KoME’s First Anniversary Interview

On September 3rd, 2007, KoME officially went online. As the ‘Korean version of JaME,’ KoME aims to bring Korean music to the European fans. It’s been a year since then and not all of it has been smooth sailing, but one thing is for sure: KoME has remained, and has continued to grow and evolve. KoME has already successfully conducted not only mail interviews, but also face-to-face interviews with several Korean bands. And, with a steady stream of live reports, album reviews, news and artist files, KoME is slowly but surely following along in big-sister JaME’s footsteps.

To commemorate KoME reaching its one year anniversary, we took the time for a brief interview with the two managers of the English version and the manager of the German version to see what they had to say about KoME’s milestone, and their hopes for the website’s future.

Where did the idea of KoME, the JaME concept for Korean artists, come from?

Taliana: Well, as far as I know it was Reyep’s (JaME-founder) idea and he had already been setting it up, he just needed people for it.
sianface: I think the idea came from the JaME team, as there were several Korean artists on JaME at that time. There’s also a pretty big following for Korean music in Europe and America, so it was the best idea to set up a separate site to concentrate on it rather than simply mixing them with the Japanese artists.

How did each of you get recruited, why did you decide to join?

Taliana: I had worked very briefly on the English JaME before, and was friends with Tessa from the Dutch version. She told me about the idea of KoME because I was starting to get really into Korean music around that time, and since I was already familiar with the concept of JaME, I was definitely interested in getting involved with KoME.
sianface: I found a post on the old JaME forum asking for team members.  My interest in Korean music was growing at the time so I applied and, for some strange reason, they accepted me onto the team.
Katy: When I saw the announcements that KoME was planned, I immediately applied. I had been thinking for awhile to myself that there are many Korean artists who are popular in Europe, but unlike the Japanese music scene there is nearly no way to get information if you’re not a member in a forum or community, and it’d be good to have a site like JaME. Somehow I was the only German who seemed to be interested enough to do so…and here I am now as team manager ^^.

What kind of idea did you have in mind before you started on KoME, and has this come true?

Taliana: I had the idea that it would basically be the Korean version of JaME, just smaller, younger, and with less official connections. In some ways this is still how it is, but I really feel that KoME isn’t just ‘the Korean version of JaME’ anymore. KoME has become KoME. I had wanted that from the start, so for me that’s really come true.
Katy: I have been a reader of JaME for a long LONG time and knew people before who either knew people from the German JaME or were friends with them, and through them I knew a bit of all this. I thought we would have to work hard and it’ll take time until we can do BIG things. And yes, things are like this, but it’s okay because KoME is young and we’re still growing.

What goals does KoME have for the near future and long-term?

Taliana: The same as always: being bigger and better than we are now. I think it would be good if we could catch the attention of some of the bigger artists or labels, and expand our connections in that direction. On a smaller scale, I think we’d like to focus on finding a rhythm and keeping that momentum going. There’s times when team activity plummets and other times when we’re all really active. Finding a sustainable middle ground would be good for us.
sianface: I think KoME’s come so far in such a short amount of time, so our short-term aims are just to carry on with the work we’re doing now and to improve and grow.  Although KoME’s quite small at the moment, the core team is very hardworking, so I think it won’t be too difficult for us to expand.  Some artists and labels have already taken an interest in the site, which is great for us, but as Taliana said – in the long-term it’d be great if we could help bring bigger artists to our readers as well.  It’s difficult to find interviews and reports about even the most popular bands in most of KoME’s languages, so that’d be a great thing we could do.

Big sister JaME is standing right next to you, and often the nickname “the Korean JaME” is used. What makes KoME, next to the music style/nationality, different from JaME?

sianface: The Korean scene differs so much from the Japanese scene that it would be almost impossible for us to have an identical site to JaME and have it to work.  We have to be slightly more proactive with our news than JaME because release dates get announced officially much later than compared to those in Japan.  Also, it’s almost impossible to ignore the singers’ activities outside of music because it’s a big part of the scene.
Taliana: I think our focus itself is different. Korean artists don’t really come to Europe, and with no team members located in Korea, live reports and face-to-face interviews are harder for us to do, so the majority of our articles are generally reviews. I think Korean music fans are interested in slightly different aspects than Japanese music fans. Like Sian said, an artist’s activities outside of Korea are impossible to ignore, same with some artists career in the acting scene.
sianface: There’s also the fact that some of our versions, particularly the Dutch and Swedish teams, are absolutely tiny with maybe one or two people working on them.  This isn’t really the case with JaME, but it can make it slightly more difficult to manage these.
Katy: We’re still young, we don’t have connections to labels like JaME, but I guess that’s just a tiny part. The Korean entertainment scene changes a lot, since the sales numbers dropped so much there and new artists appear every day. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with everything because of these constant changes. But we do our best.

KoME has been around for a year now. Looking back, what are some of the most memorable happenings?

sianface: The fact that we have managed to get face-to-face interviews with some of the bands that have come over to Europe is pretty memorable.
Taliana: I agree! That was a big step for us. Even some of the mail interviews have been pretty memorable for me.
Katy: That the German team has some members now. The Rocket Diary mail interview. Yeah I remember I was all happy every time I got an e-mail from their label monkyglobal. It was one of the first steps in the direction to getting in contact with labels and artists and not only writing about them.

What was particularly hard this past year?

sianface: We’ve had a lot of team members join and leave, which has made things pretty difficult at times.
Taliana: The workload has been hard sometimes, especially having to chase up people, or people dropping things without warning and other people having to pick up the slack on top of their own work. And for me, personally, I’ve had a few friends of mine express opinions that KoME is pointless when there are other forums and sites around, so that’s been a bit hard for me at times.
Katy: Finding members and keeping the site alive. During the time I was all alone, I often thought I couldn’t do it anymore…but in the end my passion for Korean music and the want to get people’s attention on the other half of the globe instead of still only looking at the USA makes me go on. (I don’t have anything against the USA, I just wish people would be more open minded and realize there’s so much more out there~)

What accomplishments are you proud of?

Taliana: I’m proud of making it to a year. That in itself is an accomplishment to me.
Katy: I’m proud of hanging in there for a year and what we’ve done until now.

How do you see the future for KoME?

Taliana: Through a crystal ball!
sianface: World domination!
Katy: As the number one source for people searching for information about Korean music.

Anything else you would like to tell the readers?

Taliana: Please refresh my reviews so that I feel cooler with a big view count.
sianface: Thank you for your support and please keep reading!
Taliana: Please support us as we keep improving.
Katy: We’re working hard to get better and better so please support us, give us feedback and check our site regularly.

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