I’m Still Here + That One Time I Kicked It At SXSW 2015

Goddamn it, WordPress. I swear I scheduled this post to go up two weeks ago. I should’ve known better than to trust this cursed thing. Ugh.

Anyway — what’s good, fam? I know it’s been a while since my last post and I should go ahead and let you know that I’m still here and still totally committed to blogging. I’ve actually been going through the ringer IRL. It’s nothing serious (I’ll probably tell you later), just a couple things that have required me to be away from my computer for an extended period of time recently. The point is that I’m here to tell you I’ve got a few posts I’m working on and plenty of catching up to do. I hope that’s okay with you.

Oh! Also, SXSW 2015 is a thing that happened a couple months ago! If you missed any of it through my Twitter or Instagram feed, here’s my complete coverage of it if you’re interested in reading it:

SXSW 2015: Interview With Glam Metal Band Victim Mentality

SXSW 2015: Interview With The Eclectic Electronic Experience Of EE

SXSW 2015: Perfume Wows With Cinematic Opening, Performs “STORY” & Past Hits

SXSW 2015: A Night Out With ‘K-Pop’ — The Barberettes, EE, Hitchhiker, Crayon Pop, Epik High

Asian Junkie was kind enough to get me into the festival this year and I think I did a decent job covering the major K-Pop events for the site. Although, I will say I wasn’t as dedicated to showing up to all the Korean things this time, which I should probably work on if I want to do this again next year. The way I saw it was: go to the shows that will actually matter to my audience and then skip around shows and parties the rest of the time because I can. I failed at networking too, which again is a skill of mine that needs improvement, but in my defense I had a shit-ton of fun not doing it. Damn it sucks to be so chill sometimes.

I know I’ve spewed my word-vomit about the festival throughout my write-ups for AJ and I really don’t have much else to add, but just as a quick recap, here are a few of my highlights of SXSW 2015.

1) PERFUME. Like, you guys don’t even understand how effing life-changing it was to see mother-bleepin’ Perfume live. I can’t say I was a big stan of theirs before seeing them live, but I can sure enough say that I am now after watching their show.

Here’s one of my favorite moments:

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2) Seeing old friends and meeting new faces. While everyone seemed pretty familiar this year, especially since this is, what, my third time covering SXSW, it was definitely a pleasure meeting people I had only interacted with online prior to the festival. It was regrettably very brief and I know I missed a few people, but either way meeting up with peeps from the Korean blogosphere was awesome and it made this whole community feel a lot more personal and interconnected in a very special way.

3) THE INTIMATE SHOWS, DUH. Aside from Perfume, who were the only Japanese act I was able to catch, the rest of my SXSW time was dedicated to K-Pop and Korean indie music.

All I have to say is that I will never be as close to some of these performers as I was that week, and for that I am eternally grateful. Like, how many people can say they’ve literally rubbed shoulders with Tablo and DJ Tukutz of Epik High or snapped a selfie with Victim Mentality and The Barberettes? Not very many. And yeah, this is me being a total fanboy after the fact, but there were a few times at SXSW when I wasn’t in work mode that it felt amazing to be in such an intimate setting with artists who would never be seen mingling so closely to their audience. And I think that’s one of the great things about the festival. The accessibility to talent is priceless.

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Overall, I think this was the best SXSW yet for Korean music and culture, as well as for me as a writer and a fan. I had a blast, and although my SXSW was cut short (I got sick the last couple days *insert sadface*), I’m glad I made the best of it while I was there.

And as for ITHYK?, expect the return of those things I used to write way back when … ::cough:: reviews ::cough, cough::