By Kyle Decker and Fleurette Estes
The Korea Times
Much has been written about the “K-wave.” And Korean popular culture has indeed seen an explosion of exposure in the United States. K-pop bands sell out stadiums, Korean artists collaborate with Western artists and U.S.-based streaming services like Netflix not only have entire sections dedicated to K-dramas, they also help produce and distribute them. On top of all that, the Korean punk band Drinking Boys and Girls Choir recently set a record for the longest North American tour by a Korean act by playing 28 shows over 38 days.
But how is all this exposure impacting Korean American (K-Merican?) artists? Allow me to introduce you to past self, a self-dubbed “K-goth” band hailing from Las Vegas.
Mixing elements of darkwave and shoegaze, the band has become a favorite in the Vegas goth scene since forming in 2020. The members have adopted the stage names Sung (guitar/vocals), Spektor (bass) and æther (synth) and, in the grand tradition of the genre, percussion is currently handled by a drum machine dubbed “Edgar.”
“Spektor and I kept running into each other at auditions for bands that never worked out so we decided to form a band,” Sung said. “Eventually, we ended up adding the third member, the synth player and my girlfriend, æther.” The members turned missed opportunities into an opportunity, and thus past self was born.
They’ve built their reputation on “swirling guitar tones, distinct image, and blending Korean and English lyrics.”
It’s interesting to see how the Korean lyrics mesh with the American and British musical and societal influences. Sung incorporates his cultural background into his music, creating a great blend of who he is. Listening to these bands is like traveling in two places at once, no passport needed.
Aside from merely singing the occasional Korean lyrics, the band describes their music as “infused with themes of Korean stories and folklore. The lyrics and vocal melodies shape the song to have a bit of an outlandish Korean twist that you will hear even more in future releases.”
The Korean influence on the band comes from Sung (his full Korean name is Kim Sung-joo, and his “English name” is Will). Sung was born in Seoul, but his family moved to the U.S. when he was 2. They returned to Korea briefly in 1993, when he was 4. Since then, he has yet to return. However, he likes to get a taste of his origins at a Las Vegas noraebang called Go Go Karaoke, which serves Korean food. The band members are regulars. According to them, “It helps us feel connected.”
Goth music has always had an ethereal quality, making it the perfect genre of music to capture the diaspora experience of existing between spaces.
“The band’s theme of alienation ultimately comes from both being an immigrant in America and the crushing conformist culture in Korea,” Sung said. “Me and my brother have always grown up as alt-Korean kids in America and it was a very isolating experience because there aren’t many Koreans who are into alt-music and there aren’t many Koreans in general in America… In the alt scene, I’m usually the only Korean, and in the Korean circle I’m usually the only alt-kid.”
These themes are especially evident in the recent song “Sinner,” a collaboration with the darkwave band Haunt Me from San Antonio, Texas. Although the bandmates say they’re not generally a “collaboration type of band” they were willing to make an exception for one of their favorite bands (who also happen to be friends).
The whole thing came about when Sung reached out to Haunt Me’s guitarist for advice on guitar parts for a song he was working on. After quite a bit of back and forth, Haunt Me pitched the idea of making it a collab, a decision Sung described as “a no-brainer.”
“Then lyrically, Darius (Davila, singer of Haunt Me), and I thought of the theme and trilingual aspect for the song and individually came up with our own melodies to sing,” Sung explained. “I was spitballing some names for the title and ‘Sinner’ really stuck.” With lyrics in English, Korean and Spanish, the track describes the experience of “being a minority in a white-dominant Christian society.” Although, it would be relatable to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider in a constrictive culture.
The “K-goth” band past self plays at Cobra Lounge in Chicago, July 11. Courtesy of Fleurette Estes
As important as history, sound, and lyrical themes are, the thing that will probably get a newcomer’s immediate attention is the band’s visual style. Inspired by goth progenitors Bauhaus and Japanese visual kei bands in equal measure, the band has a distinct look.
Given that we met them after they came out of the dressing room and left before they changed back, we didn’t actually get to see what they look like outside of their “costumes,” which consist of frilly white shirts, black pants, thick white makeup, black lipstick and a piece of transparent red cloth worn as a mask over their eyes. They’d be hard to miss.
While on stage, they had a large gothic-style candelabra as a centerpiece. And æther performed vocals through a red telephone for the song “○,” giving their shows an air of performance art on top of everything else.
Photographing their performance proved to be a bit of a challenge because the venue has poor lighting and what lighting it does have is on the sides of the stage. So, like their music, these shots were going to be dark. But the band did not let the darkness get in the way of a good time. They had a great vibe and sounded wonderful and fed off the audience’s energy.
So, past self has a lot going for them both sonically and visually. And when they played the Cobra Lounge in Chicago while touring with Deceits, people were into it.
The band does credit the K-wave with helping them establish a fanbase. “We’ve noticed a lot of our new fans are K-pop fans,” Sung observed. “A lot of K-pop fans seem to be goth too.”
The overlap tracks when you consider that the band members themselves are fans of K-dramas. “To us, it’s just Korean goth music and we’re representing the Korean culture in the goth scene. It’s the same reason K-pop wouldn’t be just pop. I sing in Korean and I take inspiration from my culture.”
Read More
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- Korean-Chicagoan shoegaze band Precocious Neophyte celebrates LP release
- Say Sue Me brings Korean indie rock to Chicago
- Punk band Food for Worms to play farewell show
- [My Seoul Story] A personal tour of Korea’s cultural past
Naturally, a question they get asked a lot is, “Do you have any plans to tour Korea?”
To which they reply, “Yes, we’ve been getting offers in South Korea lately but haven’t been able to accept them due to travel costs. However, we would love to travel and play there. I am destined to travel back to the motherland one day and perform.”
We closed out the night with farewells and the hopes of seeing each other again. It may be a while but we’ll have their music and these photos to remember them.
Visit pastself.bandcamp.com to listen to the band.
Kyle Decker is a Chicago-based author, educator and punk vocalist. He lived in Daegu from 2013-2018 where he fronted the multi-national punk band Food for Worms and co-organized the Once a Month Punk show series. He currently provides vocals for Bad Chemicals, the punk band from his novel “This Rancid Mill” (PM Press, 2023).
Fleurette Estes is a Navajo visual artist originally from the Southwest United States now residing in Washington, D.C. Drawn to a variety of subjects, from florals to landscapes, Fleurette celebrates her native cultural background as her main subject. Her work has been shown in Dying Scene, Native Hoop, ReGen and Statik Magazines. When she is not photographing, Fleurette enjoys painting, crafting, participating at American Indian Center events and attending live music shows with her husband.
