Big In Korea

The Korea Times recently profiled Sean Maylone, the 29-year-old founder of Super Color Super, a relatively new promoter that specializes in foreign indie acts.

Maylone moved to Korea more than three years ago from the San Francisco area and noticed a space that needed to be filled.
Though two older promoters, Mint Paper and Private Curve, were bringing established indie acts to Seoul, he thought Korean music lovers would be interested in edgier artists.

Since opening for business last summer, he’’ put on shows by Caribou, the Handsome Furs and others. Last week, he brought Das Racist, and in the next month or so will put on shows with Four Tet and CocoRosie.

One thing that SCS does that most other promoters don’t is go beyond Seoul. Maylone says that more shows give artists who happen to be going to Japan (or even just Tokyo) a reason to come to Korea.

Also, Maylone keeps his ticket prices reasonable, accusing his competition of “treating their acts like a luxury brand.”
Maylone admits that for more obscure acts he may have trouble with name recognition, especially those who many not have local record deals.

Some groups, he admits, tend to only attract non-Koreans living in Korea, and his goal is to “get a more native turnout.”