>>>Interview en français en première page<<<
On May 26th, next Friday night, the new Seoul Bam! show will take place at the Pan Piper in Paris and you’ll be able to see live shows of South Korean bands The Barberettes and SsingSsing. For this special occasion, the female trio The Barberettes accepted to answer our questions. You can now learn a little more about them before their Friday’s show right now! Enjoy!
The interview:
Hi, thanks for the interview. At first, could you introduce The Barberettes and yourselves individually for our readers?
Shinae: Hello ! My name is Shinae, I am the leader of the band.
Sunnie: I’m Sunnie, I joined the band 2 years ago, I sing high melodies.
Sohee: I’m Sohee, the youngest of the band, I sing low harmonies.
How did you choose your stage name « The Barberettes » when you debuted in 2012? Does this name have a special meaning to you?
Shinae: At our second practice I was talking to a friend who was also interested in this type of music, I told him that I wanted a name containing the word « Barbershop », and my friend came up with the name « Barberettes ». Our music is based on barbershop harmony, so it tells our band’s character easily when the audience hears it.
Could you explain briefly the style of your band? How did you end up with a doo-wop and retro concept?
We play music that’s inspired by 1950-60’s harmony, based on vocal music. We mix the feel of retro music from different cultures, such as American and Korean. In our own albums, we mostly have the songs written & produced by ourselves but we do a lot of well-known covers from that era.
I’ve always been a retro culture fan. I love old movies and music and fashion. There’s something very nostalgic about it that fascinates me. When I heard « Mr.sandman » by The Chordettes, I instantly thought that I would love to cover that song with few other singers and harmonize. Because it couldn’t be done alone. So doing that led us to be into doing more and more of other covers then started writing originals in that style.
For someone who doesn’t know your music, which one of your song would you choose to present your work?
This year we’ve been on a project called « For Season Songs », which we’ve been releasing EP every season that contains seasonal songs. Like Christmas carols. We released few carol albums and we’ve had good reactions. So we thought, “Why don’t we make carols like, for every seasons?“. So we just released EP album « Spring » last April. It has 4 songs including the cover of « Mr.Sandman ». Now we are working on the Summer album which will be released soon.
Last month you released a new EP and the song « Spring, Bear », could you tell us more about this album and this song?
« Spring, Bear » is a very happy, cheering, eco-friendly bossa-nova pop song. We wanted to project the feeling that everything starts to bloom when the spring begins. Song starts with the lyrics about a Bear waking up from its hibernation. When we wrote it together we watched the documentary video of a polar bear family waking up through the snow. Then the melody came up naturally. We finished writing the song in couple of hours and we liked it a lot. Also, we went into Sunnie’s uncle’s cabin in the countryside of Seoul to record this album. Almost everything was recorded by ourselves without an engineer so this album means a lot to us.
These days in South Korea, « Hallyu » or « Korean Wave » (including K-Pop) is prevailing over any other music styles in the Korean music industry. What do you think about it?
I think it is the complexion of talent and production value. Me (Shinae) and Sunnie used to work in K-pop scene as songwriters and backup singers for many years before The Barberettes. We witnessed how the music is made and how the artists are being trained. Many of entertainment companies and trainees invest so much time and work and money, on an insane level that you can’t find anywhere else in the world. I think that is finally being paid off by getting many K-pop fans around the world. Not only for its music but I think K-pop really attracts fans by its fine visuals.
It’s not your first concert in Paris, do you enjoy playing in France with your French fans?
Absolutely yes. This time we are also planning on filming a music video for our upcoming track while we are in Paris.
After your several dates throughout Europe, what are your upcoming projects?
We will go back to Korea to wrap up our summer EP. Then we are coming back to Europe for another tour from July – August. Stay in touch with us! You can check our touring schedule on our social media.
Have you got any special message to your fans before your show at the Pan Piper on Friday night?
It’s gonna be a very fun night! Whenever we come to France and perform, something magical happens. We want you to be there to share the magic. Thank you and love you!!
Thanks again for accepting to answer our questions!
If you’re still hesitating about buying your tickets for Friday’s upcoming show (tickets available on this official website), there is a last thing we can do, which is make you listen to « Love Shoes », a song The Barberettes released last year. Check it out :
Thanks a lot to 33 Degrees and The Barberettes for this interview !
See you on Friday at the Pan Piper for the show !
