Cho – who, aged two, moved from South Korea to Aotearoa – learnt piano as a child, but became a fan of emo music in her teens and played guitar in a band called The Hussies. Ruwhiu was the guitarist in another group (ASL/Barbeque Boys) but taught himself to make beats on Fruity Loops via YouTube tutorials. His first experiments were recreating Soulja Boy beats, since many were made from the program’s inbuilt samples.

Their downbeat track ‘Dizzy’ was soon picked up by music blogs, at home and abroad

Cho had never been confident enough to sing in her previous band, but felt comfortable to give it a try within Ruwhiu’s home studio and they created a downbeat track, ‘Dizzy.’ They loaded it to Soundcloud/Bandcamp without much thought, but soon found it being picked up by music blogs, at home and abroad. They named themselves Imugi이무기 (pronounced with a hard “G”) after a type of mythological Korean serpent which is able to transform into a dragon.

Imugi이무기 then went on hiatus for a couple of years while Cho began studying English Literature at the University of Auckland, and Ruwhiu enrolled at MAINZ to further his audio engineering skills. They finally re-emerged with the Vacasian EP in 2017. Cho later explained to NZ Musician magazine that the EP was inspired by “a lot of racial frustrations,” which she addressed openly across the tracks:

“I’m that new kind of Asian that’s found in translation, I’m on my own Vacasian.”

The pair had a laidback creative approach. Ruwhiu would often lay down a basic loop to get them started and then Cho would dip into her notebook of potential lyrics. From this point onward, the pair would each add musical ideas into the mix. Their songs often started with her freestyling words over the music, until Ruwhiu spotted a line or melody that was worth keeping.

Even on their first EP, there was a uniqueness to the way Cho smoothly moved between, singing, rapping, and passages of spoken word. They played Other’s Way in 2018 and were signed by a new label (“A Label Called Success”) that had been set-up by entrepreneur/creative Connor Nestor and Jordan Arts (Leisure, HIGH HOOPS, Kids of 88) with distribution by Sony. This connection led them to receive mixing input/advice from Josh Fountain (Leisure) and Ben Lawson (Red Bull Studios), which helped add a new fullness to their sound.

In January 2019, they dropped ‘Greensmoke’, a gently-grooving, downbeat meditation on what it’s like to overindulge in marijuana: “we drowning out the angels / I write my own prayers and build my own temples.” They’d originally written the song in a burst of inspiration and played it for the first time at a gig that same day, with Cho reading the lyrics off her phone.

an impressive set at Laneway saw the duo joined onstage by the dancing crew Jang Huddle

They backed up the single with an impressive set at Laneway Festival in Auckland, which saw the duo joined onstage by the dancing crew Jang Huddle and they rounded out the year with an appearance at Rhythm and Vines. Imugi이무기 sounded their poppiest on their next release ‘Be Here Soon’ and it felt like they might crossover to more mainstream success. Yet, the pair were gradually realising that they preferred to work as an independent unit, with the ability to express their creative ideas through their publicity photos, music videos, and artwork rather than being packaged by a third party. They amicably parted ways with their label and went back to running their own affairs.

The pair increasingly saw themselves as part of a community of musicians that were coming through at the time, as reflected by their many collaborations over the years that followed. They also worked regularly with the visual artist, Casey Yeoh, who not only provided artwork (for T-shirts and stickers etc), but also directed the music videos for their next two singles ‘Somebody Else’ and ‘Portals’. Yeoh also laid out the cover of their EP Dragonfruit (2020), which showed a painting by Francine Bridge of two intertwined dragons.

The EP was launched with a headlining show at the Tuning Fork where Imugi이무기 briefly become a trio with the addition of their ex-schoolmate Dan Waterson on drums. In reality, the EP was more like a mini-album with seven tracks and included Imugi이무기’s most upfront hip hop track ‘y u always acting like a fool’ with a guest feature by rappers Church & AP.

Their next single ‘Swimming’ was also built on collaboration, with the pair joining up with another old school friend – the laidback rapper Hans, who had broken through by recording a track with US singer Clairo (just prior to her becoming an online sensation). Hans shared Cho’s Korean heritage and added a few lines in their mother tongue to his verses. Despite the growing population of Korean Kiwis, the music scene still had a paucity of acts from this background and so they jumped at the chance to connect with those that were around; they later appeared on Hans’ own single ‘Candy’ and a track by singer Taebz (‘Cold Summer’).

Their next release tapped into their community, with all the tracks on Dragonfruit remixed by friends (a remix of ‘Swimming’ was also included). Some of these artists were ones who they also worked with directly at various points, such as Leaping Tiger (on his track ‘Soliloquy’) and Amamelia, whose track ‘Operator PLZ!’ they remixed with added vocals by Cho.

Their pace of releases slowed down at this point, though Imugi이무기 were still a familiar presence on the scene – whether appearing at Splore, taking part in a charity show for abandoned puppies, or filming the first episode of Trash Recital web series.

In 2022, they released ‘It’s OK to be a lil Alien’ which included a cover of ‘Where I Come From’ by @peace, along with two new tracks ‘Bittersweet’ and ‘TTYL feat PollyHill’ (the acronym stands for ‘talk to you later’). Their most surprising collaboration came when they were approached by Tiger Beer who wanted to fly them down to Wellington to work on a track with Drax Project (part of a series of works that planned to match rising talents with established acts). The resulting track ‘Solace’ was a fun slice of danceable-pop that showed Imugi이무기’s adaptability at working in new styles and its music video was directed by Manu Walters (Six60).

Tiger Beer flew them to Wellington to work on the track ‘Solace’ with Drax Project

Imugi이무기 performed at Great Sounds Great festival (Wellington) and Elsewhere Festival (AKL), before gradually falling into another quiet patch. Their only new releases were appearances on tracks by other artists. ‘Lemon Drop’ by rapper Dbldbl was particularly striking, since it featured Ruwhiu rapping for the first time (though his voice was warped by digital effects) and the pair did a second single with Hans, ‘BoJack’.

Carl turned his attention to his work as a DJ and producer, working under a version of his name transliterated into te reo Māori, Caru. He set about creating dancefloor remixes of classic New Zealand tracks that he could drop into his set and put them up on Bandcamp for others to enjoy: ‘They Don’t Know’ by Aaradhna and Adeaze; ‘Stop, Drop, and Roll’ by Deceptikonz; ‘Nesian 101’ by Nesian Mystik, and ‘Silly Love Songs’ as covered by Ardijah. He also worked on Dera Meelan’s ‘See No Evil’ single (featuring rapping by Church and production by deadforest) and remixed acts including Aroha and Tali (‘These Walls’) and Mokotron. He continued to find ways to connect with the wider Auckland community through DJing on Base FM and his involvement with the Big Fresh Collective.

Imugi이무기 may have faded from view for the time being, but there’s always the chance that this sleeping serpent might rise as a dragon once more.