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With his mixture of rock, hip hop, and “kpop inspired melodies,” VVXXZY has released his first solo track “Molly Alexandra.” While we are in New York, and he is based in Texas, we were still able to set up an interview to talk about his music journey, and what music means to him.

At the age of nine his friend showed him a Green Day music video and from there music became part of his blood. “I was really into alternative rock before discovering k-pop and later hip hop.”

Getting into making music wasn’t always in his cards, but after the tragedy of one of his friends committing suicide last year, he realized how short and precious life can be. “When he passed, I began to seriously reflect on my own thoughts, feelings, and actions. I began to write everything that’s been haunting me down and it kind of turned out pretty poetically, like a rap.”

And with that, he has his first single to prove it. “Molly Alexandra,” has lyrics that while they might seem simple, actually have a powerful meaning behind them.

“Pop the molly, pop the xanx, take a picture for the gram, I don’t want to understand, I don’t want to give a damn.” When we asked VVXXZY what he sees in his lyrics, he explained, “To me, it represents the youth in today’s society in the sense that kids don’t inherently want to do drugs but rather take them as a means to forget or avoid certain issues in their lives that are difficult to address.”

Getting inspired by personal experiences, listening to other peoples stories, as well as going to live shows, he ultimately hopes that people can connect to his music in a way that shows them they are not alone.

And since this is a site about learning Korean we asked him for a phrase he would like to teach us. His response:

“ ’꿈 꿀 수 있는 자, 그 꿈을 이룰 수도 있다’ (kkum kkul su eessnun ja, koo kkumool eerul sudue essda)

“This quote means that ‘if you can dream it, you can also turn it into reality’. I chose this quote because it really resonates with me. Oftentimes others put us down or we ourselves may hold inner doubts. But I believe that if you have a dream and work hard for it, it can definitely become a reality.”

We were so excited to find this amazing artist and we cannot wait to see what he has coming next. Check out his single “Molly Alexandra” now on Spotify and Apple Music.

Anime. A Japanese animated film or tv show. Not something you would expect to be discussed on a site dedicated to Korea and everything Korean. We hear you.

So then why did we go to AnimeNYC powered by Crunchyroll?

Solid question.

We’ve discussed many times, mostly via our Instagram, our love of otome games. These visual, choose your path, romance novels make our hearts go pitter patter on the daily. We aren’t exaggerating. We read them daily. Between the romantic prose and the pretty, sexy, dreamy art we are constantly inspired for our own stories for this site.

They’re predominantly made in Japan.

Are you starting to put together how we ended up at AnimeNYC?

Lindsay, who helps us out with the site, is the biggest Anime fan we know. When we received information that the Javits Center was hosting this year’s AnimeNYC we applied for the press simply to have an awesome birthday gift for our girl. (Which everyone go follow @fashioningcosplay on insta to show her some happy birthday love!)

Lindsay and Sammie celebrating Lindsay’s bday!

But, when we got the extremely long list of exhibitioners, we noticed two names that had us squealing like the crazy fangirls we are. Voltage Inc. and Cheritz had their licensed sellers with booths at the exhibition area.

D-E-A-D. DEAD.

Cheritz is actually the one Korean otome game we know of and have played. Jumin being our major bias and Seven as the bias wrecker. We played and have spent a pretty penny on the game. And hearing the sultry voices when our ‘phone’ rang in the game? OOF! (If there are more Korean otome games, PLEASE send them our way! We love spending money on hot 2D boys)

Now to get back on track. We packed our bags, saved our paychecks and headed to the Big Apple for a convention that we had no clue what we were getting ourselves into.

K-Con NY, take notes.

AnimeNYC is, by far, the best convention/expo we have ever been to. Besides having the large anime, game, and toy company booths, including the ones dedicated to our favorite otome games, they had hundreds of stand alone artists who took the characters we know and love and turned them into whatever they wanted. Whether it was simply drawing them in more modern clothing, or giving them cute little cat ears, or going the extreme route and making art for the 18 and older crowd, they created posters, keychains, postcards, and so much more. What impressed us the most was the artists that created anime characters out of K-pop groups we all admire. BTS, MonstaX, EXO, you name it.

These artists were, at least to us, the highlight of the event, because they were just like us. Fans showing their love and appreciation through their creative outlet.

Our second favorite aspect was the street clothes. Next to Sammie blowing her money on her otome game merch, she blew the other half of her paycheck on the clothing. Brands we had never heard of, but are glad we do now, came with clothes that we could see anyone rocking. But most importantly we could see K-pop idols performing in, showing up to the airport in, and even just wearing in their day to day lives filming a live insta or Vlive video. Or K-drama actors wearing them to press events, or in the dramas, or similarly at the airport or on a live insta video.

Crazy thing was, several of the brands had Korean influence. 소주 bottles on shorts and t-shirts, 메론바 (maelonba – melon bar) on hats, even a fashion line with a bag quoting BTS’s famous “Mic Drop” line, “Did you see my bag?” These brands mixed the many amazing Asian street clothes cultures and we were, and still are, here for it.

Wooji used this soju bottle print as both this shirt and shorts

There is so much to talk about and not enough reader attention span to fit it all in. To sum up the rest of the three day, yes THREE DAY, event, there was a lot of yaoi to keep our BL hearts thoroughly satisfied, new anime releases we are set to actually watch and learn more about, new games being released, and amazing cosplay everywhere we turned that blew our minds with how much work these people put into the outfits. We were so happy to be a part of this amazing event and it opened our eyes to what conventions should be. Now all we have to do is wait until AnimeNYC 2020!

VVXXZY Makes Waves

ANIMENYC. That’s it. That’s the title.

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