The Glastonbury Festival (UK) is a legendary festival that features an impressive line-up :Pharell Williams, George Ezra, Lionel Richie, The Chemical Brothers… And in the middle of this, a Korean group you may not have heard of : Juck Juck Grunzie.
Juck Juck Grunzie are an alternative rock group that caught specialist’s attention – both because of their attractive tracks and their beautiful members.
Besides their gigs at the festival (find the exact dates and stages by clicking here), they will also perform in the UK and Germany (see dates below).
We didn’t want to miss this opportunity to introduce this talented group to you, so the band’s bassist, Boong, answered some questions for us.
KAvenyou : First of all, please introduce yourself and your music to our readers.
Boong : Hello! We’re Juck Juck Grunzie, a psychedelic rock band from Korea!
It’s a pleasure to meet all of you and thanks so much to KAvenyou for taking the time to talk with us.
We appreciage the support !
My name is Boong and I play bass, Ahreum Lee sings and plays synthesizer, Jeehye Ham plays guitar and our drummer’s name is Khyunghyun Lee.
Juck Juck Grunzie was started in Seoul in 2007 by Ahreum and Jeehye. I joined the band in 2010 and Khyunghyun has been with us since last December. We released our first full-length album in 2013. It’s called “Psycho”.
I think the best way to describe our band’s music is so call it dark and intense. But those who listen to it can also discover some beautiful and delicate parts in our songs.
KAvenyou : You are going to be part of the 2015 Glastonbury Festival. How do you feel about playing at such a big international festival?
Boong : We’re thrilled to be playing at Glastonbury! It’s one of the largest and oldest music festivals in the world and I think it’s every musician’s dream to perform there. I used to watch lots of live videos from the festival but never thought we’d ever get to be a part of it. We actually cried when we heard we were invited to this year’s fest! It’s going to be a great opportunity for our band and a lot of fun too.
KAvenyou : You are also going to have concerts in London and Berlin. Have your preparations for the festival been any different than your preparations for your club concerts in Europe?
Boong : We’re trying to make all of our performances in Europe fun. Some people think Juck Juck Grunzie is a very serious band. But we want to be weird and witty at the same time, so we prepared a little taekwondo dance to do while doing our sets. I hope people like it.
KAvenyou : What upcoming projects do you have that international fans can look forward to?
Boong : After finishing our dates in Europe, we’re going to start working on our sophomore full length album. We’re hoping to release it next spring. After the album is finished, we’d like to do more touring. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we’d like to try and do a Korean tour, an Asian tour, and play some gigs in North America next year as well.
KAvenyou : The Korean indie scene is still very much unknown or underground to many people overseas.
Would you rather have it stay this way or would you like the Korean indie scene to receive more media exposure ?
Boong : There are pros and cons to both situations proposed above. We’d like to tour more overseas and increased media exposure for the Korean indie scene will help us with that. But one thing I worry about with increased media exposure is that the pure spirit of making music will decrease as more bands seek attention and fame. If it’s possible for bands to receive more attention while still making the music they truly love, I think that would be a very good thing.
KAvenyou : Are there any other Korean artists that you would like to introduce to our readers?
Boong : I like Table People. They’re a Seoul band and are unique in that half of their members are Korean and the other half are American. Silica Gel haven’t been around very long, but they’re really good too.
KAvenyou : Juck Juck Grunzie have been together for 8 years now.
Where do you imagine yourselves in 8 more years?
Boong : Our music has changed a lot over the past 8 years. Hopefully in 8 more years we’re continuing to make music we enjoy and Juck Juck Grunzie is continuing to move forward. It would be great too if we’re gigging a lot more overseas then! Our upcoming Europe tour is our first time playing there. But we’ve got our fingers crossed that this will be the first of many visits.
European activities :
June 25 Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Festival (Pussy Parlure)
June 26 Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Festival (Gully Outernational)
June 30 London, UK @ Windmill Brixton
July 1 Berlin, Germany @ Kantine am Berghain
July 4 Berlin, Germany @ West Germany
