Interview with The Breathing

According to you, what are the most distinctive elements in The Breathing's music?
Mitch: I think we mix a lot of styles because of our different cultural backgrounds. We all grew up listening to a lot of the same things surprisingly but we also grew up listening to completely different things.

What is your opinion on the current Korean music scene?
Mitch: Well, it's pretty corrupt just like most music scenes. There are always good musicians wherever you go. And there is no shortage of them here in Korea. However, they're held down most of the time by businessmen that like to stifle creativity for the sake of sameness because sameness brings in the income. Unfortunately that is really strong in Korea but I'm not coming down on the musicians. There are great musicians here. As for a scene, it's almost non-existent but that doesn't mean there's not one coming.

What has been the reaction from listeners outside of Korea to your music?
Mitch: Until this last year, we didn't really do anything internationally. We were just focusing on what we were doing here in Korea but after some discouragements with all that, we decided we might be better received internationally. So far it's too soon to tell, I guess. After this album comes out, we'll see how they react. I think our first album was almost too "Korean" sounding for most of the foreigners here in Korea. Because it was quite poppy and it was mostly in Korean. I don't have a problem with that though but this new album is a little more internationally minded.

The band released three albums under different names before releasing Walk Away: can you give us some information on these releases?
Mitch: As little as possible, hopefully. (laughs) They're nothing to be too proud of. Every musician has their young days I guess. Basically, they were all done in America. The first was my solo album I did in 1998. I was just out of high school and had a lot of songs, some good musicians, a studio with a 4-track recorder and no recording experience. It is called All Around Me and I have 2 boxes left and I'm hiding them from the world. The second was when I had band members and we were called The Breathing Cosbies. We had even less time and money to record this one, so there was no time to fix mistakes. And we had a lot of them. The third was with the same band, but Sunny had joined us. We had gone our different ways and I was getting ready to move to Korea and wanted to release the album in Korea. So myself, our old drummer Ernie and Sunny wrote and recorded the album in four days. I like it a lot but I don't know where it went. It was a mix of acoustic instruments with a lot of electronic programming. We were listening to a lot of Björk at the time, I think. Anyway, I lost it but I'm sure somebody has a copy. We did some concerts when I moved to Korea with it and sold some copies but quickly realized that Korea was not quite ready for that sound. It was a musical actually. I don't dislike any of them though because they are each a little memorial of The Breathing at its different stages in history. We've had over 65 members over the years and we're not slowing down. I've really enjoyed all of them, and so the albums are kind of reminders of each member and whatever era we were in at the time. Whether it was the acoustic coffee shop phase, or the electronic experimental phase, or the Korean poppy phase. And the songs are like journals for me. You can't throw away old journals no matter how embarrassing they are.

How did you come up with the current band name? Is there a meaning behind it?
Mitch: Well, the previously mentioned drummer, Ernie came up with it. In addition to 65 members, we've had a long list of names as well. When we were trying to think of a new one, Ernie mentioned a Bill Cosby comedy sketch from the 80's where he was talking about his wife being pregnant and how they practiced breathing and people used to call them the Breathing Cosbies. So, we took that whole name and we were The Breathing Cosbies when we were in America. When we came to Korea and signed a record contract our producer said it was too long for Koreans to remember so he shortened it to The Breathing. I really wish there was more to the name than that. It sure seems like there should be. But that's it.

Mitch set up the band in the USA, how did the project end up in Korea?
Mitch: Well, when I was in college in Michigan, I used to teach Korean students as a part-time job. Their families were so nice and they all invited me to come to Korea to do music, so I just did. By the time I graduated college, I had already spent two summers in Korea. I loved it. The rest of the band members were also graduating and moving away at that time and since Sunny was with us by then, the logical thing to do was to keep it going, but in Korea. We actually had this crazy idea of being an international super-band with branches in America, Korea, and Japan. And we did for about two years but our branch is the only one that kept going.

Mitch: How did you meet the other members of the band?
Mitch: Well, I won't list all 65, but I'm assuming you mean the current members. Well, I met Sunny the second summer I came to Korea at an English camp I was teaching at. She moved to America, not far from me, that next year. I was the singer back then, myself and another guy named Jake. But when I heard her voice, I realized it was time to give up the mic. Then when we came to Korea I worked at a recording studio for a while and I met Won Shik, who was a studio drummer there. I couldn't speak Korean then and he doesn't speak much English, so we didn't really keep in touch. But two years later when we needed a new drummer, I called him and he really wanted to join. Michael, we met at a club. His girlfriend (now fiancé) was a friend of ours and she introduced us at a club one night. He and I talked about music for hours and it was love at first sight. Then Andi I had known about for years. He has been around for a long time in the Korean music scene. He has been in bands and produced. I had seen him on TV and I was friends with his old band. When I would go to their concerts, people would come up to me and think I was Andi just because I was a foreigner. So, when I needed a bass player I told Ricky, the guitar player for that band, and he called Andi. We met and realized that we had more in common than could be imaginable so it just worked out.

Mitch, you are credited as the composer for all the songs on the Walk Away CD, did the other members take part in the composition process of the new songs?
Mitch: Yeah Andi's got three songs on the new album. He's a great songwriter so we kind of share. I would love to write some stuff with him but we haven't gotten that far yet. But the band as a whole kind of works with the songs and makes their own parts and we arrange as a band most of the time. Unless I feel like being a dictator and they're pretty cooperative. But the stuff I like the best is when I just let everyone create and bring their ideas. Sunny has done some lyrics and all of the translating. I write the lyrics in English and she translates it as closely as she can. Which is really not easy because lyrics don't always translate well. So the places where we just sing English are places that were too hard to translate and we were about to fight, so we just said, screw it, let's sing it in English. These days a lot of our songs are in English. I'm almost ready to write in Korean but that's a challenge.

Your recent single Africa was about the continent and the band is a supporter of the One campaign, what in particular has drawn you to this cause?
Mitch: Well, I explain it in episode 9 or 10 of The Breathing Show. I can't remember what episode it is now. But basically, I have been really inspired by the One campaign and Data and groups like that. I'm really exited that Americans are finally starting to come together and make some significant noise about it and many other countries as well, of course. However, living in Korea, I almost never hear conversations about social justice issues like the many many issues going on in Africa. I'm not trying to be critical, I'm just saying I saw a need for awareness because if musicians, actors and celebrities here started to make noise about some of these issues, the whole country would get behind it but if no one says anything, people can talk about their clothes and hair forever. I think that would be a sad thing for us living here in Korea to miss out on this moment in history and to be totally left out of what a huge portion of the rest of the world is involved in. The only problem is, we're hardly celebrities, so who knows? But I think everyone should use whatever voice they have, no matter how small it is because I do believe in hope for Africa. We see it coming and I want to be a part. I don't want Korea to miss out on being involved.

You made the promotion video for Africa yourselves, could you tell us more about this experience? Did you enjoy it?
Mitch: Yeah, I loved it because it was my second attempt at filmmaking. My first was a video for Walk Away, which failed miserably and the band still gives me a hard time about it. So, I decided to leave them out of this one and we had little to no budget or resources, so I just tried to think of an idea that we could do for no money but that would bring a good picture to back up the message of Africa. So I had this idea, and I'm sure it's not original, but I thought I would take tons of pictures of things around my house and put them together like flip-book animation. So I took hundreds of pictures of the carpet in my home studio, the walls, my books and some posters I have. Then I put them all in order, which was very tedious and boring, but I like the way it looks. There are probably about three hundred or more pictures that you're seeing. The final version will be out when the album is done. The audio will be much better then. This was just to get it out there in the meantime. We also have another no budget video for another song on the album that I like a lot but I'll keep that a surprise until the album comes out though.

You recently recorded your second album, do you feel that your music has progressed or evolved since your first album?
Mitch: Yeah I think so. For one, we have some new members since the first album and that changes things a lot. Also, we are self-producing this one and that changes a lot of things. The first album had a lot of influence from our producers and this one is all us. Also, we've been playing most of these songs live for a while now, so that influenced the album a lot. We wanted to just get a very basic Breathing sound without adding a lot more to the mix.

Could you tell us the title of the new album and the song titles on it?
Mitch: We haven't talked about the title yet but I think it might be called Ready. And that is the first track. Africa will be on there. Songs we've been playing live for a long time life Forever, The Happy Song, It All Ends, New and Run Around, as well as some new songs that I will leave as a surprise.

We already know the song Africa, what are the themes of the other songs?
Mitch: Well, Africa is the only real social justice song on the album. The others are about a lot of things. Some are straight up poppy love songs like Run Around and Happy. We've got a couple songs that are like sequels to Radio like Ready and New. They are about the industry as well as the need for creativity and art. We've got some songs about the hardships of being human and we've got some about hope and the end of suffering. So we try to hit a bunch of areas. We try to write out of our experiences and everything we write comes from our perspective of faith.

What would you say to persuade people to listen to your new album?
Mitch: Please...

Will the new album feature some collaborations with other artists/bands? Or do you have any plans to collaborate with other artists in the future?
Mitch: We'd love to collaborate with other bands. We are planning some tours with some of my new favorite Japanese artists and I'm really excited about that. I hope we can continue to work closely with them. We just entered a contest from Sufjan Steven's label, Asthmatic Kitty Records. It was a Christmas contest where you record an original Christmas song and turn it in to them. If you win, you trade your song with one of Sufjan's and then you get complete rights to his song. So if we happen to win it will be my dream collaboration because I'm going to put his song on our album as a bonus track from Sufjan Stevens. Just because I think he's a genius musician and I'd be so honored to say that we had him on our album. Keep your fingers crossed.

Your new album will be released through iTunes, what do you think about this new way of releasing music? Do you think that the Internet has helped The Breathing gain a bigger fan base?
Mitch: It hasn't yet, but this will be our first album on iTunes. I think it's great because artists like us that are sick of record labels, live outside of the U.S. and have other jobs can now release music all over the world. So for us, it's perfect. It might not be for everyone but I love it. The old school in me still wants to make an actual CD and we might but the great thing is that if we don't want to, or can't afford it, we don't have to. The only distribution we can get here in Korea is strictly in Korea, so through our old label there wasn't even a possibility of going international. Now the world is suddenly open to us. It's very freeing. The only problem is that iTunes doesn't have a store in Korea, so we can't release our album in our home country. So that's the catch, but we will probably find our own licensing and distribution for Korea, after we release on iTunes.

The Breathing Show is a brilliant idea, how was it born?
Mitch: Well, I'm not sure anymore. I think because I was watching some of my favorite bands, like Guster, and they were doing something similar. I just got inspired and asked Johnny to help because he's a film student. We just figured that we have such a strange mix of people, cultures and lives that it might be interesting. I'm not sure that it is but it's really really fun to make.

By watching The Breathing Show , we can see that the life of The Breathing members can sometimes be busy. What are your best and worst memories as a band?
Mitch: Wow, that's a hard question. I honestly don't regret any moments with the band, no matter which era it's been. We never fight really, so that's great. We did go through a time when we were on the label and getting a lot of pressure and it caused a lot of stress in the band. We quickly realized that the band had to be a stress reliever and not a stress producer, so we just decided to say screw it and have as much fun as possible. Since then it's been great. We're not as productive as we could be probably but we're having a blast and in the end that's what matters.

You recently left Modern Life Entertainment, what were the reasons behind this?
Mitch: Well, there were a lot of reasons but basically it comes down to the fact that after three years we realized that they were not what we would think of as a record label. Although they sold themselves that way, they really didn't make any money from music and they had no intention of doing so. Their income came from other places and we, and all of the bands on the label, were just there for show. Since we left, every single band has left the label. It's really sad too because we all were such a family. We were all just too naïve to see what was really going on. Businessmen are businessmen and they love to ride the backs of talented and naïve young people. It happens everywhere but it was especially hard to see in a different culture. I don't regret the time there but so far I love being independent. If we could find a trustworthy label, with an international focus, we might consider signing with someone again but we're not shopping. We're just going to do our thing and if someone likes us enough to come find us, we'll see what comes of it.

Michael had to leave the band a few months ago. Did he have the time to record the piano parts on the new album? Have you already found someone to replace him?
Mitch: Yes, thankfully Michael did all of his piano parts before he left. We recorded them on a real grand piano too, so they sound amazing. That's actually a highlight of the album for me. As for a replacement, I thought about replacing him and Won Shik, since Won Shik moved to Australia for a year. But in the end, I decided against it. We've had enough member changes and I felt like this was the real Breathing, so rather than replace them I think we will just wait until they get back. We can do some pretty cool acoustic shows until they come back with just Andi, Sunny, and myself. Johnny hasn't played with us much in a long time, so he won't feel left out I'm sure. But when everyone is finished sowing their wild oats, maybe they'll come back to us. Who knows. But for now, I can't bring myself to replace them. I'm feeling kind of fatalistic about it right now. Whatever happens happens. If someone comes along that is a good fit, we might let them in but we might not. The good thing is that the three of us can handle it while the kids are away.

During the "good-bye live" for Michael, you played some traditional instruments. Did you use them during the recording of the new album as well?
Mitch: Yeah a little. Walk Away had the hammered dulcimer on it but for this album I didn't play any dulcimer. I didn't feel it needed it but Andi does play some trumpet and a little penny whistle, but not a lot. We thought about releasing the album as a double album: one disk being the full electric version and one disk being the acoustic traditional version. But who has time for that? We might do something like that for the next album. I don't know, it depends on how this three-piece works. But for now, the live shows will be a lot like that and it's much cheaper to tour with three members and a lot of instruments, than six members.

Mitch, you have a side project called Mitch and the Shake Its, could you tell us more about this?
Mitch: Absolutely. Basically, I had some songs I had written since I had lived in Korea that were about living in a different culture and that whole transition. I didn't feel that they were appropriate for The Breathing so I decided to ask some of our label-mates to join me and we made a kind of Americana-roots-rock band and just recorded them all, mostly live. The album isn't the best quality but it's a side-project so who cares. Basically, it's just a journal of sorts of my first five years of adjusting to life in a new culture. I've changed a lot since I wrote most of the songs but it feels good to have a record of that time in my life. It was also a bit of a test to see how the whole iTunes independent thing could work for The Breathing. So it's available at iTunes, although I'm not really promoting it much but the web site's almost done. Anyone can check us out at: www.mitchshake.com


Andi, you seem to be active in other music projects, would you like to tell us more about them?
Andi: Sure. I've been working in the pop music industry here for well over a decade now but with the lull in the music market over the past few years I've had more time to focus on my own tunes, many of which I write and record with my wife, Nakyung as The Majestic High. Being so caught up in the Shoegazing/Dream Pop (note: dream pop is a genre of music that is ambient take on folk, shoegazing is the more aggressive form of this and uses distortion and "walls of sound") thing that happened in the early 1990s, tunes that inspire beautiful thoughts from noisy guitars and layered atmospheric effects have never seemed to leave my attention and since 2001, The Majestic High has been slowly working on tunes that we hope to get released sometime soon. Very different from The Breathing, but there are some emotional elements that I feel we all share in the tunes.

Sunny, which do you prefer: singing in Korean or in English? Why?
Sunny: I want listeners from everywhere to understand what the songs are about because all of our songs have messages and I want to sing to the listeners. My first language is Korean so I need to put in extra effort in order to make the right and clear sounds. Also some songs work better in English. I often times have to translate words from English to Korean and I get surprised after the work is done because sometimes it becomes a different song...

Some songs just have Korean faces and some have English faces just like the band.


It is said on your website that The Breathing has plans for other countries. Could you tell us more about that? When can we expect to see The Breathing live in Europe and in the US?
Mitch: Yeah, I wrote that as a prediction rather than a plan actually. I had no plan but it's happening, although slower than I had hoped. We are going on a small tour in Japan in February. After the album comes out, we are really going to try to promote it in the States, Europe and Australia as well. I have ideas about America. Europe and Australia are a little harder for me but we'll see what happens. We would love to come to Europe and tour. If anyone who reads this has it in them, please bring us over!

Any final words for our readers?
Mitch: I really appreciate this site and what you guys are doing. I really think Asian music is too secluded from the rest of the world and it’s nice to see people trying to bridge the gap. If anyone would like to bring us over for some shows, along with some crazy good Japanese artists, please contact us. Check out our album when it’s finished (hopefully in a couple months). Also, check out our homepage at: www.thebreathingkorea.com. You can hear our album and watch The Breathing Show there, as well as keep up with our journals. Thanks a ton for the support. We really appreciate it.

KoME would like to thank The Breathing for making this interview possible.