The Toronto-based group Uptown Boyband is relatively new to the industry, but artistically, the trio has quickly established their own sound.

Tailoring themselves as an alternative to K-Pop, the Korean-Canadian artists pull from the stylings of K-Pop for the foundation of a track – yet attentively taking the chance to combine their tracks with edgier content. In what might be the rookie group’s best display so far, the first single of 2021 since their 2020 debut offers hopes to change up a standard perception on “Rich Girl“. The track revels in a pulsating EDM beat to trigger a complete festival banger – with lyrics that give more substance to a socialite persona that’s been notably disparaged over the years. 

Uptown Boyband has tracks that take it a step further, like the song “I GO” presenting an aggressively captivating beat that offers the members a chance to show their distinctive talents. On the other hand, the versatility that the group exudes is rounded out with their sleeper hit “SAILORMOON” a mesmerizing city-pop stylized single that pivots from each previous release as one of their most-streamed hits so far. 

Uptown Boyband’s strengths have proven to be in various genres, with massive respect for hip-hop and a sultry-synth backbone, meaning the trio appreciates the notion of channeling your passions into art. Each song feels like it avoids repetition, yet has identifiable qualities from the members (Justin Trash, Joe Rascal, and Roc Lee) to make it feel like a product of the group instead of being a cookie-cutter genre grab. Just after dropping their newest repeat-worthy banger, we held an exclusive Q&A with Uptown Boyband to get an idea of where they foresee the group’s sound going next.

Congratulations on the new single “Rich Girl”! It has a lot of duality between this EDM party track, and having some depth to the lyrics about that lifestyle! How was this track conceived (or what was the starting point for this song)?

UBB: Thank you! The concept of this song came together in our second session with Elijah Woods. We told him that we wanted to implement something more EDM with Kpop music to create a unique alternate version of our own. This is something we never touched on and wanted to explore. The idea behind the line “she’s more than just a rich girl” was to touch on bad impressions. We wanted to talk about how there is more to an individual than how people or society might see or judge them. The first thing you hear in the song is rich girl, but when you dive deeper you realize there’s depth to it.

In the short time, you’ve been together so far, you’ve already created some real bangers – and “Rich Girl” feels like it could be your best track yet! If you each had to pick a favorite song so far, what would you choose?

JUSTIN: “Rich Girl” is definitely on the top of my list but a close second would be “SAILORMOON” because I’m just so in love with the city pop sound. 

ROC: My personal favorite is “BAG$” because I love the melodies we came up with. It was the first song where we explored a more K-RNB vibe.

JOE: Personally, my favorite track would be “I GO” because it highlights our heritage being Canadian-Korean. The phrase “aigoo” is used often by the Korean elderly and as a homage, we wanted to give thanks to all the early elders that “broke their back” for the future generations to come.

You’ve really committed to creating your own alternative to K-Pop, with nods to EDM and hip-hop, really leaning into individuality! If you had to single out something as being the core essence of an Uptown Boyband song, what is important to you as a unit?

UBB: The core essence of an UPTOWN BOYBAND song is to create a hybrid of the two cultures we grew up with. Our goal is to create music for a wide audience but also write music that is based on our own experience so the listener can really dive in. 

You also have “I GO (아이고)” that presents an edgier side of the group with (another solid hit in my opinion!) Who are other artists in that hip-hop or trap genre that have helped shape your own style?

UBB: Thank you! “I GO” is definitely on the edgier side. A couple of artists that have helped shape our own style would be people like ASAP Rocky, NERD, and Big Bang. All three artists played such a huge role in our sound.

Another song I wanted to ask about was “SAILORMOON”! I really enjoyed seeing your own view on a city-pop sound, and it has been streamed almost 300,000 times on Spotify so far! What was probably the best memory you each have associated with that song?

JUSTIN: My favorite memory associated with the song was definitely writing my own verse because it was based on a really traumatic experience of mine. Hearing it on a track like this made it hauntingly beautiful.

ROC: The best memory I have of this song was the recording session we had in the studio because we were dancing and genuinely having the time of our lives.

JOE: My favorite memory associated with this song is when we filmed the music video. The lights and ambient feels of the set made me feel the song’s true intent evermore. With it being city pop-inspired I felt immersed in the moment on set and every time I listen to “SAILORMOON” I feel a sense of freedom and solace.

After establishing your style and musicality so early, which isn’t an easy achievement – what do you hope to accomplish next as a group?

UBB: We want to take the world stage and bring our music to fans on a global level. We have CLUB UBB (our amazing fan club) to thank for the support that they have continuously given us. The least we can do is achieve World domination! We still have a lot to prove to ourselves, and to CLUB UBB, because without them we would not be here. We have a bunch of new music dropping this year (which we are so excited about!) and we have a couple of tentative US and CAN shows planned. We have learned a lot during the last year but we are only getting started! There is so much more to come.

Check out the visualizer video for “Rich Girl” included above!