Photo: There’s A Tuesday at Gyeongbokgung Palace, Samantha Cheong

When New Zealand musicians talk about “going global,” the conversation usually turns to London, Los Angeles or Melbourne. But for Ōtautahi indie band There’s A Tuesday, the first serious step outside Aotearoa was east – to the Asia-Pacific.

In August, the four-piece was chosen from nearly 80 applicants for the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s Seoul Residency, a ten-day immersion in South Korea’s thriving indie scene. Selected for how naturally their sound aligns with K-indie (Korean indie), the band discovered more than a new audience – they found a new way of thinking about their craft.

Why Asia, why now

“We’ve been lucky enough to learn about what we can do as an international artist from Aotearoa to get our name out there,” said co-frontwoman Nat Hutton at the Going Global Music Summit in August.

Having just returned from a city of nearly 10 million residents to write, record and perform, Hutton recalled “many epic meetings where they got to talk to lots of people in the music scene over there.”

One of those meetings was at Mound Media, a leading music and entertainment company that houses independent labels and distributors such as Magic Strawberry Sound and Poclanos. 

There’s A Tuesday were advised to focus on getting onto editorial playlists, engage with Korean media – “magazines primarily on Instagram” – and play regular shows in Seoul.

The Canterburians came home thinking about how to give fans “a visual experience that goes beyond simply listening.” Drummer Gus Murray said visiting Mound revealed that “back home, visuals are just a bonus, but Korean music is much more visual than other countries.”

Mound’s CEO Kim Kun-soo (Kevin) urged them, “It’s most important to show your audience consistently what you can do – to touch their hearts.” Slipping between floors of the building, the band saw what he meant, spotting YouTube Creator plaques celebrating subscriber milestones.

Later, during a strategy session with Spotify Korea, bassist Joel Becker noticed a striking difference: “In New Zealand, Spotify is number one, but here it’s only number three – they’re really pushing to gain users through gigs and ads.” He added, “The competitive nature of DSPs [digital streaming platforms] here allows Spotify to take more risks and engage audiences more actively,” while highlighting Melon’s dominance: “Melon’s been around the longest, and it’s much more focused on Korean music than on international K-pop [idols].”

Benefits they didn’t expect

The band stayed in Hongdae, the birthplace of K-indie 30 years ago, where huge multi-venue festivals still sustain the country’s subcultures.

There’s A Tuesday quickly saw how deep K-indie still runs, despite its pop counterpart’s hold in the mainstream. “One thing that really stuck out to us – and made an amazing first impression – was the Pentaport Rock Festival. It was absolutely out of this world,” said Becker.

At the festival, crowds swarmed every stage – whether for British rapper Little Simz, Japanese lo-fi band Tempalay, Britpop icons Pulp or Grammy-winner Beck – showing how hungry South Korean audiences are for international talent.

“Just going there, seeing the variety of acts, and witnessing a bit of Korean festival culture was a really unique, pretty eye-opening experience – seeing how Koreans like to run their festivals,” Becker reflected.

Despite a 40-degree heatwave, Hutton called the multi-genre event “probably one of the best days of our whole lives,” noting that “everyone was so into the music, and then when the artist was speaking would be so silent and respectful.” She was stunned by the queues for memorabilia: “People were queuing throughout the whole festival just to buy merch,” compared with the beer line that took “four minutes.”

Challenges – and pleasant surprises

Language barriers loomed large on paper, but in practice became part of the magic. “Much of our communication happened through music,” Hutton said of their CJ Azit writing session with K-indie artist Kim Seung Joo, whom they met backstage after his Pentaport set.

CJ Azit – run by the CJ Cultural Foundation and often described as Seoul’s answer to Auckland’s BIG FAN – has supported more than 200 musicians and 70 albums through its TUNE UP, STAGE UP and STORY UP programmes.

Co-frontwoman Minnie Robberds recalls their studio time: “It was this nice exchange. The words we wrote felt aligned despite being in different languages.”

They even swapped slang – “daebak (대박)” from Korean and “mean” from Kiwi – while using Papago translations to shape lyrics.

By the end, “We’ve created a pretty special connection with [Kim] Seung Joo and his band,” said Becker. “No one was too proud or too shy. Everyone shared ideas – it was fluid.” Robberds grinned about the outcome with a tongue in her cheek: “They were pretty into it, so we’re calling the song ‘Mean/Daebak.’”

New confidence to go global

Two days later, Kim Seung Joo joined them onstage to debut the track live at CJ Azit’s performance space.

There’s A Tuesday followed with an explosive Seoul debut at the sold-out TUNE UP MEETS FRESH FINDS concert alongside local heavy-hitters jisokuryClub and Can’t Be Blue.

Robberds said, “It felt like a sincere connection,” after introducing the band in Korean to cheers. “The audience really listened,” she noted. Warm responses, laughter and reactive gestures made the Kiwi group feel right at home.

Hutton summed it up at Going Global: “We made so many amazing connections that we feel like such an amazing thing to have going forward.”

Lessons for Other Creatives

For Kiwi artists contemplating an international career, the band suggests looking closer to home across the Asia-Pacific. South Korean and Japanese fans, they say, embody the ideal listener – people who show up to gigs, buy merch and learn your lyrics even if they’re in another language.

Their key takeaways: treat visuals as essential, prioritise social media, play live and often, and trust music as the ultimate shared tongue.

As Hutton put it, “Hopefully, going forward, we'll continue to have these cool relationships with the people we've met over here, and use that to come back as soon as possible.”