Moskva Surfing Club on letting go of the ego on new album

By Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)

Since their formation in 2019, Moskva Surfing Club have been one of the Seoul indie scene's brightest lights. The technically impressive four-piece have been producing a cosmic brand of chilledelia that has seen them grow in popularity. On their recent album, Foggy Sunshine, the band have managed to find a new balance that is more refreshing than anything they have produced before. Here, the four-piece (Jeong Gihoon, Jeong Hyunjin, Myeong Jinwoo and Kim Kyuri) talk to Jamie Finn about moving past the ego for their new album.

Since the opening, self-titled track of their first album, Low Flight, which features the sound of a can being opened and drank, we've been thirsty fans of MSC. Their crispy, riffy grooves and ethereal style cleverly mask the open-hearted emotional shoegazeyness at the core of what they do. The name came when bassist Jinwoo was travelling in Russia. "I was in Moscow, and it was an especially bitter winter," he explains. "I saw a cafe called Surf Coffee, and it struck me as an ironic mix of things." 

"I am a big fan of Buena Vista Social Club," adds guitarist/vocalist Gihoon, "so I suggested changing it from 'Cafe' to 'Club'. Irony has always been a big part of what we do, and the image of a cold city mixed with surfing matched our sound."

This sense of mismatching is evident when listening to their music, which can be difficult to pin down. MSC is often described as post-rock, and there is definitely an element of that in their heavily textured, souring songs. But the band draw on an impressive palette of influences and combine styles that aren't often put together. As mentioned, there's post-rock, psychedelia, and shoegaze. But the band also explore things like jazz, folk, and even reggae.

But genre labels are never part of the conversation when MSC think about their sound. "Yeah, I think 'irony' is an important word for us," keyboardist/vocalist Kyuri expands. "A kind of incongruity between sounds, between chords, between beats, between the lyrics and the music."

““We have listeners, supportive friends and some great experiences. There was a kind of anxiety when we were making the first album. Maybe it came from an obsessive uncertainty. It felt like a test, a big test. Now, our only goal is to make better music. We don’t have time to let that anxiety block our next move.””

Another irony can be found on their new album, Foggy Sunshine, which both sounds very much like a Moskva Surfing Club album and also represents the biggest evolution of the band so far. "Our first album felt like an act of bravery. We let people listen to our sound, even though it was rough then. That felt right at the time. Lyrically, it's a collection of scattered songs dominated by the egos of melancholic and dangerously sensitive narrators. On our recent album, though, we tried to escape from the limitations of the ego and of I-ness."

"We grew up a lot while making this album," explains drummer Hyunjin. "We recorded everything ourselves, even the drums! It gave us the chance to take our time recording and arranging."

One of the most striking differences between this album and their other music is that Foggy Sunshine, true-ish to its name, is their sunniest album to date. While there are still sombre songs here, they are broken up by vibrant and uplifting tracks like Ghost Theatre and Apartment. Does this sound reflect how MSC are feeling? The band answer positively. "We're in a good place mentally, I think," explains Gihoon. "We have listeners, supportive friends and some great experiences. There was a kind of anxiety when we were making the first album. Maybe it came from an obsessive uncertainty. It felt like a test, a big test. Now, our only goal is to make better music. We don't have time to let that anxiety block our next move."

While the sunnier sound of Foggy Sunshine reflects MSC's mindset, the band hopes that it can have a practical impact, too. "One thing that inspired was Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. It got us thinking about the world and what our generation is going through. We suffer and blame ourselves. We deal with so much harshness, and we almost never find time to escape the harshness for an adventure. On the opening track, Maybe Our Song Will Save This World, we sing, 'we are small, our hearts are poor. So we should sing louder, louder'. What if our music could be like Raskol'nikov's room in Crime and Punishment? Like someone's ark in a flood? This album is about that."

Another noticeable difference is the development of their guitar sound. In fact, their entire relationship with the guitar has been rethought for this album. "Gihoon's guitar is the centre of our sound," explains Kyuri. "But after the single Wish It Were a Dream, he wanted to move away from an egoistic playing style. We've always prominently featured guitar solos in our music simply because we thought... that's what a rock band does. Instead of that, he focused on trying to make the guitar sing, like Jeff Beck or Nick Drake. Guitar is still a big part of Foggy Sunshine, but the approach was very different."

MSC are as well known for their captivating, improvisation-led live performances as they are for their music, and the band relish the idea of performing their new songs live. "We LOVE performing live. We have a stronger connection with listeners. To put it simply, our music is based on motifs that come from improvisation. We are not a jazz band, but we share some ideas with jazz when it comes to playing live. Sometimes, playing live takes us places we didn't plan to go. and we can experience the responses of audiences in real-time. It's a core pleasure of music."

One of the reasons the bands love performing live is it gives them a chance to connect with Seoul's music community, which is currently going through somewhat of an explosion. While the band expresses their love for the scene, they say they are limited on how well they can describe how good it is. "It's hard to explain because none of us have experienced underground scenes outside of Korea. We were also too young to have lived through the Korean Musical Renaissance, so we can't compare that to now. But we can say that it's getting much richer here. There are so many amazing artists working in Korea right now. All of us have different tastes. Jinwoo and Kyuri love Electron Sheep. Gihoon is obsessed with Lee Taehoon, the guitarist of CADEJO. Hyunjin admires Seo Kyungsoo, who plays drums in Mandong. We also love Goonamgua yeo riding Stellar, Soumbalgwang, Kim Il Du, Drinking Boys and Girls Choir, Kwang Progamme, and Kim Oki - who we got to duet with on our new album.”

Foggy Sunshine came out two months ago but has become one of the sleeper hits of 2023. Its sophisticated production and varied sound have already connected with people in a big way. It's a sign of a bright future for a band for who the fog is lifting.

For more information on Moskva Surfing Club, follow them here.