interview. anny mogollon

photos. sonicmania

Blending synthetic sounds and live drum playing, IDIOTAPE is shattering the lines of electronic music and refuses to accept the definitions of genre. Mixing simple melodies with hard drum playing they build upon solid beats escalating to head banging body -jamming goodness. Fresh from winning "Best Electronic Dance Album of the Year" for their debut album 11111101 at the 2012 Korean Music Awards, IDIOTAPE is conquering the Asian market and is seeking to blast its way into the American music stream. This band from Seoul, Korea is here to show you what globalization is all about and they're the guys that are going to get you rocking.

ZEZE

DGURU

DR

Vaffanculo Mag (VM): IDIOTAPE was formed in 2008. Since then you have taken over South Korea's electronic music scene. Tells us a little about the band's background: How did you guys meet? What made you start IDIOTAPE?

ZEZE: I'm ZEZE, I do the synthesizing in the band. DGURU has been DJing for over 10 years; he had always wanted to make his own music. He released a solo album in 2006 and was a member of a project band back then. I received a call from him and he asked me if I wanted to be a member of the band he was forming. The ultimate goal of this band was to make "fun and enjoyable music". Since the start we have been a trio. We a guitarist, but that guitarist left the band in 2009 and then DR joined us. The tracks that include our sound from when we had a guitarist member are "080509" and "IDIO_T", tracks that can be found in our album.

DGURU: I'm DGURU. I synthesize and mix our band's sound. I had a strong belief we could make fun music mixing the different music styles we had always liked.

VM: Why did you guys go with the name IDIOTAPE?

DGURU: IDIOT + TAPE or IDIOT APE.

VM: During the creating process, how much do you improvise?

DR: We improvise most of the time like lots of rock bands do, just play together and slowly work out from the spontaneous melodies and ideas we come up with during the process. I had never encountered electronic music before. I didn't know how to approach it or understand it so I improvised on the drums in my own way.

ZEZE: Personally, the creating phase is the most difficult. It is hard for me to actively improvise because I tend to stay insecure until the track gains a sense of structure.

DGURU: We improvise too when making the loops which are the basics to our music. Once we make a couple of loops, we jam all together and the songs start to get their form.

VM: You each may have different ideas and takes on what you're producing, how is it like working together?

DR: I believe a band combines the different ideas of each member and harmonizes each other's views and ideas.

ZEZE: I can come up with an idea, and the second I feel it is IDIOTAPE I stop producing and try to describe and explain that feeling to our members. I can like a song a lot but if our members don't like it, then it suddenly looses the fun. It is a hard way of working, especially in the emotional sense, but it is also a process that links our different ideas.

DGURU: It is indeed important to find a common point between us, but we also like to balance our varied ideas and show them here and there in our music. But obviously it is really hard to maintain the sense of balance (members laugh in agreement).

VM: In a post by MTV, Iggy comments that if "If Cut Copy (not from Zonoscope but from Lights & Colours), Daft Punk, and Chromeo" had a baby, it would be IDIOTAPE. You are about breaking the notion of genres. What do you want your audience to feel?

DGURU: It is best to not have prejudice about genres. Genres exist to enhance sales at a record shop. I just hope the audience can reassure themselves and say, "I was right" in coming over and watch our performance.

ZEZE: There is not a specific something. We just want the audience to feel the same way we do when we are on the stage.

DR: First of all we would like to say thank you for comparing us with such exceptional bands. Instead of thinking about what we want to show the audience, I find it more interesting to perceive how our music is influencing the audience.

VM: What sounds have influenced IDIOTAPE?

DGURU: Korean traditional music.

DR: Korean old-rock. Because we are Koreans, it is more than obvious to have been influenced by Korean music. We believe there is no one else that can understand and reinterpret Korean music as us.

VM: How do you do feel about the "Korean Music Invasion" that has been and is occurring?

DGURU: Only the commercially well-made songs are getting known. As in any other country, myriad styles of music co-exist in Korea. Still it is really optimistic that Korean music is getting known thanks to well-made pop.

DR: It's awesome! There are lots of talented bands in Korea. I hope they get more chances to perform in front of many different kinds of audiences.

VM: You were at SXSW11, how did your audience react to your performance?

ZEZE: It was far more exciting than what I had expected. We kind of worried of receiving maybe a different reaction from the audience because of being Asians, but I was wrong. We would love to perform again at SXSW.

DR: To be honest I didn't expect anything, only hoped to safely finish the stage. We had to finish our performance earlier because the gig had been delayed, but we were able to finish it well thanks to the cheers and responses from the audience.

VM: You recently collaborated with Jaurim and Aziatic in "Peep Show" for Converse's 3 Artists, 1 Song, How did you feel about working together? Will we be seeing more collaborations in the future?

DR: It is always challenging to work with others, since everyone has to respect each other and the outcome has to be something everyone can be proud of. Through this collaboration we have learned a lot and we were able to come up with new ideas. We would be delighted to be part of these kinds of projects in the future. I guess it might be easier then.

ZEZE: It was a really interesting and curious project. We had to approach music in a totally different manner. Having to make a song that had a clear propose to it was fun but was not easy. I hope making our own styled music may bring us more chances of participating in such collaboration projects.

VM: Thank you for your time guys. For more on check out:

idiotape.com