Dabda, a four-piece indie rock band based in Seoul, South Korea. Dabda are a math rock-inspired band that specializes in creating beautiful chaos. Seunghyun Lee(Drums) and Jiae Kim(Vox/Guitar), who met at their university band club, headed to Seoul with the unified thought of starting a band together. In 2016, with the joining of Joseph Lee(Guitar), they finally landed on a brand new lineup and released their debut EP, Island Of Each. Following its release, a wild wave of new opportunities kicked off by their appearance in Naver’s ONSTAGE live session (South Korea’s largest portal platform) in February of 2018. Opportunities to participate in overseas showcases and festivals such as Liverpool Sound City(UK), Bangkok Music City(TH), and Playtime Festival(MN) followed shortly after.
A year later, Dabda released their first full-length album, But, All The Shining Things Are. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit the world by surprise at the time of the album’s release which led to most of the activities surrounding the album being cancelled. Despite facing a great misfortune, they tried their best in continuing their activities in whatever form possible and in 2021, Dabda released their collaborative single “Jungle Gym” with Toe’s Takashi Kashikura. It was around this time that Keohyun Noh(Bass) joined and the current lineup was completed. “Jungle Gym” was showcased in Pitchfork Media’s “Pitchfork Selects,” and included as a special bonus track in their Japan re-release of their debut album through Disc Union Japan.
In early 2022, Dabda started working on new songs using a jam the band had been using as a show opener served as a catalyst to begin experimenting. They developed the songs by sketching ideas from jamming together to create songs that can run wild during big festival stages while exploring sounds new to the band. These five new songs on Yonder tell the story of the longing of the band and the youth of their generation to overcome the hopelessness they face. Dabda was selected as the "Album of the Week" by KEXP and Bandcamp Daily, and has been nominated for two categories, Modern Rock Album and Single, at the 2024 Korean Music Awards. Dabda plans to release their second full-length album next year.