South Korea’s LØREN Arrives With a Co-Sign From Blackpink and a Mission to Bring Back Rock
25.03.2023 - 04:41
/ variety.com
Tamar Herman South Korean alt-rocker Loren (stylized LØREN) has written songs for Blackpink and G-Dragon, appeared at South By Southwest and recently partnered with 88Rising, leading to a performance at the influential collective’s summertime Head in the Clouds festival — all before he released his first album. Out Friday (March 24), the EP “Put Up a Fight” is the result of a years-long effort while working at the Black Label, a prominent South Korean record company associated with Blackpink’s home YG Entertainment. According to the singer-songwriter, a full-length follow-up is almost finished. Loren, born Lee Seung-joo, hopes to ingest a bit of punk and grunge to South Korea’s rock scene, and “Put Up a Fight” is his call to arms to like-minded music fans. Even amid waning popularity worldwide, and especially in South Korea where only the occasional indie or pop-rock band makes registers a blip, Loren is undeterred.
“I feel like rock music is not a dying breed in Korea: it’s dead,” says Loren from Los Angeles, where he’s visiting after finishing up SXSW in Austin. “It’s six feet under its gravestones, but I’m kind of resisting where everything else is going, like a branch or something in the wind. To me, ‘Put Up a Fight’ kind of sounds like you’re kicking and screaming on your way out. You’re still going to kind of lose, but at least you refuse to just go peacefully.” Prior to his SXSW showcase, Loren had only performed with his band once in South Korea, and he recalls the audience not giving him the reaction he expected. “I guess they found it somewhat interesting, but they were not vibing with it,” he says. “They’re just kind of like, ‘This is fucking loud.’ The same way I would treat, I don’t know, classical
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