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South Korean co-ed duo UmYull under CREPE SOUND rolled out their first full album, Fantasy Tale, on July 30, 2024. The musical act consists of Choi Sunyul and Choi Unyul.
Debuting on March 16, 2022, with their city pop digital single Courage of Kindness, the duo has been consistently putting out pre-release songs, having also released an EP The Theory of Happiness in June 2023.
Using anime as the style for their music videos, the pair's vision is "singing with melody and rhythm to the imperfect emotions of youth." While Choi Unyul is the vocalist, Choi Sunyul manages the production of the duo's music.
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Thus far, they have explored several genres, including R&B, Indie, and Soul. They even attempted a new trajectory of mixing rock and K-pop in their music, stepping away from their initial city pop sound, which earned them many positive reviews. The pair have dedicated fans not only in Korea but also in Japan, having incorporated the J-rock genre into their music as well.
Successfully selling out their first fan concert in March this year, they even performed at the 2024 Busan International Rock Festival.
In conversation with SK POP's Sreejita Karmakar on their Rock/Metal and Indie music album Fantasy Tale, Umyull dived into its creation, the message they spread through their music, interactions with fans, their group dynamic, and much more. Check out their musical aspirations below.
"We focused on expressing emotions through various musical devices" — UmYull on Fantasy Tale and more
Q) Hello, UmYull! Congratulations on bringing out Fantasy Tale. It is your first full-length album launched about two years after your debut. How does it feel to finally see it completed?
UmYull: Hi! First of all, thank you for your kind words.
After releasing only singles for about a year after our debut, we released our first EP, Happiness Theory, last year. We didn't have an EP planned at the time, but when we changed our musical direction, we discussed it with our company and realized that working on a single and an album are much different than we thought.
What we liked the most was that an album is a better way to capture our philosophy, so we started working on a full-length album project right after that.
As you know, we spent a year building up the story with the pre-release project, and it turned out to be a longer and bigger project than we thought.
When it was finished and we received the physical album, we were very proud to see the world that existed in the abstract become a reality as it was woven into a book.
Q) You have been releasing songs and music videos through your pre-release project that have finally led to Fantasy Tale. Could you share a little about this project, the new album, and the message you wanted to convey through these music videos and songs?
UmYull: If I had to boil it down to one word, I would say "acceptance".
The world is becoming increasingly individualized and everyone is living in their own world. There are pros and cons to this, but when your world becomes too distinct, it becomes difficult to recognize the world of others.
I think we've seen a lot of blaming for the sake of blaming, rather than constructive criticism, whether it's recent crimes or a lot of issues online. We are all human beings, and we are necessarily imperfect and not perfect.
That's the world we live in, and we can all take criticism and grow from it, but I also think that forgiveness, reconciliation, and acceptance are all necessary.
In a society where there is no right answer, I think everyone will be happier if we respect and live with our own answers rather than trying to find the right answer, even if it is our own, I hope we can create a world where we can all reconcile, forgive, and recognize differences again!
Q) Your team-up with animator Mazoon resulted in some beautiful music videos for your previous songs and even the latest Illusionism. What inspired you to choose anime as the style for your MVs? How did the collaboration with Mazoon come about?
UmYull: First of all, we've always been fans of anime, so it was a natural choice for us.
Also, since the world that goes along with the album is fantasy, we couldn't do it in a live-action music video, and our music has a lot of dynamic songs, so it was advantageous to add this part as an animated production.
We conveyed the overall world, story flow, and sense of theme to the writer early on in the album process, and he came up with a lot of ideas for the details to match the feel of each song.
Basically, I think the sum total was so good that it built up into a good piece.
Q) You also opened a pop-up photobooth celebrating the launch of Fantasy Tale. The theme was inspired by your music animation, designed by Mazoon. What was the idea behind this and how was the overall experience of meeting fans through this photobooth event?
UmYull: We have our own interesting universe, so why not bring this fantasy world offline and experience it? It evolved out of the idea that we had!
It seemed like a bit of a stretch to actually do it because there's so much AtoZ to do, but thanks to our many supporters, the idea became a reality.
I'm glad we did it because I think our fans loved it and it gave us a chance to immerse ourselves in the world even more.
Q) What motivated you to become musicians and form your duo UmYull?
UmYull: We were musical coworkers who were both working on songs.
We had different careers, but we had been working together since college. The songs we made were very colorful, so it was hard to match with existing artists, but we knew what we wanted to do, so we just said, "Let's release it and become artists!" and started.
Q) You are seasoned in writing, arranging, and composing your songs. What inspires you to make your own music? As artists do you always feel satisfied with your creations or are there moments when you feel you could have done something differently?
Sunyul: I tend to be inspired by the feelings I have at the moment.
If I resent the world, I resent the world, if I'm depressed, I'm depressed, if I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm just recording the emotions of the moment.
I'm the type of person who always feels unhappy with the music right before it's released, so I'm very stressed out, so my staff suffers a lot.
But after the release, it sounds great again, so I don't have any regrets!
Unyul: I think the emotions I've felt myself are my inspiration, because the emotions I've learned once are more accessible when I'm making songs and writing lyrics. Of course, for the emotions I don't experience directly, I try to be inspired indirectly by the experiences of people around me or watching movies.
I listen to our songs for a few months after they're released, and if there's something I don't like, I try not to regret it because I can do better next time :)
Q) Congratulations on making it into the Musician 100 Daily Top Chart at rank 135! As a new entrant to the chart, what do you believe has contributed to your success? How do you plan to build on this achievement?
UmYull: Thank you. We don't think there's a huge contribution from us or any special factors.
We've been doing the best we could under the circumstances for the last two years, even before we were recognized.
Thankfully, the situation has been supportive, which has allowed us to realize more ideas and create better content, so I think it's a virtuous cycle.
It's all thanks to the support of our fans, and we think we will continue to evolve naturally as we strive to give back with better content as long as things continue to support us.
Q) You sold out your first fan concert in March 2024 in less than a day! You also announced your first solo concert happening this year. Could you share some memorable moments from your March concert and also, what you are most looking forward to for the upcoming one?
UmYull: When the fans sang the pitches at the fan concert in March, I couldn't hide my happiness!
We were able to use that emotion as a driving force to complete the work on the full album well.
Since the May concert, we've been practically in the studio preparing for the album, so we're really excited to meet our fans live!
It's so nice to think that we can feel and breathe the songs we've been working so hard on together live!
Q) Fantasy Tale contains some new musical aspects and attempts that were not shown before. Could you elaborate on what new creative aspects you employed in this release?
UmYull: We focused on expressing emotions through various musical devices.
For example, for the title track, Illusionism, we used subtle emotional shifts in the lyrics to emphasize what we were trying to say in the lyrics, using ballads and orchestras, and playing around with dynamics throughout.
In addition, Puppet Show expresses anxious and depressive feelings by constantly changing the beat and composition, and One Flower was intended to bring out a strange feeling by utilizing fast arrangements and staccato notes with lyrics that are very descriptive.
Throughout the album, there are many songs with changes in tempo, beat, and rhythm.
We remember one of them, Cloud Child, where the guitar solo suddenly uses a shuffle rhythm before returning to a straight rhythm.
Also, Announcement, the album's intro, samples Gabriel Faure - Sicilienne in the second half of the song after the intense guitar solo, giving the album a distinctive nihilistic yet mysterious atmosphere.
The other vocal pieces, mainly the intro, interlude, and outro, also utilize atmospheres and FX sources to evoke spaces and scenes.
We think it would be interesting to listen to this in detail.
We tried a lot of different things on the album, but the key point is that the various musical devices we used were in line with the emotions we wanted to convey in the songs.
Q) How would each of you describe UmYull's group dynamic in one word?
UmYull: “Rebuttal for the sake of rebuttal” is probably the best way to describe it. A lot of people think we fight when they see us around, but we get along really well!
We habitually disagree with each other about music and work, and a lot of good ideas come out of that.
Rebuttal for rebuttal's sake is our unspoken rule, our way of doing things.
Q) How do you want fans to remember your music in the long run?
UmYull: We've had a lot of people tell us that they've been comforted and encouraged by our songs, and that makes us feel good :) We hope that Yulmu will continue to listen to our music and find strength in times of trouble or loneliness, and that our music will accompany them in their happy moments.
Q) What are your aims and plans for the future? Are you going to roll out music through more pre-release projects or will you try out new methods?
UmYull: First of all, we plan to get closer to our fans this year through concerts and other offline events.
We don't have any clear plans for new songs or albums, but we're very cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to share them within the year because we write so many songs and want to share them.
As for how we're going to present it, we don't have a lot of ideas yet whether we're going to go with the same format or something new!
I always have a lot of ideas, but I need so many devices to realize them, so it's still a while away.
Q) Before concluding the interview, would you like to share any messages with our readers and your fans?
UmYull: Thank you for listening to our story. In the future, we'd love to show more people how we're growing. Thank you.
UmYull recently held their Aladdin Fan Signing Event on August 10 for Fantasy Tale. The artists are also holding their first solo concert 'Fantasy Tale,' where they will perform not only their older hits but also numbers from their first full album, all with a live band. The concert will be held on September 7 (Saturday) and 8 (Sunday) at Seoul's CJ Azit Gwangheungchang.
