I’m sure many of our readers are very familiar with Lunafly, who debuted last September and have released a string of successful songs. And as all the British fans know, our very own hometown hero Sam Carter leads the group after being snapped up by Nega Network after his great performance on MBC’s Star Audition 2: Birth of a Great Star.

In this second edition of On the Radar, we got a chance to catch up with Lunafly, and talked about their music, the industry and what kind of superhero they would be if they joined the UKP Hall of Heroes (yes, we genuinely asked them that).

Could you describe your style of music to first-time listeners?
The basic core of our music is acoustic pop with easy listening melodies and harmonies. We experiment a little with genres which covers rock, R&B, pop, ballads etc.

You debuted during the huge wave of newcomers into K-pop in 2012. Many of them have faded into the background, but you have had overseas concerts, international fans and a series of successful singles.
We would say that from the start we clarified our musical colour and our own unique style. It’s important for an artist to have their own clear identity.

What is K-pop to you?
It’s very simple really. It’s music sung in Korean of course, and it used to only be about dancing idol groups but nowadays it covers all genres of music.

We sing in Korean and release songs in the Korean charts so I guess you could call it K-Pop, but we also release our songs worldwide in English, and have been on charts in other countries so our music may be a little difficult to categorise.

Lunafly as a group have more years of experience in music, than most other groups have spent in training. Aside from the time each members have spent singing, Yun has spent five years learning guitar and Teo spent four years learning piano. Sam has been been playing violin for a staggering eighteen years and guitar for ten years.

I think we will keep experimenting with our sound, and who knows where life takes us and how the music evolves. But I think we will always strive to make music with memorable melodies which people can sing along to.

We want to try lots of different genres of music. One day we would like to try rock music but also upbeat mussy which people can dance to. We would also like to sad ballads. I don’t think we will ever limit ourselves to one specific direction.

We have more concerts abroad for the rest of the year and we are currently getting our next album ready which we hope to release before the end of the year.

For our next comeback we may like to try a sad song.

The group continues their attempt to innovate in many ways, involving their international fans wherever possible; within months of their debut they made a full 90-minute concert available for watching live from their USTREAM channel. Sam is also working to promote the group in other ways in the entertainment industry with his own radio show “Super K-Pop” on the English-language Korean radio station, Arirang Radio.

Sam represents the hopes of many foreign fans of K-Pop who dream of working in the industry. Not only that, he is one of the few but growing number of mixed-heritage Koreans who have overcome the negative prejudices associated with their background, building up successful careers in the Korean entertainment industry.

We would like to hold a concert in the UK. We’ve been lucky enough to travel to many great countries to perform but as someone who grew up in the UK and still has family and friends there I absolutely want to hold a concert there one day.

It is an honour to represent the UK in the K-Pop world. Obviously there aren’t many people from the UK who work in the K-Pop so I feel a sense of responsibility in doing the UK proud.

And finally, UnitedKpop is currently assembling a group of K-Pop superheroes to save the world. If you can choose one superpower, what would it be?
Yun: Flight
Teo: Teleportation
Sam: Grow extra limbs (to play lots of musical instruments at the same time).