The 2022 OzAsia Festival is just around the corner, and this year Korean indie pop group LEENALCHI and Australian-Korean hip-hop group 1300 are joining forces to bring you a night of the best Korean pop and rap the world has to offer.
1300, which was founded in a garage in Sydney’s west, is a group of five multi-talented performers. I was lucky to spend some time with one of their members, Nerdie, to talk about their upcoming OzAsia Festival appearance and where it all started for them.
“We first met around two years ago, through a mutual friend here in Sydney. We got along rather quickly and discovered we all had a mutual love of music, so we decided to see how we would go making music as a group. There aren’t too many other Koreans in Sydney who make music together, so we thought we would give it a shot. So it all happened naturally from there and there was such a great energy.”
With such a sudden rise to fame, did 1300 ever think they would have the international success they have?
“No! When we first formed, being a successful group was never in our mind. We just wanted to make music. It’s really only these days we realise how successful we have become, but it was never our intention. It was fun to create music with like minded people and it really has just grown from there.”
1300 are described as being a genre-bending, culture-transcending hip hop outfit like no other. I was keen to find out – where do they draw their inspiration for their music?
“Our music source is a little bit complicated. Because there are five of us in the group, there are so many chaotic factors influencing the music. We all have slightly different tastes in music culture through all the media we consume. I tend to think that we don’t always want to make conscious decisions about the music we create, but it really is more going with how we feel and reading the room or social climate at the time. If we did look at what influences us, it probably comes back to our childhood or music we listened to growing up.”
1300’s performance with Korean super group, LEENALCHI will be on Friday 7 November at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
“We were very excited to be approached by OzAsia to work with LEENALCHI as part of this year’s festival. The guys don’t often showcase our work at Australian events like this. We are excited to be able to perform on the same stage as them. We are used to performing to such a small set of our fans and friends here in Sydney, we are excited by this opportunity with OzAsia.
“We are known to bring a lot of energy to our shows. A lot of our fans, when listening to us at home, listen to us when they are going to the gym, or want to get hyped up. So we bring that loud, boisterous energy that gets everyone jumping and partying. We cannot wait to get on stage and perform in Adelaide.”
It’s not every day you get to see two super groups in the Korean music scene perform here in Adelaide. Get tickets for 1300 and LEENALCHI at https://ozasia.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/leenalchi-1300 .
Interviewed by: Ben Stefanoff
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