Yun Do-Hyun, A Soft Rocker

How will rocker Yun Do-Hyun express his love?

Although he is man who roars as a lion on the stage, he seems to be cringing at the moment of love confession not even able to say `Please Come to Me`. The song title, `Please Come to Me` of the Yun Do-Hyun Band’s 5ht album, `An Urbanite`, is filled with shyness of a young man. It is a song with beautiful melody and sound. Yun Do-Hyun’s vocal conveys a feeling of caressing one’s chin with a foxtail. That means he has changed.

``I kept giggling at the recording session. I couldn’t do well because it was so ticklish. But, I also found that I could sing in that way. Until then, I didn’t know how to sing without tension in my throat.``

Yun Do-Hyun’s self-restraint does not stop there. In music, such as the beautiful lyric song, `I Didn’t Know How to Love Myself`, the `Peppermint Candy`, a song accompanied by a simple guitar sound, the `As It Is`, a song with a conspicuously magnificent sound, and the `Festival Without A Word` that has a cheerful rhythm, one could hear the transformation.

Such a change is the result of last year’s changing of members and his musical struggles.. He even said, ``I almost decided to quit music and was looking for a store location to open a pet center.`` His painful musical experiences had nurtured his music with more depth and warmth. He explained that after he hired Huh Joon, a jazz guitarist, firing two members, the sound has become more polished and affluent.

Yun Do-Hyun is the superstar of Korean Rock. He is a man who has been insisting to be the `rocker in the soil of Korea` since his debut in 1995. That means he cannot abandon the `outcry of rock`.

If one reexamine the fifth album, including `What On Earth Are People`, a subtitle song in the rock opera `Gaeddongee`, `To Live On This Soil`, a song composed based on the poem by Park No-Hae, `The Mirror`, a song that asks one for a reflection, and `The Star of Hanoi` in which he criticized the massacre of innocent people by U.S. troops in Vietnam, he, a hard rocker, roars like a lion as usual.

However, Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) have categorized his two songs, `To Live On This Soil` and `What On Earth Are People`, as inappropriate songs for public broadcasting. The `To Live On This Soil, a song originally inserted in the second album released in 1997, was not approved since the poet had been imprisoned due to the `national security law`. But this time, the government did not approve it because of its `biased thought toward the laborers`. The `What On Earth Are People` was rejected because of its slang usage.

Yun Do-Hyun said, ``Although I feel isolated as I live on this soil as a rocker, I don’t care because broadcasting is not my main stage.``

As soon as the album was released, he began a 15 day concert from 6th to 23rd. 90 percent of the ticket has already been sold one week before the concert is to begin. Album dealers are reordering the album after 60,000 first edition sold out as soon as its distribution, a rare case as a rock album.

Heo Yeub heo@donga.com