Go Away With … Tablo of Epik High

By Jae-Ha Kim
Los Angeles Times
March 26, 2019

The first Korean group to ever perform at Coachella, Epik High is touring to promote its critically acclaimed album, “Sleepless In __________.” Comprised of Tablo, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz, the alternative hip-hop group is known for its impassioned live shows and lyrically complex music. Ten years ago, the group was in jeopardy when an internet rumor about Tablo’s education snowballed into a full-blown scandal. Online trolls accused Tablo of having lied about graduating from Stanford University. Even after the school proved that he was an alumni, the rumors didn’t die down. He received death threats and was forced to go into hiding. “I took my family to Tokyo and then to Hawaii to keep them away from the awe-inspiringly hellish thing that was happening to me,” he says. “I remember everything about that trip. It kept me sane for a little bit. Call it a sane-cation.” Follow Tablo Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Their updated concert dates are on their website.

Q. Your family moved around a lot when you were younger. How did that affect your childhood?

A. I was born in Seoul and almost immediately taken along to Jakarta. I was there for a while, and then was elsewhere, and then I was back in Seoul. I immigrated to Canada when I was 8. This I remember well because the move occurred halfway into the Summer Olympics in Seoul. I saw half the Olympics in Seoul and the latter half in Vancouver. My parents were always moving. Even in Vancouver, we moved to a new neighborhood almost every year or two. I changed schools so many times. I returned to Seoul after middle school. So, my childhood was a constant loop of saying teary goodbyes to old friends and awkward hellos to new ones. Eventually, I stopped myself from making too many friends, because I knew I would have to say goodbye to them and I hated that. Wow, this sounds really depressing when I word it out like this. Well, it was.

Q. How has visiting other countries affected your music, particularly your lyrics?

A. The fact that I’m bilingual seems to affect my writing the most. There are certain beautiful words that embody a world of emotions in the Korean language that don’t have counterparts in English. And vice versa. So being versed in both allows my emotions to have a much larger playing field. Also, the sheer number of cultures I’ve had the blessing to be acquainted with has stretched out my sensibilities, I’m sure.

Q. Many musicians have told me that being on tour is a conflicting experience for them, because they love performing live, but they also miss being home. How do you feel being on the road?

A. I do miss home during tours. We all do. Our North American tour hits 17 cities and lasts more than a month. My wife and daughter are my best friends. A month is a long time to be away from your best friends. But I also deeply love performing for our fans. It’s always going to be conflicting, yes, but what a blessed thing to be conflicted about.

Q. When you are touring, do you get the opportunity to see local attractions?

A. Our tours are usually back-to-back shows, so it’s not easy, but we make maximum effort to do so. We don’t really do tourist things, but we love to roam. On our tour four years ago, we were in Seattle after a show and just wandering around. We somehow ended up at a “Star Wars” costume exhibit that was at the same place as a Nirvana exhibit. This just made so much sense to us. We spent like the whole day there. It’s impossible to experience a moment like that in Seoul, so we have to catch it when and where we can and shove it into our hearts.

Q. Who would you like to see perform live?

A. A Beatles cover band or Tenacious D in a rundown bar.

Q. How has the music scene changed or evolved in South Korea since Epik High began as a group?
A. We dropped our first album in 2003, so, forget just the music scene, the entire has changed. Smart phones, or even semi-smart ones, didn’t exist. Ipods had a physical trackwheel on it. Most of the Marvel heroes only existed as drawings and speech balloons on paper. No Twitter, no Instagram, no Facebook, no Youtube. This is kinda nice in retrospect, actually. The music scene here was a local scene. It was huge and wildly vibrant, but local nonetheless. Not much of it traveled out and crossed oceans. And even if it did, there was no social media to make us readily aware of the fact. Hip-hop was still an unfamiliar and unprofitable genre. So to answer your question, almost everything about the music scene here has changed. A few things for the worse. Most things for the better.

Q. Many of your fans have grown up with you into adulthood, some with their own spouses and children. Your earlier songs still speak to them. When you are performing a song you wrote when you were in your early 20s, do the feelings of those songs still ring truth for who you are today?
A. I don’t think I’ve ever grown out of whatever age my soul must be. I think that age is 19. When I was a little kid, people told me that I seem older in spirit. And when I passed beyond 19, people told me I seem younger in spirit. So yes, the feeling I get when I perform my older songs rings just as true as when I created them. The grateful part is that many of Epik High’s fans tell us that they feel the same way — that our older songs speak to them just as much as before. I guess we are timeless when we are together.

Q. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your travels?

A. Home becomes home when you look at it from a far distance.

Q. If you had the choice of one meal, would you pick a street cart or a nice restaurant?

A. Street food over fine dining any day. Chicken and rice. A hotdog. Masala dosa.

Q. Do you pick up new languages easily?

A. I speak Korean and English and used to speak French and Chinese, but forgot most of it. I think I do pick up languages pretty quickly. I’m trying to teach myself Spanish right now, but finding time to be consistent is difficult.

Q. What are your five favorite cities?

A. Seoul, Jeju, New York, San Francisco and Gotham City.

Q. What is left on your travel bucket list?

A. Rome. Anywhere in India. Alaska.

Q. What is your guilty pleasure when you’re on the road?

A. I underuse hotel towels. Like I’ll dab my face once and the towel is done.

Q. When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?
A. I pack incredibly light. I once went overseas holding a single shopping bag. So it’s gotta be the bare minimum for me, but I always pack an ipad filled with movies and books and my laptop to work on some songs if it comes to me during the trip. Dear [Apple Inc. CEO] Tim Cook, please make a super light Macbook Pro.

Q. What is your best or worst vacation memory?
A. All of my travels have been worth it.

If you’re a child of everywhere but always felt like you didn’t belong anywhere, you’ll get me and enjoy this interview. https://t.co/YbmLPU22yk

— 에픽하이 타블로 | Tablo of Epik High (@blobyblo) March 26, 2019

© 2019 JAE-HA KIM
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