Catch the Young: A Group of Rocking K-pop Idols "Evolve"
Ahead of next week's full-length album release, the South Korean rock group sat down for an exclusive interview
There are so many Korean groups releasing new singles or EPs now that it’s making my head spin. In a good way, I mean. Because as an immigrant child (way back when), I lived in an environment where the general U.S. population didn’t know much (or care) about anything Korean. And anything Asian was pretty much looked down upon as something inferior, unwanted, and less than.
Never did I ever think that any of this interest in Korean everything [me waving my hands around!] would become a reality in my lifetime.
With all that in mind, I wanted to highlight a very talented group that looks like your typical idol group. But their hands-on approach to their music is still a rarity in the K-pop world.1 Catch The Young compose all their own songs and play their own instruments. Their rock-infused pop songs include blistering guitar solos (“The Young Wave”) and gorgeous vocals (“In Your Arms) that will break your heart.
Q: Could you please introduce yourself to readers of K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim?
Catch The Young [in unison]: Hello, we’re a Korean band, Catch The Young. Our motto is to create music that can appeal to all generations, with our unique genre called YOUTH POP ROCK. As a band, we sing about the moments everyone could face in life.
Q: What can you share about your first full-length album , EVOLVE, which will release [a week from today on January 19]? Are you going in a different direction musically than your fans are accustomed to?
Sani: It encapsulates various genres, focusing mainly on the harmony of instrumental play and our vocals. You’ll also be able to hear more serious, heavier rock tracks compared to our previous releases.
Kihoon: We look forward to sharing songs that are true to Catch The Young’s color, and everyone can enjoy and relate to.
Jungmo: We created our own genre of ‘YOUTH POP ROCK’ to play and sing in our unique color. Therefore, our next album will include songs that are new and familiar at the same time, as we’re taking on different musical challenges.
Q: Speaking of familiar, let’s discuss your remake of Emerald Castle’s 1997 Korean rock ballad, “Footsteps (발걸음),” which you released a few days before Christmas.
Sani: This is a remake of a popular song in South Korea. Since this song is already familiar to many Korean fans, we wanted to make it into a Catch The Young style and share the charm of classic K-pop with international fans as well.
Jungmo: We interpreted the emotions of the past in a classic Korean track with our own colors. If you focus on the lyrics and sound of this remake single, I believe you’ll be able to immerse yourself in deeper emotions!
Kihoon: We wanted to express lingering emotions by reinterpreting a very famous track in Catch The Young’s color. Also, we aimed to present a track with full, multi-layered sound with various elements.
Namhyun: Through this remake single, we hoped to deliver our strong sound and emotional flow. I hope you’ll enjoy the Catch The Young’s version of a classic track.
Junyong: We recreated Korea’s ‘90s rock ballad classic to include our own color. I hope it brings back memories of that time for many people.
Q: Of all the classic songs out there, why did you choose this one?
Namhyun: I think you can consider this single as a signal flare before the release of our full-length album. Actually, I was practicing my vocals with the original song, and the other members as well as our company staff said the song fits me well. After much discussion, we decided to release this single.
Sani: Recently, many K-pop artists have been remaking music from the 1990s and 2000s. We thought “발걸음 (FOOTSTEPS)” could be enjoyed by all generations, including those who miss that time’s unique emotions and those who are not so familiar with it, and therefore will be able to enjoy it with new sentiments.
Jungmo: I’ve been a fan of this track for a long time and we thought it would be a good chance for us to build deeper emotions in our journey moving forward.
Q: Internationally, South Korea is more famous for its K-pop groups than its K-rock bands. What made you want to go in the rock direction instead of sticking with what pop idol groups are best known for?
Kihoon: I always had a passion for band music, as I have been playing the guitar since I was young. I think a band’s biggest charm is that each member’s instruments and sounds combine to create one music together.
Sani: Since the British Invasion in the 1960s, band music was in the current of popular culture until the 1990s. I believe that the spirit of resistance and energy that moved millions of people back then can come alive again in the 2020s, in the K-pop industry as well. Catch The Young is the group that makes music with the spirit of the older generation bands and shares energy with many people.
As a band who has fans worldwide, are you studying any languages to communicate better with them?
Sani: I constantly study English, and I have also been studying Japanese for a long time with a huge personal interest. I continuously study foreign languages, and I think I learn a new language quite quickly. I’m also interested in Spanish, so I’d love to learn when I get a chance.
Junyong: I’ve been studying English since I was young, so I can speak it at some level. I think you can get fluent faster in a foreign language when you’re genuinely interested, and I want to learn various other languages, too.
If you won 1M KRW, where would you go and who would you take with you?
Namhyun: I’d go to my hometown, Gangneung, a popular vacation destination in Korea. And I’ll give the money I won to my parents and just relax at home.
Jungmo: It would be great to visit a quiet vacation spot and spend time with my parents.
Do you have a guilty pleasure when you're traveling for work?
Sani: I tend to spend a lot of money on albums or vinyls that are hard to find. When we visited Japan for a tour, I bought a bunch of albums that I cannot find in Korea. That was pretty much my only spending during the trip.
Junyong: It might not be easy to travel back somewhere, so I find myself spending more than usual while traveling. I especially tend to spend money on good restaurants and souvenirs.
Can you share some trips you’ve made in the past during the holidays?
Namhyun: I went to a beach at Jumunjin near my hometown with my friends to watch sunrise for the New Year. I remember enjoying that sentimental moment with cold air, visible breath in winter, and time with my friends.
Junyong: For Christmas 2018, I went to Japan on a family trip. It was my first visit to Japan, so it remains a new, unforgettable trip.
You have such a busy schedule now, but is there such a thing as having too much time off?
Kihoon: I love relaxing and taking a break, but sometimes I feel a bit stressed due to having too many thoughts even when relaxing, and that can negatively impact my vacations.
Are you a food truck or fine dining kind of guy?
Namhyun: I’d choose a food truck. Honestly, I rarely visit a fine dining restaurant. Also, I think it’s more romantic to eat foods that are familiar to me at a food truck, and usually, a food truck has a wide variety of items to choose from.
Jungmo: I also prefer a food truck. It’s comfortable, and I think every bite of a familiar tasting menu gives me a trivial happiness.
What kind of trips suit your taste the best?
Junyong: I personally prefer vacation spots like the sea over cities. It would be great to relax and enjoy the scenery while vacationing.
What is your worst vacation memory?
Junyong: I remember crying because I could not find my grandparents in Jungfrau, Switzerland. Later, I learned that they simply left the mountains ahead of me. But as a young kid, I was very scared at the moment.
How about the best memory from a trip?
Jungmo: My favorite memory was from my family trip to Boracay in the Philippines. We all sat and chatted while looking at the night sky and White Beach, and feeling the cool breeze. [That] was the happiest moment for me.
So what is always in your carry-on bag when you leave home?
Kihoon: My AirPods.
Sani: I personally do not prefer dry air, so I always carry a small humidifier.
Junyong: My skin is quite sensitive, so I must pack my essential skin care items.
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To be clear, many other K-pop groups include members who are skilled at playing instruments. Jay from Enhypen and Seventeen’s Joshua are great guitarists. BTS rapper Suga and Dahyun from TWICE are excellent pianists. And Monsta X’s Joohoney is an amazing drummer. And while some of them will showcase their skills in a solo song or two, they don’t play instruments for the duration of the entire concert.
Jae, I cannot believe the first song you cite here is an instrumental -- and it's so good! The guitar work would make any serious rocker jealous. Just listened to Footsteps and I'm really impressed with Catch the Young (I guess 젊은 잡아라 doesn't quite have the same ring!).
I'm very, very late to the K-Pop Demon Hunters fever, as I just watched it last week at the behest of...everyone. My family was shocked that I hadn't seen it yet! So I watched it and it was super fun, and Golden and Soda Pop are of course supernova-level earworms, but there's something almost too K-Pop about both of those tunes. I think it's just the ultra-shiny production of those songs, especially Golden, that makes me long for a band like Catch the Young. I was under the impression that the Korean music scene has been overrun by K-Pop to such a degree that bands like this don't exist, so I'm not only delighted, I'm relieved, too.
On the subject of Golden, I was so happy to see Ejae holding up the Golden Globe for best song, and how she slipped "엄마 사랑해요" right in her speech. She was in tears and so was I!