Seoul Metro

Seoul Metro is the solo project of Manchester-based songwriter and producer Chris Gibson. He has a new year's resolution: starting in February, on the first of every month in 2024, he will release a new song. By the end of the year, the 11 songs will slot together with 2023 single Anywhere to make Seoul Metro's debut album.

Sparkling indie pop may seem at odds with the grey skies of Chris's native ‘Costa del Stretford’, but it’s actually a tradition woven into the fabric of the rainy city. His juxtaposition of emotive lyrics with glistening melody stands on the shoulders of Mancunians past, jumping off from the wide-eyed melancholy of The Smiths and landing somewhere in the vicinity of The 1975 and Blossoms.

The seed of Seoul Metro was planted during a visit to the South Korean capital, where Chris was inspired by the city's famously bold neon signs, and its inhabitants' unabashed love of K-Pop. "I love pop music and bold imagery, but I'd always thought of it as a guilty pleasure," Chris explains. "Korea showed me how to let go of that. I wanted to incorporate those 'guilty pleasure' influences into the songs I was writing."