Duo Okdal finds comfort in consoling listeners

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Duo Okdal finds comfort in consoling listeners

Published: 07 Jun. 2023, 09:18 Updated: 07 Jun. 2023, 09:28

Duo Okdal [MAGIC STRAWBERRY SOUND[

Okdal, a duo synonymous with songs that comfort listeners with their heartwarming lyrics, confessed that giving consolation to listeners is not an easy job.

Singers and songwriters Gim Yoon-ju and Park Se-jin, who form Okdal, gained fame with their soft and easy-listening songs like “Cheer Up” (2011), “None the better or Courage” (2011), “Run” (2015) and “Intern” (2017).

They say it’s because they realized that the world they are living in is so much bigger than they were aware of. This is something that they’ve realized while communicating with the listeners of their radio program on MBC FM4U, which they’ve been hosting for the past five years. The radio show, according to the duo, allowed them to rethink about writing music that consoles and even led them to write an essay book.

Titled “One Day, this night too, will be a Song,” the book conveys thoughts and feelings of their experiences as radio hosts, as they listened to so many different life stories of the listeners. They hope it can be of comfort to the readers who may also be experiencing similar hardships.

Duo Okdal [MAGIC STRAWBERRY SOUND[

“After I entered my 30s, I started to pay more attention to our society and the world we live in, and around that time is when I began hosting the radio show,” said Gim. “Most of the issues we talked about until then were about music and with my fellow musicians and through the listeners of the radio program, we got to listen to the real life stories.”

Park said they “got to listen to real life worries, like people having to work two to three jobs to make ends meet, losing their businesses after the pandemic and all that. As a radio DJ, I really agonized on how to console them with words.”

The more they listened to the real life stories and their hardships, Gim said she no longer felt comfortable singing all those cheery songs that Okdal used to sing.

“I think we took it too lightly and said the words of comfort. I felt uneasy singing, ‘Cheer up,’ or ‘Everything is going to be fine,’ when we don’t really understand it,” she said. “That’s why I began writing songs that sing about how terribly sad or tired or exhausted I am, to sort of say that you are not alone.”

The duo set a goal to release its third full-length album next year on Jan. 22, the band’s debut date.