Next weekend, my favorite K-Pop group of all time (SHINee) comes to my hometown for their first ever fanmeeting in the USA! Me and my fellow Shawols should send a big thank you to the live production company SubKulture Entertainment for bringing this event to our own backyard. In recent years, K-Pop has been coming to Chicago in groves, and two of the hottest boy groups (SHINee and GOT 7) will stop here this Spring and Summer because of the hard work of SubKulture.

BTSCelebs was recently given the opportunity to virtually interview the dedicated people behind the brand. During our chat, they talked about the history of their company, the birth of the SHINee fanmeeting, the possibility of South Korean actor fanmeetings and so much more.

My interview with SubKulture starts now!

BTSCelebs: How was SubKulture Entertainment born?

SubKulture: SubKulture Entertainment came into existence, because we were dissatisfied with the level of concert promotion in the K-pop world. Our management team had been working on a variety of projects for several years, from TV commercials, reality shows, as well as concerts. We saw an opportunity to capitalize on a growing market of non-Asian fans that were largely being ignored by the previous crop of promoters – so we decided the timing was right to start a new business entity.

Tell me how your first event came about.

We had met the members of BTS and Big Hit Entertainment during the filming of “BTS: American Hustle Life”, and were struck by their charisma, star power, and their tireless work ethic. During the finale of the show, at the “Show and Prove” concert, we saw the overwhelming fan response, and decided that if they were ever to tour the United States, we should be the ones to promote them. And at the beginning of 2015, an opportunity was offered to us, so we seized it.

Was there anything about your company’s very first event that you wish you could go back and change?

Yep – we would go back in time and find that young lady who made a gun threat towards Rap Monster, and take away her cell phone.

Are members of the SubKulture team K-Pop fans? If so, who are your favorite recording artists?

All of our members are K-pop fans, with the exception of our CEO. Some of our team’s favorite artists are EXO, VIXX, BTS, and A-Pink, as well as classic K-pop like g.o.d.

What prompted you to choose Chicago as the location for SHINee’s first fanmeeting in the USA?

Out of professional courtesy and an unwritten agreement amongst promoters, we avoided the other cities in which SHINee was already performing – namely: LA and Toronto. By staging an event in the same city, it could hurt their ticket sales, and we would never want another promoter doing something similar to us.

NYC was an obvious choice, but with Kcon in June, we wanted to avoid an overlap, since K-Pop events can be prohibitively expensive, and fans often voice concerns about running out of money.

Furthermore, Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the country, and one of the only true metropolises in the United States. There are numerous other large cities within driving distance, and Chicago has shown itself to be very profitable for K-Pop concerts.

We’d love to bring acts to mores cities but in the end, fans often forget that the world of K-pop concerts is a business – we have to maintain profitability to sustain our business and keep bringing more acts for the fans to see.

What surprises should we expect from the SHINee fanmeeting next month?

You’ll just have to wait and see. 🙂

After the fanmeeting, should ShaWols anticipate a SHINee World Tour stop in the Windy City in the near future?

That’s up to SM Entertainment – we don’t have any idea what plans they might have for SHINee in the future.

Will SubKulture consider bringing fanmeetings for top actors (ex: Song Joong Ki) to the USA too?

We have talked about doing lots of different kinds of events – because of our filmmaking background, we often produce and run management for TV shows like “Super Star K”, “Get it Beauty”, and “TaeTiSeo”. And doing actor fanmeets is something that our management team has discussed, along with other types of events.

For more information about SubKulture visit their official website at SubKultureEnt.com

*BTSCelebs sends a special thanks to SubKulture Entertainment for the interview and images*