Interviews

PK - Prompts 'I've Got Great Pride In Being Korean'

Kayla Hamilton

Asia-Core Correspondent

Oct 19, 2025

8 min read

At the end of 2023, Japan-based metalcore outfit PROMPTS was introduced to Australian audiences with their signing to Greyscale Records. After two tours of the country and three singles, the band have the attention of Aussie breakdown lovers.

It has been a year since PROMPTS have graced our shores, but a lot has shifted for the band. Ushering in the next generation of metalcore in the competitive Japanese scene, dropping an epic collaboration with the genre’s man of the hour Landon Tewers from The Plot In You, debuting a new and head-turning look and this week stepping up to support Parkway Drive in Tokyo, there is a path being laid out for the band to shoot into the stratosphere.

Coming back into the fold this week with their new single ‘Deciever’, PROMPTS are continuing themes from their previous release ‘Stranger’. Both tracks have themes of wrestling with identity, culture and personal acceptance- issues and thoughts that come from the bands circumstances.

We sat down with frontman PK to reveal more about the band’s background, inspirations and what makes PROMPTS stand out.

“I got great pride in being Korean.”

A common theme that runs between the recent releases from the band is a battle with identity, particularly race and culture. ‘Stranger’ lyrically discusses the complexity of ego, particularly for PK as he, along with the bass player of the band Piguri, are both Korean’s living in Japan. While from outside these two regions, it might not seem like a huge issue but internally it creates a divide in the way PK presents himself and acts.

“I feel like the Japanese culture and Korean culture is pretty different. People's lifestyles and how people are going to think it and it's pretty complicated,” PK explains.

“We are pretty close, just two hours flight in each other, but we have totally different history. Sometimes we are friends, but 100 years ago we were totally the arch enemy of each other. But for now I live in Tokyo and many Japanese people are really kind to me. They love Korea, but I can feel like it's something different. I can feel like for Japanese old people it is pretty, it's hard to explain. They still thinking about old history. It's a really sensitive thing because Japanese was colonised by Korea 70-80 years ago. And then some old people they said they hate Korea, they still hate Korea.”

Moving to Japan and trying to integrate into the culture, along with touring around the rest of Asia and Australia, there is sense of obligation that PK feels to represent himself and claim his Korean identity but as discussed in ‘Stranger’, sometimes it loses out.

“I got great pride in being Korean. But if I realise if I’m just acting like I’m Japanese, acting like their own culture, it's pretty confusing to me. Sometimes [other], people are just looking at us like [we are the] same Asian,” PK laughs, “I mean, we cannot recognise a difference about Australian people, European people, American people. You guys looks pretty same, but yeah, but it's fair enough. So I am totally understand you guys can't recognise I'm Korean or Chinese or Japanese Asian people faces. But sometimes always other people said to me “konnicha wa” or like “arigato gozaimasu” and I’m like unfortunately, bro, I'm Korean.”

While for some this may not sound like a big deal, but with the bands popularity increasing along with living day to day in Japan, constantly having to explain that he is Korean can be exhausting.

“Sometimes I’m not heard that I represent Korea, but I'm still trying want and people to recognise that. But sometimes I just give up, throw away, okay, I'm Japanese, but after that I feel pretty hate myself. [But I say to myself] I know, I know you're tired, but you must have represented Korea because it is my final purpose doing this, doing this shit, it's like my final purpose.”

‍More Than Just K-Pop

Being in a Japanese based band, living in Japan and playing with three Japanese musicians. PK knows all to well the prestige and reputation the Japanese music scene has well wide. From YouTube reactors to seeing the legacy being created by those that came before, he understands the benefits of PROMPTS being known as a Japanese band.

But that is not his final purpose. Along with staying true to his own identity, he wants to use his voice to shine a light on the lesser known Korean metalcore and hardcore scenes.

“I want to help make the scene, I want to make metal hardcore. Not matter what the origin, I want to make a scene, a heavy music scene in Korea. Of course we have little bit tiny scene, but no one making money with this kind of music. So I'm really sad about that because there are so many talented musicians in Korea, like K-pop and K drama on Netflix, Korean content. So there's so many talented people in Korea, but they just give up because it’s like yo bro, we love this kind of music, but no one making money with this kind of music. [And they say] maybe we're going to give up or we are not going to make it. And they just give up. They're just going like, oh, we have show tomorrow. But there's no audience, there's no paid guarantee to band. So they just doing it as hobby. But it's not bad. It's not bad."

"But I want my hometown's talented musician doing music worldwide. So that's my final purpose. So that's the reason why I keep representing Korea."‍

‍From ‘Stranger’ to ‘Deceiver’

It’s these inner conflicts that not only helped with the lyrics of ‘Stranger’ but also introduce the themes behind the bands new single ‘Deceiver’.

Stepping out of introspection and into more a wider societal acceptance, ‘Deceiver’ explores the internal conflict between staying true to yourself and conforming to society’s idea of what’s 'normal' and how this can manifest when you are between cultures.

"What’s considered the ‘right answer’ in Japan isn’t always the same in Korea," the band explains.

"And these ideas of 'normal' change depending on the country or region. It can be confusing for a lot of people. But honestly, there’s no universal definition of what’s truly 'right', that’s why we believe it’s not worth letting all that noise shape who you are."

One glaring way that PROMPTS are not conforming to the noise is not just through the genre bending, eclectic nature of the music but also through the updated stage attire. Evolving throughout the year and inspired by some of their peers in the scene they sought out a style that would make them unique to audiences- which is quite common for Japanese band. Interestingly enough, this is another way they’ve been able to fuse their Japanese and Korean traits.

“We pretty inspired by K-pop,” PK shares. “Because Japanese bands, they have got great culture. They already represent their own culture. Like Hanabie. I think in our generation there's super high bands like Hanabie. and Jiluka. But they represent, it’s different how they look. In Japan or people who know Japanese culture, they know Jiluka is a Visual Kei* band. But if you guys don't know about that style, it's just like [it looks like] fucking Final Fantasy. I think it's really cool because I remember last year they have a new outfit and they said, yo, this outfit inspired by the anime Gantz. Their red light and their black suit. So anime is like the biggest strongest culture in Japan. So I really love how they represent that. They're not just normal visual kei. So for people who don't know visual kei, they're like Final Fantasy characters that are doing cool music. That's dope as shit, you guys have to check them out. Also Hanabie. is also the same. They represent Harajuku, all the gyaru styles and even their music. Cute Japanese girls in there and it’s pretty different. A different way to represent Japan. It's different way to Babymetal. So they're Japanese people so they can represent that one and they're doing really good for that. But I'm not Japanese people. PROMPTS’ two singers, me and Piguri are from Korea. So why don't we just represent Korea more because there's so many cool Japanese band here and they’re already representing their own Japanese identity.”

“K-pop is slaying every chart. Like US chart, Euro chart, like Australian chart. So also we love K-pop music also. It's always so high quality. They trained so hard. Like how they are doing promotion. So maybe we can do something different. In various, just not music. Like visual. For promotion. Maybe we can do it like a K-Pop company. Even our Japanese members, Yasui and Heaven, they love Kpop music also. So we thought maybe we can doing different than other Japanese band. We combined to Japanese and Korean culture. Also in Japan, the K-pop culture is really, really huge in here. So we inspired by Aespa and Stray Kids, their music and their all contents is hilarious…I think it's going to be worth it. Yeah, it's good. It just started and we going to keep representing the two Korean guys in here.”

‍So what’s next for PROMPTS?

With the release of ‘Deceiver’ this week and the attention that ‘Stranger’ garnered, it is clear that they are no longer just testing the waters but solidifying a path forward.

“After the drop we dropped ‘Stranger’, There's so many wait, there's so much reaction of not just listeners.”

“We preparing more for overseas, we keep talking about more about maybe outside of Japan shows and promotions outside of Japan. So we are going to make new ep, we're going to drop new EP on this year, like six or seven songs and it's definitely into ‘Sun Eater’, ‘Edgerunner’ and ‘Stranger’. So it's all kind of my own story, like kind of a concept EP. And all the music styles is a little bit different. Some songs a little bit different and song is like we make huge difference. We are going to try. Yeah, I told you we are going to mix K-pop culture in this. We are going to try doing something more, doing something new. That's the biggest one. Just looking forward, how can we reach in outside of Japan on this year, next year.”