Interview with Patients

As one of the artists who performed at the now defunct Skunk Hell club in Seoul, Patients have seen many changes in the Korean punk scene over the past few years. Undeterred, the band has continued to release new music and perform concerts and show no sign of giving up just yet. Following the release of their latest full-length album Kitsch Space, Patients took some time to answer a few of our questions.

First thing's first, can you introduce yourselves to our readers?

Junmyoung Baek: Hi. We are Patients a hybrid punk band from South Korea.
Sumin Jo: Hello. We are Patients, a rock band.

Tell us one thing about the other members of the band.

Jaehyuk Lee: They are the punk rockers with total independence and individuality, which is pretty rare these days.
Junmyoung: Sumin, the vocalist and bassist, and I have been friends in the scene for about ten years and we became a band six years later. He's my friend before he's my band mate, which has good points and bad. Jaehyuk is our drummer and he has participated as a session musician in various recording projects and he was even the engineer of a club called "Skunk Hell" that held a lot of gigs. He has a great deal of skill for playing many instruments.
Sumin: Great musicians who become totally helpless when they put down their instrument.

For those who don't know you already, how would you describe your music?

Junmyoung: Well, it is very hard to describe our music. I think currently we mix up everything we like without organizing it too much. Punk is our base sound, but we are not picky about other genres of music because we are the hybrid punks.
Sumin: Future-oriented punk rock with elements of madness and cure.

Patients seems like a strange name for a band, how did you come up with this? Is there any special meaning behind it?

Sumin: If we explain Patients in Korean it's a homonym word meaning 'sick people' and 'happy people’. I think it's a suggestion of the future of Korean society where it hurts, but there’s still happiness.

What should people expect from the new album? How does it differ from your previous albums?

Junmyoung: For a long time, we only made singles. But finally, we made a full-length album. I think we've put our thoughts and feelings right into it.
If our previous albums were punk with full anger, then we now try to look at stuff in different ways. But I don't really think we've become full adults. (laughs)
Sumin: Just enjoy our album. We tried our best to help people enjoy it and made a lot of traps here and there for it. We hoped people would step on the traps a lot.

Why did you decide to call the album “Kitsch Space”?

Sumin: For the album title, I thought of "the messed up room" at first, then I searched for a word which has more interpretations. What we wanted to express was a mix of two words: "dizziness" and "messed up”. I wanted to give each listener the possibility of interpreting it for themselves. While I was thinking, I thought the word "kitsch" fitted well because the origin of the word means "play while rubbing in the mud". I think "kitsch" is the kind of word that we can always question the value of. To add some more space sense to the title, I used the word "space" other than "room". And I wrote the English title and the Korean title at the same time. Also, I think the word "kitsch" is very similar to the word "punk", which I found interesting.
Junmyung: Our thoughts crash into each other pretty often so this makes us amused and sometimes it becomes the driving force of creativity. Actually, our rooms are messed up but eventually it has everything we like and what we need in the right places. I think most people have this experience as well. Usually, when mothers tidy rooms, they always rearrange things in different places so you can never find it even when you didn't really have to tidy up! Also I think we decided to call it "Kitsch Space" so make it seem more complex and surreal.

Did you have any specific aims when you wrote the new songs?

Sumin: While I was in the process of working on this album, I was in a dark place. The lyrics are taken straight from my anxiety and emotions. And I felt cured when I covered it up with pleasant and warm sounds. I hope the songs that were made in this kind of process gives comfort to those who listen to it. I hope for a positive effect or, at least, I hope you enjoy it.
Jaehyuk: I wanted to make it less tense and have a smooth sound…but…it didn’t happen.

What inspires you to write music?

Jaehyuk: When we jam together, the looks on our faces inspire us. Sometimes band mates play with their facial expressions rather than the instrument.
Junmyung: There's a lot of stuff. The sounds of music, the ocean, the sky, the mountains etc. and I even get inspired while I'm on the internet. I even get inspiration from dreams.

Which Patients songs do you like and dislike most?

Junmyung: I don't really have any. Well, I get a rush from new songs so I am constantly trying to write new ones. If I think the songs that were written in the past are stuck in some kind of form so I just re-arrange it or just don't play it. I think the most important thing is what you show right now, in the moment.
Jaehyuk: I can’t really decide. I enjoy listening to most of the songs.
Sumin: I love every one of our songs. These days I enjoy listening to our full-length album that was released recently. I often listen to the song The Boy Who Turns Into a Dog.

How do you think Korean punk differs from more traditional punk with roots in London? Do you see a difference?

Junmyung: The rise of the London punk scene in 1977 gave us a lot of inspiration and it became a very good manual to actively do something by ourselves. But there were limits to make that our own so we needed to get in the process of reinterpretation. That is the difference. The similar parts are the animosity the youth feel from society, the animosity of the older generation and awareness of stereotypes. So, the thing we wanted to show was our own voice and I think that's what it is similar to.
Sumin: I can see where this question came from, but you don't have to worry. I am also against the wannabes from the past, who were just struggling through the punk rock vestige and didn't even get to the real point of punk rock. In the year 2000, a lot of bands appeared in Korea that took a major step in post-punk with their own colors and showed a diversity which is very hard to explain as a whole. The bands who just imitate are also devalued in Korea. Traditional punk rock is really wonderful. I think the essence of punk rock will be eternal as long as cities exist. We live in global times and the story of youth may not be all that different but being an independent punk band in Korea makes you think about how they should be different from the traditional punk rock.
The only other difference is that maybe you have to demonstrate your destructive power by drinking soju rather than vodka as your fuel? (laughs)
Jaehyuk: Well, I'm not an activist so I don't really know. For me it's not punk rock, I just want to make music.

What's the atmosphere like at Korean punk shows?

Jaehyuk: It’s not the same as before. The atmosphere within society comes in right through live clubs as well. People kind of expect a hero or a rock star to show up.
Sumin: There are dudes who dream of something new and dudes who are stuck in the past. I think it's a transition period for all of them.
Junmyung: I think we have a long way to go. I think there are genres and places that differentiate the scene and there is more diversity than before, but I think the people who are stuck in the past and keep longing for it should think s little differently now. Like the London punk that atrophied, I think we need an alternative.

What's been your favourite live experience?

Junmyung: Well, I think I can say that it was the album release show we had recently. I wish everyday was as fun as that but we can't release an album every month you know... (laughs)
Sumin: The Kitsch Space album release show we had recently.
I was happy.
Jaehyuk: A gig at a women's university.

Can you share any anecdotes from your tours with us?

Junmyung: Nothing really springs to my mind right now. Well, I remember when Patients and two other bands all went together comfortably on a tour to Busan, which is my hometown. Those kinds of memories are always fun to remember.

The Korean music that is most popular in the west tends to be more pop orientated; do you ever feel under pressure to make something more commercial?

Sumin: We are not a band for "business use", so I don't really feel the pressure from that. To us, having commercial popularity is not important to us. What is important is that we play and make the music we like and believe in the value in it. I feel pressure more when I think about how to deliver the stuff we like to other people in a good way.
Junmyoung: I think it's not bad to let people know who we are commercially. But it can be processed only when we do what we want to do and when we think it is honorable when look back on it. I don't really want to dismiss pop music. There are reasons why a lot of people like it.
Jaehyuk: When I was broke.


Which Korean artists would you recommend to our readers?

Jaehyuk : I like Young-Ae Han’s song Tune. I think she is like the Janis Joplin of Korea.
Sumin: Patients and Pony.
Junmyung: Galaxy Express, The Moonshiners and Patients.

Patients have been around for a while now, how do you think your sound has changed since your first album?

Junmyung: I think we are more diverse than before. I can say that the way we convey our emotions and thoughts is not as direct as before but we deliver it in various ways.
Sumin: The range of ways we express our emotions has expanded and become more diverse. There is more to enjoy than before.
Jaehyuk: It has become more delicate than before, and kind of lost the youthfulness in it.

Besides Korea, where in the world would you most like to perform?

Jaehyuk: New York Times Square.
Junmyoung: Because we are a punk band, of course the 100club in London and CBGB (sadly gone for now) are the major ones. I would like to perform in any place that the bands I like have performed before.
Sumin: Milano.

Where do you see the band in 10 years time?

Junmyung: I really didn't think about that, I think it would be much different from now. We might have gigs or maybe the band could taking a break or it could have broken up. What's important is that if you want to know what’s going to happen to the band in 10 years time, then the present becomes important.
Jaehyuk: I don’t really feel the necessity of thinking about the future, the present is important.
Sumin: Being in a band is like a patient with limited life. If we're okay in ten years time, I hope that we are a band who have released a lot of good songs and a band that people have expectations for.

Any final messages for our readers?

Sumin: Enjoy the album Kitsch Space.
Junmyung: I think we should not betray our curiosity until we get old and die.
If we adjust ourselves to the rest, then we won't have ourselves. So try to enjoy life more. Without hesitation!




KoME would like to thank all the members of Patients and Steel Face Record for making this interview possible.