INTERVIEW Bursters

FOLLOWING A UK TOUR IN 2019, BURSTERS RETURNED WITH A FULL ALBUM 'ONCE AND FOR ALL' JUST AS THE WORLD LOCKED DOWN IN MARCH.

'Once and For All' merges alternative and popular sounds, takes a strong stance on social and moral issues and offers a left of field listen to Kpop fans open to a heavier sound.

UnitedKpop spoke to the rock band about their latest album.

YOUR ALBUM ‘ONCE AND FOR ALL’ COMBINES A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SOUNDS - HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC?

HWANHEE: There is no fixed ‘BURSTERS’ sound’ because we define our sound as ‘constantly changing and combining various elements in new ways’. So I think getting out of whatever our current pre-existing sound is and going for the next new territory will be a never-ending task for us. Just as our new album contains a lot of new attempts that distinguishes it from previous albums, we will keep striving to come back with a ‘new BURSTERS’ in every album to come. BURSTERS is one band, but the five members really differ from each other in terms of the music and message that each pursues. Since such an eclectic set of members are all involved in the composing and lyrics writing, the unique colour of each member end up showing through in the final product, and a separate, new colour of ‘BURSTERS’ also gets created. YOU CHOSE TO FUSE A MORE HARDCORE MUSIC STYLE WITH POPULAR STYLES AND SOUNDS - WHAT INFLUENCED THIS?

DAEGUN: It was a very natural development. We definitely didn’t intentionally add pop elements to our music to follow the mainstream sound. Our band members, including me, like to listen to a huge range of genres including pop. And we’re a band that never ties itself down to one genre, but constantly combines various ones when we create new music. So that’s why the sound naturally comes out that way, I think. For example, I actually didn’t like rock music at the start. I originally liked ballad and pop. But Junyong and Gyejin, whom I was friends with in middle school, recommended Linkin Park to me and that’s how I got into rock. Similarly, our members typically listen to very different assortments of genres, get influenced by them, and want to incorporate them into our own music. We express ourselves with the influences we get from other music and our own lives, so it’s natural that BURSTERS has quite a wide range of music styles.

FILM AND LITERATURE TRANSLATORS OFTEN DISCUSS THE CHALLENGES OF TRANSLATING SOME KOREAN IDEAS INTO ENGLISH. DID YOU FACE ANY CHALLENGES WITH LYRICS YOU FELT DIDN’T TRANSLATE WELL?

DAEGUN: We worked hard to not lose or twist any nuances one would get in Korean. Actually, a different language is not just a different communication system but entirely different sensibility and culture, you know? So we never stopped contemplating and working on this. Making an English album was really worth it though, a worthy challenge.

YOU OFTEN EMPLOY A MORE ‘PUNK’ ATTITUDE TO YOUR LYRICS, DISCUSSING SOCIAL AND MORAL ISSUES. ‘SMELL THE ROT’ HAS A VERY APT ‘FUCK THE SYSTEM’ MESSAGE FOR THE CURRENT CLIMATE. WHAT ENCOURAGED YOU TO CHOOSE SUCH A POLITICALLY AND SOCIALLY CHARGED TRACK AS YOUR TITLE TRACK?

JUNYONG: I wouldn’t say ‘Smell the Rot’ was intended to show our political stance, but it is true that it’s the strongest expression of everything we BURSTERS have felt in our lives up to now. The song is a call for everyone to face the wrongs we ignore because we are so focused on just going through life. It’s to admit what’s wrong as wrong. ‘Smell the Rot’ is also clearly the most characteristic sounds of BURSTERS, and also has the core message of the entire album. That’s why it’s the title track.

IS THERE A TOPIC YOU FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT BUT HAVEN’T COVERED YET?

HWANHEE: I’d like to express everything a human being feels and faces in life. It can be from the realm of personal life, or from that of environment, politics, or society. I just want to express every emotion that passes back and forth between us human beings.

IF YOUR MUSIC COULD PROMOTE REAL CHANGE, WHAT WOULD BE THE FIRST ISSUE YOU SOLVED?

HWANHEE: That’s a very tough question, but if our music could solve something, I’d wish for our music to help eliminate depression and suicide. My hope is that our music can lift up people who are downcast and give them strength.

BURSTERS: Unlike our past albums, our latest album had a huge number of candidate songs. It’s because we had worked on this album for such a long time - three years. We listened to each candidate repeatedly and thought about it a lot. We also never stopped discussing with each other about this. Our goal for this album was to present songs that best express who we are, but also attempt a variety of genres we haven’t tried before. We ultimately show the tracks according to that goal. HWANHEE: ‘Remind You’. I incorporated a lot of pop elements to the bass line, and the result was so satisfying. I remember coming out of the recording booth in the best of moods. GYEJIN: ‘Savage’. So I’m in charge of synths for BURSTERS, and in ‘Savage’, the synths kind of play the main character role, whereas it’s usually only in the background for all our other songs. So this song is really meaningful to me personally. JUNYONG: ‘Colors’ is the first BURSTERS song that all five members sing together from start to finish. I like that the five of us unite for this song. It’s also great that the audience can sing along whenever we perform it. DAEGUN: ‘Therapy’ has my special regard because it’s a song that weaves in and out of various musical colours throughout. So the song really captures BURSTERS’ musical spectrum, I think. Also, the vocals came out exactly like the ideal sound I’ve been pursuing. TAEHEE: ‘Barriers’, simply because it’s a good song. That’s what I thought as soon as I heard it - ‘This is a good song.’ I also get so pumped whenever we perform this.

TAEHEE: I’d have to say our latest album, the second full-length. We devoted a really long time to it, and it contains everything from songs we’d only been able to show at live shows till now to past songs reworked anew. The album really shows the entirety of BURSTERS’ career as a band.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR FAVOURITE MOMENT OF TOURING THE UK?

TAEHEE: It was the London stop of our UK tour. Since the tour was our first tour outside of Korea, we really did go through a lot getting used to new places. And, since our anticipation was just so high leading up to it, there were certainly some letdowns during the tour. But when the London concert started, the lights came on, and I could suddenly see so many audience members in front of us. Every second of that concert was euphoric - people we met for the first time that day were singing along to our songs. We always dream of more live performances. We want to continue with more performances and bigger audiences.

DID YOU EXPERIENCE ANYTHING TOURING IN THE UK YOU’D LIKE TO TAKE BACK TO THE GIG SCENE IN KOREA?

DAEGUN: Our local stage crew during our UK tour was so fantastic I wanted to bring them back to Korea. Also, I really felt that the UK has a great foundation in place for bands to do rock actively. I wish I could bring that over to Korea. JUNYONG: This isn’t about music, but I loved that the UK has no age-driven hierarchal culture like Korea does. I felt a lot of new things from being able to have such free, friendly conversations with no regard for age difference. It was a fresh feeling I’d never felt before.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ALBUM BY ANOTHER KOREAN ARTIST?

JUNYONG: Seo Taeji – [7th Issue] I went to the artist’s nationwide tour during this album’s promotions. I enjoy listening to this album even now, and it’s still the best record for me. DAEGUN: Broken Valentine – [Aluminum] Broken Valentine and BURSTERS have been close for a long time, doing rock music together. I’m sure we are close because our personalities match, et cetera, but I also think that a part of it is because we respect and enjoy each other’s work as musicians. GYEJIN: Broken Valentine – [Project. Nabla] I listened to Broken Valentine ever since I was a young boy in school, dreaming of becoming a rock star. This band was a big influence for us BURSTERS. Daegun even featured on this album for the song ‘Justice for Them’. HWANHEE: Seo Taeji – [7th Issue] Like Junyong, I love this album. It’s true that it’s the album that had a big impact on you when you’re young that really stays with you. My wish is that BURSTERS can also make music and albums that can impact people like that. TAEHEE: Baek Yerin – [Every letter I sent you.] It’s an album full of beautiful lyrics and melodies.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY LISTENING TO?

JUNYONG: Maybe it’s because we’ve been doing strong, hardcore music for many years, but I’ve actually been listening to a lot of Ballad and Kpop lately. I often discover unique qualities and interesting structures in genres opposite to ours. DAEGUN: Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Pop and Dance Music, like Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, etc. GYEJIN: Lately, I’ve been really into Don Broco’s music. And I think my ears lean towards the more extreme sounds, like EDM and heavy metal. But I don’t set limits on what I listen to and what I don’t. Side note, all the members enjoy I See Stars and Story of the Year. HWANHEE: I’ve been enjoying Pop lately. I’ve been listening to Troye Sivan, Imagine Dragons, Halsey, etc. TAEHEE: I’ve been listening to a lot of Jazz, Pop, and Instrumentals. Nowadays, I’m hooked on John Mayer’s ‘Covered in Rain’ and Baek Yerin’s ‘0310’.

WHY SHOULD UNITEDKPOP READERS GIVE ‘ONCE AND FOR ALL’ A LISTEN?

JUNYONG: From the very start, we set the goal for <Once and for All> to be the album to show all of BURSTERS, to capture who we are. That’s why we chose ‘Once and for All’ as the album title. It was the mindset of ‘Let’s show our band with this one blow’, and we really did pour all of ourselves into this album. So if someone’s learning about BURSTERS for the first time, this would be that one album to tell that person everything there is to know about us. In addition, we are finally getting to directly communicate with our overseas fans! It’s the first album with all the songs in English.