Heading overseas for lunch this Monday with a set from Touched, a relatively new band from Seoul, South Korea – recorded at the Seoul Minimusic Festival on October 18, 2025.
Ever since I heard rumors about a thriving Indie scene in South Korea, I had to go exploring. Not as easy as I first thought, with the language barrier and all. But persistence pays off and I ran across Touched and had to include them as one of the examples that there’s a lot of music happening in a lot of places and a lot of it needs to be bookmarked and kept an eye on.
Wanting to know more about Touched and doing some further digging into their background, a link yielded this informative bio from their Management company MPMG Music – tells you pretty much all you need to know:
TOUCHED are a four-member band consisting of Yunmin (Vocal & Guitar), Kim Seungbin (Drums), John B. Kim (Bass), and Chea Dohyeon (Keyboard). The band members are alumni of the Department of Practical Music at Seoul National University of Arts.
They perform music with strong charisma yet delicate sensibility and not limiting themselves to a specific music genre.
In 2020, TOUCHED won the grand prize at “The 31st Yoo Jae-ha Music Competition.
” They not only became the first band to be allowed to appear in the competition’s history but managed to win the Grand Prize. Since then, TOUCHED raised their profile by consecutively winning such competitions as “2021 INDIESTANCE,” “Rising Star 4U,” and “Pyeongtaek National Band Competition.” In 2021, TOUCHED released their first EP [Purple], fully demonstrating the band’s unique identity by combining strength, charisma, and emotional aspects.
In 2022, TOUCHED gained attention for their outstanding performance on Mnet’s brand-new band survival show “Great Seoul Invasion.” They not only built a loyal fanbase through their participation in the show but eventually became the winner. Soon after, TOUCHED made their international debut at the “OCTOPOP 2022″’ music festival held in Bangkok.
Just to add – Singer/guitarist Yunmin has a strong and highly evocative voice. You may not understand the language, but she expresses enough raw emotion that you don’t need get the exact meaning of the song, but there’s no doubt the song is packed with a message. She is a serious talent, along with the rest of the band who are not playing around and who take making music seriously.
I know a lot of K-Pop artists are coming over to the States as well as Europe, especially with festival season coming up. Not sure the same holds true with K-Indie. Although there’s no reason not to – my hunch is Touched will have a healthy and growing audience once word gets out.
The least you can do is Press Play and have a listen. It’s Monday after all.
