Watch SE SO NEON's 'P And Q' Video
() Genre-defying South Korean band SE SO NEON unveils the official music video for their track "p and q," celebrating the one year anniversary of their debut album NOW.
Led by songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Soyoon Hwang (also known for her So!YoON! solo project), SE SO NEON have crafted their own brand of lo-fi and vintage sound, displaying a wide spectrum of musical influences varying from blues and psychedelic rock to new wave and synth pop.
Soyoon describes "p and q" as "the song that most closely resembles the present" on NOW. To capture the disorder of that moment beyond her self-imposed rules, she improvised the lyrics by reading phrases from her notes and kept the first recorded performance. The title came from the lowercase letters "p" and "q," whose shapes resemble two people facing each other.
Filmed in the summer of 2024, the music video originated from images that came to Soyoon while she was finishing the song in Los Angeles.. After returning to Korea that summer, she shared the idea with co-director Hyungjun Park and began developing it into a film. The video follows a figure reminiscent of Yu Gwan-sun (Korean independence activist) as she moves through the streets and delivers a frenzied speech to a group of people gathered in a marketplace. Although the Liberation Day premiere was not planned during production, the imagery of the video has come to intersect unexpectedly with its release date.
Rather than presenting polished and carefully composed images, the video embraces dishevelled faces, broken instruments and bodies moving with raw physicality. "It took courage to document the present without feeling ashamed of it," Soyoon says. "This was a project that helped me find that courage."
SE SO NEON's NOW continues to receive widespread critical praise both stateside and abroad. Soyoon's guitar playing is key to NOW, aiming to defy genres to create a wholly unpredictable, yet utterly natural landscape, much like the ones she marveled at as a child in Korea and as a young adult in Los Angeles. Sung primarily in Korean, the music is rooted both in the present and in nature, making NOW relatable regardless of any language barrier.
Last week, SE SO NEON debuted a remixed version of the album track "Remember!" by legendary Japanese artist, record producer and DJ TOWA TEI (of DEEE-LITE). Where the original offered a poignant, cinematic atmosphere, TOWA TEI transforms the reimagined version into a vibrant, late-night dance floor cut. By wrapping Soyoon's captivating vocals in his signature retro-futuristic synths and an infectious house groove, this cross-border collaboration delivers a seamless blend of nostalgia and high-energy electronic pop.
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