After a whirlwind promotional tour in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Royal Pirates set their sail to Kuala Lumpur to continue promoting their album, Love Toxic.

The latest pop rock band to hail from South Korea, Royal Pirates, comprises of Moon (vocal, guitarist, leader), James Lee (bassist) and Sooyoon (drummer), met with the media at one of the Dal.komm Coffee branches in Damansara for a press conference session prior to their showcase later in the evening at Bentley Music Auditorium. The trio talked about being up close and personal with their fans, musical influences and their hopes for their new album.

After introducing themselves in Malay, the group started talking animatedly about how they had spent the first few days of their 5-days promotional tour.

For Hotlink contest winners, the very lucky fans were able to spend some time together with the band in Kota Kinabalu and also Kuala Lumpur. Sooyoon said, both fan experiences were very good and James added that it was their first time having such an up close and personal experience with their fans.

In Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, they visited Mari Mari Cultural Village and they even showed the skills that they had picked up, which includes menyumpit, in which Sooyoon emerged as the winner. James said that they had felt like warriors doing that.

Other than that, the night before, they had also spent almost two hours with some lucky fans at Dal.komm Coffee in IOI Mall Puchong, where they became baristas. Eventhough Moon had previous experience as a barista, he said that he failed the first challenge of making coffee arts. However, he managed to redeem himself by winning the second challenge, where he drew the moon and a face on the coffee, to represent his name and himself, earning him bragging rights.

They also talked about trying Malaysian food, which includes laksa, nasi lemak and satay, which they had enjoyed.

Royal Pirates had first started as a band doing covers on Youtube back in 2008, covering hits such as Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry," Wonder Girls' "Nobody" and Britney Spears's "Circus," which was even featured on the singer's homepage. When asked whether they knew Britney Spears personally, Sooyoon said they were only contacted by email by the singer's manager, though Moon jokingly added, "We're bestfriends!"

Before Royal Pirates, the group was called Fading from Dawn and Moon said that they decided to change it when James became the third member of the band. He said, "Sooyoon likes the word 'Royal', so we tried coming up with names such as Royal Ninjas, Royal Spiders." They decided to use Pirates because they're huge fans of Pirates of the Caribbeans and the combination of the two words sounds good.

They're all influenced by different types of music, citing that they listen to the likes of 2PAC, Daft Punk, The Beatles, Rage Against the Machine and wanting to collaborate with Busker Busker and Seo Taiji. James said, "Moon likes groovy ballad, Sooyoon likes rock and I like metal, so we combined all the sounds together to create our first song, 'Disappear.'"

They expressed hope in wanting to go back to three to four years ago, when the song was first released unofficially to promote the band, with their new album. Sooyoon said that all the lyrics for the new album were written with their heart, showing charm and characters of each members, adding that there will be lots of genres to look forward to in the album.

However, when asked when the album will be released, Moon said that rather than talking about the exact date, he'd rather say it will be released when they're confident with the album. He also revealed that they would like to release it during warm season. Summer is coming, so maybe their fans won't have to wait too long for it? Look forward to all the promotion as Royal Pirates plan to have lots of promotional activities with their new release!

As they were in Malaysia to promote their second mini album, Love Toxic, they recommended a few of their favourite songs taken off the album. Sooyoon said he likes "Seoul Hillbilly" because of the cheerful feelings and he added that he likes performing the live version because it's livelier and fans should definitely come and see them perform that.

Meanwhile, James said that he likes "Haru," a song that Moon wrote, which according to him, was about the time when you first started liking somebody and just thinking about them, just looking at them, time passes by so quickly. James said, "It's one of my favourite songs, because I know of Moon's intention when he wrote it and I think it came across very clearly and very honestly." He also did not miss the chance to plug the song he had written himself, which was "Betting Everything," the English acoustic version.

Talking about the so-called rock-star life that they're currently living, James said that it is a little different in South Korea because it is a new frontier and therefore there is not a lot of room for new rock bands to grow. He added, "There's not enough platform for everyone, so that's why bands are trying to grow not only domestically but internationally as well."

When asked what they think makes a perfect rock song, Moon said, "The fact that it is imperfect, makes it perfect," to which Sooyoon added, "If good rock music is imperfect, then we're perfect!" which made everyone laugh. He also said that good rock music is about attitude and the emotion and message behind the song is very important too.

James agreed and added, "Rock and roll needs attitude but to keep that attitude, you need energy and passion. You have to make sure that you don't falter."

The most important thing, according to Moon, is that a lot of rock songs are very honest and a lot of rock bands live their own lives, so that when they write songs about it, it just sounds natural because it is not somebody else's lives they're writing about.

Other than music, Royal Pirates were also asked some fun questions. When they were asked which member would get married first, Sooyoon immediately said, "Moon, because he told me he wants to get married when he's 36."

Moon agreed and said he likes kids and likes having family. Having admitted that he's a romantic person, he revealed, "When I am in love, I will always focus on that one person. I will not bother about the reality but will just focus on the person I love."

Meanwhile, James and Sooyoon said they have no idea when they will get married, to which Moon said they will probably get married when they're 53! Royal Pirates also talked about their relationship with each other. "We're like a family," Sooyoon said. Moon added, "We do get annoyed with each other sometimes but we're good at solving that now."

They were also asked what would they be doing if they're not members of Royal Pirates. James said that he'll probably be a professor, teaching at university level, adding that he likes to take a role of leading people and giving inspiration. Sooyoon said, he'd probably be a chef, cooking up great food. As for Moon, he said that as his parents majored in Arts, he'll probably be doing something related to arts. He also said that he likes having conversation with lots of people, and he even invited fans to share their problems and worries to him on Twitter or Instagram, eventhough he is not a professional.

They also talked about which Avengers character they would like to be: James would like to be Captain America, Sooyoon would like to be Hulk and Moon would like to be Iron Man.

The press conference wrapped up with the presentation of a durian cake to Royal Pirates, which they had mistakenly thought as the real fruit at first and also the presentation of souvenirs to Hotlink and Malaysia Airlines representatives as official sponsors.

Writer: Aisyah Roslan | Photo Credit: Nik Tim