Over 9 million monthly listeners on Spotify, 58 sold-out dates on a U.S. tour, appearances at Lollapalooza in the United States, Brazil, Chile and Argentina — these are just some of the milestones Korean indie band wave to earth has racked up over the past two years.


wave to earth is made up of Kim Daniel on vocals and guitar, Shin Dong-gyu on drums and Cha Soon-jong on bass. The members handle songwriting and composition themselves. After cutting their teeth at small live clubs around Hongdae in western Seoul, the band began a fully-fledged overseas push around the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, starting with a stage at Thailand’s Very Festival in 2023.



Over the next two years, wave to earth played two world tours and festival sets, drawing about 200,000 people across 107 shows overseas. The band’s monthly Spotify listeners, which stood at around 300,000 three years ago, have since surged to 9.2 million — well above singer IU’s 4.5 million.


Now, the band is turning its focus back home. Tickets for its three-day solo concert, “Love 0.3,” set to run from Feb. 27 at Olympic Hall in Seoul’s Olympic Park, sold out in a minute. The JoongAng Ilbo met the band recently at a restaurant in Itaewon-dong, central Seoul to talk about their journey.


wave to earth’s music is hard to sum up in a single genre. Signature tracks like “bad” (2023), “seasons” (2020) and “love.” (2023) follow the instrumentation of modern rock on the surface, but their unhurried tempos — typically in the 70 to 100 beats per minute (BPM) range — and dreamy textures leave the music floating outside easy categorization. Most of the lyrics are written in English.

“A good song doesn’t require you to check a musician’s nationality before listening,” Kim said. “We wanted people around the world to listen to our songs without even knowing we’re Korean.”


The band was formed in 2018. Kim and Shin played together in a worship band in high school, and later brought in Cha after hearing he was “a friend who played bass really well,” completing the trio. Their debut album, “wave,” followed the next year.


“The first time the three of us played together as a full band, I got chills,” Cha said. “That day I brought a soul-style bass I had planned to sell instead of my usual jazz bass, and it fit the band perfectly. I ended up selling the one I’d been using.”

Another hallmark of wave to earth is its live show. Despite the band’s calm, mellow recordings, Kim said he “puts on a rocker’s heart” onstage. The members often break into intense improvisations, shaking their heads or jumping around.


“For albums, I want everything to sound as clean as possible, but I didn’t want that for live shows,” Kim said. “Once you’re fully immersed, you suddenly realize your face is contorting like you’re touching a slug — and you and the other members are bouncing all over the stage.”


Their overseas break came as the pandemic eased. The band’s first major step was appearing at the Very Festival in Thailand in 2023, after listeners who discovered wave to earth online helped build an audience abroad.

“Back when we were playing in Hongdae, it was hard to grow the crowd no matter how many shows we did,” Kim said. “Even if 20 people came one time, it would be a different 20 the next time. It felt like hitting repeat. Then we got an invitation from festival organizers in Thailand when we were starting to feel the limit.”


“We made it clear to the promoter that we were eager to go global,” Cha said. “We studied Thai greetings for the stage, and we created chances to collaborate with local artists. By the time we left, we even had a promise for a 2,000-seat solo concert there.”


Even with Korean pop culture enjoying global attention, it wasn’t easy for an unknown indie band to break out overseas. The members made their own pitch decks and emailed promoters themselves. When there was no reply, they sent long messages directly to organizers via social media, urging them to book a show. Their first U.S. tour in 2023 sold out as soon as tickets went on sale.

“Our first show was at a venue near UC Berkeley,” Cha said. “Even before the concert began, people were singing along to our songs playing in the background. We were moved — the three of us cried a lot that day. The number of shows jumped from 15 to 22 in no time. And by the end of the tour, our monthly Spotify listeners had grown from around 300,000 to 6 million.”


Last year, the band’s momentum surged even further. Along with a world tour across the United States and Europe, wave to earth performed at Lollapalooza — a stage many musicians consider a dream.


This year’s goal, the members said, is “reverse importing” their success back into Korea: building their name at home through concerts and a full-length album release.


“We didn’t do Korean concerts for a while,” Kim said. “This year, we have to give everything to our shows.”


“At the concert, we plan to play everything we’ve released so far,” Cha said. “And on the full-length album coming out this year, it won’t just be Daniel’s songs — my originals will be on it, too. Look forward to a new version of wave to earth.”


This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHOI MIN-JI [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]