Dongmi Bicycle Club performs at Han River Park in Seoul during an interview with The Korea Times, April 3. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

On a bright spring afternoon at Yeouido Han River Park in Seoul, a strange vehicle glided past: a four-wheeled bicycle stacked with people playing drums, saxophone, guitar and melodica, pushed from behind. All the band members were dressed in red caps and colorful sashes. As the band played a breezy Korean pop ballad from its moving stage, people raised their phones and shouted, “This makes me so happy!” and “They’re so cute!”

The group is Dongmi Bicycle Club, an indie band turning some of Korea’s most familiar songs into a rolling street parade and reinventing what busking looks like in Seoul. Video clips of the band weaving through Seoul's landmarks and busy markets have gone viral on social media in recent weeks, with fans calling them “the hottest people right now” and begging them to visit their hometowns across the country, from Daegu to Jeju.

This combined photo shows members of Dongmi Bicycle Club. From left, drummer Lee Sung-min; leader and saxophonist Shin Choi-go-young-jin; melodica player and music director Won Chung-yeon; guitarist Shin Myoung-jun; and videographer Kim Yeon-soo. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

From Jazz trio to rolling parade

Dongmi Bicycle Club started with saxophonist Shin Choi-go-young-jin, drummer Lee Sung-min and melodica player Won Chung-yeon. They met as students at Seoul Music High School in the early 2010s. Joined by guitarist Shin Myoung-jun, they first formed Dongmi Club, an instrumental jazz band.

“Dongmi Club was jazz-based, and we tried to express what we felt through jazz,” Shin said. “But when we performed, communication with the audience felt one-sided. Even if we tried to explain the songs, people couldn’t really understand them.”

The four friends started to wonder if there was a way to bring the music physically closer to people. “We were joking, ‘What if we played on top of a car?” Shin recalled. “Then someone saw a video on Instagram of people performing on a bicycle overseas. We thought, ‘Should we try this?’ and just kept pushing the idea until we finally found the bike (we liked).”-

“At first Dongmi didn’t have a deep meaning,” Shin said. “We jokingly said ‘crazy people from the neighborhood,’ or ‘beauty of the East.’ Now we think of it as (the Chinese ideograms) 'dong' for ‘moving’ and 'mi' for ‘beautiful.' We ended up on a bicycle, after all — we’re moving and showing a new form of beauty wherever we go.”

Videographer Kim Yeon-soo also joined the band to make videos and promote the group on social media.

Source: Korea Times News