Gentleladies

From Clumsy Media

Gentleladies is a South Korean band trio made up by Nangon Jun (vocal and guitar), Shin Eun Seung (leader and bassist) and An Gil (drummer), formed under the guidance and trained personally by solo veteran indie artist Choi Koo Gun. They were reported to have been scouted through thousands of applications through middle school to university and after five competetive rounds, the final members were chosen by votes of critics and the public.

They made their official debut in 2013 with the EP One Gentle Summer.

Contents

History

2010-2011: Formation and training

After leaving project group Coffee Musicians due to stress of the sudden increasing popularity received, leader and main vocal Choi Koo Gun decided to withdraw. He went back to university and continued with his music course before seeing the rising trend of young musicians and band activities underground. Seeing this he began an extensive research on potential markets and began interviewing what elements young girls wanted in a musician. In April he decided to start his second project group made up of two guitarist and one drummer with the targeted consumer group at high school girls to women in their early twenties. In order to find the perfect members he started an audition process and due to his early success reached with Coffee Musicians as the funding member and leader, the news attracted many attention and thousands of young boys from the age of fourteen to twenty-two (as an limit criteria) all participated.

The audition was sorted into three steps: first audition, real life audition where Choi personally interviews and auditions each contestant individually and the final process which required online users to vote for their preference based on abilities and appearance after submitting their performance video online. In the end three final members were selected, being Shin Eun Seung who held an large amount of votes at 47%, An Gil who held 20% and Lee Min Yong with 8% of the votes. On the same day all three signed an contract.

However three days after the results were announced, Lee Min Yong who was scheduled to be leader left the group in order to become a member in the band LED Apple. Due to the fact Choi is good friends with the manager of the band he decided to terminate his contract. He later made his debut as the lead vocalist in the same year but left a year later due to personal reasons. While he was progressing the switch Choi took notice of Jun Min who was the leader of LED Apple while in training but dropped out around the time Lee joined in, feeling he wasn't ready for an debut. Choi later convinced Jun Min to replace Lee's spot and began training with the other two contestants.

Their whole training process was reported to be one year and four months long, beginning in August 2010, ending ultimately in 2012. Since all three members has had experience with music beginning at an young age and excels at each of their respective instrunment the training was noted to be an easy journey. However problems lied within the members, as they later had revealed in an interview with themselves: Jun Min often faught with An Gil physically despite being the oldest and the leader. As a result Shin Eun Seung often played the role as an resolver within the group.

The trio eventually bounded after An Gil was kicked out of his home even though he was only sixteen years of age after his parents found out he had signed the contract after persuading his older sister to be at present and was against him pursuing the music career. During this time Jun Min took him in as he had an independant apartment and Shin Eun Seung lived with his family and with time their relationship improved. Later Jun Min even endured a beating from An Gil's father for his actions but the incident bonded them even further.

2012-2014: Debut and early releases

With their training officially completed under the guidance of Choi the trio began to search for an label to join to make an debut. After two months of auditions and performance the band was approached by FNC Music and Maru Entertainment. However each of the company's musical direction did not impress Choi as he felt it not fit in with the group, "there wasn't enough musical freedom or possibilities". After the suggestion of underground singer MiiKii who is now the leader and the original member with Choi of Coffee Musicians, they decided joined the group as an background band.

Seeing the band's potentials the company Clumsy Media which manages Coffee Musicians and two of its members decided to sign an exclusive contract with Shin Eun Seung and An Gil but dismissed Jun Min as they felt his personality and image did not fit in with the company's requirements. He was scheduled to be replaced with a label trainee and the band would debut without him. Jun Min persuaded Shin and An to sign on without him and later through the friend of actress model Kei Nangon who belongs to the same label he was able to score a second private audition chance. In the last round he was disqualified once again but he later 'begged' for training lessons and if the company officials remain certain until then he would give up. Three months later he impressed the judges after his classes and officially signed an contract with the label.

The group began composing their debut mini album with Shin Eun Seung taking the ultimate creative control. Meanwhile Jun Min decided to put his abilities to test by joining Mnet's reality program Super Star K as a season five contestant. Immediately upon his first audition he received noteable media coverage for his identity as a trainee under Clumsy Media and his looks and skills in both singing and guitar. Controversies aroused as his popularity continued and the public suspected he would make an solo debut but he has since denie dthe news personally, "I will stay with my band no matter what happens as a leader" and his label has equally said there are no plans of solo endeavour. He was able to advance to the top three until he was finally disqualified but he remained as the most popular contestant behind winner and good friend Roy Kim. However, just two weeks after this news the company announced they have officially dropped him off an exclusive contract and he will no longer be part of the band as a definite member, "He will be making a debut with the group next year as the lead vocal, leader and lead guitarist but after the release of the debut album he will depart." This was explained to be due to the finished recording of their debut track and various theme photo shoots has already been done.

The band made their official debut in 2013 with the EP One Gentle Summer to commerical and mixed critical reviews. It was able to debut at #2 across all major music charts and later even peaked first place on ranks such as Naver Music as it sold close to 8,000 copies in the first five days of release and digital sales of 150,000 within the first week. This made the band as the best-selling indie debut act that year. The promotion period had simply lasted for a month and two weeks and Jun Min officially left the band on the same day promotions ended.

On March 2, 2014 it was announced that member Shin Eun Seung will be taking over the role as leader and the band's long-time friend, model actor Nangon Jun will be joining, replacing the previous main guitarist held by Jun Min. On October 26 the project release, as well as being the band's first full album Seoul Search Project I was made public.

Members

  • An Gil is the youngest member as well as the drummer. (2010-current)
  • Shin Eun Seung is the leader, bass guitarist and the group's producer. (2010-current)
  • Nangong Jun is the main guitarist of the group and currently inactive. (2013-current)

Background

  • Choi Koo Gun is a mentor to the group and contributes to their music behind the scenes. (2010-current)

Left the group

  • Lee Min Yong was one of the three funding members and original leader but left for the band LED Apple. (2010)
  • Jun Min (real name Jung Joon Young) was the leader, vocalist and guitarist of the group but left to pursue a solo career. (2010-2013)

Discography

Albums

Events & Performances

Concerts

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