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Tonight we welcome Mai Young Ovlisen, the lead singer for the Danish band Meejah. We talked about her connections to Korea being an adoptee, the colonial past of the Faroe Islands, and their album Queen of Spring from 2021 on this eye-opening episode.
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
Feb 18, 2022
The Drop with Danno
I & II
070 Shake – Morrow
Bjork – Army of Me
Eivor – Falling Free (Live)
Kashmir – Ophelia
Meejah – 3rd Euljiro (Earth) (Live for Poclanos)
Meejah – Lysænger (Wind) (Live for Poclanos)
Antony & The Johnsons – Hope There’s Someone
Nordsind – Mørke
Radiohead – Daydreaming
Explosions in the Sky – Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean
MONO feat Art Williams – Exit in Darkness
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It is 20 hours past midnight after an extra cold and clear day here in Gwangju, and appropriately enough as we have the cold of Denmark, The Faroe Islands, and Korea all descending upon your ears for the entirety of the two hours tonight. And this Friday’s programming is baptized in the Danish Straits and placed frozen atop Halla-san as February 18, 2022. This is Danno in studio 2 as always, very excited to welcome Meejah lead singer Mai Young Olivsen to the show this evening in our 2nd hour EVEN THOUGH she has taken over the entirety of our playlist tonight, coming at you but not necessarily for you from studio 2 GFN HQ in downtown Gwangju, how do you do?
For those unfamiliar with Mai Young and her band Meejah, they are a band based in Denmark that came out with a great album last year titled Queen of Spring. The LP itself represents all of the traditional Korean natural elements, as in Heaven, Thunder, Mountain, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Lake, which might leave you a bit curious. Why would a Danish band choose Korean elements to represent their songs? Well, Mai Young is in fact a Korean adoptee. She grew up in Denmark but was born here, and although only tangentially familiar with the culture, she feels a deep bond with her homeland even so, and this is a very important subject to talk about, which we will do when she joins us in hour 2. For right now though, we have a fantastic playlist here in hour 1 that has been provided by Mai Young, so let’s get it started with 070 Shake and Morrow, which we’ll discuss after we get this Danish-Korean tank of dark love rolling. THIS is The Drop.
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070 Shake – Morrow*
The Drop has commenced proceedings for our guests & requests Friday night. Excited to have you with us as always, Danno here doing my thing as I do each & every night on GFN between 8 and 10, and readying things for our guest artist selector tonight in Mai Young Olivsen, the lead singer from Meejah. The band came out with an album last year called Queen of Spring which really caught our attention, and Mai Young’s story also raised an eyebrow on our side as well.
Mai Young was born here in Korea, but adopted when just a very wee baby at 2 months old. Even though raised basically as a Dane, she still feels a great connection to her homeland here, and we’re so excited to have her taking over the playlist tonight.
Thus, we mutually decided to have our very special Danish-Korean guest take over the entirety of the two hours musically tonight, and like her band Meejah we have an amazing meld of ambient, metal, and dream pop influences going on with this playlist here in February, which dare I say is the most Nordic of months on the Julian calendar.
Thus, we started with something which you could say is a little more pop than most of what we’ll hear tonight, that was 070 Shake with Morrow. This is actually the project of American artist Danielle Balbuena, who is part of the 070 Collective. Balbuena has featured on a slew of other big tunes with Kanye and Pusha T in her earlier years, and this cut featured on 2020’s Modus Vivendi, Latin of course for Way of Life or Living.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, podcast…
Now let’s move forward with some more from Mai Young’s first hour playlist, and up next we’ll start with Bjork and then some live stuff from Eiver then to the finish of the block with Kashmir. We’ll talk about all there is to know about after the roundabouts but for now THIS is The Drop on your Friday night with Meejah.
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The Drop returns for the last verbosities of the first half hour tonight, what’s going on this evening , Drop Gangsters (Korean)? This is Danno, hoping you’re staying warm this evening, and for those just joining us Meejah lead singer Mai Young Olivsen joins us for hour 2 tonight, although she has in fact taken over the playlist for the entirety of the show, and we’ll talk to the Danish-Korean singer more later on. For right now though, that was…
Bjork – Army of Me (…going way back to some rather early work from the incomparable artist out of Iceland. This was off Tank Girl from 1995, and we’ll talk with Mai Young in hour 2 further as we have more from the girl once known as Bapsi.)
Eivør – Falling Free (Live) (…this is a tune that was added to the deluxe version of SLOR or VEIL, which was released in 2015. Eivor is a Faroese singer, and this live version was recorded at the Old Theater in Torshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. This will be an important subject during our talk with Mai Young in hour 2.)
Kashmir – Ophelia (…back to Denmark with this cut from 2005 from the famed alt rockers, and the full LP if you’re looking for more after hearing that is called No Balance Palace.)
Alright, so as we approach the close of quarter 1 tonight we’re going to showcase Meejah on a recent live episode of Poclanos. For those unfamiliar, Poclanos is a great music channel based right here in Korea, and we’ll play both 3rd Euljiro (Earth) and Lysaenger (Wind), both tunes from the Queen of Spring LP. Do forgive the obviously botched Danish and Faroese pronunciations here, believe it or not I am actually trying. Hahaha…THIS is The Drop on your Meejah Friday night.
Meejah – 3rd Euljiro (Earth)
Meejah – Lysænger (Wind)
II
The Drop is back for tonight as we have commenced Danish-Korean 2nd stanza of our Nordic Friday night. We just heard a pair of tunes selected by Meejah lead singer Mai Young Olivsen who we’ll talk to in our 2nd hour exclusive, and she’s showing some of the influences that go into the music that Meejah makes. Do check their debut LP from last year Queen of Spring, which is just superlative stuff, a bit of which we heard to end part 2. As to what we just let fly into space, that was...
Antony & The Johnsons – Hope There’s Someone ( …another cut from 2005 right here, this one appearing on the band’s I Am A Bird Now LP. This LP was that year’s Mercury Prize winner in the UK, and the band is led by British-born Anohni, although they’re currently on a bit of a creative hiatus having released their last LP in 2016.)
Nordsind – Mørke ( …this is an interesting band right here from Denmark’s capital in Copenhagen. This tune which means darkness appeared on their very deep album from last year called lys or list. The band kind of focuses attention on the moments between the heavier parts & quieter moments in the music, generally marking them as a post metal group.)
Now before we continue just a quick reminder to follow us on social media, we are @gfnthedrop on most major social media platforms. If you’re local aka here in Korea, send us a message #9870 (50/100). What doesn’t cost you anything is catching us after the show, The Drop with Danno or The Drop on GFN (or) is available on most major podcast platforms, and you can find us with a simple google search & stream, download, and/or subscribe free & easy.
Moving ahead, we’ve got a pair of long players to explore in the next block from Radiohead and Explosions in the Sky, all of which we’ll dive into after they dive into us. THIS is The Drop on your Friday night with Meejah.
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The Drop continues as we head towards the jump to parts 3 & 4 tonight and our exclusive with Mai Young Olivsen. Danno here, as usual, and for those not in the know or just now getting with the program, we are currently listening to the warm-up for our hour 2 guest, who is the lead singer for the Danish-Korean outfit Meejah. Interestingly these are all her selections that we’re currently bumping as we’ve let her take over the airwaves completely tonight, and we’ll have Mai Young on the phone from Denmark after the start of part 3 properly this evening ...
Radiohead – Daydreaming (…this one is from Thom Yorke & company’s 9th studio album from 2016 A Moon Shaped Pool, and this tune in particular feels like an early look in to Yorke’s very ambient-oriented solo work which would come later on.)
Explosions in the Sky – Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean (…from the aptly named 2003 album The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, for those unfamiliar this band is out of Texas and generally plays strictly instrumental tunes with three guitars in tow. Their narrative instrumental style is something the band calls “cathartic mini-symphonies,” which you definitely got a big gulp of right there.)
So, we’re almost to the portal that’s going to take us to part 3 tonight and our conversation with Mai Young, but we have one more very quality selection from the Meejah lead singer to finish the first half tonight. Up next is MONO featuring Art Williams with a cut called Exit In Darkness, and we shall do exactly that. THIS is The Drop as the door to Meejah opens and the lights go out in here on your very special guest artist selector Friday night.
MONO feat Art Williams – Exit In Darkness
III & IV: Meejah
Meejah – Youth (Heaven)
Cult of Luna – Passing Through
Tommy Genesis – Execute
Bjork – Unison
Sigur Ros – Bennisteinn
Meejah – Litli min (Mountain)
Mew – Snow Brigade
JAMBINAI – Time of Extinction
Sightless Pit – The Ocean of Mercy
Demersal – The Roots Have Grown Too Strong Here
my bloody valentine - soon