy with the fact that people know us now. It felt like I was walking on cloud with the TV appearances ‘that's it’ I'll stop here. It somehow feels like the state we were always dreaming of finally came to us but I personally think it's a blessing that we don't feel so excited about it. Actually, I gained confidence to calmly make better music._____________________
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