Mintpaper Compilation vol. 4 is coming

Just today there has been an update on the fourth Mintypaper Compilation 'cafe: night & day'. A rough translation of one part:

The night and day of a café, starting with busy talk and laughter and ending with quiet thoughts and preparation, carries for us the meaning of a ‘scenery and space to share culture and communication’. The stories and connections, followed by sometimes serious, sometimes futile episodes, and the countless crowds of thoughts are delivered once again with a plain touch.

While the new arisen ‘duos’ and ‘acoustic’ become the centre in ‘café: night & day’ with a tendency to Mintpaper related artists, we will also introduce rare collaborations and rising artists whose growth makes looking forward to.

10cm's new song '안아줘' from the compilation will be pre-released in a digitial single Augutst 16.

Kangto's Interview with Mintpaper

Through Mintpaper's newsletter I came across this interview and translated it. (I may be lazy, but feel free to drop me something.)

T/N: Sorry about weird english


Kangto Interview – A guitarist singing with his heart

In the field I am there are a lot of people who want to make their own original thing. But it’s not easy to enjoy what I do unflinchingly to the surrounding circumstances.

“Becoming happy is my dream. Currently, the closest thing to happiness seems to be the music for me. So I’m making music.”

A young man who grew up with music, playing his guitar since he was little, and even though there were times he worried ‘is this the right path?’, he never let go of the guitar, performed joyfully und raised his dream. Then he met a good mentor coincidentally and finally he was a newcomer releasing his first album under his own name. Listening to his story, it doesn’t seem the ‘coincidence’ simply came. After playing guitar and singing somewhere for a long series of time, how is the feeling of holding the album he finally released under his own name? His name is still unfamiliar, but we met the newcomer, singing with a pure heart, Kangto.

Something small Mintpaper-ish

By chance I stumbled over a blog entry by Sombrero (head of MPMG) about the plans of the 4th Mintpaper project album. He writes that it will maybe be released in September, latest before GMF 2011 in October. There are still no songs, but the participants have been decided to a certain extent. Also, there will be a lot of new faces, he says.

On another small note, No Reply's song '낡은 배낭을 메고' that had been on the digital single '끝나지 않은 노래', has been used for a cuckoo rice cooker advertisment with Won Bin.

Not so new news

I have been away from blogging for a while, I'm sorry for that.
I didn't really kept up on the news that time, so I will just try to summarize what got under my nose.

- Younha and Super Kidd filmed a CF for chicken together. Younha's 'Password 486' lyrics have been remodeled a bit and Super Kidd changed their positions. You can watch it here.

- There have been lots of updates on Mintpaper's LIFE. Mainly about the A-Live Concert, preorder and such stuff. I uploaded the teaser here. I just want to count up some background stuff that has been mentioned and I thought may be (more or less) interesting.
Besides the Artists of the 16 songs on the track list, a lot of performers(playing the background instruments and chorus and such) and 10 labels participated on this compilation. In the case of 10cm, Lala Sweet and Serengeti, the songs have been discovered at performances and decided to be on the compilation. So it was not easy at first to decide on one theme that fits to them all.
Sweet Sorrow's Sung Jin Hwan worked for the very first time together with Serengeti.
No Reply's Wook Jae worked for the first time as a producer for Lala Sweet.
Joa Band was the very first team that got in mind of the organizer when they decided for the compilation LIFE.
Earip's song 'our house singer' are episodes about her all day life with her cat 'Nawa', so the cat sounds in the song are not recorded accidentally.
Omega3's Go Kyung Cheon participates at Lonely H's Band's song playing the keyboard.
For a better feel for the lyrics, Autumn Holiday's song has been simplified compared to the demo.

- 10cm got Model Jung Hye Sun as their stylist. As she liked the band from the very first time, she decided to try out as their stylist. You can watch her 'challenge' on the Elle homepage, here.

- Some Musicians of Happy Robots are currently working on their 2nd album, which includes Naru (who finished his mixing process, bought a new guitar and will have a haircut soon and a profile photo shoot tomorrow), Daybreak (rumor has it that it will come out around July), No Reply (who are at the preparing status) and Tearliner (who also works on his Travel Essay).
Besides that, No Reply's Sungwan also participated with '완벽한 추억' at Lee Seung Hwan’s 10nd album and Joe Brown will be the director for KOXX’ music video ‘Trouble Maker’.

[Mintpaper] LIFE 5th Update

Due to a delay the mastering has been pushed a bit forward and the day of release has been decided on May 4 (TU). (It will be still pre-sold at Beautiful Mint Life)

The tracklist that has been revealed is 70% sure, the 100% sure tracklist will follow April 14.

01. 10cm - 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요(The darkness tonight is scary)
02. Daybreak - 팝콘(popcorn)
03. Sung Ji Hwan - 포근해(cozy)
04. Lala Sweet - Good Bye
05. Lee Neung Ryong with Im Ju Yeon - 없는끝 이야기(Endless story)
06. Han Hee Jung - 오늘은 휴일입니다(Today is holiday)
07. Dalmoon - 구제불능(hopeless)
08. Lonely H's Band - 고향에 살어리랏다(survive in hometown)
09. neons - 달빛 스쿠터(Moonlight Scooter)
10. naru - 무지개(rainbow)
11. Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑(hobby is love)
12. Earip - 우리집 싱어(our home singer)
13. 달빛요정역전만루홈런(Moonlight Nymph) - 주성치와 함께라면(being together with Stephen Chow)
14. Joa-Band - 유통기한(expiration date)
15. Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침(Winter Morning)
16. Serengeti - Hakuna Matata
(*do not take 100% on title translations)

Serengeti's Hakuna Matata is said to be a follow up to 'We Are The World' with No Reply's Gwon Sun Gwan, Oh Ji Eun, Daybreak's Lee Won Weok and EZ Hyung participating in the chorus.

The track that will be released before the CD comes out will be one song out of Sung Ji Hwan's '포근해', Lonely H's Band (still pronounced like Lonely Husband) '고향에 살어리랏다', or Serengeti's 'Hakuna Matata'.
The title song will be decided by the staff in a meeting.

Due to high expenses for the merchandise, it has been decided that there will be no merchandise for the limited edition. Instead there will be no limited edition with being both the same. But they will work hard for a nice package.

The booklet with photos and lyrics is organized with 32 pages.
The photos fitting to the LIFE concept will be done mostly by Starry-Eyed's duck and a little by Kathrin Jin(head of Mintpaper) and Sombrero(head of Master Plan).

[Mintpaper] LIFE 4th Update

Planned on 14 songs first, then decided to 15 the number of songs changed now again to 16 songs. The last 4 added songs are following:

01. Sung Ji Hwan - [title to be announced]
02. Serengeti - Hakuna Matata
03. Daybreak - 팝콘(popcorn)
04. naru - 무지개(rainbow)
05. Earip - 우리집 싱어
06. Lonely Husband - 고향에 살어리랏다
07. 달빛요정역전만루홈런(Moonlight Nymph) - 주성치와 함께라면
08. Dalmoon - 구제불능
09. Han Hee Jung - 오늘은 휴일입니다
10. 10cm - 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요
11. Lee Neung Ryong (feat. Im Ju Yeon) - 없는끝 이야기
12. neons - 달빛 스쿠터
13. Joa-Band - 유통기한
14. Lala Sweet - Good Bye
15. Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑
16. Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침
*order of songs is not related to the final tracklist. correct tracklist will be announced after the mastering April 5.

Sweet Sorrow Sung Ji Hwan's Solosong. The recording has been finished a while ago but he is uneasy as he has no title for the song now. He did the song together with Serengeti.

It has been decided that the full band version of the song Hakuna Matata, which gained much applause during Serengeti's first arthall concert, will also be recorded.
It will also be fun to see who participated in the chorus.

The song Daybreak is going to record for LIFE has been changed 3 times. The other two songs that got almost on the compilation, '머리가 자란다' and '에라모르겠다', are now playing a role in Deb's album recording.

The last song that has been decided on is Naru's '무지개'. He did all the performing, vocal, recording and even the 1st mixing alone. It will probably the song that boast the most powerful decibel on the compilation.


7 songs have been mixed, it is planned to have 10 songs finished(mixing) this week and have all songs by thursday next week.
Mastering will be finished April 5 and after ten days from today on the correct tracklist can be announced.

Changes have been made to the schedule:

4.02(FR) | Finishing mixing
4.05(MO) | Finishing mastering
4.06(TU) | Announcing correct track list
4.10~11(SA~SU) | Releasing as entrance music for live ICON audience!
4.14(WE) | First Design release
4.19(MO) | Open for preorder
4.26(MO) | MINTPAPER RADIO special LIFE release broadcast - first release of full songs
4.27(TU) | Pre-release of a part of tracks online
5.01~2(SA~SU) | First sale of limited amount (Beautiful Mint Life)
5.03(MO) | Release in shops in the whole country
5.06(TH) | Opening radio publicity
5.28~29(FR~SA) | MNET 'AURA' - LIFE Release Concert @ Timesquare CGV Art Hall

[Mint Paper] LIFE 3rd Update

A new update on LIFE has been made on the Mint Paper homepage.

The 3rd line up of songs+artists has been revealed and the list looks like this now:

01. Earip - 우리집 싱어
02. Lonely Husband - 고향에 살어리랏다
03. 달빛요정역전만루홈런(Moonlight Nymph) - 주성치와 함께라면
04. Dalmoon - 구제불능
05. Han Hee Jung - 오늘은 휴일입니다
06. 10cm - 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요
07. Lee Neung Ryong (feat. Im Ju Yeon) - 없는끝 이야기
08. neons - 달빛 스쿠터
09. Joa-Band - 유통기한
10. Lala Sweet - Good Bye
11. Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑
12. Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침

Kim C (Hot Potatoes) and Lee Sun Gyu (Jaurim) work together as the project band Lonely Husband to record a song with fabulous sound.
Sweater vocal Earip's small and lovely solo song after a long time.
Moonlight Nymph' humor and resolution about seperation.
Dalmoon's song about self-reflection and gloomy confessions.


12 songs have been official announced by now, but the whole song number to be recorded is 15. The 3 left songs and artists will be probably announced sometime during the next 2 weeks.

A schedule for the LIFE release has been announced:

4.02(FR) | Finishing mixing
4.05(MO) | Finishing mastering
4.06(TU) | Announcing correct track list
4.10~11(SA~SU) | Releasing as entrance music for live ICON audience!
4.14(WE) | First Design release
4.19(MO) | Open for preorder
4.26(MO) | Pre-release of a part of tracks online
5.01~2(SA~SU) | First sale of limited amount (Beautiful Mint Life)
5.03(MO) | Release in shops in the whole country
5.06(TH) | Opening radio publicity
5.28~29(FR~SA) | Album Release Concert

This is the program but it also may change a bit.


Other Infos about the album say that the normal album will have a 'digipack' with illustrations and photos. The first limited print will be produced with a special bag and will even include some kind of Merchandise.

The limitation of the first print is not decided yet but will be at least 3,000 and max 5,000 CDs. It is also planned to procede an event at the BML where the limited first press will be sold to a normal price. The normal album and the limited version will have a price difference and it will be possible to buy them in every store.

[Mintpaper] 2nd Update on LIFE

There has been news about Mintpaper's 3rd compilation LIFE.
To the first list of 4 artists and songs, new 4 songs have been added.

Han Hee Jung - 오늘은 휴일입니다(Today is holiday)
10cm - 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요(The darkness tonight is scary)
Lee Neung Ryong - 없는끝 이야기(Endless story)
neons - 달빛 스쿠터(Moonlight Scooter)

없는끝 이야기 is the first solo project of Lee Neung Ryong, guitarist of Sisters Barbershop.
neons is the solo project of MONGOO, keyboard and vocal of the Mongoose.

There have been changes to the 1st Line-up though and some explanations were added:
Joa-Band - 유통기한 (song has been changed)
Lala Sweet - Good Bye (together with No Reply's Jung Wook Jae as producer)
Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑 (Gyepi and Boby Chung's new unit)
Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침(Winter Morning) (worrying a bit as spring came so early, but...)

A big staff meeting is planned for March 2nd and the exact schedule will be settled there. As for now, the planned progress looks like following: in 15~20 days a sparta recording, end of March/beginning of April mixing parade and album design and in mid of April the release!(would be awesomeㅠ)

[Lucid Fall] Mintpaper Interview

As Lucid Fall is Mintpaper's Person of the month February, they did an interview with him.

It is a rather comfortable one and nice to read. I didn't gave his radio appearance a listen yet though.

[Mintpaper] New Infos about LIFE

Mintpaper has been updated with some infos about the 3rd compilation 'LIFE'. More updates will probably follow at the beginning of February.

Artists that are currently recording or will start soon are

Joa-Band - 안부
Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침
Lala Sweet - Good Bye
Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑

It has been said that Sisters Barbershop's guitarist Lee Neung Ryong (이능룡) will participate with his first solo song.
All in all 13 artists will participate.

The release date has been pushed from 'end of March' to 'mid of April'.
SaengSeon, who is in charge of the photos, will soon travel for a while to Island...

[Mintpaper] New Compilation

After 'Cat Stories'+'Dog Stories' and 'Man and Woman ... and Stories' the third compilation by Mintpaper has started its production.

The title of the new compilation is 'LIFE' and different from his previous partners takes a change and has no 'Stories' in it. Goal is it to create an album filled with the simplest stories and a strength of the lyrics that go over reality. Like the title implies, it talks about the several moments of living a fierce live and the feelings of it. With a feeling suitable the words 'inexperiences' and 'mood' it is supposed to become an album that is able to catch the sympathy of everyone. It is planned to be released in spring next year; if everything goes fast in March, if it is late in April. (It is planned to release it 24th March but it is questionable if it can be done until then.) The compilation will consist of one CD with 14 songs on it. The artists have been decided already and are in midst of working for it.