[FULL TRANS] 160120 WINNER’s Interview for W KOREA : The Winner Takes It All
WINNER is back. With five members gathered as if they will swallow up everything as one.
Q. The first song to be released from the new album is “PRICKED,” written by you. Is there any reason you chose Taehyun as the vocalist?
A. I thought he sings emotional songs well. Taehyun is outstanding at portraying emotions through his tone of voice. The main point of the song was the smoothly spreading emotions at the chorus and I think Taehyun did that well.
Q. You shot a kissing scene in the teaser video. Does that mean you have now taken the sexy role within the team?
A. My personality is generally bright and I like to play around but I become serious when it comes to work. Since the kiss scene was given, I did my best (Laughs).
Q. You seem to have quite a different character compared to who I saw in <Show Me The Money season 4>. You seem much more comfortable and free flowing.
A. There’s no rule that says hip-hop itself should be a scary genre and you have act strong; however, the <Show Me The Money> program itself is a battle program where participants have to compete and that atmosphere put a lot of pressure psychologically. Without knowing it, I must’ve suffered mentally; I got a lot of stress. I was shocked to find more than half of my hair turned grey when I cut my yellow-dyed hair. Compared to those times, I feel really comfortable. I am going to run joyfully as WINNER now.
Q. How did you spend the past year and 5 months?
A. I spent those times preparing very hard. I couldn’t sleep even a wink before the new song was released because I was nervous. I was excited and my body was shaking.
Q. Don’t you want to try a solo project outside the team?
A. Like you have to use a knife after sharpening it well, I am waiting for the right time, even though I have the thirst and greed to show the people who I am. I want to release my solo album when WINNER gains the trust that “They can make good music that can be trusted.” So that many more people will be willing to listen to my music.
Q. WINNER is a team with each member’s unique personality. I’m curious how you work together while still voicing your own opinions.
A. It gets really easier when you accept one another. There shouldn’t be any problems if we acknowledge the differences and gather what each of us is good at. It is not our style to standardize to one thing nor do I think it would work well.
Q. If you were to make a subunit within the team like BIGBANG’s GD & T.O.P, with who and what kind of color (concept) would you want?
A. I think I can do it with each and every member. This style with this friend, that style with that hyung; I can just picture it. I am greedy.
Q. How did you spend your last year?
A. During the long hiatus, I studied to improve the regretful parts I felt during the promotions in the past. I spent a lot of time learning guitar and I exercised hard. I did a lot of thinking and listened to a lot of music. It was a training time to get myself better.
Q. It’s interesting to hear that you made references to blues when the current music trend is hip-hop.
A. Because the roots of hip-hop do contain music from African-American culture like blues and jazz. Our company does a lot of hip-hop and there are many people who are good at it, so in order to set myself apart, I have to find something new rather than jumping into hip-hop (Laughs).
Q. You were part of the drama <Midnight Diner> and started the new variety program <Actor School> to learn acting from Park Shin Yang. If you were to rate your acting skills on a scale of 1 to 10, what it could be?
A. Of course it is at 1 now. But like music, it seems like what’s important is what I can learn. Acting seems like something that can be done on camera only if you believe in the situation set in front of you. More than anything, acting removes the fear I get out of habit whenever I try new things.
Q. I know that you thought about becoming a choreographer before planning for the debut.
A. It doesn’t fit me to say that I have interest in dancing or choreography or that I’m good at it. It was just the only field I could do from childhood. You can say that now I got a slightly broader view; I think about wanting to produce contents continuously, whatever it may be. Choreography is also about creating something from nothing, anyway. Or it can be clothes, characters, or stories, since I like the process of picturing something in my mind and then creating it.
Q. On stage, you are energetic, cheerful and flexible like an animal, but your actual personality seem different.
A. That’s a mask I wear on stage (Laughs). In a way, I think I lack in self-esteem. I tend not to do monitoring and get embarrassed to see myself.
Q. I heard you have a lot of interest in fashion.
A. Maybe because I’m not good-looking (Laughs)? Out of those who can speak well and have talent in fashion, there seem to be many people who are like me. From young age, whenever I’m not dancing, I used to reform clothes, look for not well-known brands in an online community, or saved my money on food to buy vintage clothes. Now I tend to be less interested in fashion as I dress what my stylist pick for me. Especially since WINNER’s concept is quite different from the style I enjoyed wearing and I also got used to being dressed by someone else.
Q. What do you want to gain this year?
A. Before I go to sleep, I always think in my head, I wish I could be happy.
Q. How do you divide the vocal parts in an album?
A. Since five of us have been together for a long time, we know which part each member is good at. Whenever members who compose, Seungyoon, Taehyun or Minho, make a song, they think about it and divide it up themselves to distribute parts that would best fit for each member.
Q. You spent the longest period as a trainee. What kind of energy helped you to endure those times?
A. I must’ve had the desperation that this was the only path for me as I was getting older and older. On top of a steep cliff was where I stood. Time passed, but I couldn’t see anything. I sometimes got intimidated as people (trainees) changed constantly. Then one day, Taehyun and I got a chance to perform as backup dancers at the YG Family Concert. We danced behind 2NE1, Jinusean, Big Bang sunbaenims and I felt like their fans’ cheering was “waking me up.” I thought about how ecstatic it would be to see people who would focus on me when I actually sing and dance, because it felt good even in the back. That was my first taste of being a singer, and I got goosebumps. I think that experience helped me to endure those hard times.
Q. You must’ve achieved your dream, then.
A. I did, but I feel like there’s something arising every time. If my initial goal’s size was 1~2, now it feels like it’s growing over 3~4. I want to perform in front of many more people and I want to improve myself to sing alone.
Q. You are the oldest hyung within the team, but it doesn’t feel that way.
A. I don’t mind about not feeling like Hyung or not getting treated like Hyung. I do talk to members if they make a big mistake or something, but there was no occurrences of me hitting or something (Laughs).
source : W KOREA / Translated by Katie & Jihye ( fy-winner)
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