A genre of his own, shaped by a contemporary musical sensibility and the taste of the Korean language. Chang Kiha, an artist without borders.
Chang Kiha started out as the drummer of the band Nunttugo Kobein. In 2008 he released the solo single [Cheap Coffee], which spoke for the social and personal circumstances of his generation and drew attention and affection without precedent. He went on to form Kiha & The Faces and led the band for ten years, with an impact wide enough to redefine what the word “indie band” meant in Korea. Building on the foundation of Korean rock, the band added a contemporary musical sensibility and lyrics that brought out the taste of the Korean language, forming a genre of its own and settling in as one of the country’s defining bands. Its two albums [Living Without Trouble] and [Kiha & The Faces] won seven Korean Music Awards. He is at his brightest on stage. Through projects built on singular ideas and on hard thinking about the conditions of today’s music — <Mono>, a headphone concert where he sang as if whispering to each listener, and <Blank Check Project>, which let listeners set the price of his music — he has pulled Korean popular music toward a wider range and a clearer direction. After the band played its last show in December 2018, he pushed the borders of genre further still. Even during the band years he worked as a radio DJ and an actor, showing an artist who was never confined to one stage; since going solo he has stood out across a wider spread of fields. He has walked as a model in an Hermès show, and has recorded audiobooks of modern Korean literature such as <A Journey to Mujin> and <Wings>, where his exact diction and almost sung delivery have won him a large following. He is still taking on new work. Records and concerts that carry his color in full are in preparation, along with collaborations with a range of musicians and film soundtracks. He is also putting into writing the thoughts that would not fit into speech or song, and will keep widening the boundaries of his own attempts and practices across the arts. Fluent at taking apart and recombining the divisions between indie and major, between genres and between fields, Chang Kiha remains the old future of Korean popular music.