Once upon a time in Busan, there was a band called Cuttlefish. No one else sounded like them. Let's just say that.

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cuttlehistory

They were a fun-loving band of brothers. They never took themselves too seriously (in public). There were a lot of bands around town that were way better than they at playing rock covers, so they did originals to say no one played these songs better. And no one would cover them, so .. golden. Some say they were the first ever originals band in the expat Busan music scene, which is a very specific thing to declare, like "first dog to ever pee on this particular fireplug while an ice cream truck was parked nearby" (and just about as likely to be true). They wrote songs about failed relationships, swearing at the wrong time, and pooing with the bathroom door open. They liked the Toy Dolls, The Pixies, Talking Heads, REM, eating pork after rehearsals and drinking lots of beer.

• Chris Coffin (drums, pratfalls)

  • and Gordon worked together at an English institute in Busan and talked about music almost constantly. For a long time he hid the fact that he was a really good drummer. After they formed a band together, it was clear he was the only one who knew how to properly play their instrument, and they say that a band is only as good as the drummer, and he could make a mean face, so then Gordon knew it was a good idea they started a band. Plus we needed more friends.

• Colin Dunne (lead vocals, guitar, mime)

  • met Chris and Gordon as a friend of friends and they heard him sing the hell out of fake plastic trees by Radiohead late one night at the Bob Dlylan (sic) bar and he was in. After a while, Gordon forced him to buy a guitar so he did.

• Minsu Hwang (bass, vocals, pretty girls)

  • was the bar manager at the Ol'55 Cavern Club where they hung out and he told us about bands like Granddaddy, Arcade Fire (before they were big), and he was learning to play blues guitar. He said "I thought blues would be easy, but it's not. It's really f***king hard!". This statement came as a doctoral thesis in music to us. Knowing that they needed to have at least one cool person in the band, they gave him a bass and kind of forced him to join.

• Gordon (guitar, vocals, insecurity)

  • is not the best guy to have in your band because he tends to take over, which is a weird thing for someone who hates authoritarianism to do. He's also not a very good guitar player, but no one wanted him to be sad so no one said anything the whole time.

the name

At the time they became a quartet, a name was needed. At that time they were always looking for words that were fun to say in Bjork's voice. After rehearsal one day they saw a tank of cuttlefish in front of a restaurant where people ate such things. Of course, they all said "cuttlefish" a la Bjork and that was that.

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