[trans] 2017 Season’s Greetings Calendar: Onew’s interview
※ Do not re-translate into another language
You must have been incredibly busy lately. How are you feeling? ─ I’m a little tired but I’m good.
This album is receiving a good response. How does it feel? ─ I’m curious about how it is to fans of younger ages. I think the response from the people around me is good but I feel like there’s a sense of distance.
What are you into lately? Do you have anything in particular that you have paid attention to? ─ I’ve been listening to a lot of melancholy songs perhaps because I get sentimental during autumn.
Do you have any particular artist you recommend? ─ A song called <Here, My Heart> by Shim Kyu-seon. I felt the lyrics were very sad. Maybe it’s because it’s autumn. I think I felt it more sensitively because of my slight tiredness and also because I’ve been moderating my food intake due to managing my diet.
Then what did you do when you had free time? ─ I went to escape room game cafes. I felt the desire to win because it’s a game in the form of solving problems. I went with my friends without much thought at first but I played hard because it was fun. I succeeded in all of the escape room games currently made in the café.
You picked a baseball glove as a treasured object. What is your reason? ─ While I was wondering about ‘what would be a sport that I can do having fun?’ ‘What would be something that could relieve my boredom?’, hyungs that I was close with recommended it. It relieves my stress although it’s just a simple movement of throwing and receiving a baseball. I played it so frantically that a callus formed on my hand.
Then after that, did you end up collecting baseball gloves by their types and brands? Or have you put a special meaning to that particular glove you used? ─ Of course, I started collecting gloves of various brands after that as I got more interested. But somehow, I feel attached to that glove that my hands feel the most used to. Anyone who tried baseball would know but gloves are tamed by the hand that each person uses. I like the glove that I used that time the most. The comfortableness given by a sense of familiarity. I can say that this glove is the only one with that characteristic.
Have you always liked that kind of ball games? ─ I like sports played by racquets. I frequently played badminton with my parents when I was young. I’m not good enough to boast about it but I enjoy playing it.
Will you be passing this glove down to your child if you have one in the future? ─ It’s a question that I have never thought about yet. I haven’t thought about passing down this glove but wouldn’t helping the child in finding something he/she likes while growing up be more important than that. No matter what that is I want to try it together and want to be a dad who can play with the child helping him/her to find the thing he/she feels interested in. Just like how my father taught me how to ride a bike and played ball kicking and boomerang.
What is the special charm of baseball games played with gloves? ─ People who haven’t tried will not know the joy of the ball coming into your hand embracing it. It’s much more thrilling than you think. On the other hand, it feels like I’m training myself too. I feel like I’ve somewhat found a sense of enlightenment after the repetition of a countless number of balls touching my hand and leaving it from a simple movement. I also felt, what is there that cannot be achieved in the world if you try hard?
Did it influence you while preparing this album? ─ I don’t know if it is an influence from it but I tried writing the lyrics of all the 9 songs. I worked hard thinking about the various emotions that humans can have such as happy feeling, sad feeling, aspiration, desire, and anguish. That’s why I had a lot of time on my own and a long period of contemplation. I’m not the type who can get immersed into one thing for a long time but it was a period of time that I concentrated more than ever.
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