Two weeks ago, on christmas eve, the word of some guy wearing a GMC Records t-shirt on TV started spreading on Twitter. Turns out it was the vocalist of Sweet Guerillaz showing off some very impressive vocal skills in MBC’s new idol making show Star Audition: 위대한 탄생. I watched his YouTube clip from the show several times, then asked GMC founder Kyono if perhaps he could help me ask Yang Jung-mo a few questions.

Could you please start by introducing yourself?
Hello, Indieful ROK and all readers there. I am Yang Jungmo, bassist player and vocalist for the melodic punk band Sweet Guerillaz. Currently I’m also playing bass for Vicious Glare, which is a NYHC style band. Recently I got on MBC’s Star Audition 위대한 탄생 (Great Birth)

Would you like to say something about your expectations and experiences from MBC Star Audition?
To audition for the show was more of a challenge to myself, not the vocalist of Sweet Guerillaz. I thought it would be a good opportunity to sing songs to a wider range of people because I had thought it would be very helpful to my music career.

The reason I sang 아름다운 사실 (Beautiful Fact) of Boohwal for the round was that I’ve loved it ever since I watched the movie A Moment To Remember (내 머리 속의 지우개) and it has the song on the OST. Another reason was that the guitarist of Boohwal – Kim Tae Won – was there as a judge so I thought I would take an advantage of doing it, plus he is the one person I truly respect since I could feel him having so much personal charm unlike other stars on TV. For the next round the show will be choosing the song as a mission, so I am not sure what song I am going to sing then.

What I have seen through this whole audition thing is that there are so many talent youngsters having so much enthusiasm about music and it’s making me force myself to practice a lot more not to be left behind. Nonetheless, simultaneously I am so satisfied with the fact that I can say that the music scene here in the future is gonna be brighter than now.

What does this mean for Sweet Guerillaz?
Actually, I think showing myself on 위대한 탄생 has a meaning to all musicians in the underground scene in Korea, including Sweet Guerillaz. I just hope my appearances on the TV show will turn some more people interested in getting themselves into the live houses with strong attractive points from the scene.

I don’t think I can do something big for the scene by being on TV, but I am still trying to figure out something helpful to people in the scene. I thought it was a good idea to wear some merch from the scene, and that’s why I wore the GMC Records stadium jacket and the GMC Records summer festival t-shirt at the time. Honestly, a number of people said it was so cool to see GMC stuff on TV and I just can’t count how many compliments I got from it. So I should stay on the show for ong to show some more merch, right? haha

When can we see you on TV next time?
The video on YouTube was actually the third round of entire audition and I think I could go to the final round by passing four or more rounds. Unfortunately, I don’t have much information to hand out to you guyz except for the next concept of the show.

There are already 160 people chosen out of 150,000 people from the rounds and 30 of them are gonna be having qualification to be on the final by competing through some kind of reality-show-like survival game for two nights and three days. I am not sure when those episodes are airing but it will be much much appreciated if you guyz support me then~

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Seems like a very sympathetic guy, doesn’t he? And A Moment To Remember just happens to be one of my all time favorite movies (see clip here). I’ll be more than happy to support Yang Jung-mo in whichever way I can, so you can trust that I’ll do my best to keep you updated on his progress in the show here.

Check out more audition videos from other contestants on the official YouTube channel.