Balming Tiger joined NME backstage at Studying 2025 to debate their love of the UK and dealing with ATARASHII GAKKO! and IU. Watch the complete interview above or learn it under.
The “different Okay-pop” group carried out on Studying’s Pageant Republic stage yesterday (August 24), marking their debut look on the competition. The band are solely the second Korean act to carry out at Studying & Leeds, following Peggy Gou’s set in 2023.
“It’s a really iconic, cultural competition,” Omega Sapien informed NME, whereas Sogumm added it was “excellent to be right here”.
The competition dates come as a part of Balming Tiger’s World Expo Tour 2025, which has already seen them carry out at Japan’s Fuji Rock Pageant, South Korea’s Pentaport Pageant, Ulaanbaatar’s Playtime Pageant, and extra. As a part of the run, they may even headline London’s KOKO on Tuesday (August 26).
“Tour has been nice,” Omega Sapien stated. “We’ve been speaking loads about our first-ever UK tour, which was in 2022, and we went to Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol… Brighton, and plenty of, many alternative cities. We had been a really small crew, so it was 4 of us and our tour supervisor in a van, and we’d carry out in entrance of 20, 30 individuals.
“That’s certainly one of our precise excursions that we did exterior of Korea. So the UK holds numerous reminiscence inside us, numerous good recollections. So, yeah, good to be again. The group is far greater. We’re at Studying & Leeds now, interviewing with NME – it’s wonderful.”
He added: “The UK has all the time been exhibiting numerous love for us. It’s a particular, particular place for us, and by chance, we met numerous good individuals from right here who work with us, so it’s lovely.”
“Balming Tiger couldn’t even tour in Korea at the moment, however we really ended up touring within the UK as an alternative,” Sogumm continued. “Via that have within the UK, I realized a lot. It allowed us to develop, and I believe that was a extremely particular expertise for Balming Tiger that helped us develop with a novel edge. Now that we’re again and acting at Studying & Leeds competition, I believe it’s actually particular and I’m tremendous excited.”
Alongside touring, Balming Tiger have shared a handful of releases thus far in 2025, together with ‘Narani Narani’, a collaboration with Japanese group ATARASHII GAKKO!, in June. “We all the time thought ATARASHII GAKKO! had been an excellent cool band, and I assume they considered us likewise,” Omega Sapien stated of why they needed to work with the group. “They’re unapologetically exhibiting off their tradition, identical to Balming Tiger – no apologies, proper? So I believe that’s the connection, even earlier than we began speaking.
“In a video [interview], ATARASHII GAKKO! was saying, ‘Oh, which artist would you wish to collab with?’ and so they stated Balming Tiger. So I believe it was us frantically sending an e-mail [like], ‘OK, I noticed the video. I screenshotted it right here.’ They’re nice, nice individuals, and the challenge was enjoyable. I bear in mind going to their studio in Japan, and so they had been exhibiting us DVD clips of their tour, and so they’re taking part in in huge stadiums. I used to be like, ‘Wow, they’re an enormous deal.’ It was an enormous alternative for us.”
In Might, Balming Tiger additionally appeared on Okay-pop icon IU’s ‘A Flower Bookmark, Pt.3’ EP, on which the singer reinterpreted basic Korean songs. The group labored on a model of Shin Jung-hyun And The Yupjuns’ 1974 monitor ‘A Stunning Particular person’.
“It was a very good time. We made numerous variations – perhaps three or 4,” BJ Wnjn stated. “The unique artist is somebody I actually like, so I discovered it actually attention-grabbing to work on. However my [version] was not chosen.”
“Shin Jung-hyun is the Korean GOAT. He’s a psychedelic rock legend, and Wonjin is an enormous fan of him, so he labored actually exhausting to make it good, to indicate respect to his idol,” Omega Sapien defined. “However there’s one other producer referred to as Unsinkable and his model bought chosen, not [Wonjin’s].”
Sogumm wrote new lyrics for a bit of the quilt, which she referred to as “an enormous problem”. “He tries to place his Korean soul into his psychedelic rock sound – that’s why I actually respect him, as a result of I need to put my Korean soul into my music too,” she stated. “It was an actual honour to remake this tune.
“I didn’t count on to be allowed to [write a new part]. I challenged myself with out understanding I’d be permitted, so I used to be actually glad once I bought the inexperienced gentle. It was such a enjoyable problem.”
Balming Tiger are presently engaged on extra new music, on which Omega Sapien stated they had been “attempting many new issues”. “We’ve numerous expertise in Balming Tiger, so it’s only a matter of how a lot condensation we will have as a unified group with a unified imaginative and prescient,” he stated. “If all this expertise comes collectively into one string of sunshine, I believe it’s gonna be actually huge.”
Mudd The Pupil added: “Our first album, ‘January By no means Dies’, is, for me, a reasonably good album, I believe. However the essential factor [isn’t our] particular person energy, [but] Balming Tiger’s energy. We’ve to unravel the issue, and we’ve got to speak to one another deeply. I believe the distinctive energy that solely Balming Tiger has is admittedly essential.”
“Making music is my favorite factor, so I simply do issues the best way I’ve all the time achieved them,” BJ Wnjn stated of his method, whereas Sogumm added that the group “continue learning how you can categorical Balming Tiger’s personal vitality”.
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