“The chord changes in K-pop are a lot more interesting than what's been happening over the last few years”: Nile Rodgers makes surprise appearance at Coachella with K-pop group Le Sserafim

Coachella festival-goers might have been surprised to spot Nile Rodgers riffing with K-pop group Le Sserafim this past weekend. While Rodgers initially appeared on stage without much fanfare, Le Sserafim gave credit to their special guest by giving him a shoutout, much to the delight of their audience. 

As befitting a Coachella performance, Rodgers brought his trusty signature 'Hitmaker' Strat with him, and contributed his signature chucking playing style to the track Unforgiven.

This is not the first time Nile Rodgers has worked with the K-pop group. He lent his expertise to Le Sserafim on the recorded version of the track, which went on to peak at number two on South Korea's Circle Digital Chart. This Coachella performance marks the first time the two collaborators performed their track live.

In an interview with Grammy.com, Rodgers spoke about what attracted him to collaborating with Le Sserafim on Unforgiven: “When I heard the song, I loved it. This may sound nerdy, but I love the fact that it seems like a lot of the K-pop that I'm hearing lately, the new music, [has] the harmonic changes. 

“The chord changes are a lot more interesting than what's been happening [in other music fields] over the last few years.  And that's made me excited, because I come from a jazz background, so to hear chord changes like that is really cool. They’re not afraid, which is great to me.”

The beloved Chic co-founder seems to be becoming the guest star of choice for artists performing at Coachella. Just last year, Rodgers joined Blondie onstage to perform their 1980 hit Rapture, as well as Debbie Harry's solo track Backfired. 

Blondie super-fans would know that Nile Rodgers and Blondie go way back. He produced Debbie Harry's debut solo album KooKoo, while Rapture was influenced by Chic's Good Time.

Nile Rodgers is gearing up for his “Nile Rodgers & CHIC” tour, which kicks off on May 18 at Wildflower Arts & Music Festival in Richardson, Texas, followed by a June and July leg in the UK and Europe.