Meet wakeupfinn, a band exploring the possibilities of sound by bringing together a diverse range of musical influences. Blending elements of hip-hop, R&B, house, funk, disco, and jazz fusion, the group creates a sound that is uniquely their own, refusing to be confined to a single genre or formula.
What began as a solo project eventually evolved into a collaborative musical journey. Following the release of their debut album, Adelie, wakeupfinn gradually took shape as a band while working on their second EP, wake up!. Through shared ideas, individual playing styles, and a mutual love for different sounds, the members discovered new creative possibilities together.
Rather than following the footsteps of a particular artist, wakeupfinn draws inspiration from the music they love and reimagines it through their own perspective. The result is an ever-evolving musical identity shaped by unexpected combinations, experimentation, and creative collaboration.
For readers discovering wakeupfinn for the first time, how would you introduce the band and describe the sound you are creating together?
Hello! We’re wakeupfinn, a band communicating with the world through our own sound.
Rather than defining our music within a single genre, we’d describe it as a blend of different influences, including hip-hop, R&B, house, funk, and disco. Instead of following a fixed formula, we bring together the sounds we each love and explore how they can come together to create our own identity.
How did wakeupfinn come together, and what inspired you to pursue music as a band?
wakeupfinn originally started as a solo project, and our first album, Adelie, was released during that period. While working on our second EP, wake up!, I began making music more actively with the members who are now part of the band.
Working together allowed us to turn ideas into music that I might never have come up with on my own. As our individual playing styles and ideas came together, we discovered new possibilities in our sound, and that naturally led us to become a band.
Your music brings together elements of indie pop and rock. What influences have shaped your sound, and how do you make those influences your own?
We draw inspiration from a wide range of music, including indie pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, house, funk, disco, and jazz fusion.
Rather than trying to recreate the sound of a particular artist, we take inspiration from the music we enjoy and reinterpret it in our own way. Elements from different genres sometimes come together in unexpected ways, and we think those combinations are what help shape the sound of wakeupfinn.
What does the name wakeupfinn mean to you, and is there a story or idea behind choosing it?
We get asked this question quite often, but there isn’t any particularly deep meaning behind the name!
It comes from Adventure Time, where Jake wakes Finn up by saying, “Wake up, Finn!” The phrase stuck with us, and we also liked how it looked and sounded, so we decided to use it as our name.
When creating a new song, where does the process usually begin—with a melody, a lyric, a personal experience, or an idea that develops during a jam session?
We usually start by getting together around an idea and trying it out in different styles. Someone might suggest something, and then we build on it through jamming, gradually developing the rhythm, harmony, and arrangement.
The finished song can end up sounding quite different from the original idea. Rather than sticking to a fixed direction from the beginning, we like to leave room for different possibilities. We think that openness is one of the most exciting parts of our creative process, because it often leads us somewhere unexpected.
How do the different personalities and musical perspectives within the band contribute to your songwriting and arrangements?
Since the three of us have different musical tastes and styles, we often interpret the same idea in different ways. Something unfamiliar to one member might be an exciting possibility for another.
Rather than trying to make everything fit into one style, we focus on preserving each member’s individuality while finding a way for everything to work together. Those different perspectives often take a song in an unexpected direction and make our music richer
Your 2025 EP, wake up!, features songs including “Cozzzy,” “Same Good Nights,” and “Every Party Has Its Last Song.” What was the central idea behind this release, and what story did you want to tell through it?
Wake up! is about reflecting on the value of leisure and love, two things that can easily get lost in the chaos of everyday life.
When life gets busy, we often forget to slow down and appreciate the little moments we share with the people around us. We wanted to revisit those feelings through this EP.
Each song approaches the theme from a different perspective. Some explore moments of comfort and relaxation, while others deal with the darker and more complicated sides of love. We wanted to create an EP where listeners could experience a variety of emotions and sounds, all connected by a common theme.
The EP’s description reflects on the search for love and a more peaceful life. How does that idea connect with your own experiences and the emotions you hope listeners will discover in your music?
We also get caught up in our busy lives and sometimes lose sight of what really matters. Through our music, we wanted to express the importance of slowing down, spending time with people we love, and enjoying moments when we don’t have to do anything at all.
Of course, love and leisure aren’t always beautiful or peaceful. They can also come with loneliness and emptiness, and we wanted to explore those sides of the experience, too.
We hope our music encourages listeners to reflect on their own lives, find a little comfort, or simply move to the rhythm and enjoy the moment.
Is there a particular song from wake up! that feels especially personal to you? What makes that track meaningful to the band?
We’d choose “Cozzzy.” We think it captures both the message behind wake up! and the way we approach making music.
The title and lyrics suggest something cozy and laid-back, but the rhythm and playing are actually quite tight and energetic. That contrast is one of the song’s biggest strengths, and we feel it reveals a lot about who we are as a band.
Bringing together elements with different characteristics is something we really enjoy doing. We hope it’s a song people can listen to while relaxing or move along to when they feel like dancing.
How do you balance creating music that reflects your own artistic vision with making songs that listeners can connect with in their everyday lives?
We focus on making the music we genuinely want to create rather than putting trends or popular tastes first. We believe that if we make music we truly love, that sincerity can naturally reach other people, too.
At the same time, we care about how music becomes part of people’s everyday lives. A song can bring back memories of a particular person, place, or moment we thought we had forgotten. We hope our music can find its way into someone’s daily life and become part of their special memories.
And one day, we hope the music we love making will become music that many other people love, too!
Growth, Challenges, and Identity
Since your debut in 2023, what has changed most about wakeupfinn’s sound, mindset, or approach to making music?
I think we’ve been gradually discovering what makes wakeupfinn unique.
Adelie was where wakeupfinn was born, and wake up! was where we first stood on our feet as a band.
We’ve now finished recording our next album and are working on post-production. We hope this release will be a big step forward for us. It’s also an album we’re particularly proud of musically.
As we’ve grown more confident in our own sound, we’ve become eager to share our music with more people around the world. We also want to keep exploring new sides of ourselves rather than staying within the style we’ve developed so far.
What has been the most challenging part of developing your identity as a band, and how have you worked through it together?
One of our biggest challenges has been that our music is difficult to describe through a single genre or style. Because there are so many kinds of music we want to explore, we’ve sometimes struggled with deciding which direction to focus on.
These days, though, we don’t feel that we need to find one definitive answer. We believe our identity comes from discovering sounds that suit us through experimentation and making room for each member’s individuality. The process of exploring different possibilities is part of what makes us who we are.
As an independent band, what does creative freedom mean to you, and what challenges come with managing your music and artistic direction?
For us, creative freedom means being able to experiment with the music we want to make without being restricted by a particular genre or formula.
Being independent also means having to manage many things ourselves, from releasing music to promoting it. Having a label or a company to support us could certainly help ease that workload and allow us to focus more on creating music.
Balancing music with everything else isn’t always easy, but being able to shape our own direction is a big part of what makes being independent appealing to us.
We want to keep making music that we’re genuinely satisfied with and stay true to the direction we believe in.
When you perform live, what do you hope audiences experience that they might not fully feel when listening to your recordings?
We hope people can experience a different kind of energy and groove at our live shows. Hearing the rhythms and sounds of several instruments coming together in person is a unique experience compared to listening to a recording.
More than anything, we want people to feel comfortable and enjoy the music in their own way. They can dance, focus on the music, or simply take a break from their everyday worries for a little while. If they leave the show feeling a bit lighter, that would mean a lot to us.
What is one lesson you have learned about collaboration, friendship, or trust through your journey as a band?
We’ve learned that working together doesn’t mean we all have to think alike. In fact, different opinions and ideas can lead to results we wouldn’t have imagined at first.
We also value the time we spend together outside of music. We like to call ourselves a pretty wholesome band. After rehearsals, we usually grab a meal, chat, or play board games rather than go out drinking. Sometimes we also play table tennis or go climbing.
We think these everyday moments help us understand one another better, which also makes it easier to create music together.
If someone were experiencing wakeupfinn’s music for the first time, which song would you recommend they start with, and why?
We’d recommend “Cozzzy” from our EP wake up!.
The song contrasts relaxed lyrics and an easygoing mood with tight, lively instrumentation. We think it represents the way we bring different musical elements together.
If you enjoy it, we’d also recommend listening to the whole EP. Each track has its own mood and sound, so listening to the EP as a whole gives you a broader picture of our music.
How do you hope your music connects with listeners outside South Korea, particularly those discovering Korean indie music for the first time?
We believe music can connect people regardless of nationality or language.
The emotions we explore in our songs—love, loneliness, and the desire to slow down and find some peace—are things people can relate to anywhere. We’d love to connect naturally with listeners around the world through those shared feelings. Most of our lyrics are in English, which also reflects our desire to reach people beyond Korea.
We’d be really happy if discovering our music encouraged someone to explore more of the Korean indie scene, too!
What musical direction or creative experiment would you like to explore in your next release?
There are so many sounds and styles we’d like to try that it’s difficult to choose just one direction.
On our upcoming album, we’ve experimented with styles and arrangements that differ from our previous work. As usual, we developed the songs by playing together and building on one another’s ideas, which allowed us to explore a variety of musical colors. We’re personally very happy with the music we’ve made and feel confident about this release.
We’ll keep experimenting with different rhythms, sounds, grooves, instrumental approaches, and melodies without limiting ourselves to a particular genre.
Beyond streaming numbers and recognition, what would make you feel that wakeupfinn has truly succeeded as a band?
We’d be really happy if our music became part of someone’s memories.
Sometimes a song brings back a particular person, place, or the atmosphere of a moment from the past. We hope our music can become that kind of song for someone—something that helps them get through a difficult day, reminds them of a special moment, or that they return to even years later.
Of course, we want more people to discover our music. But if our songs genuinely mean something to even one person, we think that’s already a meaningful achievement.
Finally, what message would you like to share with your listeners and the City Stories community, and what can everyone look forward to from wakeupfinn next?
First of all, we’d like to sincerely thank everyone who discovers our music, comes to our shows, and supports us. Your interest and encouragement give us a lot of motivation to keep making music and moving forward as a band.
We’ve finished recording our new album and are currently working on post-production. We’ve been preparing music that explores a different side of wakeupfinn, so we hope you’ll look forward to hearing it.
We’ll keep making the music we love, hoping it can offer comfort and connection, and sometimes make people feel like dancing, too.
Thank you for listening to wakeupfinn. We hope you’ll keep enjoying music with us!
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