In 2014 the Royal Pirates released their first mini album “Drawing the Line” featuring R&B, alternative, retro old-pop, and rock ballad genres. The album contains “On My Mind”, “You”, “If You See”, “Fly to You”, and others. They have been active in various music programs and James says, “The team atmosphere is good, and we enjoy working.” Sooyoon adds, “It’s a good feeling. This time we also have pride.” Moon comments on their activity, “The song and the style are both comfortable.” Still lively newcomers, they truthfully and earnestly talk about themselves.
◆ Royal + Pirates Meet
The
Royal Pirates were formed in Los Angeles in 2008, where they received
music training and performed in clubs on the West Hollywood strip. The
videos they uploaded on video portal site youtube has a record number of
views. According to the agency, adding together their American and
Asian fans, the Royal Pirates hold about five thousand fans. So how was
the name Royal Pirates made? It’s simpler than you think. It is the
combination of each person’s (Moon and Sooyoon) liked words “Royal” and
“Pirates”.
“The meaning was assigned later, I think it was about the luxury and freedom of music and lifestyle. But truthfully in order to upload the songs Moon and I had to make a youtube account and needed a band name, so we thought the words “royal” and “pirates” were nice and simple and used them. (laugh)” (Sooyoon)
If that’s the case how did these guys meet? Moon and Sooyoon met at church in their middle school years and started making music. They met James a little while later through a mutual friend and he joined the band.
“We didn’t want to be singers in the beginning, we started because we liked it. I thought the bigger picture was “let’s become people who love music” but the youtube videos were uploaded, and we were contacted from agencies in Korea and the picture that was so big then became small. I met Moon-hyung at church when I was in middle school and we went to high school together. It wasn’t the case that we made music when we first met. We saw the hyungs at church doing music so naturally that we wanted to follow them and became close while doing that. We met James while we were in college through a neighborhood friend and he came to be in the band with us.” (Sooyoon)
Member Moon added, “At the time, after school we would go home and play music, I lived without knowing anything but music. There wasn’t anything that held my interest and my interest in playing came later. I really only wanted to make music and school was not interesting. I finished school and came home and played…” Sooyoon adds, laughing, “He got older and found an interest in something.”
◆ “It was hard adapting to weather in Korea~”
Moon and Sooyoon lived in Korea and immigrated when they were young but James was born in America. The members says that it was hard adapting to the weather after they came to Korea. The boys who lived in California were used to it always being warm and revealed that the Korean winter was just too cold.
“At first there were a lot of hard things. Adapting to Korean weather was also hard. California was always warm and the temperature and seasonal changes were almost nonexistent but winter in Korea was so cold, and those changes were hard. Also when we were living in America we thought we were pretty Korean but after coming the Korean culture, greetings, mannerisms, those types of things were something we needed time to get used to.” (Sooyoon)
When asked if there were any fun episodes after they came to Korea the members opened up with plenty of anecdotes. At the time they might have been sad but now after thinking about it they have become fun memories. “The thing I remember the most is that coming to Korea after 10 years we had no friends or anything, and after a long time we had a day off and my excited heart went away and there was nothing to do. The three of us went to a pub and all around us were couples and friends. (haha) We didn’t want to get drunk with the three of us so we drank the sweet drinks women like and ordered snacks and depressingly passed the time there until we went home and fell asleep quickly.” (Sooyoon)
James offered his own. “I went to a restaurant with Busker Busker’s Brad and his wife. Brad’s fans kept coming and going so it was overwhelming. There were so many people coming that I pretended I was a manager and said, “I’m sorry” as a greeting and we left. At that time I could really feel our manager’s feelings.”
◆ “After coming to Korea the friends you’ve met include Busker Busker’s Brad, and SNSD’s Tiffany and Sooyoung?”
The Royal Pirates, who are still adapting to Korea, do not know a lot of people. The three members are currently dependent and going by the agency lifestyle. They still don’t have a lot of friends but are in the process of making a few friends in Korea. In particular, through the company, they have become friends with a few SNSD members. To this James explains, “It is with thanks to Sooyoung, who wrote our name.”
“We were invited to and attended a concert. Actually we are from the same neighborhood as Tiffany. We lived in a place called ‘Diamond Bar’. Of course we didn’t know each other then. After coming to Korea there were a lot of agency hyungs and acquaintances who knew her and we naturally came to know each other.” (Sooyoon)
“Before that Tiffany said she saw our group’s cover of a SNSD song. Through a hyung she knows she also sent a video message to us. She told us she liked the cover and we were surprised. We also met Yuri. She’s a friend of a friend. By chance we were eating with a friend and she joined us.” (Moon)
They also became close to Busker Busker’s Brad and U-KISS member Kevin after coming to Korea. Somehow people who have lived in America have naturally come to across each other and made bonds. James cracks a smile while saying that on New Year’s holiday there is no schedule so he can go to his aunt’s house but he can also meet up with Brad.
