Dragon Pony drops debut album, portraying incomplete yet passionate youth

From left: Dragon Pony members bassist Pyun Sung-hyun, vocalist An Tae-gyu, drummer Ko Gang-hun and guitarist Kwon Se-hyuk pose for a photo during the press conference held in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Thursday. (Kwon Min-seo/The Korea Herald)

On Thursday Indie music powerhouse Antenna’s new band Dragon Pony dropped its first album “Pop Up," full of ambition to lead the future Korean band scene.

The new quintet consists of vocalist An Tae-gyu, guitarist Kwon Se-hyuk, Bassist Pyun Sung-hyun and drummer Ko Gang-hun.

"Our slogan is ‘The hot music of imperfect boys,’ and we think this phrase best represents us. We will continue to show intense energy through songs that capture our honest emotions," explained An.

Pyun emphasized that all four members are music producers. "All four of us participated in lyric writing, composing and arranging, and though all the tracks are in the rock genre, each song has its own unique character," said Pyun.

The title track “Pop Up” tells the story of imperfect boys who do not fit into ordinary life. It is an autobiographical song with the members’ message of choosing to follow their own path rather than the standards set by society.

"The title track was newly created while preparing for this album. We think one of our strengths is having fun and jumping around with the audience, so we chose a song that everyone can enjoy and shout along to as the title track," said Pyun.

Instead of listing individual members' names, the album credits are all under the team name Dragon Pony.

"Although one person might provide the basic idea or concept for a song, we all contribute to its completion. That's why we decided to list the team name Dragon Pony in the credits," said Kwon.

Ko, Pyun, and Kwon are high school friends and also juniors and seniors at Seoul Institute of the Arts. "The three of us weren’t making music together back then, and we didn’t even know each other were trainees, but we ended up becoming a team through our agency," recalled Ko.

"I once talked about making a band to Kang-hun during high school, but it didn’t happen then. Now, debuting in the same team feels really special," said Pyun.

Prior to their debut Thursday, Dragon Pony was included in the lineups of major festivals in Korea, such as the Hyundai Card Da Vinci Motel, the 2024 Busan International Rock Festival, and the Grand Mint Festival. In June, they also sold out their debut mission solo concert of 500 tickets in just one minute and succeeded in their social media mission of reaching 20,000 followers.

The members expressed that their debut was just the beginning and shared their resolve for the future.

"We can’t say for sure what kind of music we’ll make moving forward, but we plan to capture the journey of ourselves -- imperfect individuals supporting each other and becoming more complete. Along the way, we hope to bring comfort to many people," said Kwon.

"One day, we hope to become headliners at world-renowned festivals like Lollapalooza and Glastonbury," added Ko.

By Lee Jung-youn(jy@heraldcorp.com)