Kapacity calls itself Penn’s premier Korean rock band, but it's not one to be pigeonholed—its setlists span ‘70s hard rock epics, 2000s emo classics, top–of–the–charts K–Pop, and heart–rending balladry. Long divorced from its primarily international student beginnings, now the band’s only focus is quality music, and it’ll reach out to any corner of the world to attain it. I saw this quality for myself at its show in March, and I knew I had to talk with the members—so I sat down with three leading members of the band in their regular rehearsal room to discuss their goals, inspirations, and creative process.
They introduced themselves one by one: Alex Lee (C ‘24) on keys and guitars; Emily Kim (N, W ‘26) on drums; and Eunsoo Shin (E ‘26) on bass and guitar, who’s co–president of the band with Emily. Despite his class year, Eunsoo’s a Kapacity veteran—literally, joining the band in 2020 before he left for two years of Korean military service in 2021, and then returned to Penn for more. When asked his age? “I’m 53,” he answers facetiously.
There wasn’t a concrete answer regarding the band’s origins: It’s been around since “like, 2006," and the oldest alumni in their Facebook group date back to the Class of 2016. Even the name is unclear: “I'm gonna assume that they tried to come up with a word that starts with KAP," offered Eunsoo, referring to the Koreans At Penn student organization. Over the years, it’s evolved to embrace more diversity in both music and members, boasting a healthy mélange of international and American Koreans, three Chinese members, and an Indonesian guitarist.
“We're more looking for talent, people interested in doing music that we like, rather than just restricting demographics,” says Alex.
Naturally, the diversity leaks into its setlists: With a catalog covering Harry Styles, DAY6, My Chemical Romance, Younha, and Guns N’ Roses, there’s not a lot off the table. It even has a website for its song selection process, developed by a past member, Seungmin, where members can submit anything for consideration for its semesterly show. Eunsoo recounts the process:
“In the past, we used to do three suggestions per person. This year we tried something new—to recommend as many songs as you like. And then before the day of song selection, people go in and rate the songs out of five, and then we just come together, we look at the rating and the list of songs, and try to put together a balanced setlist.”
As such, the identity of the music becomes a reflection of the band’s makeup. “For some reason, we have this, like … significant population of Chinese speaking people," Eunsoo remarks about the group’s changing demography—and that’s reflected in the band’s first Mandarin cover, to be debuted in its upcoming fall show. And because of all the variation in styles, there’s more that goes into preparation than you might expect: For songs not built for band performance, they might drop in a stray guitar solo or rearrange them altogether.
“Our band is always comprised of vocals, keys, guitar, bass, drums,” Alex explains. “So, you know, sometimes a lot of songs have interesting or weird sounds that we can't exactly replicate, and we’ll try replacing or adding new layers. I think sometimes we just want to take creative freedom and keep the spirit of the song, but also put our own band twist on it.”
Even for standard rock songs, incorporating new compositions is par for the course: “Sometimes we ask people to improv a solo or something, but usually a few of us get together, brainstorm, use computer programs to write out the sheets and, yeah, go from there.”
Besides its semesterly show, Kapacity's other gigs tend to maintain a consistent lineup: “There's always a list of songs that we play all the time,” Emily says. But they also play to a broad range of audiences: Events like Korea Day, Spring Fling, Battle of the Bands, and New Student Orientation galas all call for different moods. At the latest K–Pop Night co–hosted by Penn Korean Student Association and KAP, for example, it showcased a rock rendition of Rosé and Bruno Mars’ latest hit “APT.” At frat parties? “‘Mr. Brightside’ is a crowd favorite,” chuckles Alex.
Last summer, Kapacity even hosted an event in Korea titled "Homecoming," where it borrowed a venue in the Hongdae area of Seoul and called up three other local bands, including one from Yonsei University, to perform with it.
“A part of our band went back to Korea for the summer, and we were thinking, you know, Kapacity has never done a show in Korea, despite it being a Korean band performing in the States,” recalls Eunsoo. “So we tried to gather some other bands together to do a small show." It performed tracks by Billie Eilish and QWER, among others, to a crowded lounge of strangers, friends from high school, and a few alumni of the band.
Near the end of our talk, I asked the group for some of their musical inspirations: For Alex, there’s pianist Seong–Jin Cho, with his transformative Tchaikovsky and Chopin competition performances, multi–instrumentalist Matt Bellamy of Muse fame, and Zappa associate Steve Vai; for Eunsoo, there’s a litany of Korean indie bands, primarily THORNAPPLE, Life and Time, and Lacuna, plus American talent like Cory Wong and Marcus Miller. And for Emily?
“I was in despair because I couldn't get DAY6 tickets today.”
A tragic statement, quickly followed by condolences from the rest of us.
Kapacity's fall semester show, whose sunny melodies and moody grooves aim to mirror the colors of day and night, will be held at 7 p.m. on Nov. 23 at Houston Hall, and tickets are available now.
