48 Hours: See Nice Legs walk Hongdae

Lauren I came to Korea with two things in mind. North Korean humans rights. [Lauren previously worked as a refugee resettlement case manager in Buffalo, New York] and Yogiga. My friend went on and on about this place. And when I came to Korea, it’s where I met most of my friends. Mark, you wanna add something?

Mark I love this place. That’s about it.

Lauren It’s magical, wouldn’t you say?

Mark Yes, it’s where we recorded our first album.

Lauren It’s a haven for weirdos and creative geniuses who just want to express themselves. If you lack social skills… If you need a place to feel at home, this is a place where they will nurture you and help you find what you want to express. Sure, it’s not an incredibly organized place all the time, but what else can you expect when there’s no limit to anything. It’s really warm and refreshing.

[Lauren, who has a key to Yogiga, explains their once a month event, Bulgasari.]

Bulgasari, meaning starfish, is an event that happens every last Sunday of the month. An experimental open-mike. It’s different every time. A grab bag. Sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s like, let’s get a coffee and come back (because there’s no time limit). There’s experimental and noise music, dancers, comedians and rappers. We’re always looking for artists to put up their work for the event because you can do it for free. I don’t know what kind of person I would be today without Yogiga.

Mark This is where we first performed!

Lauren Mark was out of a job and I was living with him and his wife, sorta not doing much. She was nudging him to get out of the house and so the two of us went out to Hongdae Park. I do most of the singing and lyric-writing while Mark plays guitar, composes the music and backs me up on vocals.

Mark Yeah, that first time we went out and performed—the response was so much better than we anticipated. Even though it was the first time we did music together.

Lauren We just went out to the park and sang everyday for two weeks. We had this musical chemistry that neither of us anticipated.

Mark We met lots of weird people during performances and made lots of good memories here.