Photos by Tim Hsu
(Transcribed by Bob Rich. Media captures and help from Tim Hsu.)
May 9, 1999.
You remember 1995, don’t you? Perhaps that was the summer of your first kiss. Or your first car accident. Or your first of soon to be many shit-wage jobs. Well, 1995 was certainly a huge year for Chicago indie-rock veterans Seam. They released a fantastic, critically acclaimed third LP, “Are You Driving Me Crazy?” and headed out on tour to support that record as well as the compilation that Seam bandmembers Sooyoung Park and William Shin helped put together, “Ear of the Dragon,” which showcased the talents of selected Asian American rock bands. You heard the band, you loved the band, you loved the world -- and you were filled with hope. And then… and then Seam dropped off the face of the earth.
Well, not literally
of course. In fact, they didn’t even break up—although it sure
felt like it. After three long years, Seam reared their grizzled
heads once again with a new record on Touch and Go coyly titled “The
Pace is Glacial,” which was adored by some and dismissed by others.
Since then, the band has finally resumed playing some shows, touring
the US and the world. IndieCent contributor KERWIN SO catches
up with the world of SEAM and makes singer- songwriter Sooyoung Park repent
for his long absence.
Kerwin: What's up? I have all these arty questions.
Sooyoung: Ok.
Kerwin: Well, not arty --
Sooyoung: Tim warned me.
Kerwin: Oh, did he? Good. They're not arty, but it's just stuff that I want to know and so like I actually took the trouble to think of these questions and print them out.
Sooyoung: Ok.
Kerwin: So I guess I'll just go down the line. I actually want to start off asking you about Taipei.
Sooyoung: Ok.
Kerwin: You guys played some shows there in Taiwan.
Sooyoung: Did you get any response, like, from people in Taiwan?
Kerwin: No.
Sooyoung: Those shows were like…I mean, it was really fun being in Taipei and stuff, just because it was a new place and the people that we met and stayed with were really cool.
Kerwin: Yeah. Who did you stay with?
Sooyoung: We stayed with Ladybug. Two of the women from Ladybug.
Kerwin: …who are not from Japan.
| Sooyoung: That's right. That's right. Not from Shibuya. The shows themselves, like…It was kind of interesting because, usually when we play in the U.S. or in Europe, or just anywhere…in, you know, Canada…people are familiar with our music in the crowd usually. They've heard our records and some of our songs. But, there I felt like, our records had only been out for like two days in Taiwan. It literally came from the plant, hit the stores, and then we were there two days later. So I don't think anyone had a chance to pick it up, other than a handful of people who had it on import. So it was kind of like working a crowd. It was just like a totally clean slate. No one had any preconceptions. No one knew any of the songs. |
Photos by Tim Hsu |
Sooyoung: [laughs] Right. They had no requests. It was refreshing, but also a definite challenge working a crowd that was dumbfounded and standing there watching you doing your thing. It was really crowded too. Both shows were pretty full.
Kerwin: Yeah, so how was that…I mean, how did they get the word out about you, with the record only out for like two days?
Sooyoung: We got a lot of good press. Our label, Crystal Records, was able to get pretty mainstream coverage in the main daily newspapers, like the entertainment papers, MTV Asia, and Channel V.
Kerwin: [announcer voice] Channel V.
Sooyoung: Yeah, totally. And radio coverage. So everyone knew about the show, it seemed like.
Kerwin: So how was the crowd reaction to the shows?
Sooyoung: Good. Especially the second night. The first night, everyone was sitting down. It was like a hippie-style show and people were just really mellow. But, the second night people actually stood up.
Kerwin: Was it a lot of the same people that came to the first night that came the second night?
Sooyoung: There were some. It's hard to say. Maybe like twenty- five percent, something like that. There were different opening bands each night.
Kerwin: Right. Yeah, I remember that. And how were they? Were those all local bands?
Sooyoung: Right, they all came from Taipei. Some of it was really cool and we hung out with all the bands, pretty much, except for LTK Commune who scared the shit out of me, so I tried to stay away from them.
Kerwin: What were they like?
Sooyoung: They were total anarchists, punk rock. Kind of like The Ex.
Kerwin: ...The Ex rock though.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: They are fucking cool.
Sooyoung: Yeah, they are. But these guys were just kind of intimidating.
Kerwin: Where are they from? Also from Taipei?
Sooyoung: They're from Taipei, I think.
Kerwin: Ok.
Sooyoung: They'd all been arrested, and stuff, for exhuming bodies and shit like that.
Kerwin: That's pretty scary.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: Has The Ex done shit like that?
Sooyoung: Not that I know of.
Kerwin: I don't know anything about them. Well, just a little bit. I just like their music, that's all.
Sooyoung: The audience though was really good. We hung out afterwards at the club and met a bunch of people.
Kerwin: And you sold your equipment.
Sooyoung: Yeah, and we auctioned off our equipment.
Kerwin: That's cool.
Tim : Why did you do that? Was that so that you could travel more lightly?
Sooyoung: Yeah, because I was going to Japan and Korea and I didn't want to take all this stuff with me.
Tim : You didn't want to just send it back?
Sooyoung: It would have been really expensive, because I sent all my effects and cords and stuff back and just that alone took a hundred bucks to send back. So the guitar would have been super-expensive.
Kerwin: So what stuff…Did you bring the guitar that you didn't want or something?
Sooyoung: I bought one especially for this trip. This guy at this music store, Rock House, in Milwaukee, I told him what I wanted and he totally hooked me up.
Kerwin: Cool.
Sooyoung: It's really cheap. I sold it to someone, I can't remember who.
Kerwin: Ok. Now, I'm going to bug you about the new album, which is not that new any more. It was released to, it seemed, really mixed critical reaction. I read some that really liked it and others that really didn't. What do you think about that?
Sooyoung: I get packages of press, from Touch and Go. And I don't know if they filter out the bad reviews or something like that, but I don't have a very good perspective on it.
Kerwin: Well, that's what I'm telling you, man. I'm here to educate.
Sooyoung: Ok. Well, that's good to know. But, honestly, I don't really read the reviews that much. I have them in a stack in a folder in my house somewhere.
Kerwin: It doesn't seem like you'd have time to really go through them.
Sooyoung: Yeah, I just feel sort of out of it too. Probably since the time I was in…I started getting…When I was in Bitch Magnet, I really paid a lot of attention to press stuff. And bad reviews and stuff would really get to me. But, by the time "Headsparks" came out, I was already not really paying attention to that kind of stuff because I had been in bands for so long and I guess I was just used to that, you know?
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: …Because the last Bitch Magnet record got pretty mixed reviews and it was really brutalized in the British music press. They're really fickle anyway.
Kerwin: They're very hyperbolic.
Sooyoung: Yeah, and I guess maybe it was that experience of Bitch Magnet getting a lot of attention from NME and Melody Maker and stuff in the late '80's. That was all, at the time, it was really high profile stuff. I thought that was really cool. But then to release another record that I thought was a better record and have it be slammed just made me realize -- that was my education about what it means to put your records out for public consumption and criticism and stuff. "Headsparks" was the same way. A lot of people were disappointed that it didn't have more of the Bitch Magnet sound. And I know that a lot of people who were into stuff that I had done just weren't into Seam.
Kerwin: Yeah, they're really different.
Sooyoung: Yeah, they really are different. So with this new record, good reviews -- that's cool. Bad reviews, it's…
Kerwin: I think of rock criticism and rock journalists as necessary evils. So I wouldn't pay too much attention to what they're saying.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: It can affect your sales.
Sooyoung: It can, yeah. In our case, it hasn't really, I don't think. It's been pretty close to what we expected and stuff. Actually, even a little bit better.
Kerwin: Oh, that's cool. It didn't seem like you guys had all these grand, arching expectations. I mean, you're still at Touch and Go and everything.
Sooyoung: And we didn't really do a lot of advertising for this record either. And it made me realize that the people who buy our records don't really pay attention to that stuff. We spent a lot of money on that for "Are You Driving Me Crazy?" and, now looking back, I don't think it got us anywhere. We spent all this money on commercial radio promotion…
Kerwin: Is that right?
Sooyoung: …Yeah, we made two videos. And, this record we did nothing, our video was shown nowhere, and it's done basically the same.
Tim : On the subject of that, how do you feel about your relationship with Touch and Go, and what happened with the Butthole Surfers and all?
Sooyoung: You know, that's something I didn't find out about 'til quite recently. And, before the Reader piece came out in Chicago a few weeks ago, I actually had started to hear about it, and heard both sides of the story. I actually had met and had hung out with King Coffey, who's in the Buttholes, he's the drummer. In that case, it's hard for me to say, without knowing everything. But, just from what I know, Touch and Go doesn't have a whole lot of…They just really don't have a case. I think Ian Mackaye said something about copyright law being Something that’s designed to protect bands. And, it is. So to do it any other way would be a double standard, I think.
Tim : But, how are you going to feel with your deal with Touch and Go now and, if they…Hopefully, your stuff will still be selling pretty well five years from now. The back catalog, and stuff.
Sooyoung: Right. And, it's funny because just hearing about it also raised questions for me. It's like, well, our records probably will be on Touch and Go forever…for however long until it's deleted or people stop caring. And, it sounds like a raw deal or something. But, knowing what's out there and who's distributing records, I think they're probably going to do the best job they anyone could do for the type of band we are.
Tim : And, you definitely don't have a problem, then, with them reaping bigger benefits farther down the road?
Sooyoung: No. Because it's a fifty-fifty net split. The older the record is, the higher the profit margin is, if you have to break it down into total vulgar terms. So it benefits us too. They're not spending money on promoting those records, because they're old records. That just means that, that expense is something that we're not sharing either.
Tim : Ok.
Sooyoung: So it's a fair deal. It's not…The Reader article made it sound like Touch and Go offers an exceptionally generous royalty rate. That's not really true. It is above the industry standard. It's good. I know, because I get the statements every quarter. It's not better by a factor of four, which is how they made it sound.
Tim : Yeah. Ok. And, you're totally cool with everything that they're done for you and how they've been…?
Sooyoung: We don't always agree on stuff. And, one thing about being on that label is that, if we have a problem with the way things are going, we can just meet with them, discuss it, try to hash it out. It's a compromise kind of thing. We don't always get our way.
Tim : Instead of like the Butthole Surfers hiring a lawyer.
Sooyoung: Yeah, I don't think would ever get to that kind of point. Or, I hope not.
Tim : And, then plus Chris rides motorcycles on their team. …
Sooyoung: [laughs] Yeah, Chris is our inside connection.
Tim : So you guys are in tight, then.
Sooyoung: But I know they wouldn't do anything underhanded. I've been doing business with them long enough to know that.
Tim : And, that's where you figure you'll just always be, Touch and Go.
Sooyoung: Also having put out records, through Fortune Four, which went through Revolver and stuff, I know what the expenses are that are involved with things. Like, I know the basic mechanics of putting out a record. I know they're doing a really good job -- much better than we ever were able to do. So I basically just shut the hell up and let them do what they do. Some of the ideas, actually, that I was talking about earlier for promoting the last record, "Are You Driving Me Crazy?," were our ideas. Like, the video thing, we wanted to try to promote that to MTV. We just wanted to try something new, and looking back, they were right and it doesn't help that much, at least at the level we're at.
Kerwin: Who was right?
Sooyoung: Touch and Go.
Kerwin: They said, "Don't do that stuff"?
Sooyoung: They said, "Don't do it, but we'll pay for it if you really want to do it." And, we sort of forced them to do it. Looking back, it would have been money better spent…by me.
Kerwin: On a new deck.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: Back to "The Place is Glacial." What are your favorite things about that record?
Sooyoung: That actually goes back to the whole review thing. You know, mixed reviews.
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: I felt like the songwriting was stronger, this time. I spent more time working on the songs, because we had three years, partly. I felt like the lyrics are generally better, sort of like better executed. I do think we could have done a better job of recording it, maybe. There were some things with the production I wasn't happy with. Part of that was that we did quickly, and we had to bounce around a couple different studios.
Kerwin: Yeah, then there was the whole original tape...
Sooyoung: The fiasco with the tape. The original tapes, and all that stuff.
Kerwin: You want to describe that briefly?--what happened with the whole…
Sooyoung: The whole Idful thing?
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: What happened? Well, not too long after "Are You Driving Me Crazy?" came out, we went back to the studio, like a few months after that came out. And, we had about six songs ready at that time. Basically, about half a record, or a little bit more than that. And, Brad Wood was really excited to do the project. He sort of felt like…I was really happy with the way "Are You Driving Me Crazy?" came out, production-wise.
Kerwin: Me too.
Sooyoung: I think it sounds really great. He was really bummed on it though. Like, he thought he missed the boat -- he actually told me he thought he sort of slipped up or something.
Kerwin: Brad said that?
Sooyoung: Yeah. Because of that, he really wanted to get back in the studio and try something new. And those sessions went fairly well. I think there was definitely some stuff that we would have kept, you know. Maybe not all of it, some of it was kind of not quite there yet. Actually, I think we did seven songs then, that session, one of which came out later on.
Kerwin: One of them survived?
Sooyoung: One of them came out in England, as the B-side of "Hey Latasha" seven-inch on…
Kerwin: Mellow Noise?
Sooyoung: Mellow Noise U.S.A. That was from that post-Crazy session. The one…That's the only thing that came out from that session.
Kerwin: That's the only one that survived?
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: Were there any other new or unreleased songs that got lost in that thing?
Sooyoung: No, everything else ended up being re-recorded on the record.
Kerwin: Good for you.
Sooyoung: Yeah, we don't waste a whole lot. There was actually one thing that was written and recorded on a four-track that didn't come out on this record. I was really into it, but everyone else sort of vetoed it. So that probably will never come out.
Kerwin: Oh, that's too bad.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: We'll find ways, man.
Sooyoung: [laughs]
Kerwin: We're on the internet. You can't stop us.
Sooyoung: Someone's going to break into my house and steal my four- track.
Tim : No, we’re gonna sell it on E-Bay.
Kerwin: Don't offer any ideas. Someone's going to sell it on E-Bay for like fucking two hundred dollars. In fact, I could do that.
Sooyoung: [laughs] That recording session, when we found out that the tape was messed up -- actually, it wasn't the tape so much as the machine was calibrated incorrectly. So there was an incredible amount of hiss on the master tape. So after we found that out, we were all so bummed out. That was also after a grueling tour with Superchunk in Europe. We got back, and basically no one wanted to play. We needed to take a long vacation.
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: And, that's pretty much…During that ten-month period is when I wrote most of the other songs that ended up being on the record. So when you consider all this stuff, the three years seems a little shorter.
Kerwin: You're trying to make an excuse for that.
Sooyoung: Yeah, yeah. Maybe.
Kerwin: What impact do you think that delay had on people's reaction?
Sooyoung: Critical reaction, or just sales?
Kerwin: Mostly fans I'm thinking of.
Sooyoung: Fans?
Kerwin: Just whatever observations you've made.
Sooyoung: I don't know, some of our fans probably had kids and stuff like that. [laughs]
Kerwin: It seems like, to me, that people…I get a lot of comments from people like, "They used to be my favorite band." Like, they don't really listen to Seam any more. I wonder if it's because there's been such a gap. Because, to kids like us, that's a long time. Three years is a long time.
Sooyoung: It is a long time, definitely. Well, during that time, a lot of new stuff started coming out. And, it was kind of like, people just get turned onto new things. In Chicago anyway, instrumental music, like post-rock kind of stuff, started to get really big. That's just not what we're about at all.
Kerwin: Do you ever get any shit for that?
Sooyoung: Get shit for that?
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: No, not…Well, I mean, in Europe sometimes people -- I remember on that Superchunk tour, people would ask us, "You guys are still singing." Like as if that was totally out.
Kerwin: How passe.
Sooyoung: [laughs] "You're still singing and you're still playing those guitars. When are you going to get a turn-table?" So it's kind of funny, but, whatever, it's just something different.
Tim : Although you do use a little looping?
Sooyoung: Yeah, we're low-tech though. We just run it onto a CD and play the CD.
Kerwin: It works, man.
Sooyoung: Yeah, we don't actually own any samplers or anything. You can just do it on your PC.
Kerwin: You can do anything on your PC.
Sooyoung: That's true.
Kerwin: So with all due respect to Brian Paulson, why did you choose him to record the new album as opposed to Brad Wood? Because Brad did work on the first sessions.
Sooyoung: He got too busy. And, he's at a stage where he's doing big stuff. I know that he tries to get his schedule as full as he can to make money.
Kerwin: But when he was working with you, as far as I understand, he was already doing big stuff.
Sooyoung: Yeah, but he was still on the cusp, you know. He had a studio…
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: ...He spent a lot of time in Chicago back then. Now, he's at a point where he's always out of town all the time. He's probably out of town in New York or L.A. recording stuff. We would have worked with him, but it just became apparent that we couldn't keep waiting around for his schedule to open up. So after that, we ended up going with Brian Paulson, who actually was originally supposed to record "The Problem with Me." He was slated to do that record in Chicago and he ended up bailing at the last minute. And, that's how we ended up dealing with Brad. It's kind of funny how that works.
Kerwin: Personally, I think…I thought he was brilliant. I think Brad's work on those two records, "Problem" and "Crazy"…They're so different…
Sooyoung: They are really different production-wise.
Kerwin: …Yeah, but they're still both very excellently produced. It's just a combination of…for those records, everything came together…
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: So that's why I asked. I read an interview awhile ago, when "Ear of the Dragon" came out -- they included Brad saying that "The Problem with Me" was his favorite record that he worked on at the time. You probably heard that.
Sooyoung: It was a fun session, dealing with him. Actually, both of those records. Although "Crazy" was maybe a little more tense because, at that time, there were labels calling us up, major labels. It just seemed like everyone was taking it just too seriously. That kind of eventually is what caused us to move away from that, because it seemed apparent that doing something like switching to a major was really going to change the way we worked. And, in the end, we're all really glad that we didn't do that.
Kerwin: So you guys will never ever court a major.
Sooyoung: No. It's not to say that I think that it's wrong for every band. But for us…
Kerwin: I just want to set the record straight. This is like the "payback interview." So anything that you want to say about anything. Because, if you do a lot of research, they'll find your opinions on different things all over the place. So I'm just trying to compile it. [chuckle]
Sooyoung: I know that at the time that record came out, we weren't working at all. Music was our only source of income. So we felt like we could sell more records if we did this stuff -- if we got on Live 105 or Q101, a big commercial station. If we got at it, then it would make a big difference. But in the end, I think we have a pretty devoted fan base, people who listen to our records. But, beyond that, I don't think we're going to have a whole lot of appeal.
Kerwin: Well, there might be those who argue about that, but I won't waste your time now to…
Sooyoung: Well, there's always exceptions. Sometimes, there'll be people who show up who just don't seem like they would be into Seam. Especially in the South, really weird people show up at the shows. Like, sorority sisters, bring their whole sorority out to the show -- that's happened to us in South Carolina.
Kerwin: [laughs] Yeah?
Sooyoung: Yeah, they're all wearing their Greek sweatshirts and stuff. They're into Seam. You know, they have the records and stuff.
Kerwin: That's kind of weird.
Tim : So you're "frat boy rock."
 |
Sooyoung: I don't know about the "frat
boy," but maybe like…
Kerwin: "Sorority girl rock." Sooyoung: "Sorority girl rock," maybe. Tim : That's the way you want it. Sooyoung: [laughs] I guess that's probably better, right? |
Sooyoung: And then sometimes people will show up who seem like they probably haven't bought a record since…I don't know…They seem like burnt-out hippies, or something.
Tim : Speaking of your fan base, how do you feel about the Asian community coming out and supporting you?
Sooyoung: [pause] It's not always there. It does happen more on the West Coast. Sometimes here or in New York…
Kerwin: 'Cause you never come out there, bro. [laughs]
Sooyoung: [laughs] No, it's cool, actually, because I remember a time when the shows were totally just homogenous. It's not like that really bothered me or anything, but it just didn't seem very representative of what it's like to play a show in a city like Los Angeles. But, I've also noticed more Latino kids coming out to Seam shows in Texas and California.
Tim : Especially lately, since "The Ear of the Dragon" and all that, it seems like Seam has taken on a more Asian voice. Typically, if you look at the back of the new album, you just flip it over and all of a sudden you see all these Asian words.
Sooyoung: On the new record?
Kerwin: Nisei and aloha…
Tim : Was it a conscious choice to speak with an Asian voice or was it just coincidence?
Sooyoung: Yeah, I think it has more to do, actually, with people that we've come in contact with and who end up being sometimes subjects of songs.
Tim : So it's been coincidental.
Sooyoung: Yeah…I mean, it's both, because, I think it's always been there, actually from our very first record. It's really always been there, even in Bitch Magnet.
Tim : But not so readily…
Sooyoung: Maybe not in the titles, but it's been definitely a part of what I'm about lyrically. Actually, probably starting with the Bitch Magnet record "Ben Hur" -- that seemed like the most explicit of those records. But, yeah, I think I see what you're talking about with the titles. Actually, I haven't really thought about it.
Kerwin: Really?
Sooyoung: Yeah, "Nisei Fight Song" was actually sort of about this friend of mine, this crazy woman who happens to be Nisei. So it sort of fit. I didn't name it after her. And, there's this whole thing with, actually, that song and then "Aloha Spirit," this whole "high school" kind of rah-rah thing going on too. [laughs]
Tim : Yeah, say, to the untrained indie rock fan, who just happens to flip the album over…initially, they'll see all these words and it'll come across as something potentially Asian. Do you feel it's a good thing? And, is that what you wanted to seem, the voice…?
Sooyoung: No, that's not really what I was going for with the titles. I hope that people would listen to the lyrics and maybe get that out of it. But, yeah, I think in the case of titles with the new record, it's more coincidental. Yeah, just the whole concept of "aloha spirit" just cracks me up.
Kerwin: What is that concept?
Sooyoung: Just the whole "aloha"…I don't know how you really describe it, "aloha spirit"…
Tim : Yeah, unless you've lived in Hawaii...
Kerwin: I haven't.
Tim: ...or know of somebody who has lived there…It's this whole attitude.
Sooyoung: It makes me think of Lance Hahn from J Church. [laughs]
Kerwin: Right, he's from Hawaii.
Tim : It's a definite attitude. It's a definite lifestyle thing, the "aloha spirit."
Sooyoung: It's like a give-and-take kind of friendliness.
Kerwin: Ok. Wow, I just learned something new. That's cool.
Sooyoung: It doesn't really fit with that song, but I guess that often happens with the titles of our records and it just seems kind of incongruous. But, I guess there's some irony at play.
Kerwin: Ok. We can do irony.
Sooyoung: Ok.
Kerwin: That's our generation, man.
Sooyoung: Alright.
Kerwin: So on the Asian thing, can you set the record straight on "Ear of the Dragon"? Are there plans for a follow-up?
Sooyoung: Not really, because Fortune Four recently changed names to FAAIM.
Kerwin: [correct pronunciation] Fah- AAIM.
Sooyoung: Fah- AAIM. And, we went non-profit when we switched the name. I think we pretty much decided to stop putting out records. So I don't see us following up "Ear of the Dragon." But, I am putting out a record probably later this summer by a band called Miss Wormwood. So that should…that'll be something new.
Kerwin: Putting it out on your…
Sooyoung: On my own label.
Kerwin: On your own label. So not related to FAAIM.
Sooyoung: No, this is totally just me doing it.
Kerwin: What's your label going to be called?
Sooyoung: Curry [something].
Kerwin: Curry [something]?
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: Ok. I'll just smile and nod.
Sooyoung: Curry [something] Records, yeah.
Kerwin: Right on.
Sooyoung: Don't let anyone steal the domain name though. I have to go out there and reserve that.
Kerwin: Oh, ok. Maybe I'll edit that out of the interview or something.
Sooyoung: Yeah, top secret.
Kerwin: Do you want me to edit that out of the interview?
Sooyoung: Just put Curry [something]. Blank out the "[something]" part.
Kerwin: Curry "blank." So it's not taken yet?
Sooyoung: I have to go check, actually.
Kerwin: Yeah, you have to go check that. You'd be surprised.
Sooyoung: I was on my way to practice at the Double Door the other day, I was like, "Man, I gotta go reserve the domain." It's on my list of to-do things.
Kerwin: True geek, true geek. Love it. When "Ear of the Dragon" came out all those years ago, it was supposed to dispel the myth that Asians can't rock, right?--part of the reason. What do you think was behind that myth?
Sooyoung: Behind that myth?
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: Well, mostly that…The biggest thing probably would be that just weren't all that many bands with Asian Americans, singers and songwriters, at the time. I mean, maybe not at that time, but a couple years before that, you know. That's probably the biggest thing. There's other stuff at play too, stereotypes about Asian Americans. But Asian Americans are also to blame too. But, that's changing. That has changed.
Kerwin: How were they to blame?
Sooyoung: Just that there were so few people in bands in the early nineties or in the late eighties, when I first started going on tour and meeting a lot of bands. Just a handful really.
Kerwin: So you think the burden is on Asian Americans themselves…
Sooyoung: Unfortunately.
Kerwin: …just to pick up a guitar.
Sooyoung: But they have, so that's cool.
Kerwin: Yeah, we have.
Tim : And speaking about Asian Americans in bands, there's been a trend of you converting West Coast Asians to come and move to Chicago.
Sooyoung: [laughs]
Tim : What is the master plan with this?
Kerwin: You've got some kind of underground railroad going on?
Tim : What are you planing on doing with all these West Coast converts? And, how did you actually get them to convert to move to Chicago?
Sooyoung: I told them about you and how you can fix their cars up.
Tim : Oh, cool.
Kerwin: Spoilers…
Sooyoung: I don't know. Maybe people are just fed up with all that good weather.
Tim : And do you have a master plan with all these musicians being here?
Kerwin: You’re gonna form an all bassist band, right?
Tim : A super group of indie Asian rock stars? The name "Asia" has already been taken, so you're going to have to come up with something good.
Sooyoung: No, there's no master plan. It is funny though. I heard that a bunch of people moved out.
Tim : Yeah, there seems to be a lot of West Coast converts here.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Tim : But no master plan? No super group?
Kerwin: He wouldn't tell you, I think…
Sooyoung: I wouldn't tell you if there were.
Kerwin: So what was up with your resolution to move to Oakland? That's a joke, I'm assuming.
Sooyoung: Oh. I'd still like to. Or, anywhere in Northern California probably.
Kerwin: Yeah?
Sooyoung: Yeah, but that would mean giving up so much though. I have a lot of stuff going on in Chicago. It would be very difficult to do.
Kerwin: How do you manage your time with all the stuff that you juggle? You know, the job, FAAIM, the band, hotties. How does Sooyoung Park put it all together?
Sooyoung: Actually, I'm usually just way overbooked. I end up spreading myself too thin. That's one of my resolutions this year, is to start saying no to stuff.
Kerwin: Like, smarmy interviews. You just got to start cutting down.
Sooyoung: Yeah, this has been a really busy year. The last couple years have been kind of crazy. But, that also means that I've had less time to spend on music -- you know, writing stuff. So I need to start dropping some things.
Kerwin: Priority-wise, how does songwriting rank for you?
Sooyoung: Recently, not very high because early part of this year I spent mostly working on the Asian American Showcase stuff. And then last year in the fall, we were playing a lot of shows out of town to try to promote the record. And, we're actually starting to do that now again, next month.
Kerwin: You finally got the schedules together.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: Ok. I want to ask you about the film music you did a while ago for Strawberry Fields. I never did get a chance to see that movie. I heard it was good.
Sooyoung: I saw it again recently. It showed up at Northwestern a couple weeks ago. The director…
Kerwin: I'm not in the hip…I'm not in the Asian American film loop, so I miss out on everything.
Sooyoung: [laughs] It's opening in L.A. It's doing an actual theater run. It got distribution.
Kerwin: Excellent.
Sooyoung: So it'll probably play in the Bay Area.
Kerwin: Ok. I'll probably be going to L.A. over the summer, so hopefully they'll be showing it in L.A.
Sooyoung: Yeah, I think it's opening in June in L.A.
Kerwin: Do you know how long the run is?
Sooyoung: I think it's going to be the same weekend -- it's opening the same weekend we're playing in New York. So that's like the fourth or fifth.
Kerwin: Oh, ok. Well, I'm not going to be there.
Sooyoung: Probably, a short run, I'd imagine. A couple weeks maybe.
Kerwin: But I wanted to ask, how can we hear the music that you did for it? Was it released?
Sooyoung: No, it wasn't released. And, if you haven't seen the movie, or you can't see the movie, it'll be difficult.
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: But I know that…Bundy Brown, he e-mailed me on Friday, just a couple days ago, about possibly putting some of the stuff out. He wanted to compile it and put it out with some other stuff he's done. I think it will be probably released under Bundy Brown. I don't really know how that works.
Kerwin: BKB.
Sooyoung: Because it was a collaboration, the two of us.
Kerwin: What else might be on that compilation?
Sooyoung: God knows. He does so many different kinds of things. Yeah, I have no idea.
Kerwin: I think people would lap that up.
Sooyoung: Yeah. So I hope that stuff comes out. There are some things that I really like on that. And, I'd forgotten about it because I don't even have…my only copy is on DAT. So I haven't been listening to it at all, the last few years. And then, going into the movie the other day and watching it, some of it seemed like it…
Kerwin: Tell him to release that shit.
Sooyoung: …it was pretty good. Yeah, so I need to get back to him. But I have a feeling some of it will come out.
Kerwin: Cool. Well, I'm sure you'll keep us up-to-date on that.
Sooyoung: Yeah. Has he actually written you?
Kerwin: He wrote me once – it was this ridiculous thing where the previous Seam web-meister did this table of previous bands you guys had played in and contributors. And he had put that Bundy was in Repulse Kava or something. And, Bundy had to send me this long e-mail saying, "No, I was never in Repulse Kava. I was the sound guy. I played guitar with them in the last show." And I'm not really in the Chicago tree thing. Like, the other guy wrote it, but I'll fix it. And then I asked him…
Sooyoung: Did he seem all worked up about it?
Kerwin: He seemed a little bit. I wouldn't give him too much shit for that. But, I wanted to -- I had picked up the Pullman CD recently. And I had saved his e-mail address, because, hey, I got e-mailed by a celebrity. [SYP chuckles] So I e-mailed him. I just wanted to ask him about Pullman. And he was very accommodating. He answered my questions. But then at the end, he was like, "I don't mean to seem like an ass, but where did you get my e-mail address? This is my work address and I don't want fans to be bothering me"… blah blah blah. Anyway, so that's been the extent of our correspondence. He's very helpful though. I asked him a bunch of annoying questions and he covered all of them.
Sooyoung: Yeah, he's a good guy. He's cranky, but he's a really nice guy.
Kerwin: Kranky with a "k"?
Sooyoung: A “C.”
Kerwin: That's another little in-joke. Do you have any plans for future film scoring?
Sooyoung: Not any time in the near future, no. I wouldn't rule it out. I probably would do it if it was the right kind of project. But, right now, I need to start thinking about Seam stuff. I have this sound in my head that I want to try to capture. I can't describe it at all, but it's kind of different from anything we've done before. And, I don't know what it's come from really. I guess it's come from listening to different kinds of stuff. I have to get in the studio or start writing before I forget what it sounds like.
Kerwin: What have you been listening to lately that you think has been influential?
Sooyoung: All sorts of stuff. A lot of jazz. That's not where I want to go with Seam obviously.
Kerwin: You'll change your name to the Seam and Cake.
Sooyoung: [chuckle] Last night, the joke was -- Crystal Records asked us last week, when to expect our next record. The joke last night was that we would just take the scrapped session from the new record and have somebody re-mix it and release it in Taiwan only. [laughs]
Kerwin: That would drive us nuts.
Sooyoung: [laughs]
Kerwin: That was my next question actually, if you'd be interested in having your songs re-mixed.
Sooyoung: Re-mixed?
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: Not most of our songs…
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: …but there are some things that probably would be okay to re-mix. We did a twenty…the thing that was released as "Mellow Noise U.S.A."?…
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: …was actually like a twenty-minute song or something, maybe even longer than that.
Kerwin: Oh wow.
Sooyoung: And, that was just a very small snippet of what was on that. He left a lot out and did a lot of manipulation.
Kerwin: Who recorded that?
Sooyoung: Well, Brad recorded it, but Casey Rice mixed it.
Kerwin. Yeah. He's quite talented as well.
Sooyoung: Yeah. Was there anything funky going on with the sound last night? Was he doing any of that experimental shit?
Kerwin: He turned up Chris's bass drum really high at a certain point. Chris was telling us about that. He had to really tap…
Sooyoung: There wasn't any ambient kind of stuff going on?
Kerwin: No.
Sooyoung: He was doing some crazy shit during sound-check.
Kerwin: Really?
Sooyoung: Like, “Autopilot” he was running through some kind of bizarre filter. And it totally sounded like…
Kerwin: Like his projects.
Sooyoung: Yeah, yeah.
Kerwin: That might have been cool too. I think the most ambiance was from the lighting, which you really couldn't see by.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: Ok.
Sooyoung: So yeah, soundtracks are on hold for now, until I can write some songs. I know what I want to write about. It's funny, because usually when I read a lot of fiction -- and unfortunately for the last few years I've just been reading a lot of non-fiction stuff like biographies and history and shit like that -- usually when I read a lot of fiction though I get into the mood for songwriting. So I'm trying to get back into that.
Kerwin: What have been some of the good things you've read lately?
Sooyoung: Let's see, last thing I read that was good was…I went on this business trip last week and I took the new Murakami book South of the Border, West of the Sun, which…It was really great to read that cooped up in a hotel room in North Carolina. Yeah, somebody gave that to me -- actually Che gave that to me for my birthday. So that was good.
Kerwin: It's always, "Che this, and Che that." Anyways…
Sooyoung: [laughs]
Kerwin: …we're going to raid his house tomorrow night. Shhh. He'd better be there.
Tim : After Built to Spill-- party at Che's house.
Sooyoung: Oh yeah?
Kerwin: It's going to be: White Castle, pot, and the video.
Sooyoung: Ok.
Tim : In that order.
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: Or maybe you should do the pot first and the White Castle later.
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: It'll taste all the better.
Kerwin: Definitely. And you're welcome to…
Sooyoung: I'm going to be out of town.
Kerwin: When are you…?
Sooyoung: I just found that I have to leave Monday night to go to North Carolina.
Kerwin: D’oh.
Sooyoung: I know, which sucks, because I had already planned on going to Built to Spill.
Tim : We'll have the tapes for ya.
Kerwin: Chh! They tape everything. I went to the bathroom this morning…Uh, anyway... let's see, I don't even know if I want to ask this question…
Sooyoung: Go ahead, man, spill.
Kerwin: What do you see as Seam's contribution to indie rock? How do you think people perceive the band's music? This question sucks, but go ahead and answer it, that's fine.
Sooyoung: I don't know about the "people" part. But, our contribution, I guess…
Kerwin: To indie rock, in general.
Sooyoung: I don't really know. I mean, all I can really talk about, I guess, is what we try to do. And, whether or not that succeeds, or whether that's like a real contribution or not, I guess is someone else's…
Tim : It's the whole process about a band.
Kerwin: Whatever that is.
Sooyoung: I guess we just try to write songs that…Well, maybe I should rephrase it…I try to write songs that reflect where I'm at, at a certain time. And I think the band tries to play those songs and bring something to it maybe that I hadn't thought of, but all the while still remaining sort of Seam-like. I think there's a Seam, not sound, but maybe a Seam quality to stuff that we do. It usually sounds like Seam, and there's some exceptions like "Sukiyaki" for instance. That's what we try to do, I guess.
Kerwin: What I was thinking of was the whole slow-core thing. Whatever that is. And how you brought that to the spotlight. You were considered one of the first, or then they sort of lumped you together with Low…
Sooyoung: But, you know, I don't know where they came from, “slow-core.” It just sort of started appearing. I never thought of us as being part of the original movement of that. It's stuff that I listened to like Nikki Sudden or Jacobite stuff that I was into when I was in college. That seemed like where that came from, playing slow songs, like pop songs. And also like Galaxie 500, you know, who were around a pretty long time ago. And Velvet Underground. That kind of stuff seemed like the original slow-core. So Seam to me is just kind of an extension of that. It's not like we really were at the cutting edge of that movement or something. And also it's not very accurate, because we have a lot of faster stuff too.
Kerwin: Yeah, I think it only applies to the first album that you made.
Sooyoung: The first album?
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: And maybe certain songs on other records too. But…
Kerwin: That's the thing -- each of the records are so different.
Sooyoung: Yeah.
Kerwin: You can sort of categorize it record-by-record. Anyway…but you knew that…
Sooyoung: But, I guess, also what we try to do with this band is bring all of that kind of stuff to our music. I guess we're against "genre" in general, you know?
Kerwin: Pigeon-holing?
Sooyoung: Yeah, things are so specialized here with different kinds of bands, within indie rock even.
Kerwin: Yeah. But there's still a lot of valid stuff coming out. In ways, I think they fuck with it. Things are re-mixed to death and there's all sorts of eclectic projects that draw from a lot of influences.
Sooyoung: Yeah, more and more.
Kerwin: As somebody who tries to articulate listening to that kind of stuff in words, it's is a real challenge. But, I welcome that. I totally encourage that kind of exploration. So good for you. Ok, so where do you get the ideas for your weird-ass tunings?
Sooyoung: Weird-ass tunings? I haven't come up with any new tunings or introduced any new tunings for a long time. I try to stick with the ones we have.
Kerwin: Yeah, but, those are weird-ass too. One I pinpointed for the new one was drop-D, capo fret two, right? That's a good one.
Sooyoung: The B is usually dropped to an A with that particular capo tuning.
Kerwin: Oh, really?
Sooyoung: And then there's one that's like D-A-C…What is it?..D-A-C-G-B-E…
Tim : Don't say too much or he'll start posting tabs on the site.
Sooyoung: [laughs]
Kerwin: No, that will never happen.
Sooyoung: That's enough. [laughs]
Kerwin: That will never happen, because I already asked you to do some tabs, and you're like, "No, that would take too much time"…
Sooyoung: Too much time.
Kerwin: And I don't have the -- I can't play any of your songs. I look at your fingers every show and I can't figure it out.
Sooyoung: Well, you know, that stuff is usually so that I can do…
Kerwin: It sounds great.
Sooyoung: …stuff…Sometimes, it makes it easier to do unisons, which is very difficult to do in standard tuning.
Kerwin: Unisons?
Sooyoung: Unisons.
Kerwin: What's that?
Sooyoung: The same note played on two different strings. It's for a chorus kind of effect.
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: Yeah. Like on "The Prize Fighters" we used that kind of effect. So it sounds like a 12-string.
Kerwin: It sounds great. You do the octave thing.
Sooyoung: Yeah, octaves and unisons and then also sometimes for weird intervals that might otherwise be impossible to finger. So laziness basically. It’s partly laziness and partly being able to do stuff that otherwise would take maybe two guitars harmonizing or something.
Kerwin: Yeah.
Sooyoung: Because, more and more, harmony is an important part of where we're going songwriting-wise. I've been listening to stuff like Television, New Order -- there's a lot of cool interplay between guitars. It's nice to be able to do that within a certain line, you know? Suggest a chord or something like that and really playing all the notes.
Kerwin: You guys get a really rich sound out of just two guitars and I think the weird-ass tunings actually have a lot to do with that.
Sooyoung: Yeah, it's funny, because now it seems impossible to go back to being a trio, for instance. Because that's become a part of how I think when I'm writing a song. Like on "Head Sparks," a lot of that stuff was written just in my bedroom on acoustic guitar. So it's folky kind of sounding.
Kerwin: A lot of it's pretty simple, but just passionately played, slowly played…
Sooyoung: [laughs]
Kerwin: …in a core kind of way.
Sooyoung: The light’s blinking.
Tim: I know, four minutes left.
Kerwin: Four minutes, ok. Are you still going to play in a band with John Lee?
Sooyoung: I don’t know. I just had lunch with him -- that's why I'm so stuffed. [coffee grinder roars mercilessly]
Kerwin: Exsqueeze me?
Sooyoung: I went out to eat with my bandmates before we went to move our equipment. So, I had this bacon-and-eggs sandwich thing and then John Lee was insistent that we go get Korean food. So half an hour later, I ate again. So I'm totally stuffed right now. But we spent a lot of time talking about that. I think it'll happen. I'm not sure what the sound is going to be like…I don't know what it's called.
Kerwin: Power trio, man.
Tim: Yellow Rebellion.
Kerwin: With a "y."
Sooyoung: That's the code name. It could cause us some problems. [laughs]
Kerwin: Ok, three questions in three minutes, since we're running low on time.
Sooyoung: Alright.
Kerwin: Will we hear wedding bells for Sooyoung Park any time soon?
Sooyoung: Uh… Possibly.
Kerwin: Okay. I have a feeling that Seam will break up soon. Is that feeling justified?
Sooyoung: No, not really. We might not do anything for awhile, but… [laughs]
Kerwin: It will seem like you've broken up. And after like six years, people will wish you had. But, you'll come out with a new record…
Sooyoung: I will say this about that break-up thing…We're going to go into the studio and record some more stuff for sure.
Kerwin: Excellent.
Sooyoung: And that stuff will definitely be pretty different from anything we've done before.
Kerwin: Gnarly. I'm looking forward to it. Ok, and you're working on that VCD of Seam videos that you've promised us.
Sooyoung: Yeah, I need to…
Kerwin: Che, right?
Sooyoung: …Well, there's some stuff I need to transfer to…dump onto the computer basically. So I'm collecting all the master tapes. We have the technology. It's just a matter of getting down to it.
Kerwin: “And the people who will bring it to you….” Just give it to Che and let him…
Sooyoung: [laughs]
Kerwin: …compile that stuff. I'm sure he's got the technology.
Sooyoung: So yeah, I think that will happen. Probably this year.
Kerwin: Probably this year?
Sooyoung: Yeah, this year.
Kerwin: I've heard that before.
Sooyoung: If not all of them, then at least some of them.
Kerwin: Ok. And some kick-ass live footage by Tim too?
Sooyoung: Possibly, yeah.
Kerwin: Excellent.
Tim : From the Asian Camcorder Posse.
Kerwin: They're gonna get their own cards and everything.
Tim : I'm doing the graphics already and we’ll have laminates.
Sooyoung: See, that'll be easy. Dumping off one of these cameras, it just goes right in the PC and then you just convert it to an MPEG and burn it onto a CD.
Kerwin: Okay, last question.
Sooyoung: Alright.
Kerwin: Is rock dead?
Sooyoung: Of course not.
Kerwin: ...You've got to spice that up a little bit.
Sooyoung: You mean, kick-ass rock-and-roll music? Is that what you’re talking about? Well, what do you mean by "rock"?
Kerwin: …Good question.
Sooyoung: [laughs] Rock, as I know it, no…I don't think…no, it's not. It will just keep re-inventing itself.
Kerwin: Ok. Fair enough. I was hoping to get some sort of gimmicky answer out of you.
Sooyoung: No. [laughs] That wouldn't be me.
Kerwin: Yeah, I guess so. Okay.