Biography

Using heavy riffs to support pop melodies is nowhere near a new idea, but Cherry Filter's take on it is more energetic than that of many other Far Eastern bands, and the elements of rave and trance in their earlier work only spiced up their sound, helping them to score on the Korean rock scene. The band, whose name is said to bear no specific meaning, has been around since 1997, playing local rock clubs; their first break into the mainstream league came in 1999, when they did a song for the movie Ninko Jiio Yoshanashi, followed by another song for the horror movie Bloody Beach (2000). Around that time the group hit a period of trouble with the vocalist: the original singer left in 1999, replaced by Youjeen, who sung on Cherry Filter's debut album Heads Up (which also featured vocal collaboration from fellow countrymen Crying Nut) in 2000. However, after that Youjeen, who grew up in Japan, decided to try working solo and sent her demos to Japanese labels, where it attracted the attention of J (Jun Onose), bassist of Luna Sea. With the help of J, as well as former Scream and Foo Fighters guitarist Franz Stahl she released two Japanese solo albums in 2001-2002, but they've only met with moderate success, and Youjeen decided to return to Cherry Filter. That proved to be the right move: their second album Made in Korea? (2002) spawned the hit "Romantic Cat" ("Nangman Goyangi"), which made them rock stars, allowing the band to tour both South Korea and Japan. The next album The Third Eye (2003) performed just as well, and following its release the band supported J in his Japanese tour and scored an advertising contract with Coca Cola. The single "Happy Day" off Cherry Filter's fourth album Peace N Rock N Roll reached number seven on the Korean charts, and in the same year the group released a "remake album," Rewind. In 2008 Cherry Filter won the MTV Video Music Awards Japan prize in the "Best BuzzASIA -- Korea" category. ~ Alexey Eremenko, Rovi