Chu Da-hye, vocalist of the band ‘Chu Da-hye Chajis’, which won ‘Album of the Year’ at the 2026 Korean Music Awards, is being interviewed at the Kyunghyang Shinmun office in Jeong-dong, Seoul, on the 13th. Senior Staff Reporter Seo Seong-il

“I do not look back when it comes to what I want to do. I do not hide my identity as a musical minority, nor do I feel a sense of inferiority. ‘I go my own way’. I want to live like that.”

If one were to pick the band that left the most vivid footprint in popular music last year, it would likely be ‘Chu Da-hye Chajis’. Their music feels unfamiliar in that it is grounded in mu-ga, the songs sung during a gut ritual. The title of their first full-length album, released in 2020, is <Under the Dangsan Tree Tonight>. Their music, in which mu-ga intermingles with a wide range of Western genresreggae, jazz, hip-hop, funk, dance, and rockis as fresh as it is unfamiliar, and it is intricate and beautiful.

In particular, the clear, refreshing voice of frontperson Chu Da-hye (41) makes their music even more overwhelming. Meeting Chu Da-hye at the Kyunghyang Shinmun building in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 13th, she said, “We do not have a grand cause like ‘let us promote traditional music’. Because the genre of mu-ga is so fresh, fun, and good, we think about how to capture the healing message mu-ga carries in a way that is ‘funky’ (funky) and still fresh.” In short, they make music because it is fun.

Chu Da-hye of the band Chu Da-hye Chajis performs on stage. Provided by Sosuminjok Company

She has introduced herself on stage as a ‘fake mudang’. In fact, on stage Chu Da-hye wears a distinctive feathered headpiece and, holding a bell used by muryoung and mudang when performing a gut or divination), sings with her whole body. Chu Da-hye Chajis defines this kind of genre-blending as ‘psychedelic shamanic funk’.

She sings while having fun, but enduring the audience’s sense of ‘strangeness’ is not easy. “I sometimes face expressions like ‘What is this?’ and ‘Why are you shaking that bell?’. Because the music is unfamiliar, accepting a chilly audience can itself be a task. Still, we play on regardless. On site we say, ‘If you leave without taking your blessing, that is your loss’. The members comfort me, asking ‘Are you okay?’, but perhaps because we play gut music, I do not particularly lose heart. People say you cannot make music without the public or an audience, but in the end it seems right for me to do what I like.”

She added, however, that she feels rewarded as Chu Da-hye Chajis’s music seems increasingly recognized both popularly and critically. In particular, their second full-length album, <Minority>, released last June, received rave reviews upon release and won the top honor, ‘Album of the Year’, at the ‘23rd Korean Music Awards’ last month. The track ‘Heosse’ won ‘Best R&B & Soul’.

“When we were called for Album of the Year, I was truly happy and surprised. Within the popular-music scene, traditional music is a real minority, and mu-ga is even more unfamiliar, so my expectations were low.” She continued, “I did not want to confine the band with words like crossover or fusion,” and, “Now it feels like we are being recognized as a genre in our own right, which makes me proud.” Of the second album, she said, “Over five years of various live shows at home and abroad with the members, we learned each other’s codes physically on stage, and the musical completeness seems to have grown (compared with the first album).”

Chu Da-hye, vocalist of the band ‘Chu Da-hye Chajis’, which won ‘Album of the Year’ at the 2026 Korean Music Awards, poses in the studio at the Kyunghyang Shinmun office in Jeong-dong, Seoul, on the 13th. Senior Staff Reporter Seo Seong-il

As a high-school student, Chu Da-hye dreamed of becoming an actor. Folk songs she learned, thinking they might help with acting, led her to enter the Korean traditional music department at Seoul Institute of the Arts, and in 2014 she joined the fusion gugak band ‘SsingSsing’ at the suggestion of sori singer Lee Hee-moon, an alumnus of the same school. She felt a peculiar thrill in the harmony between band sound and gugak. SsingSsing also had a big influence on her decision that, if she were to make music of her own, she would do it with a band. Falling for the music of shamans she encountered by chance, from 2016 she traveled around the country and was taught gut music such as Hwanghae-do and Jeju-do mu-ga.

“I have formally studied folk song for only four years. Most people train for life, so in that sense I am an outsider. But I enjoyed trying various transformations outside formal study. I sing freely on the basis of basic vocalization, change meter and rhythm, and dance too. Now that I lead a band under my own name, I am trying everything I want as if I had grown wings.”

The band Chu Da-hye Chajis. Provided by Sosuminjok Company

As impressive as the path Chu Da-hye has walked are the resums of the band members. They are players recognized in the indie scene, to the point that people said, “Chu Da-hye swept up all the best players in Hongdae.” The guitarist of the band, Si Moon, majored in jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music in the United States, and drummer Kim Da-bin and bassist Kim Jae-ho majored in contemporary music at Dong-Ah Institute of Media and Arts. Si Moon and Kim Jae-ho also perform as members of the band ‘Kim Oki Fucking Madness’.

Chu Da-hye, vocalist of the band ‘Chu Da-hye Chajis’, which won ‘Album of the Year’ at the 2026 Korean Music Awards, is being interviewed at the Kyunghyang Shinmun office in Jeong-dong, Seoul, on the 13th. Senior Staff Reporter Seo Seong-il

Another appeal of Chu Da-hye Chajis’s music lies in lyrics with a vivid ‘mouth-feel’. They prominently transform the words of traditional mu-ga and borrow dialect directly, as in “Yogeobora yogeonabora pullyeong gapseo geodeong gapseo jocha deulgo jocha namyeo pullyeong gapseo geodeong gapseo” (from ‘Heosse’). Most of their songs are created by having the members attach impromptu playing to lyrics Chu Da-hye has written.

“I create one hundred percent of the lyrics. I excerpt from oral sources or look through materials like collections of mu-ga and then combine words that fit the nuance and seem interesting. I like weaving stories (through lyrics), so I take an authorly approach. Some songs add a chorus that is easy to sing along to, but in some parts I use dialect or archaic words to the point of being difficult. There is that mouth-feel, and I also want Jeju dialect and old words to remain.”

For those new to Chu Da-hye Chajis, she recommended the first album’s ‘Ritual Dance’ and the second album’s ‘Heosse’. “These two tracks are award-winners (at the Korean Music Awards), but they are also rhythmic and the lyrics are fun. If you like these two songs, I recommend feeling the band more intensely with ‘Jakdu’.”

Chu Da-hye of the band Chu Da-hye Chajis takes the stage at the La Mar de Musicas festival in Cartagena, southern Spain. Provided by La marde musicas

This year, the band Chu Da-hye Chajis plans to meet audiences through festival stages at home and abroad and standalone concerts. Chu Da-hye said, “Winning a (Korean Music Awards) prize is not the end; it only becomes truly meaningful when it leads to performances and meeting audiences,” adding, “I want to keep performing steadily both in Korea and overseas.”