The Geeks have been around just about as long as anyone in the entire scene has. In that time they have generated a nice following and admiration in Korea as well as overseas. They’re straight-edge hardcore, yes, but different than most bands—sparing the shirtless-macho-man growling for their trademark pre-pubesent screaming and thrashy music. They are a breath of fresh air in what has become a stagnant scene marred by violence (and even murder) even in Korea where hardline isn’t nearly as prevalent as it may be overseas or in the States. Here’s Seo Kiseok, the lead singer, giving us a very personal view of the Korean hardcore/straight edge scene as only he can, as someone that’s been in the scene from the start.

Q. What’s your name and where are you from?
A. My name is Ki Seok Seo. I’ve been to America, where people called me Ki. I’m from Seoul City.
Q. How did you first get into underground (punk/hardcore) music in Korea?
A. Our guitarist Jun and I started to love hardcore and punk in junior school. We found Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks, Ramones, Iggy Pop, Television, etc at first, and then we found Minor Threat, DK, Black Flag, Bad Brains, and 7 Seconds. In 1997 or 1998 Jun found the Our Nation compilation, and said “yeah check this out, this is Korean punk, let’s go there!?I was totally down with the idea, we loved to see Korean punk! So we went to Drug. We’ve seen a lot of bands since then, And a few year later, We formed a hardcore band called the Geeks, found good hardcore kids!
Q. Is there a big straight-edge presence or scene in Korea?
A. Nope, but things have changed. It was like we were the only straight edge guys when we started, but now there are new straight edge kids coming up. And as for youth crew scene, I proudly say that we’ve made it. We’ve tried so hard to turn our effort to reality. Now I’m so happy that there are new bands/friends who love the music.
Q. What other straight-edge bands in Korea would you reccomend?
A. There aren’t any other straight edge bands in Korea. But Check out Things We Say, which I play bass, and Vicious Nerds, and Breaking Ground. They are not straight edge bands, but they play youth-crew hardcore. Go get their demo, go to the show and have fun! And I saw Choke Slam; they were awesome. Good hardcore punk. And you guys should support 13 Steps. Great band, great dudes.
Q. The Geeks have gotten a little attention overseas (America, Canada, etc). Any plans on overseas touring?
A. We had gotten a little attention from all over the world. And right now we’re pretty much exposed to worldwide hardcore kids. I never expected to see things like this happen. I got e-mails from US, Canada, Japan, Netherland, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Norway, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Croatia, Chile, Brasil, Indonesia, Malaysia...the list goes on. And we just signed with Think Fast Records from Florida. It’s a very well known hardcore label, which is my favorite label at this time. Because of it, we got more widely exposed to hardcore kids in the US.
And we toured Japan last November with our best friends Last One Standing. It was great. Lots of fun, I will never forget. Tons of people came to our show, and they sang along to our own songs! I never expected things like that. It was great and unforgottable moment when I first saw kids singing along to our songs for the first time. They sang along to all our own songs, not just cover songs. They did a lot of stage dives and circle pit. It’s nothing but fun. And here’s a funny story, we all went to the Disk Union before our show, I heard very familiar song, I was like “oh I know this song, but what’s this??They played our CD in their store. I still can’t believe it. Anyway we will tour Japan for sure. And tons of hardcore kids in the US are into us, a lot of tour proposal is asked to us. Posi Fest 2005, they want us to play but we will see. I got a e-mail from a booking agency in Mexico too. We’d love to play everywhere. If there’s one kid who still cares about this music, we will fly out to play our hearts out.
Q. If I go to a straight edge show in Korea could I enjoy a beer in peace?
A. Haha you don’t have to worry about it. Sure you can. We have tons of non-edge friends drinking beer and soju, we don’t care. We can be a friends through this music. It’s our personal choice to live our life. We all are potential friends.
Q. What do you think of the straight edge scene in the USA?
A. I love it. Because all the straight-edge kids/bands that I know are very open-minded when it comes to straight edge in the US. Surely, there’s so many bad/fake straight-edge taking straight-edge for the wrong reason, like hardline. Fuck it. To me straight edge is about staying true to yourself, showing respect for others, having fun with your friends through the passion that hardcore brings.
Q. Where do you see the hardcore and punk scene in Korea in 5 years?
A. I want to see that more new bands will pop up everywhere. And more people will come to the show, support the bands. Right now, it’s all about bands. There are tons of good bands but there’s no scene. You know what I mean? People don’t know how to support a scene. I hope that things will be better than now. We will see. Personally, I want to see a new old-school hardcore scene. Hardcore is not about being tough. I want people to know what hardcore is about. Right now, people take meaning of it in a wrong way. They think hardcore is gang stuff, arrogant music, scary music like that, fuck it. It’s about having fun with other hardcore kids. Things will be changed, because we will do our best to make it happen.