In just a few years, can’t be blue have gone from a group of university students trying to get their first shows in Hongdae to a band finding its place in front of audiences far beyond Korea.
Along the way, they’ve built their music from the ground up, learning through every release, performance and experience that came with it. There’s still a sense of that early hunger in the band, even as everything around them continues to grow.
Now, can’t be blue are entering a new part of their story. With their latest full-length behind them and new music beginning to take shape, the band has had time to reflect on how much has changed since those early days. There’s something exciting about watching an artist grow while still holding onto the parts of themselves that made people want to listen in the first place, and can’t be blue seem to be doing exactly that.
For Sweety High, can’t be blue sat down to talk about where they’ve been, where they’re headed and everything that has shaped them along the way. From their beginnings as a university band to the world they’re building now, the five members are continuing to figure things out as they go. As can’t be blue looks toward what comes next, there’s still plenty left to discover.
Read our full interview with can’t be blue below.
(Photo credit: CATS WHISKERS CO. LTD)
Sweety High: Before we get into the new music, let’s start with the five of you. What’s something about can’t be blue that people wouldn’t know just from listening to your music or watching you perform?
can’t be blue: We’re honestly very different offstage from how we come across onstage. Our songs get pretty honest and even dark at times, but day-to-day we’re actually the opposite: loud, always joking around with each other. After practice we’ll order chicken and see who can tell the funniest story, and on tour we’ll spend hours on the bus making pointless bets over nothing.
People meeting us for the first time are usually surprised by how much higher energy we are than they expected from the music. We think that gap is pretty funny ourselves.
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SH: You started the band while you were in university. What do you remember most clearly about yourselves back then that you think has disappeared, or maybe never changed?
can’t be blue: In the early days, even wanting to play a show wasn’t enough, since barely any venues would book us. It was hard just to get a slot at a small club or cafe in Hongdae. That made every single show feel urgent and something we were genuinely grateful for. That’s one thing we try never to forget.
(Photo credit: CATS WHISKERS CO. LTD)
SH: I’ve been listening to you guys since Blue Vinyl, so getting to see where can’t be blue is now honestly makes me really proud of you guys. When you look back at that era of the band, what are you proudest of?
can’t be blue: No matter the circumstances, we made our music with our own hands, booked our own venues, and sat in our own production meetings. That drive is what we’re proudest of. That earnestness and effort is exactly why we’re still able to keep making music today.
SH: Music can mean something completely different to the person listening than it did to the person who wrote it. Has a listener ever told you what one of your songs meant to them and completely changed the way you heard it?
can’t be blue: Honestly, having listeners interpret a song through their own experience is exactly what I want, so hearing different readings of a song is always a good thing to me. That said, I usually write with a clear message in mind, so other interpretations haven’t really changed how I personally hear the song.
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SH: You’ve put out so much music now that I’m curious: do you still have songs that feel like “old can’t be blue” to you, even if they’re not actually that old?
can’t be blue: Yes. Even our debut single, “in the words i called love,” isn’t even three years old, but when we play it now, it can feel like a completely different band wrote it.
Back then, we put it out quietly, with no marketing behind it at all, and now we think through and care about so much more in every detail of a song. Every time we play those older songs, we notice how naive we were, and sometimes we actually miss that. It’s strange to realize how much we’ve changed and grown in such a short time.
SH: You’ve had a few months to live with can’t be blue now. Is there anything about the album you hear differently after letting it go and watching people listen to it?
can’t be blue: It’s genuinely thrilling when people pick up on the exact message we were trying to get across. That’s made us care even more about the message behind every song now.
SH: The new single comes after a full-length record, which makes me curious about the timing of it. Did “Fxxkin’ Rockstar” exist before can’t be blue was finished, or did it come from everything that happened after the album?
can’t be blue: Fxxkin’ Rockstar came together after the album was already finished. Making the album meant lining up every song’s message and figuring out the right track order, so we were tense the whole time without really noticing it.
Once the album was done, all of that tension let go at once, and we wanted to write something freer, without overthinking it. It genuinely came together in just a few days, from demo to final version. We sometimes call it the song that came out right after we finally exhaled.
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SH: There’s something really playful about “Fxxkin’ Rockstar,” especially after an album that has some heavier moments. Did you want to make something that felt a little more carefree this time around?
can’t be blue: On the surface, “Fxxkin’ Rockstar” might sound like a playful track, but the message underneath still carries the kind of self-deprecating mood we always write about. We wanted it to feel like a bright-colored scream. Our next album will probably be a bit heavier though.
(Photo credit: CATS WHISKERS CO. LTD)
SH: What’s something you guys have become much more particular about since the beginning of can’t be blue?
can’t be blue: Sound detail. We used to think a good song was all that mattered, but now we’re far more sensitive to mixing and live sound. Touring across different countries and hearing how much sound systems vary from venue to venue made us spend a lot more time on sound check during rehearsals.
We also plan out our stage movement and lighting cues in advance now, which we never used to think about. What started as just wanting the song to sound good has turned into wanting the whole moment to come across well.
SH: You’re spending so much more time onstage now. What part of performing has become easier, and what part somehow still makes you nervous?
can’t be blue: Reading the crowd has definitely gotten easier. Even across language barriers, we can almost tell just from eye contact when everyone should jump together or when to go quiet and just listen.
On the other hand, stepping out in front of a new country and a new crowd still feels nerve-racking every single time. When sound check is short at an unfamiliar venue, we’re nervous right up until the first song starts. What’s strange is that the nerves never really go away; we’ve just learned how to enjoy them.
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SH: You’ve gone from playing tiny rooms to playing for audiences in different countries. Is there still a specific kind of room or show that makes you think, “Yeah, this is exactly why we started a band”?
can’t be blue: It doesn’t matter the size of the room, that feeling always hits the moment the crowd starts singing our lyrics back to us. It’s the same whether it’s the tiny club in Hongdae that first booked us or a festival stage in front of tens of thousands.
If anything, the smaller the room, the clearer those voices sound, and being able to see everyone’s faces makes it land even harder. On nights like that, the feeling stays with us long after the show, and we usually end up riding back to the hotel in silence, still sitting with it.
(Photo credit: CATS WHISKERS CO. LTD)
SH: After a long run of shows, what’s the first thing you guys want to do when you finally get a day off?
can’t be blue: We like to get a drink together as a band. Those nights end up being where we talk about each other, about music and about nothing in particular, and it’s how we’ve become more than just bandmates. So honestly, getting a drink together is usually the first thing we want to do.
SH: Before we let you go, what’s something you’re hoping this next chapter of can’t be blue gives you the chance to do?
can’t be blue: We’re hoping this next chapter keeps giving us the chance to play our music in more countries, for more kinds of audiences. And through all of that, we want to hold onto our own identity.
A lot of what we’ve built so far came from figuring things out ourselves, and we want to keep that same mindset even as the stages get bigger. On a personal level, we’d also love to meet more artists from different languages and backgrounds and learn from them.
(Photo credit: CATS WHISKERS CO. LTD)
For more on the artists we can’t get enough of, click HERE to read our interview with BE:FIRST on their global EP, WATCH ME.
