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Introducing Wedance (위댄스)

Wedance (위댄스)
Wedance (위댄스) is a prolific electro power pop duo from Seoul, South Korea who have released 16 EPs and three full-length albums since 2011. Their latest album Dance Pop was released in July, ahead of live streamed performances at Bigsound and Isol-Aid Festival this October.

How did you first get into music?

WEVO: Before I made music myself, I listened to a lot of jazz music, a lot of what I listened to was piano-based. When I was 17 years old, I was lucky to find a great place where I could listen to music by myself every morning before school. I liked to stop by that place and play music really loudly. It made the Earth vibrate like an earthquake. I loved it so much that I left home almost every morning at 5AM for a month, and one day I threw up on the street because I didn’t get enough sleep. I think music was the most important part of my life then. After that, I fell in love with dancing and moving my body, and I met music there as well. Before I met Wegui, I played the guitar alone and made fun songs. I liked the songs so much, so I recorded them on video. But when I met Wegui, I started making music and performing and dancing much more seriously.

WEGUI: I’ve been playing the piano since I was a kid, and I have always liked listening to music.

What drives you to create?

WEGUI: I would say that it is probably a combination of boredom and anxiety.

WEVO: If there is a strong motivation to do it, I will do my best to make it happen. I spent a long time with my grandmother and grandfather in the countryside when I was young. At that time, most of the things I played with were made by me or I played made up games with my grandmother and grandfather. There was no place around there to buy toys. I think I still have that mentality, even though there are loads of toys I can buy now.

The overarching theme in everything we do is to dance over boundaries, whatever those boundaries may be to you.

Are there any overarching themes in your work?

WEGUI: The overarching theme in everything we do is to dance over boundaries, whatever those boundaries may be to you.

WEVO: I think there are lots of different themes in our work, it changes from song to song. I guess the joy and satisfaction of many ‘flavours’ is the overarching theme. I want to share ‘a moment’ with everyone who listened to our music.

Review: The Flaming Lips – American Head

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What is your favourite album of the year so far and why?

WEGUI: Our album, Dance Pop! American Head by The Flaming Lips – I was a long-time fan of the band and for the first time in a long time, it made me feel like the music was permeating through me. I have decided to call it ‘November’s music’ as it will be perfect for that month.

WEVO: I’ve been listening to The Doors’ best-of album for the last month or so. Before that, I listened to The Breeders Live (on Youtube) a lot. A few days ago, I went to the Sungenre website and saw and listened to The Flaming Lips’ new album. Thank you Sungenre! I told Wegui about it. It’s a band we both like. I listened to this while riding my bike along the river in Seoul, but my mask got wet because I was crying. (Laughs) It is the most exciting thing to hear the news that a great band has just made new music! News like that can make the earth move.

What’s your go-to karaoke song?

WEVO: Still this one song by George Michael, “Careless Whisper”.

Have you ever been starstruck?

WEVO: I had a chance to play at the Fuji Rock Festival once. At that time, I was walking around to see another performance, and I happened to see Yoko Ono perform. I was stunned. One of our songs has lyrics where we sing Yoko Ono’s name, her name just comes out a little in the song, but still, I think that she would like that song. It’s really cool.

How do you try to stay healthy?

WEGUI: I like riding a bicycle. Someday I want to ride my bike around Australia.

WEVO: I stay healthy by not going out of my way to stay healthy. It’s fun to do things using your body, and there are many things you can do in your daily life, such as walking while pressing down on the earth. I made 10 different ways to warm up before and ride a bike. If other people see my list, they might say, “What’s this? They are all the same thing!”, but it is not true… they are all slightly different.

Who are some local artists from your hometown we should check out?

WEGUI: 아마츄어증폭기 (Amature Amplifier).

WEVO: I like the music and attitude of artists like 아나킨프로젝트 (Anakin Project), 아마츄어증폭기 (Amature Amplifier), 홍샤인 (Hongshine), 한받 (HahnVad) and 전기성 (Jun Ki Sung).

I would love to collaborate with David Lynch… doing a daily weather report.

If you could collaborate with any artist, in any medium, who would it be and what would you create?

WEGUI: David Lynch. I would love to collaborate with David Lynch, on his YouTube channel where he is sitting in a room that looks like a sunny studio, doing a daily weather report. I want to sit next to him and play music while he does his weather report.

WEVO: I don’t think there is just one specific artist I would like to collaborate with, but I would like to have time working on a farm and spending time with the cows, making songs and playing them. In a documentary, I saw a person who slaughtered cows he raised and sold them whole to one specific family. The family can go to the farm and meet the cow they are going to eat in advance. I’m sure there are people who want that. It looked very beautiful to me. I think it would be good to play the song to the person who buys the beef. It may sound a little weird, but I think it’ll be really cool.