As part of this year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Daegu four-piece Inaekkum come to Ulster Sports Club on Thursday 30th April for a Belfast City of Music-presented show rooted in the ongoing UNESCO City of Music exchange between Belfast and Daegu. Ahead of their first ever UK visit, the band spoke to Music Connections about independent scenes outside the capital, the shared energy between Daegu and Belfast, their beautiful 2025 album Organic Tender, and why, before they have even arrived here, they feel already connected.

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Hi guys. Belfast and Daegu are both UNESCO Cities of Music: two cities on opposite sides of the world bound by that shared designation. What does it mean to you to be part of this ongoing exchange and does that connection feel tangible when you’re preparing for a show like this?

Performing on the other side of the world is truly exciting, but it feels like a dream to be playing the role of a bridge between two cities connected by music. As someone born and raised in Daegu, I feel prouder than ever that Daegu is a UNESCO Creative City of Music. (Won Min Choi, 최원민) 

It is the first time for the entire band to visit Belfast (it is also our first time in the UK!), but we feel a deep sense of intimacy. First of all, I believe that in order to exchange with each other, one must first show interest and fall in love with the city and the people one is heading toward. We feel deep gratitude for the hospitality shown by Nikki, Brian, and LORD JANE. Culturally, I really loved the drama ‘Line of Duty.’ I am a big fan of actor Adrian Dunbar. To think that the city where ‘Line of Duty’ was filmed was Belfast! We are having many conversations with LORD JANE as well. We are looking beyond this opportunity to see what wonderful things we can do in each other’s cities next. If they come to Korea, we plan to offer everything we can. We haven’t arrived in the UK yet, but we are already connected. (Woo Seok Min, 민우석) 

This is part of a broader relationship between the two cities: Belfast City of Music hosted HOOLA and their upcycled instrument project last November, and there was the 2025 Daegu Global Forum before that. How aware are you of that wider conversation and does being a part of it add a sense of responsibility or excitement to the trip?

HOOLA is a team I have been interested in since my high school years. Even before forming the band, I was deeply interested in their activities. I am happy that Inaekkum can join this journey. Movements like the global forum between cities show how organically the ecosystem we stand on is connected. Since I have deeply contemplated the structure in which local artists can become self-sufficient and communicate with the world through dialogue, I feel a great sense of responsibility to be part of this flow. However, that responsibility is more exciting than heavy. We have been planning our own performances called ‘Indie Delegation’ to promote regional music exchange between cities within South Korea. This time, the fact that it is Belfast is even more exciting. It is an opportunity to prove the value of ‘Indie to Glocal’ that we pursue in a specific place called Belfast. As you know, South Korea has a high population density in the metropolitan area. Many young people are leaving our home ground, Daegu. We want to prepare the ground so that the city can be self-sustaining.

Korea is a young, vibrant nation just finishing its first century as a modern state. I believe there is something we must do for this city where our hometown and loved ones live. After this tour, we plan to share this experience specifically with our colleagues in Daegu. To ensure that other artists, not just us, can be easily connected at any time and through any path.
(Woo Seok Min, 민우석) 


Belfast has its own rich, fiercely independent music scene – a city that has always done things on its own terms. Coming from Daegu’s indie scene, which has that same kind of outsider energy relative to Seoul, do you feel any kinship with a city like Belfast before you’ve even played a note there?

When I heard about Belfast, I thought it was a city with a similar vibe to Daegu. I felt that this is a place where music starts from an attitude rather than a style, so it feels strangely familiar, and I am excited and looking forward to it. (Sam Il Sa, 314)

Daegu is one of the cities where the indie scene is relatively active among non-metropolitan areas. More than 200 teams are active in Daegu, and I understand that Belfast also has a very diverse range of artists. I am aware that there are many people working in the performance field, including artists. The fact that many people, such as performance planners, sound engineers, instrument rental teams, and venue directors, sweat to improve the quality of the performance comes across as a point of empathy. Daegu also has many such people, and personally, I am also a person who mainly operates indie band performances as a sound engineer and strives to improve the sound quality of performances and content. It is thanks to these people that music scenes can be formed and activated even in regions other than the capital. (Tae Yang Kim, 김태양) 

Organic Tender is a genuinely beautiful record – finely woven and widescreen in equal measure, hitting that rare sweet spot between indie-pop and dream-pop. When you look back at making it, what was the central idea or feeling you were chasing, and do you feel you caught it?

It has been about a year since it was released, but it already feels like a long time ago. What we chased while making “Organic Tender” was not an illusion or an unachievable dream, but ‘ourselves.’ Who are we, what music do we like, and what thoughts do we live with—we recorded the answers to all those questions in the form of music. We focused on what we wanted rather than music to show others, and above all, we prioritized enjoying our work in the process. Thanks to the fact that the worries and joys of that time were captured in the album, I can clearly picture ourselves at that time even when I listen to it now. I think it is an album that honestly captured the inherent colors we pursued. (Won Min Choi, 최원민)

The events experienced in the process of working on the album were the core of the inspiration. A member who had played bass since the beginning of the band left the band for his new dream, (In the process, Woo Seok changed from acoustic guitar to bass guitar. He said let’s support each other’s universes.) the amp noise in the silence while pushing each other during practice, Noel Gallagher’s concert in Korea, recording in a nice studio in Seoul, a car accident on the way home, and the death of a precious pet that I had been with for nearly 20 years were the core emotions of the joys and sorrows felt in the process of working on many albums. (Tae Yang Kim, 김태양)

When working on “Organic Tender,” the most important thing I thought about was the ‘courage to speak with one’s own voice.’ I tried to face the emotion of loss honestly without beautifying it. However, I am still in the process. (Woo Seok Min, 민우석)


Then comes ‘Single Cup’: bewitching synth lines and guitars interweaving under an immediately earworming melody. It feels like it lives in the same emotional world as Organic Tender but perhaps with something sharper at its centre. How do you see it relating to the album? Is it a continuation, a pivot or something else entirely?

“Single Cup” is the last greeting (epilogue) of “Organic Tender” and the door (prologue) that opens the upcoming 2nd album “MY.” It’s a process of accepting and acknowledging my incomplete self and the situation as they are, and even loving that. (Tae Yang Kim, 김태양)

The ‘sharpness’ you mentioned is probably the daily depression and raw sincerity that I decided not to hide anymore. I wanted to capture both the very minor happiness, like the ‘pie from mom’ in the lyrics, and the underlying cool loneliness (depression). This is not a simple continuation, but a ‘transition’ into the deepest and most painful parts of a person. It is an attempt to face the truth with a sense of atonement, no longer staying in the shell. (Woo Seok Min, 민우석)

You’re self-producing your visuals as well as your music, which gives inaekkum a very coherent aesthetic identity. How much does the visual side inform the sound and vice versa – is it a parallel process or does one always lead?

I think visuals and sound should go side by side to eventually show one completed world. This is because it can be delivered to the audience as one large work only when all elements are organically harmonized. However, since we are people who make music above all else, I think the essence, music, is the most important. So the concept or theme of the music is always decided first, and the visual aspect is matched to the texture or emotion of that sound.

In particular, even when doing visual work, we prioritize capturing ‘our natural selves.’ We try to capture the way we are, the state in which we feel most comfortable, rather than an overly decorated appearance. We believe that such a natural appearance fits our music and the color of Inaekkum best. (Won Min Choi, 최원민)

In Korea, there is a word called ‘sim-sang [心象]’ (imagery). It means pictures or videos that come to mind. Music is an invisible art, but it has the charm of projecting through a special window called the heart. It is invisible to the eye, but it is visible. The color of a specific place, the scattering of light, and symbolic objects determine the texture of the sound. Visuals and sound are closer to one organism than being parallel. The reason I directly control the color correction tone of photos or the direction of color correction for videos as an editorial director is that the ‘true image’ I saw must be completely substituted with sound. Sometimes a strong visual symbol becomes the inspiration for lyrics, and sometimes a completed melody determines the composition of a specific visual. (Woo Seok Min, 민우석)


After Belfast on April 30th, you’ve got Liverpool Sound City on May 3rd and then Norrköping in Sweden on May 6th: quite a run across very different cities and crowds. How do you approach that kind of stretch and what does playing live do for the music that recording simply can’t?

It’s my first time going abroad (I’m even issuing a passport for the first time in my life!), and it’s a schedule where I have to pass through different cities like Belfast, Liverpool, and Norrköping quickly, so it’s definitely not an easy journey physically, but I think it will be fun. Rather than ‘doing it perfectly,’ I’m going to focus on the atmosphere of the city and the audience that day. This is because I want to accept the performance as a constantly changing process, not as a single result.

The charm of live is also there. While a recording is a completed form, live is where emotions and energy that exist only at that moment enter the music. The fact that the same song can flow in a completely different direction depending on the audience is the reason why the members, including myself, want to continue standing on stage. (Sam Il Sa, 314)

In live, the members try to immerse themselves in the music they play with their individual organic attitudes. Therefore, energies that cannot be felt in recordings sometimes come out. I think the biggest charm is that you can feel the audiovisual elements that are not contained in the music, such as eye contact between each other, interplay, eye contact and air with the audience, etc., in Inaekkum’s live. (Tae Yang Kim, 김태양)

You’re clearly in a rich creative moment: a debut album, new music out, now international dates. What’s on the horizon? Is there a sense of where inaekkum goes next, sonically or otherwise?

Our future plan is to strive to meet fans in more diverse places than now. In particular, we want to increase the scale of the ‘Indie Delegation’ performance that we planned ourselves last year and continue that flow not only in Korea but also abroad. I believe the experience in Belfast this time will be a precious stepping stone. In terms of sound, while maintaining our unique mood, we are continuing to work on music while considering the expanded sound of ‘Inaekkum’ that can sympathize with many audiences on a wider stage. Starting with the 2nd full-length album to be released in September this year, we plan to continue these attempts and activities more actively, so please watch us! (Won Min Choi, 최원민)

My personal goal is to stand on the stage as an artist at the ‘Pentaport Rock Festival,’ the largest rock festival in Korea. I didn’t expect to be on the stage of an overseas festival at all. It was an unexpected opportunity. I am more than happy to participate before domestic festivals thanks to a truly grateful opportunity. (Tae Yang Kim, 김태양)

We will release our 2nd full-length album “MY” in September. This album is a very important confession before the albums to come. We are having a hard time physically and mentally as it is a tight schedule followed by a regular release schedule, but we believe that all these processes are processes that we must willingly do. We hope to carve constellations for everyone sailing through life and be a source of hope when they face a moment of being lost. There are no borders in the sea, no race, and no gender. I think life is painful and finite, so it cannot be stopped. We want to do music that ‘smells like a person.’ We want to do music that does not display or boast. We hope it will be music that can be reached without hesitation in the most difficult moments of life. As our precious colleagues Say Sue Me and Drinking Boys and Girls Choir did, we also want to fulfill our calling in the place where we were born and raised, Daegu, rather than succeeding and heading to the capital. I think I will be very busy when I return to Korea, probably because of paying back the debts of over 10 million won incurred by this tour schedule. But even that process is really exciting. You will be able to check the musical journey of Inaekkum through the album coming out this September. Since this journey is the start of a planned journey of about 5 years, please give us a lot of interest and love. We always want to share our hearts with fans and continue to make music that lights up the entire mind with a very small scene. (Woo Seok Min, 민우석)