Through blood, sweat and tears, Mahogany King unveils ‘Memorandum’

Despite coming across every possible stumbling block, the passionate vocalists of Mahogany King, say nothing can keep them down.

The indie outfit ― composed of Lee Mal-C, Aarah and MoonDeuk ― made its debut in 2011 with the album “Lee Mal-C Aarah MoonDeuk.” The album was released as an alternative jazz pop record, but now that they have a foot in the door, the band mates have made a return to indie-rock, picking up additional member J.shin along the way.

With the completion of the band’s second studio album “Memorandum,” which was recorded in J.shin’s basement apartment and released last month, the members can laugh about some of the behind-the-scenes struggles that they faced during recording.

“My place was basically the only place that we could record our album and it worked out fine, but wouldn’t you know it, the first floor of the building, right above me, had actually been converted into a 24-hour laundromat,” J.shin explained.

“At first I didn’t think much of it since we planned on recording at night anyway, but I was shocked at how many people did their laundry after dark and even at dawn. Because of all the noise that the laundry machines made, we had to stay up nights and wait until it was quiet enough to record, so we kept having to stop and start again and again.

“We really did struggle, and worked hard to produce this album. I think if you listen closely, you can even hear the sounds of the laundromat in the background,” he said as the rest of the members laughed.

At nearly every step of the production process, the band had obstacles to overcome in order to make the 10-track second album a reality.

“I remember when we had invited a cellist, someone whom we had never met before, to come and record with us in our basement studio for one of our tracks,” band member Aarah recalled.

“It was already such a small and cramped space, but to make matters even worse, the air conditioning was not working that day. And as she (the cellist) was playing, she literally had sweat dripping down the neck of her cello and we had to keep stopping and wiping it down for her and then re-record.”

The drama surrounding the album did not just stop at laundry noises and dripping sweat: Even when the album was complete and ready to be physically produced, the members encountered an unfortunate mistake that could not be remedied.

“On our album, the name of our band is actually spelled wrong; there was a mix-up at the printers and they spelled ‘Mahogany’ with an ‘i’ instead of a ‘y’ at the end,” said Lee Mal-C. “But unfortunately we did not have the money to reproduce the physical album and jacket covers, so we just had to let it be.”

“Now that I really look back and think about it, nothing ever really goes right or smooth with us,” he said with a smile.

However, all that the members of Mahogany King endured during the making of their album turned out to be worth it when they learned that their fusion of scat, jazz, soul, R&B and gospel had caught the attention of Sony Music. The major label offered to help promote the band once the album was complete.

The members poured their hearts and souls into completing the album on time and hope their efforts to attract a larger audience by introducing new genres, including electronic beats, will eventually pay off.

“The feedback that we got about our first album was that it was too dark, so for our second album we really tried to mix things up and we decided to go more modern,” said MoonDeuk.

“We may be in our 30s, but we still know good music,” Lee Mal-C said laughing. “I really hope that, through this album, people will be able to enjoy the different kind of music we bring.”

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)