Kim Gun-mo to embark on nationwide tour with guitar

Singer Kim Gun-mo is embarking on a nationwide tour to celebrate his 35th anniversary since his debut. Following his return to the concert stage last year after a six-year hiatus and the release of his first new song in 10 years, he will now stand before audiences holding a guitar instead of a piano. This is expected to be a stage that goes beyond a simple commemorative performance, serving as a platform to redesign his musical life.

According to the production company iStar Media Company, Kim will conduct the 'Kim Gun-mo 35TH ANNIVERSARY LIVE TOUR' starting in Daegu on October 10 and continuing through 2027. The first leg of the schedule begins on October 10 at Daegu EXCO East Wing Hall 6, followed by the Jeonju Korea Sound Culture Center Outdoor Performance Stage on October 31, Gwangju Women's University Universiade Gymnasium on December 5, and Goyang KINTEX Exhibition Center 2 Hall 9A on December 26. Additional regions and schedules will be announced sequentially.

The most eye-catching change in this concert is the guitar performance. While Kim has been imprinted in the public's mind as a singer who performs while playing the piano, he will showcase live guitar playing for the first time since his debut. It was reported that he played the guitar himself during the recording of his new song 'Where Are We Going?', released last July, and that he practiced the guitar alone for 4 to 5 hours every day during his hiatus. He described this transition by saying, "It is not a comeback, but the debut of Kim Gun-mo playing the guitar."

For Kim, the guitar is not merely a change of instrument. It is closer to a process of returning to the basics of music after having established his own domain in the heart of Korean popular music in the 1990s with his piano, unique tone, and rhythmic singing style. Given that he has set aside the instrument he was most familiar with as a performer to relearn a new one from scratch, this tour differs in nature from performances that simply attempt to recreate past successes.

Kim returned to the concert stage last year after a six-year hiatus. At that time, the comeback performances, which started in Busan and continued in Seoul and other cities, recorded sell-outs for all seats in all regions. On his first stage, he showed tears as if the tension and emotions of the long hiatus were overlapping, but as the performances continued, he regained his characteristic wit and live performance skills, breathing in unison with the audience.

In July of this year, he released the new song 'Where Are We Going?', his first new music release in about 10 years since 2016. The series of events—the suspension and return of his musical activities, the release of a new song, and now the nationwide tour—has effectively become the starting point for a new period of activity for Kim.

Debuting in 1992, Kim is evaluated as a figure who changed the landscape of 1990s popular music by releasing numerous hits such as 'Rainy Night', 'Wrongful Encounter', 'Excuse', and 'Beautiful Farewell'. In particular, his 3rd studio album 'Wrongful Encounter' remains a representative case that boosted the scale of the popular music market itself by recording explosive sales at the time. His music freely moved between dance, ballad, soul, and R&B while maintaining his unique rhythm and vocals, and the name Kim Gun-mo itself functioned as a genre icon.

The traces of such a long career are another pillar of this tour. Reflecting on his past recently, Kim said, "It didn't take long for the tower I built over 28 years to crumble." He expressed his intention to create a path for juniors to walk rather than building an even higher tower in the future. The tour slogan, "With the same name but different steps, we will pave a path with our story," also aligns with this sentiment.

This statement reveals the difference between a comeback that seeks to restore past glory and a return that seeks to newly prove his current self. What Kim intends to show on this stage is not a perfect recreation of his younger self, but rather a process of confirming for himself whether he can continue making music even after time has passed.

Music release work will proceed alongside the performances. Starting this fall, Kim plans to release new songs sequentially and continue recording with the goal of releasing a full-length studio album in 2027. This signifies that he will not stop at revisiting his past repertoire through performances but will continue to accumulate new music.

The 35-year period is not just a number representing his career. The process of a singer who was once at the very top of the Republic of Korea's popular music, passing through a long hiatus, learning the guitar again, creating new songs, and visiting audiences across the nation has itself become a narrative. Whether Kim Gun-mo's 35th anniversary tour will be a venue to confirm past glory or a true starting point for his new musical identity as a guitarist will now be decided before the audience.