Expat indie promoter SuperColorSuper has expressed doubt about the future of its shows in Korea featuring foreign artists.
SCS has brought 40 international acts to Korea, including Mogwai, Four Tet and Jeffrey Lewis, but founder Sean Maylone said in an e-mail Tuesday that funding issues meant that continuing with the project was too risky financially.
“We’ve only gotten spiritual compensation out of this, we don’t make money, and extra income is committed to bringing more bands over or setting up artistic projects like Super Sketch or G’OLD,” the e-mail said. “Making no money is fine, but with low support for our amazing spring line-up, it looks like we are even going to lose quite a lot of money.”
Maylone told Expat Living that he might continue to bring in acts if they could find sponsorship or if the spring shows -- No Age, Blonde Redhead and Asobi Seksu -- sold very well, but that it was unlikely based on presale levels.
He added that he wanted to see his father, who had a heart attack in February, but had been unable to because of the money and time committed to the project.
Maylone lamented that there would be a hole left behind if they discontinued with international acts. SCS generally brings in more left-field artists at cheaper than usual prices, and also to more areas.
He conceded that part of the reason SCS had done badly financially was because the bands he had brought in had not been as popular as he had hoped and that SCS was unwilling to charge more than a certain amount per ticket.
“We could have gotten away with a higher ticket price for Mogwai, but that’s not what we set out to do,” he said.
“With the numbers that we expect we would just have to charge too much to put the bands on safely.”
He said, however, that the shows in smaller cities had generally done well, adding that some of the work done in establishing the tour circuit would be used to set up shows around the country featuring domestic bands. He also said that Korean projects like Super Sketch and G’OLD Korea Vinyl would continue.
