Interview with TOMIKITA

TOMIKITA may have been a part of the Korean and American music scenes for over a decade now but it wasn't until June 6th 2008 that the group finally set foot in the UK for a performance.

After TOMIKITA's performance, KoME sat down with the band's three members on the roof of the Peel club in Kingston to ask questions about their beginnings, future and the Korean music scene.

Could you introduce yourselves please?

Tomikita: My name is Tomikita, that's the name that I go by. I'm originally from Los Angeles, but I'm currently out in Korea promoting the new Korean album that I've just released. This is my bassist Albert.
Al: Yeah, Al! Al Park.
Tomikita: I met him through a friend of mine who died… Joseph, a long time ago.
Al: Yeah, Joseph was producing your album. I was on a different team at that time but he was producing my album as well and we hooked up.

Did you find it easy to work together or were your backgrounds so different that it caused a problem?

Tomikita: It all worked out organically. It was very natural. So, he came into the band and played a few shows in Korea, then I went to work in LA again and that's when I invited Al over to the States. This is my drummer Lim Chung. Chung has been playing with me for a long time.

So you were friends before you started playing together?

Tomikita: Yeah, when I first got to Korea he was my very first drummer. So we hooked up and ended up going to Japan to play at Fuji Rock Festival together and that was a lot of fun. It was when Neil Young was headlining in 2001. Anyways, that's how we all got hooked up. Al came in later and we had a few guitar players that we went through, but right now we decided to just go with a three-piece band since we're just doing electronica stuff. We're going to use another DJ eventually.

How did you end up in LA?

Tomikita: I went out to LA at the age of four, but I was born in Korea. My family moved to Los Angeles, so ever since then I've been living in the States and I released my first album, Tomi-kita, in the States. One of the songs was featured on the film Silent Trigger starring Dolph Lundgren. I was the very first Korean artist to have a song on a Hollywood soundtrack. It was kind of an industrial song called Desire and I released that album in the States, which was my first as a vocalist.

At the time my bass player was Scott Shriner who currently plays with Weezer and that was his very first band in LA. He's doing good now. I released my first album in the States, I was the Asian singer, everyone else was Caucasian, it was a five-piece band including Scott.

That album got licensed in Korea at that time and I was invited to Korea to do a promotional tour, which I did. Before that I never went back to Korea, I was just living in LA doing my stuff there. Once I got back to Korea I wanted to live there, so I started writing and releasing Korean songs. Before that I had never writtem or sang a Korean song, so all my songs were in English.

Did you find it hard to go back to singing in Korean?

Tomikita: Yeah. Definitely. I didn't speak Korean that well at the time so I had to relearn it. Now I can speak Korean and English, so I get to choose.

I liked that tonight you spoke to the audience in both Korean and English!

Tomikita: Yeah!

How would you describe your music?

Tomikita: Well, the kind of music I am really into is industrial and electronica, but since I've been working out in Korea, working with a band like Al and Chung, their backgrounds are pretty different in terms of their influences. As we're working together, it's very versatile. I don't know many people who work like that and get away with it in the States or over here, but in Korea that's what people are into. Even if you're a heavy rock band like Y.B., they still have their pop stuff. I guess bands like the Beatles, they're so versatile. Everyone just remembers their pop songs, but they have some artistic songs as well. If I had to classify my music I'd call it electro rock.

What musical backgrounds do you come from?

Al: My musical background is basically the Smashing Pumpkins. As a bass player I grew up listening to Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and I really admire his bass playing. For song writing and so forth I like Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins. I'd say they were my two main influences that made me what I am today.
Tomikita: What about you Chung?
Chung: I am influenced by Tommy Lee from Mötley Crüe and Metallica.
Tomikita: I'm really influenced by The Beatles, The Doors and Nine Inch Nails. I just like all sorts of different artists these days.

You've performed in musicals as well as making your own music: which do you prefer and why?

Tomikita: I definitely prefer doing my music, but musicals were fun! Playing Jesus was really cool. I played more of a satanic Jesus though! I was really dark when I was playing him, but it was fun. They wanted that actually, they didn't want a kind, nice Jesus for Maria Maria.

How did they contact you about playing that part?

Tomikita: Well, at the time I had long hair and they thought….
Al: That you looked like Jesus?
Tomikita: Well… A Korean Jesus! I learned a lot doing a musical. Recently I was offered to do a part in a famous French musical, but I can't remember the name of it right now. But anyway, I refused it because I wanted to pursue my own musical career. It took me about three years to complete my Korean album In Dreamz, which came out about a month ago. I'm planning on getting the album released in Japan and hopefully in Europe and in the United States as well. It's got different characteristics and vibes. For the Korean release it had the ballads, but for the album I want to put out here in Europe, America and Japan it's more electronica-rock.

How's it been performing alongside Y.B?

Tomikita: It was fun because they're my friends. We've been friends for years and when I first came out to Korea, Yoon Do Hyun didn't even have an album out. He was just a musician who wanted to release an album, so I produced the album. Not the entire album because I was busy producing my record, but I produced the single Tarzan, which was their very first single. That's how I got to know them. Ever since then we've been tight and I've written a lot of songs for them. We play with them all the time in Korea doing club shows.

Do you get a good reaction like you did tonight or does it vary from show to show?

Tomikita: You always get a good reaction, especially in Korea. They're very hungry people when it comes to music. You've got to remember that it doesn't go on for a long time because you don't know what's genuine. I notice that you can't figure out 100% what they're thinking. I guess that's how the society is right now. I tried to analyse why it's like that, but there's a lot of factors involved. When I got back to Korea it was different than I thought it would be, so although they're smiling in front of me, you don't know what they're thinking.

It's a cultural background because there's been a lot of wars in Korea and you always have Japan blocking ships coming in. Korea was always secluded, so they're always watching out for themselves. Someone was saying that Koreans are like the Jews of Asia, but that's concentrating on the negatives and there are more positive sides to Koreans.

This is your first time performing in the UK, but have you ever visited the UK before?

Tomikita: I came here about 7 years ago because I used to have a girlfriend, an Irish girl living in London. I met her in LA and we were going out for a while, so I came and stayed with her for a little bit.

Did you like it when you came here the first time?

Tomikita: At the time I loved it. It was a blast. She lived here, so she took me around the clubs, there were a lot of house and techno clubs. I actually had more fun then than I did this time around, apart from the fact that I performed this time. Yeah, I love London! I just wish everything was cheaper!
Al: I've been here before too. Last year I was in London just to see some friends. A friend of mine, Scott, who plays guitar, he played with us a few times too.
Tomikita: Scott used to come out to Korea.
Al: I just came down to stay with a friend, it's always nice. I like it here but it always gets the best of my wallet!

You have a few days off before your performance in Trafalgar Square, is there anything you want to do while you're here?

Tomikita: Uhm… yeah… definitely
(band laughs)
I want to get hooked up.
Al: With a girl?
Tomikita: Yeah! I think honesty is very important. While I was out in Korea working on a Korean album I did a lot of interviews, but you can't really express things out there because it's a different culture. But yeah, I definitely want to hook up with a nice person and have fun. That'd be really nice.

Did you have any expectations for tonight's show?

Tomikita: I think tonight's show was more than I expected. To be honest, I thought that because I haven't been working the Korean market in the same way that Y.B has. They have a big fanbase in Korea, perform a lot of shows and have had a lot of hit songs out there. Also, the lead singer has his own TV show, Love Letter , so he has fans all over. If you have Koreans come to a show , I thought they'd just respond to Y.B but after performing to them, they were getting into our band as well. It was fun.

How do you think the Western music scene differs from that of Korea? Do you think there is more of a market for your music in the West than in Korea?

Tomikita: There are similar things. It's different when it comes to expression. Everything's fast in Korea, they like you quickly, they leave you quickly. If they find something better they go onto that. Even the buildings in Korea, you go into one store and the next time you go in it's something else. Then I go back to LA, I go to this one particular restaurant and it's been there for about 20 years. I still appreciate both cultures, I try to look at it positively rather than negatively. There's always reasons.

Do you think there is more of a market for your music in the West than in Korea?

Tomikita: I don't know.

Is it too early to say?

Tomikita: Yeah, it's too early because we haven't really worked this market yet.

Do you want to come back at some point?

Tomikita: Yeah.
Al: You don't really see many Asian bands playing in Western nations, either in the States or in the UK. You don't see a lot of that. There's a lot of talent out in Asia as well, just the perception of rock & roll being created in the UK or America is silly.
Tomikita: I disagree. I think it's different now. The market's more open. I think if the music's good then there's a chance that an Asian band could make it in the Western market.

On a similar note: the Japanese music scene is very popular in Europe whereas very few Korean bands tour in Europe, why do you think this is and how does it make you feel?

Tomikita: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. My understanding is that there are a lot of popular Japanese bands in Europe and the US. It's been like that for a long time. Back in the Heavy Metal days when I was a kid, there was a band called LOUDNESS from Japan. They're still out in Japan doing well and Akira Takasaki has his own guitar company.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be hooking up with them in two weeks. We're also planning to release our album in Japan and we're going to Japan next week after we go back to Korea. That's why I see the possibility for Korean acts to do well in the States and the UK. It's just a matter of time. Japanese was always ahead in terms of music, I'm not saying they're more talented, they're just more advanced in terms of reaching out to new countries.

When you look at the country's structure, it's an island, so there were always ships stopping by Japan. They were always accepting new things and being open. Koreans have more of a close-minded society, are afraid of opening up to western culture and they still have that mentality. There are a lot of acts in Korea who are doing well, but no-one's really trying to pursue reaching out to other countries. I think it also has to do with your pronunciation because if that's not happening they won't succeed.

That was the problem LOUDNESS had, it was good at the time but they weren't really reaching out with their words.

Al: Japan has a bigger market. People still buy CDs in Japan but in Korea people just decide to download from the internet.

Why do you think that is?

Al: It's a cultural thing. If artists make money from you buying albums then it's natural that they'll be creative and pursue more artistic pursuits and that enables a bigger market.
Tomikita: Why do you think it's a bigger market? I mean, there aren't that many more people in Japan. That why I mentioned earlier that they are more open minded in accepting.
Al: It's natural that Japanese bands will go overseas.
Tomikita: It's only a matter of time. In Korea you have all these newcomers who are trying to something elsewhere. I think we're getting too political here, I don't want to get political.

I think the album I'm trying to release in Europe and America has a chance because although I haven't sold a million records in the United States, back around fourteen years ago I released an album in the States. As I said before, a song from it got included on a film soundtrack, so it got accepted. That's one of the reasons I'm pursuing my album in English. The album's going to be called After the Rain.

Do you know when that will be released?

Tomikita: No, we're in talks right now with labels, but hopefully this year.

How do you choose to write your lyrics in Korean or English?

Tomikita: Just my experiences, that's all I write about. I wrote a lot of love songs. I like dark love songs. Cure was one of my influences for lyrics, I really like their lyrics. I experienced getting into a relationship at a young age and I got hurt from my very first experience when I was 15. Ever since then, every relationship I've been in has been giving me inspiration for my lyrics.

I try to lie to myself and try to be polite and write positive lyrics but this is what I am. I like dark art. Going with that in Korea is very different. Korean society dictates that you have to be positive and that you have to be nice to everyone. Nice is one thing, but kind of lying to yourself is very difficult. I still try to cope with everything though.

Do you have any plans to play in other European countries in the future?

Tomikita: We would love to! We don't have definite plans right now.

Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to play?

Tomikita: I'd love to play London again and I want to play Paris and Germany… pretty much all over Europe. I just love Europe. There's so much culture and energy. I'm a big fan of Anne Rice as well. Hopefully if we do a European tour it will be the three of us and we'll bring in another member, maybe another guitar player or a DJ.

What are your plans for the future?

Tomikita: Right now we're working the Korean market with rock festivals and shows booked up until December. We have a few shows planned in Russia. I'm the first Korean rock artist to release an album in the States, so in Korea they see us more as an international band than a Korean band. We want to pursue doing shows elsewhere and get our album released in Japan and hopefully out here as well.

Do you have a message for the readers?

Tomikita: Is this a Korean magazine?

It's a website for people living in Europe and America who are interested in Korean music and it'll get translated into several languages.

Tomikita: Oh, that's awesome! I'm really happy to hear there's an organisation in your area that's doing this. If people start finding interest in our music, I would be more than happy. Hopefully we'll have more news in the future and tour Europe.
Al: I heard about KoME for the first time today and, as Tomi said, it's nice to hear that there are people out here who appreciate music in Korea and it's great to be a part of that and make music that is appreciated.
Tomikita: Chung do you have a message?
Chung: Just be happy all the time!

Thank you!

All: Thank you very much!

KoME would like to thank TOMIKITA, Rich Kim and D4U Entertainment for making this interview possible.