K-EXCLUSIVE: Interview With MFBTY

Jae

May 17, 2015

Kmusic was given the chance to interview influential hip hop group, MFBTY, about their latest album ‘Wondaland‘. We asked them a few informative questions, hoping for awesome answers. In true MFBTY style, they delivered. Let’s check it out!

Question 1: What was the main inspiration behind the creation of ‘Wondaland’? What was MFBTY’s main message you wished to convey to your listeners with this album?

Tiger JK: There is a lot of love in MFBTY’s messages. We want to express ideas about peace and connecting people from all walks of life through positivity.

Yoonmirae: Love and peace.

Bizzy: Wondaland is a place where everyone is treated like equals. Nobody is left out or excluded from ‘Wondaland’. Everyone deserves to be happy there.

Question 2: How was it to collaborate with so many different artists on the album?

Tiger JK: It gave us new energy and new ideas and perspectives. We were reminded again, and it’s something that’s obvious but is perhaps forgotten by people, that everyone hinks and hears differently.

Yoonmirae: We had a lot of fun. It’s almost always just us in the studio, so to have other people come through and bounce ideas around and just jam was great and really motivating as well.

Bizzy: It was definitely a fun journey.

Question 3: What are your fondest musical memories from recording this album?

Tiger JK: Hearing messages from our fans. We asked our fans to send us voice messages via email on Twitter. It felt like the good ol’ days, checking my voice mail to see if the people who I wanted to hear from called or not. We had more than 10 minutes of messages but we edited them so they could fit on our intro track on ‘Wondaland’. However, we’re planning to put out the full version soon. We felt genuine love from these people. And I’m very thankful to them.

Yoonmirae: My best memory is definitely the intro track too. I had heard the messages, but I wasn’t there for the editing process. So when I sat down to hear the finished version of it for the first time it was an overwhelming experience for me.

Question 4: Which song left the biggest impression on you as artists and which song was the hardest to create?

Tiger JK: “Bang Diggy Bang Bang” was the hardest, although it’s a light-hearted pop track. There are so many parts in the song – it has more than three breakdowns and five different
hooks, real drums and percussion, sitar, and Indian scat singing. We had to find ways to take all these elements from different cultures and fuse them together. We picked rhythms and sounds that sound similar to traditional Korean sounds as well. We were surprised by how these rhythms and instruments were so similar to Korean ones.

Yoonmirae: I agree with JK – it was a fun but complicated process. But as complicated as it was, it’s still one my favorite songs.

Question 5: How does it feel to know that the album ‘Wondaland’ left such a big mark on music charts
and music culture in general?

Tiger JK: This I’m not sure about. I hope it did … but did it? Hopefully our attempts to bring people closer together with our music is working.

Yoonmirae: I don’t know if you’re being nice or if that in fact actually happened! I stay away from charts because they stress me out and I don’t like being sucked into that world. So I really have no idea how well or not so well the album has done. I’m sure eventually I’ll find out, but for now I’m – and we’re – going to continue to just focus on putting out Feel Ghood music. Music that makes us happy and hopefully it’ll do the same for the people willing to listen.

Question 6: Did you learn anything new while working alongside artists from such varying styles and has this inspired MFBTY to venture even further into other new styles?

Tiger JK: Not a lot of people are talking about the collaboration we did for the album with Korean rock legend Jeon In Kwon on the song “Love and Peace.” He rarely collaborates with anyone and is a living legend in Korea. I learned to not force things and to let them happen naturally. By having things follow their own course, we often land on a magic carpet. And by not limiting ourselves to specific genres or styles, we got our passion for music back.

Yoonmirae: Just working on this album as a whole was therapeutic for us all. It was really rough for a while for all of us. When it rains it really pours, and it was definitely monsoon season for a while. It got to a point where we couldn’t remember why we fell in love with music in the first place. But recording this album helped us learn how to let go, trust, take risks, meet new people, and most of all fall in love with music all over again.

Bizzy: Inspiration always counts the most.

Question 7: Other than the people you’ve worked with already, who would MFBTY want to work with, living or dead, on your dream album and why?

Tiger JK: I would love to work with Bob Marley, and maybe get a skit from Bruce Lee.

Yoonmirae: I’m going to keep this one to myself in hopes that I can make it happen for my solo album!

Bizzy: I can’t think of any names right now, but I’m a big fan of music in itself.

It truly was a delight to get the artist’s view on their album. ‘Wondaland’ is a work of art can be purchased on iTunes or physically acquired from your favorite K-pop shops online! Don’t forget to follow MFBTY’s twitter!

Stay tuned with Officially Kmusic for all your latest K-pop news!

Edited by: Alona Sass

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