On the Seoul-based rock band Pop Ents' latest mini-album, "Anything is Fine," released in April, the title track offers a catchy, poppy mantra, but something beneath the melodies doesn't quite feel right.
"No, but yeah, the title is ironic," David Palmer, the band's guitarist-vocalist and lead songwriter, confirmed to The Korea Times.
He explained that the song is about the current state of the music industry, and the song goes into what the band would do if they ever had a chance to level up.
"The music industry is worse than ever. Everyone successful is a plant. Everything is a scam. Audiences are less engaged than ever with artists because of the insanity of the attention economy," he said.
"So as a local Seoul band that writes and plays with close friends in the audience in mind, it's just a discussion about how terrible the music industry is and how we'd love to be a part of it but if not we never wanted to anyway."
The song clashes with another standout track on the album, "Mogi Saeki," that seems to be about mosquitos ("mogi" in Korean, while "saeki" is a profanity).
"At the time of writing the song, I was living on the second floor of a villa where, if we forgot to close all the windows perfectly, we would find seven to eight mosquitoes in a single night. I sincerely hate mosquitoes," Palmer explained, before giving a deeper explanation about the feelings behind the song.
"This was all done during the attempted Yoon Suk Yeol coup (of December 2024), and I was moved by my friends who joined the protests. I am inspired by the musicians I meet here in Korea all the time. I just remember feeling so angry that this alcoholic clown almost ended such a hard-earned democracy. It would have uprooted my life. I felt like there was a person on the TV suddenly invading my life. The metaphor that came was a blood-sucking mosquito."
In the end, the song is about the catharsis that comes with hating something.
"I wanted to write something political, but that gets boring and trite really fast, especially when I'm an outsider to it all, so I focused on the feeling of hatred," he said. "I had fun writing it and people seem to be responding to it. It's very, very nice to sing 'I will never forgive you' over and over for me personally."
He wrote the lyrics in Korean, with help from a Korean literature teacher and some final adjustments by his bandmate Joon, who is the lead singer on the song.
"In general, I like to write songs for other people to sing," Palmer said. "Joon has a great voice and is a bit lower register than me, and he can handle Korean lyrics a lot more easily than I can, even if I write them. We're working on some songs now where I give him the lead. I prefer his voice to mine most of the time!"
The band has gone through some major changes over the years, with members both foreign and Korean coming and going. The biggest impact was when founding member John Engle, who also wrote many of the band's earlier songs, moved back to the U.S. in 2024.
"I guess I'm the last original plank of Theseus' ship here, but none of us needs to take it that seriously, do we?" Palmer said. "I wouldn't say 'I AM POP ENTS,' but I do carry on the concept — musicians coming together and making something that puts the process ahead of the concept."
With Engle's departure, Palmer said he has fully taken over songwriting duties, and splits the vocal duties with Joon. The changes have taken the band a little away from its soul/bluesy influence and a little closer to punk.
"In all honesty there's a lot of things I've neglected doing — syncing the lyrics, collaborating on new zines and music videos. Without John here, it's a lot harder to get these projects started and finished. Still, I really like how the songs came out personally —I'm not always happy with the musical result, but with this group and these recordings, the vision came through," Palmer said. "The hard part is getting some attention on them, which is what every band struggles with in this era."
Palmer said Pop Ents is continuing to work on new songs, and there are more recordings already completed that we can expect soon.
"This might be a losing direction, but these days I'm really interested in playing and writing with our local community in mind," he said. "I'm trying to forget about the internet and the trends in music and focus on real people that I can see out and about. If we could make our shows truly unique and engaging for the ones who love music enough to actually come to a show, that would be a lot more meaningful than making a viral clip. I'm still figuring all of that out but for now I'm certain that I want to do something more personal than before and perhaps take some bigger risks."
He added that, despite any perceived negativity, he's happy with life and optimistic for the future. He likes his day job, and his wife recently gave birth to their second child. But he said he will always have time for the band.
"I am a very busy person, and sometimes it feels like I'm drowning, but I can't NOT do Pop Ents," Palmer said. "I'll wither and die if I don't get to write and perform these songs. I know because I have had long stretches with no band before, and I truly start to implode mentally. My wife knows this, and that's a big reason why she is very graceful about letting me go out and play in a small room full of people across the city."
Pop Ents will perform at this year's Block Party, a multi-venue festival held in central Seoul's multicultural Haebangchon and Gyeongnidan neighborhoods. The festival, now in its fifth year, has featured Pop Ents every time.
"We will be at Block Party! It is a 100 percent sure thing," Palmer confirmed. "We have played every Block Party. God willing, we will play every Block Party ever. And this will be our best ever performance, and everything else you see that day will leave you feeling empty after you've seen our set, which will be the platonic ideal of a Block Party band set forevermore. I hope to pull together some collaborators to do something very special this year."
Visit linktr.ee/popents for more information and links to listen to "Anything is Fine."