Monday, January 26, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
14.10.21 [Interview②] ‘Fifth Debut Anniversary’ BEAST “We Will Be The Sam On Our10th Anniversary”
Whether an idol group can have a long run or not is determined on the group’s fifth to seventh debut year. This is when most groups renew their contract with an agency, and idol group who has become top stars are usually offered millions of dollars from other companies. If all members agree to maintain the team, the group becomes a long run group which was the case for Shinhwa, and if not, they take separate path which was the case for MBLAQ.
Then, what about BEAST who celebrated their 5th debut anniversary on October 16th? Luckily, it seems like there isn’t ‘such a problem’ regarding their activities. Up until now, they’ve been showing strong team work. In addition, unlike other idols whose fandom do not expand when certain time elapse, BEAST’s fandom is getting bigger every day. What’s their secret to this?
✔ It’s been five years since you made a debut. I guess you can call yourself veteran artists now.
Yoseob: We will show more of our new features with our new song, so we’re close to rookies than veteran artists. We’ll present energetic stages which are similar to ‘Good Luck’ performances. We sing in a relaxed way, but put more power on a stage performance.
✔ Your team name is ‘Beast’ but none of you look like beasts. Do you put efforts to correspond yourself with the team name?
Yoseob: We did not intend our team name to refer the meaning of beast as an animal. African-American choreographer came to teach us dance, and he said ‘So beast’ as a slang which became our team name. At that time ‘beastly idol’ became the buzz word, and people misunderstood our identity. I try to build some ab muscles but it’s not that easy. I feel sorry. Haha!
✔ Recently, there’s been a rumor that MBLAQ is going to breakup, and BEAST who made a debut on the same day is still showing strong team work. What’s your secret to this?
Joon Hyung: There’s no secret. We are not anxious about the myth that fifth years is the critical time for idols. We don’t intentionally try to strengthen our team work. We just went with the flow without worries, and here we are.
✔ Any conflict between putting individual activities over group activities?
Doojoon: I believe group activity must be put on the top priority. I’m still young, and there are tons of things to show you. Of course, I could put my individual activity on the first place. We focused more on our individual careers a year ago. Well, people can take it differently from their perspectives, but in my opinion, this can lower the group’s dignity.
Hyun Seung: When pursuing individual careers, we must put our entire focus on them. It’s not like concentrating on individual act is a bad thing. Rather than putting more weight on one side, a group’s essence does not change if it has a strong group identity.
✔ What’s BEAST’s identity? How would B2ST’s past, present, and future differ?
Hyun Seung: We are finding our place in terms of group’s identity while doing our activities. We’ve made good outcomes with previous hits, and we can also do dance and all-live singing at the same time.
Joon Hyung: I got rid of my personal greed and only thought what’s the best for the team when we promoted our song ‘Good Luck’. I thought it was difficult to come to a mutual understanding as time passed by, but we remain unchanged on our fifth debut anniversary. So I guess on our tenth debut anniversary, we will be full of spirits just like new artists.
✔ What comes to your mind on the fifth debut anniversary?
Joon Hyung: I’m thinking ‘Fifth debut anniversary already? Am I doing a good job?’ types of things.
Dongwoon: Many thoughts are going through my minds from the early years of our debut up until what we look like now. We didn’t have good start in the beginning. I heard it from my dad only few days ago that the head of Cube Entertainment told my dad that if he invites my dad for dinner within a month of our debut, the team is likely to be continued, and if not, it means disband of the team. Only two days before one month, my dad got a phone call. It feels touching that we are getting lots of love now. It allows me to get my thoughts together.
✔ Among many events that have happened to you, when did you feel the happiest?
Dongwoon: When I made a debut. Exactly five years ago, we made the first appearance in <Music Bank> with white outfits. I also think about when we ranked #1 on music show and when we held our first concert. Our fans threw us a surprise event during our recent concert. I feel thankful to the point I’m about to burst out tears.
✔ Tell us how you evaluate BEAST’s past five years?
Joon Hyung: I feel like we’ve become firm by piling up our career neatly. We’ve never jumped to the next step. We are like a well fermented Kimchi.
cr: wikikpop
14.10.20 [Interview①] BEAST Talking About Their Title Track ‘12:30′ “This is Not a Typical Ballad Song”
Celebrating its fifth debut anniversary, BEAST pushed ahead their second comeback this year, which was exceptional for the group, in order to remain faithful to their fans. It is their first time to put a ballad, not a dance track, in their title spot. The group put much efforts into this new album despite their busy schedules at home and abroad to pay back fans’ unchanged love which the group’s been receiving for five years.
On October 16th, which was the day of their 5th debut anniversary, BEAST held an interview with the press including Wiki K-pop at Cube Cafe located in Chungdam-dong, Seoul and shared their feelings about releasing their 7th mini album with a new title track ’12:30′.
There were two issues that got our attentions. ‘Why did BEAST choose a ballad?’, and ‘What is BEAST’s fifth anniversary look like?’.
The title track ’12:30′ is composed by a music composition team ‘Good Life’ which BEAST’s Yong Joon Hyung is a member of with another composer Kim Jo Tae. The title track ’12:30′ is a ballad song that portrays heartbreaking feelings of those who recently ended a relationship by comparing their sadness to an hour hand and a minute hand of a clock that face opposite directions.
The first talk with BEAST was about the song ’12:30′.
✔ It is your first time to return with a ballad track. What did you have in mind while preparing for the album?
Joon Hyung: We showed fancy and powerful features when we promoted our previous song ‘Good Luck’. So this time, we wanted to show you something more relaxed than that. I wanted to touch people’s sentiment as the season is the season. It is not a typical ballad song as you’ll find out on our stage.
✔ What do you mean that it is not a typical ballad song?
Joon Hyung: It is too strong to be called a ballad. It has firm rhythm and I tried to make the song more fresh by adding electric and dub-step sound to piano and string melody. The song is groovy which is great for dancing. You’ll find out that we can present such a stage with this type of song.
✔ On <Beautiful Show>, Yoseob remarked that he would like to release an album in autumn. Did you anticipate this comeback?
Yoseob: We talked about releasing another album this fall when we promoted ‘Good Luck’, but nothing was set in stone back then. My hasty words made Joon Hyung tired. I was worried that the song would be low in quality because we prepared in hurry, but Joon Hyung had already written 3~4 songs, so there weren’t much difficulties.
Doojoon: We have arena tour coming up in Japan in November…and I was wondering whether releasing another album this year would be possible…and Yoseob made such a rash behavior…
Yoseob: Don’t blame it on me~! Everyone praised me for my action.
✔ What was the motivation behind Joon Hyung forming ‘Good Life’ with Kim Tae Joo?
Joon Hyung: When I write ‘composed by Yong Joon Hyung – Kim Tae Joo’, it feels like we are not on the same boat, so I wanted to unite the team. I admit that there’s little bragging. Haha!
✔ Do you guys separate your roles when composing a song?
Joon Hyung: We crosscheck each other’s work. For example, if one person goes too far, another person puts him back on the track. It is not like one person puts more time into work. When I suggest him ‘Let’s try this’ while I’m busy with my schedules, he fills up my lacking parts and puts the plan into action.
✔ What about other members? Do you guys want to work on songs like Joon Hyung?
Yoseob: It’s not that we don’t have that wish in mind. In the future, we will have conditions that will allow us to work on songs. For now, Joon Hyung is doing excellent job working on songs.
✔ Why did you name name the title track as ’12:30′?
Joon Hyung: It has clean-cut image. 3:45 doesn’t sound right…
Yoseob: Doesn’t it have to be 6:00?
Joon Hyung: The time does not make a perfectly straight line..but it’s very close to it. Symbolically, this is the quiet time that people get impressible and sensitive.
✔ People often say ‘BEAST’s songs are trustworthy’, and are Joon Hyung’s songs ‘trustworthy’ for other members?
Yoseob: No. We are very objective…haha! We don’t simply like a song just because Joon Hyung wrote it. Many songs have been rejected by us. However, we feel thankful to be acknowledged as trustworthy musicians. That’s what make us pay more attention to our work. It’s a great reinforcement for us.
✔ Unfortunately, this year’s K-pop fall match is going to be tough. There are veteran artists such as Seo Taiji and Kim Dong Ryul in music charts.
Yoseob: What can we do…we have to humbly take the outcome.
Doojoon: Although it’s not easy, we’ll try to leave a trace in a music chart.
Joon Hyung: Although we can’t catch up with sunbae artists’ maturity, we have our own music colors. Rather than obsessing with the outcome, I’ll put fans’ satisfaction on the top priority. I just want our fans to know that we are releasing this new album to keep our promise to our fans.
cr: wikikpop
14.10.26 [Interview] B2ST Members Talk About Preparing 7th Mini Album ‘Time’
B2ST’s new album has been gaining success both on and off line.
As soon as B2ST’s 7th special mini album Time was released on October 20, the new title song 12:30 topped online music site sites as well as album charts, proving B2ST’s popularity.
After winning 11 trophies with Good Luck in June, B2ST made a surprise comeback in celebration of its 5th anniversary, gathering enthusiastic response from the fans. It has been numerous years since B2ST released two albums in one year.
In a recent interview, B2ST introduced the album saying, “It’s been 3~4 years since we released two albums in one year. We felt sorry to the fans until now. We’re happy to be able to release an album in celebration of our 5th anniversary. We prepared an album with tracks that suit autumn so please listen and enjoy them.”
Son Dong Woon said, “Yo Seop hyung said during concert that we’ll be releasing an album in the fall. All six of us have been thinking that we should return soon this time since we’ve been taking long gap periods in between albums and when Yo Seop hyung made the promise, the company and the members started working hard despite our busy schedules. I’m happy that we were able to keep the promise.”
During B2ST’s last solo concert, Yang Yo Seop surprised everyone by announcing that they will release an album in the fall.
Yong Jun Hyung, who was in charge of producing the album, said, “I was working on the songs while promoting Good Luck. I have to prepare in advance in order for the members and the company to have more time to prepare and be more prudent. After Seop made the announcement during concert, I shared the songs I’ve written with the members, discussing which direction we should take. We all decided that it’s not a bad idea to loosen up a bit and we completed the song called 12:30.”
Yang Yo Seop said, “This album could have started due to my loose-lips. I feel more attached to the album since we all worked together in the midst of busy schedules in order to keep the promise that was made during concert. We only thought of the fans as we made it. It’s the album that we made for 5th anniversary in order to keep the promise.”
He added, “We only released three albums for three years before we promoted Good Luck. We felt sorry to the fans and also felt impatient ourselves as well. We talked about how we want to release three to four albums in a year like we did when we debuted and started discussing that idea in detail as we promoted Good Luck. It reflected all of our desires. It’s good thing we were able to keep the promise. Thanks to that, I became a cool guy, instead of a loose-lipped guy. If we failed to keep the promise, I would’ve been considered a frothy, loose-lipped person,” and laughed.
Jang Hyun Seung expressed his hops saying, “I hope that this can be a good gift for the fans. There is nothing we want to gain from this album. We would just like to have good time through this album and wrap up 2014 nicely.”
cr: enewsworld
14.07.12 [INTERVIEW] BEAST, an Uncommon Loyal Group
Director Lee GiBeak is one of the recent hot music video
directors. Starting with Epik High 'Map the Soul,' he has shown creative and
sensual videos. Recently he's been maintaining a strong bond with the BEAST
members and created their group, unit, and solo music videos.
The
most recently released BEAST's title track 'Good Luck' MV was finished
with the motive from director Wong kar-wai's movie '2046,' creating a
lyrical and unique MV style. From a recent interview with newsen,
director Lee GiBeak revealed the behind stories of 'Good Luck' MV
filming and the BEAST members.
Regarding
the Hong Kong movies' characteristics found in 'Good Luck' MV, director
Lee GiBeak said, "Nowadays a lot of music videos bring in European
and/or Japanese senses. In the situation where I had to create a
picture, I wanted to bring in the '90s Hong Kong movie. Personally I
liked '2046' the best out of director Wong Kar-wai's movies and it
matched well with the lyrics [of the song] so I homage it. I
had to give the story to the six members. Normally I'm thoroughgoing
but this time I was a bit relaxed. There were 7 teasers and even though
there weren't any highlight points of the song, I thought it would be
easier to empathize with the story if a situation was created and
explained why it was taken in that angle."
In
this music video, the fans showed a lot of interest with BEAST's maknae
Son DongWoon's bed scene. Lee GiBeak said, "In the beginning I tried to
give an R-rated image of DongWoon. It was because he was the youngest
of the team and he didn't have any big issues yet." Even though it was a
bed scene, DongWoon wore all his clothes while he filmed the scene.
GiBeak said, "He couldn't take off his clothes. DongWoon apologized
saying he wasn't ready to take off his clothes. He said his body was not
ready to be shown with them" and laughed.
GiBeak then said, "It's now your turn to film so you
film the bed scene but in fact I had planned to make DongWoon film that scene.
But GiKwang and DuJun teased him a lot while filming."
When asked about what the strength of BEAST is, he didn't
hesitate to answer and said 'loyalty'. "It's rare to find a group that's
this close to each other. All of the members' personality are good-natured and
they feel like neighbor dongsaengs. That's why it's easier to talk with
them." He complimented the boys by saying, "They're also good at acting
in MVs. First of all they have experience. They also have a different
performance direction from other idols. Rather than trying to look pretty,
they're strength is that they can show the song's emotions well. Because they
create their own songs, they have a higher understanding of the songs
too."
We asked about the individual members' charming points as
Director Lee GiBeak had continuously worked with the boys starting from
YoSeop's solo album 'Caffeine,' BEAST's 'Shadow,' JunHyung's 'Flower,' and
'Good Luck.'
Lee GiBeak said, "They say YoSeop is like an ant-hell.
I think they say it after seeing YoSeop in reality programs. In 'Good Luck' it
wasn't good to be seen as a kid so he did a good job in showing a manly image.
YoSeop knows the points of the concept and shows it cleverly.
GiKwang is pretty. Isn't he really pretty? If GiKwang ever does a solo then I think he will create a totally different image from what he has already shown till now. I think it'll be cool if he does it with a clean and luxurious feel.
When I worked with JunHyung, he tells me a lot of things. He let me listen to 'Good Luck' since he started making the song. He said he wants to 'show a good performance this time' and also added, 'I wanted to show people that DongWoon improved a lot in performance this time. That's why I gave the bed scene role to DongWoon because I wanted him to have a strong image.
DuJun is DuJun. He always does his best. Doesn't he have a football team captain feel? I couldn't adjust well to HyunSeung at first. The coolness I had in mind was different from his as he was doing a totally world's performance. But I think what the fans want is that kind of feel from Jang HyunSeung.
Truthfully the two who are very different from performance
is DuJun and HyunSeung. DuJun does it accordingly to the standard but he has
his own unique expression and HyunSeung was like modern dance. At first I
couldn't adjust to it but the fans liked it and I realized a lot as I talked a
lot with the boys. During this MV, I told HyunSeung 'Film in whichever way you
want' and the amount of film taken was three times. I told him I'll match it by
myself but HyunSeung contacted me later saying, 'Director, it's this one.'
"I have a lot of conversations with BEAST. Because I'm
quite young in this area, I think we have something more in common when we talk
with each other. I personally like BEAST's 'Midnight'. If BEAST ever sings a
song like that, I wish to work with them again."
Director Lee GiBeak chose BEAST's 'Good Luck' as his best
video work. He said, "While I was filming, I felt as if my capability was
increasing. That's why I like the most recent work. I was highly satisfied as
the choreography of 'Good Luck' came out well too."
cr: dream1016.tistory.com
14.07.13 [Interview] B2ST Members Talk About Filming Romantic Scenes in Projects
With idol groups’ activities expanding to dramas, variety shows and musicals, B2ST has also been receiving a lot of love in different fields.
It was uncommon for any idols in the 1990’s to show affectionate scenes with their partners in projects, but there has been an increasing amount of instances where idols take on romantic scenes in projects.
B2ST’s music video for Good Luck caught attention by featuring Son Dong Woon’s sex scene. The fans showed different reactions upon seeing the sexy scene from the teaser videos.
In a recent interview with Newsen, Son Dong Woon said, “The fans were very hurt.”
He shared, “I’m older than when I debuted so I thought that the fans wouldn’t be hurt as much but they were hurt. The scene was originally more sexy but the CEO took some parts out. I’m glad he did that and I think should watch out from now on,” bringing out laughter.
Son Dong Woon emphasized, “It’s not like I filmed it because I wanted to. I thought it would be okay since I’m a 24 year old man now but the fans still think of me as the cute maknae.”
When asked, “Are you really a cute maknae?” Son Dong Woon said, “I’m really not but that’s how the fans think.” Then Yoon Du Jun said, “He is cute. We feel like he is a cute maknae.”
But Song Dong Woon claimed, “I’m a wild man. A wild 24 year old man,” making the other B2ST members burst out laughing.
Yoon Du Jun and Jang Hyun Seung showed kiss scenes in drama Let’s Eat and musical Bonnie and Clyde, respectively. Yoon Du Jun said, “The nuna fans liked it. But the younger fans were shocked. I know there are fans out there who are more shocked than we can imagine. But it’s unavoidable if we want to show you our projects” and Jang Hyun Seung also said, “But the nuna fans like it these days.”
Yang Yo Seop said, “Those reactions are interesting. Even when I was in musical Gwanghwamun Love Song, I started performing without knowing anything but as I started performing for musical Full House, I began to notice the fans in the audience. Some covered their mouths in shock and some even cried. There was a scene where I had to kiss the opposite actress on her forehead and some of the younger fans were hurt by that too.”
He added, “Sometimes I think to myself that I shouldn’t do those things. I think that’s why Dong Woon also thought he should cut some parts out from the music video. All six members try to take feedback from our fans seriously.”
Yoon Du Jun said, “But sometimes they (affectionate scenes) are necessary. We can’t do anything about it. If a musical needs it, then I think we should still do it,” and Jang Hyun Seung faintly added, “There’s always love no matter where you go.”
cr: enewsworld
15.01.22 Winners from the '24th Seoul Music Awards'
The '24th Seoul Music Awards' takes place on 22nd at Olympic Gymnastic Stadium in Seoul and is attended by trending and popular idol groups, singers, entertainers, and more. The event highlights not only the awarding ceremony but also special performances of the attendees.
Below is the list of the winners.
DAESANG AWARD
EXO
BONSANG AWARD
VIXX
Girl's Day
B1A4
AOA
EXO
APink
BTS
INFINITE
BEAST
SISTAR
Super Junior
TaeTiSeo
ROOKIE AWARD
GOT7
Eddy Kim
Red Velvet
BEST ALBUM AWARD
BEAST - TIME
DIGITAL SONG AWARD
SOME - Soyu and Jung GiGo
HIP HOP AWARD
SanE & Raina
RnB BALLAD AWARD
K.Will
POPULAR ARTIST AWARD
Taemin
IQIYI POPULAR AWARD
EXO
PERFORMING ARTS AWARD
Lim Chang Chung
HALLYU SPECIAL AWARD
Infinite
DANCE PERFORMANCE AWARD
HyunA
cr: dkpopnews
15.01.14 [Day1] Winners from the '29th Golden Disk Awards'- Digital Single Division
The 29th Golden Disk Awards starts the awarding ceremony for Digital Single Division today in Beijing and is attended by trending kpop groups and singers such as BEAST, SISTAR, Taeyang, Ailee, GOT7, Tasty, K.Will, Huh Gak, AOA, Girl's Day, WINNER, and more.
Digital Single 'Daesang' Award
Taeyang
Digital Single 'Bonsang' Award
AOA
Ailee
Girl's Day
K.Will
SISTAR
HyunA
BEAST
Taeyang
BEAST
Most Popular Award
SNSD
BEAST
Best New Artist
GOT7 & WINNER
Best Hip Hop Award
EPIK HIGH
Next Generation Award
TASTY
China Good Will Award
GOT7
cr: dkpopnews
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