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The Carletonian

“Language doesn’t matter”

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Interview with At Your Disposal, runner-up for Battle of the Bands, who will perform tomorrow at spring concert. Members: In Taek Hong (guitar and occasional vocalist), JinHyun Lee ’16 (bass), John Lee ’15 (percussions), Jin Lee ’18 (guitar), Nayon Park ’17 (keyboard), Michael Shin ’17 (vocalist), Kyung Ho Song ’17 (drummer)

RS: When did you guys first get together as a band?

In Taek Hong: For me personally, after I came back to Carleton after my two-year long military service back in Korea. I used to play music back then, so I was already involved with several musical groups, but with several American friends, so I was just thinking that it’d be kind of cool to form a band with some Korean people, and I found that there were some Korean students that play some instruments, and I thought it’d be cool to have the chance to play some music from my own country. We were lucky, so that’s how we got formed. And of course there were some changes in members since then, but we were able to form a stable band since probably the beginning of last year.

RS: How would you describe At Your Disposal’s sound or musical style?

In Taek Hong: Because we have been playing music from Korea, music in Korean, that would be the first characteristic. Musically, we have been covering some other bands’ songs, not playing originals up to this point, so it’s hard to describe our own sound, but we still make our own arrangements for the those songs, so maybe our sound would be like Indie and a little bit retro, because we all like old rap music from the ‘90s. For Spring Concert, we’ve been working on some original music, and we’d be categorized as Indie.

RS: What are you guys most excited about for Spring Concert?

Nayon Park: T-pain, no just joking.

Jin Lee: T-pain and the Counter- factuals

John Lee: I’m kind of nervous, because I’ve never been to Spring Concert or any kind of concert before.

In Taek Hong: I think all of the members have a different degree of nervousness, but based on our previous experiences, we’ve all done quite well, so I think Spring Concert will be great.

RS: What kind of venues has the band played in previously and how will Spring Concert differ?

In Taek Hong: We’ve been playing various venues on campus- the Cave, farm house. We’re very excited to be playing on such a big stage. It’s a really great opportunity and we’re really excited that we have the chance to play non-English music to an American audience. We’re very excited for the upcoming concert.

John Lee: I never imagined in a million years that we’d be playing at Spring Concert.

Jin Lee: It was such a good feeling. I never expected people to like what we played, really, but it was really nice because the crowd [at Battle of the Bands] was amazing and I never expected that.

In Taek Hong: We were a little concerned at participating in Battle of the Bands, because we’d be playing like songs in non- English, and we were worried about that, but it turns out that it was not a big problem at all. I don’t want to sound like a cliche, but for music, the language doesn’t matter. The audience’s reaction was really great and I think we’ll be able to get an even better reaction on this bigger stage.

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