When Korean students took their college entrance exams last week, many found themselves fighting the urge to hum along to a familiar tune embedded in their test materials. A passage from the traditional pansori epic "Sugung-ga" appeared on the Korean-language section, and students immediately recognized the line "The tiger is coming down, the tiger is coming down" – the infectious hook from Leenalchi's viral 2020 hit that became nearly impossible to forget.
The track's hypnotic bass line and chant-like vocals had become so deeply ingrained in listeners' minds that test-takers dubbed it a "CSAT-forbidden song." The original lyric, which was relatively minor in the traditional epic, transformed into a near-national anthem after appearing in a kinetic tourism promotion video featuring the band and Ambiguous Dance Company. As of Wednesday, the video had amassed more than 53 million views on YouTube.
Now Leenalchi has returned with their highly anticipated album "Heungboga," released on November 6. This time, the innovative band explores another of the five surviving pansori epics: the story of kindhearted Heungbo, who rescues an injured swallow and receives fortune as his reward, while his greedy brother Nolbo brings ruin upon himself through his selfishness.
However, according to Ahn Yi-ho, one of the group's four vocalists and an original member alongside bassist and music director Jang Young-gyu, "Heungboga" was never intended to be the band's official second album. "Technically, it's our second album. But among ourselves, we call it the 1.5 album," Ahn explained during an interview with The Korea Herald last week at the National Jeongdong Theater on November 11.
The band's actual second album, the project they originally planned, has been progressing more slowly than expected. "It wasn't moving forward as quickly as we hoped," Ahn noted, explaining that the project is currently about halfway complete. In the meantime, the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju invited Leenalchi to create a special performance for its 10th-anniversary program, once again collaborating with Ambiguous Dance Company, drawing material from the Heungbo-ga epic.
"We started working on 'Sirirung Sirirung' first. But it was coming together so well that we thought, 'It's a waste to leave this as a one-time performance. Let's record it,'" Ahn recalled. The decision to return to a pansori epic brought additional pressure, especially since the group had previously stated they didn't plan to tackle another traditional folktale after "Sugung-ga."
From a vocalist's perspective, Ahn explained that the broader goal was to refine the public's understanding of what Leenalchi's music truly represents. "People saw the first album as the band's sound plus pansori. But for the next one, we wanted something that doesn't feel like two separate elements added together – something messier, more mixed, more unclassifiable. Something that makes people ask, 'What is this?'"
The band's signature hooks, Ahn revealed, don't start out sounding inevitable or predetermined. Music director Jang first creates fragments of rhythmic elements, then the vocalists improvise over them, singing scattered lines from the pansori texts. "If something fits too neatly, it means it's predictable or overused, so we discard it. If it clashes completely, we throw it out too. But if it makes us say, 'What is this?' we keep it," Ahn explained.
Even "Tiger Is Coming," Ahn pointed out, wasn't a particularly important scene in the original "Sugung-ga" epic. Yet it became the defining passage of the entire story for countless listeners. "Heungboga" was constructed using the same methodology: testing, discarding, and preserving anything that made the band members tilt their heads in curiosity. The album's overall mood, he described, is funkier than their previous work, perfectly suited to a tale filled with comic characters, repetitive phrases, and exaggerated personality quirks.
"And this is exactly the point where pansori and Leenalchi diverge," Ahn emphasized. "Pansori is storytelling. Leenalchi's music is not storytelling. It's not music designed for telling a story." This distinction represents a fundamental shift in how traditional Korean musical forms can be reimagined for contemporary audiences.
From the beginning, Leenalchi has actively resisted being labeled as either a fusion band or a pansori band. "We weren't formed with that concept in mind," Ahn stated. Yet for Leenalchi's music to be effective, he explained, the singers must possess strong foundations in traditional pansori for the overall sound to maintain its integrity. This paradox – that their music is not pansori but requires mastery of pansori – took him years to fully comprehend.
This delicate balance, which Ahn describes as "tightrope walking," is something the band actively embraces. Appropriately, the band takes its name from Lee Nal-chi, a legendary pansori singer from the Joseon era who was renowned both for his exceptional vocal abilities and his literal tightrope-walking skills. The band doesn't view itself as carrying the responsibility of modernizing or globalizing pansori for international audiences.
"People can call it that if they want. It may effectively function that way. But that isn't our goal, and we don't think of it in those terms," Ahn clarified. "We're simply musicians – some of us with pansori as our primary instrument, others with bass or drums – making the music we can create together."
Outside of his work with Leenalchi, Ahn recently completed a significant role in "Seopyeonje," a traditional changgeuk production. Balancing these two distinct musical worlds has helped clarify what it means to be a modern sorikkun, or pansori singer, in today's cultural landscape. "A sorikkun today must be both: a singer who can act, and an actor who can sing," he explained.
Leenalchi, in Ahn's view, leans toward being singers with some acting ability, while changgeuk productions like "Seopyeonje" require actors who can sing exceptionally well. Neither approach serves as a replacement for traditional pansori. Instead, they represent the diverse artistic paths available to a sorikkun in contemporary society.
"It's not that they're completely different types of music. It's about finding the appropriate place on the spectrum as a sorikkun. And it's not about choosing one as an alternative to the other. They're simply different things I can do as a sorikkun today," Ahn concluded.
Looking ahead, Leenalchi will perform in Hong Kong in early December, followed by a Christmas concert at Morene Sukha in Seoul's Moraenae Market in Seodaemun District. The band is also preparing for an overseas tour scheduled for next year, while their long-awaited "real" second album continues to develop and take shape in the studio.
