The Evolution of OHCHILL

Interview by Ella Kaill (@ellakaill)
Photograph by Mapo Music Center

Clad in leather jackets and stony expressions, OHCHILL are the picture of an intimidating rock band as they descend the stairs into the cafe where we are waiting to meet them. We stand up to greet them, apprehensive. Their frost immediately thaws and we are greeted by two warm, welcoming faces. They are Jun and Snow.

OHCHILL are a household name among rock fans in South Korea. Brimming with talent and passion in equal parts, they are deservedly confident in their art. Originally from Jeonju, OHCHILL have outgrown their rural roots and taken their music from San Francisco to Berlin, and completed a successful UK tour with shows in the double digits. “What’s the name of that venue we played in Manchester?” Jun wonders aloud upon hearing that one of us is from Manchester. “We played Night & Day Cafe,” remembers Snow. They tell us that upon leaving the venue, they saw people lined up outside waiting for another gig and were really surprised. “We would be very happy if there was a line of people waiting for our gig next time.”

Photograph by Kim Young Jun.

The band talk about their UK tour fondly, but Snow tells us that the audiences in the UK weren’t immediately on their side. They faced prejudice as Asian musicians in the largely white-male dominated UK rock scene. “Maybe it’s because we’re Asian, maybe it’s because I’m a woman, but they usually didn’t expect a lot from us when they first saw us.” While Korean pop music is beginning to forge a path for itself in the UK market, most people remain reluctant to afford Korean indie bands the same attention. “They warmed up to us as soon as we finished playing our first song, though,” she adds, proudly.

Surprisingly, it’s not only their audiences that the band have had to prove themselves to. They tell us that the animosity can begin with sound engineers who often dismiss Snow during sound checks. “I want to be nice to people so I always ask the engineers for things in a nice way, but many of them ignore me so I have to speak more strongly to them.” It is a grievance for her both at home and abroad. Jun chides, “Some people are really rude to her, but she’s the boss in the band.” Having a female bandmate is a welcome eye-opening experience for him. “I’m still learning by being in a band with Snow. There are things men get used to culturally, and unfortunately some men just habitually ignore women. When that happens and I’m there, I have to scold them.” In this way, their devil-may-care attitudes melt away off-stage to reveal a warm, robust bond between the duo.

Maybe it’s because we’re Asian, maybe it’s because I’m a woman, but people don’t expect much from us when they first see us.

While they’re delighted that their work has taken them all over the world together, their tours abroad haven’t always been smooth-sailing.  If it wasn’t already a dizzying experience to be on tour in an unfamiliar country, the band also had a number of unwelcoming encounters in Europe. Snow tells us, “In Poland I was trying to go to the market and this guy stopped me. I had no idea what he was saying so I turned around and tried to walk away but there was another guy behind me. I had to run away. Jun wasn’t there that time.” Jun remembers yet another incident in Wales when he went to KFC in the daytime and left Snow in the car. “She was sleeping in there and some guy came to the window and tried to open the door.” Snow remembers, too. “I didn’t have a phone or anything. It was really scary.”  Jun adds, “We thought Europe was safer than Korea. I didn’t know it was like that there because Korea is quite safe even at night.”

Fortunately, their frightening experiences haven’t put them off touring abroad in the future. With a new album release on the cards for Spring 2022, they’re excited by the idea of taking it to England, sans the trials and tribulations of last time; it wasn’t easy for them to get used to a new country where nobody knows them while being shuttled to new cities every few days. The idea of trying again thrills them. “We are always dreaming about being on tour, we love it.”

OHCHILL would love to be touring this year, too, but external factors have demoted this goal to merely a pipedream for now. Instead, they have been working hard to make new music. They tell us how they’ve pursued a bigger sound for their new single by injecting strings, piano and bass into their usual guitar-and-drums clockwork. We take them up on their offer to let us listen to the new song, and they announce they’ll be heading outside for a ‘break’. “We feel a bit nervous to watch you listen,” Jun confesses. There is a new, rich depth of sound to the single that wasn’t present in their previous work and yet it manages to encapsulate OHCHILL’s classic, heavy sound. Before now, OHCHILL have written songs entirely in either English or Korean, but their new single is a mix of both. “We wrote our new song in Korean in order to deliver our message well, but the hook is in English.” It is important to them that everyone who listens to the song can take away the intended message. “People are so tired and depressed because of the world events, so we wanted to make a song that can give people hope,” says Snow.

OHCHILL are particularly keen to inspire some hope in their fellow musicians and artists in Korea. “The indie scene in Korea is in a really bad state right now,” explains Jun. “So many bands are quitting and it makes people really down.” Now more than ever, artists everywhere are forced to make income through work outside of their creative realms. For bands like OHCHILL, outfits such as Save Our Stages have been a golden ticket to survival. Through Save Our Stages, they have done online gigs and been part of a compilation album with other Korean artists. “They give bands like us a chance to breathe,” says Jun. However, their gratitude for such opportunities is weighed down by a melancholy acknowledgement that online performances cannot replicate the live experience for neither fans nor artists. “It’s way more fun to do gigs face to face because we don’t get that energy transfer from the audience during online gigs,” says Snow. Jun agrees, “When we do offline gigs, we can meet people in real life, that’s fun.”

In spite of their setbacks, OHCHILL remain optimistic about the future. They uprooted from the countryside, where people didn’t connect with their music, and moved to Seoul with the hope of playing more gigs and meeting kindred spirits. “The people back in our hometown didn’t really like rock music,” they say. However, a move to the big city comes with big expenses, and the band have experienced the effects of moving from the countryside to the capital first-hand. “It’s hard to live here. Living and life is a different thing.” It is the age-old tale of artists battling to stay afloat in a competitive market, while simultaneously fighting to meet the necessary costs of modern living. But theirs is a tale of tenacity. “We are so thankful just to be able to make music these days. We’re not tired.”

OHCHILL’s latest single God Diver was released on 17th November by Warner Music Korea.

For more information on OHCHILL, follow them here.