Mad Soul Child are ‘crazy’ for music
Mad Soul Child
Jin Sil, who contributed her vocals to the tracks, is considered the face of the group. She rose to prominence with the song “Dear,” which featured on the soundtrack of the film “The Man From Nowhere” (2010).
But the others are not nearly as well known.
Aside from Jin, Mad Soul Child is made up of three music directors, one videographer, two choreographers and an art director.
It is one of the only permanent teams in Korea with the ability to have a hand in almost all parts of the modern music-making’s production process, from writing the track’s lyrics to singing the vocals to filming the music video.
“Because we pursue [trendy] music like we are crazy, we named ourselves Mad Soul Child,” said Yang Chan-woo, one of the team’s producers.
When the team formed in 2001, it had only three music directors and a vocalist. They focused on making commercial music, soundtracks for movies or working on songs for other singers such as Dynamic Duo.
But as they welcomed extra members into the team they received more opportunities to create a more diverse range of cultural content.
“Usually when you work on music, teams like us are made and then instantly disband [after a project is done],” said Jeong Mu-gyeong, another Mad Soul Child producer.
“We just hated such short meetings of people. We wanted to share the same goal and create some quality content without just pursuing monetary reward.”
The team has now expanded into forming its own musical acts. It worked on putting together the female hip-hop group Lover Soul, whose debut was the team’s first task this year.
Each of Mad Soul Child contributed their skills to come up with the choreography, songs and music videos for the group’s album.
“The hip-hop genre was born in the streets,” said music producer Lee Sang-yeol.
“We wanted to make a hip-hop group that can freely transform itself from appearing on TV shows to performing at a club party or doing street performances.”
Originally, the three members of this new hip-hop act were trainees at other entertainment agencies. They had their struggles before being taken on by Mad Soul Child.
Each member of the team took part in training the singers. Choreographer Kim Hak-su said he tried to teach them how to have confidence.
“I have always said that they need to love themselves to enjoy the dance moves and being on the stage,” said Kim.
“Even when you get moves wrong, just be confident about it.”
Music producer Jeong explained that discussing various different ideas was key before the debut.
“We talked a lot about the pop culture trends in music and movies that once inspired us,” said Jeong, “and I encouraged them to use their true spirit even when they were writing just one sentence for lyrics.”
The production team hopes to hold a concert that showcases as the artists they have worked with.
“It’s so precious that I have people who can dream about the same thing,” said one of Mad Soul Child’s videographers, Kwon Oh-gun.
BY SHIN JUNE-BONG [lee.sunmin@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)