South Korea’s LØREN Arrives With a Co-Sign From Blackpink and a Mission to Bring Back Rock
variety.comTamar Herman South Korean alt-rocker Loren (stylized LØREN) has written songs for Blackpink and G-Dragon, appeared at South By Southwest and recently partnered with 88Rising, leading to a performance at the influential collective’s summertime Head in the Clouds festival — all before he released his first album.
Out Friday (March 24), the EP “Put Up a Fight” is the result of a years-long effort while working at the Black Label, a prominent South Korean record company associated with Blackpink’s home YG Entertainment.
According to the singer-songwriter, a full-length follow-up is almost finished. Loren, born Lee Seung-joo, hopes to ingest a bit of punk and grunge to South Korea’s rock scene, and “Put Up a Fight” is his call to arms to like-minded music fans.
Even amid waning popularity worldwide, and especially in South Korea where only the occasional indie or pop-rock band makes registers a blip, Loren is undeterred. “I feel like rock music is not a dying breed in Korea: it’s dead,” says Loren from Los Angeles, where he’s visiting after finishing up SXSW in Austin. “It’s six feet under its gravestones, but I’m kind of resisting where everything else is going, like a branch or something in the wind.
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