[Reporter Lee Junghyun (Seiji)] Prior to releasing pop rock album ‘Drawing the Line’, the three member highly skilled band started off in a small garage as youtube stars with the ability to speak three languages, ready to become k-rock stars.
The Royal Pirates (Moon, Sooyoon, James). The team name is interesting. The words from royalty’s “royal” and “pirates” improvised by the band members together to make “Royal Pirates”. For those who think “Royal Pirates” is too hard to pronounce “RP” is used for short. “We liked feel of “royal” and “pirates” combined,” the boys explained. “Isn’t life originally ironic? So let’s represent living. Being free, unstoppable, it holds that kind of meaning.”
Before the release of their album “Drawing the Line” on the 15th, the Royal Pirates met with Sports Hankooki. Their good looks caught our attention. We asked where such a band came from and how they came to be here. They came from America, and they gained awareness through activities in the underground music scene. When they uploaded on youtube their rock cover of Wonder Girls’ “Nobody”, it became a hot topic and they were even invited to stand on stage in Korea. All the members of this skilled band are lyricists, composers, and arrangers.
“We just recorded a cover of a song for own fun, we didn’t know that it would garner so much interest. Since we are all Korean, we naturally had an interest in K-pop, and decided to record something in our style. It matched well. We thought it would be a waste, so uploading it to youtube became an opportunity. From there we were a band who had fans from Sweden, Poland, all around whole world.” (Sooyoon)
Their start was in a small garage in Los Angeles, California. Moon (Kim Moonchul, Guitar/Vocal) and Sooyoon (Kim Sooyoon, Drums), who moved to America when they were young, hit it off when the words “Should be make a band?” were passed. It was later when James (Bass) joined that the band was complete. “We were recruited because we had a tall and good-looking bassist,” Moon said, laughing.
“Our first audience were some white guy that stood in front of our garage. After seeing us practicing he came over with a can of beer and stood as audience. At first we didn’t know how to record, so we used the recording program on the computer. Thinking back to those times we’re really fortunate now. (laughs) We became famous after uploading videos to youtube and received a call from a company in Korea. They asked if we had any interest in doing activities in Korea. They weren’t a company at the head of the music industry but we liked that we could keep Royal Pirates’ color.” (Moon)
Royal Pirates releases pop-rock music. Based on rock, it crosses over with many other genres to make a trendy sound. The title song “Drawing the Line” is in the R8B-rock style, and features a rhythmic guitar and energetic drum sound. Their music expresses a truthful love without hesitations. As good as it is being called “Korea’s Maroon 5”, their light mood captures the ears.
Drummer Sooyoon says, “In the world of popular music, the first thing to do is to be something new and refreshing enough to leave a trail.” In the words of commercial artists, it means they want to expand their reach. “Even so, that doesn’t mean we must do activities like other idols. But like Yoon Dohyun-sunbaenim we want to make music the public can listen to comfortably.”
Royal Pirates’ company Apple of the Eye was first known as the company representing Actor Daniel Henney. The members say, “After we first saw Daniel Henney he was so good-looking it surprised us.” However in Korea, they did not want to gain awareness by using their company senior.
Moon states, “We did not want to hear that we were successful because we piggy-backed on our senior’s fame. The appeal of our music was always first.” The boys sometimes meet with Henney to have drinks and get together in the practice rooms to make a crazy ensemble. “Daniel Henney is a really nice and positive man. He is always supporting his juniors, and giving advice like “Don’t forget your beginnings” and “Protect your center.””
As they have lived in America and are now living in Korea, the members are fluent in both Korean and English. Vocal Moon is also able to speak Japanese, for a total of three languages. James, who was born in America, still stumbles over his Korean but has no problem communicating. He says, “When I first came to Korea a lot of things were foreign to me. Especially when I first had “소맥”. I wondered why you would put beer and soju together, but now I understand. Because it’s tasty.” (laughs)
“Now we’ve started activities in Korea but for the long run we want to keep activities in Japan in mind. The rock music market in Japan is a lot bigger, and we think it can become a good opportunity. Another reason for that is because we can also conduct activities in English. Through promotion in Korea and Japan, someday we would be able to move to an even bigger stage. Working as if we could hold a concert this year, our goal is to secure various repertoires. Also, no matter how limited, we want our name to be known by the public. In order to promote music as a band, we have to focus on live performances, right? Until then we won’t even date. But for now that depends. Ha Ha.”
