[INTERVIEW] Just back from a tour, B.A.P says ‘We’re still like a frog in a well’ Q. How long has it been since you came back? (Daehyun) 6 months, since we made our cameback at the same time our second mini-album One Shot came out. Q. Any impressions on your comeback? (Yongguk) We’ve just returned from an overseas tour, so we feel like its been awhile since we were here (in Korea), and we feel renewed, refreshed, enlivened, you know, things like that everytime we release a new album. (Himchan) I’m a bit tense this time around, because I was absent from work for a longer time on account of my broken hand and didn’t take part in One Shot, either. My hand is not yet completely healed and I have steel pins in it. I did some rehabilitation, too, but I don’t think I really needed it. To my fans, I’m sorry for worrying you and I’ll do my best to show you my best. Q. Explain your tours? (Zelo) Our debut drew 8000 people in two concerts. And regarding our Live on Earth, Pacific Tour, we held four concerts in US with a maximuum capacity of 2500 people. The tickets to those were all sold out in ten days (~2013.5). We had two concerts in Japan and drew a total of 10000 people, our single Taiwan concert drew 3000, and our single Hong Kong concert drew 3000 people. All of our concerts were sold out. And we have an upcoming concert in Singapore on August 8. Q. Do you think you’re ready for a world tour? (Yongguk) Not yet. We still have work to do in Japan, so maybe next year. Q. Did any overseas fans ask you to come to their countries? (Jongup) We received requests on Twitter, from Japan, Germany, etc. Asians and Canadians were unhappy we didn’t come to their countries, even though we went in their direction. Q. What have you been doing for the past four months? (Daehyun) We’ve been busy with tours, a Seoul concert in February, and when we returned from Hong Kong we immediately began preparing our next album. We filmed the music video of ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Coffee Shop’” between our US concerts, recently filmed ‘Badman’ in Detroit, and spent the rest of the time on some R&R. We did additional filming in Las Vegas, later. Q. How did you spend your spare time in the US? (Daehyun) We did some sightseeing, and because ‘Coffee Shop’ was mostly about the scenery, we filmed it at the same time. Q. What did you think of your concerts and the reactions to you? (Yeongjae) Zelo cried just before our first concert, after reading a letter his parents while Himchan had tears in his eyes because he couldn’t take part. No one cried at the US concerts, though. Q. Concerts are different from broadcasting, right? (Yongguk) Yeah, that’s especially true since we trained exclusively for broadcasts. I felt we were lacking in some parts, but I now feel I’ve learned a lot. (Youngjae) When I first went to the US, the home of pop music, I was amazed those Americans would come to hear my music. I heard Canadians and such others came, too. Asian fans were for the most part very enthusiastic about us, so we had some peace of mind. I still find the way they come to see me amazing. If possible, I want to perform in every country in the world. Q. Do you think you grew any better from this tour? (Daehyun) I think we grew in skill as both individuals and a team. I definitely feel more experienced. (Himchan) I think our skills grew as we monitored each other and our concerts while touring. I mean, broadcasts are at most only a few minutes long but the concerts averaged two hours long. Also, we could literally see the feedback right before our eyes and I think we learned a lot from what we saw. Q. No episodes? (Himchan) Ah…well…it’s dark and chaotic behind the stage. Once, when we returned to stage we found a mike missing, it turned out I had taken Zelo’s mike and so we had to switch mikes back and forth. (Zelo) We found out just as the curtains were opening and at that point we couldn’t go and find it. (Himchan) And at our showcase, Zelo went on stage without his mike. Q. What do you think when you hear people cheering for you? (Jongup) Energy wells up inside me. (Yongguk) I felt that I suddenly knew why we were up there and performing. Q. What in the world is ‘Whut’s Poppin’???? (Yongguk) Actually, it’s Bronx slang for ‘What’s Up’. We were working on the songs and titles while touring and we thought it was cool. Q. Introduce your album, please. (Yongguk) We encountered a lot of different cultures and races and our horizons have expanded. We wanted to show this expanded musical sense in our new album. (Himchan) We were absent from the stage for a long time and we tried to produce a better work to make up for it. Q. The genres of your songs? (Yongguk) ‘Hurricane’ is hip-hop, house, and electronic; ‘Coffee Shop’ is sweet pop; and ‘Badman’ is hip-hop-based with trap added to it. We found that the trap genre was currently the trend in America right now. It combines hip-hop with DJ music. ‘Bow Wow’ is urban hip-hop and was made with the concept of how men look at every pretty girl who goes by, even if their girlfriends are present. The title is meant to sound like a dog barking. ‘Whut’s Poppin’’ and ‘Excuse Me’ are hard-core hip-hop with brass sounds. Q. How is this album different from your previous albums? (Yongguk) This time we used diverse genres, and our teamwork improved, so… (Himchan) I’m in and I’m out; after our horizons expanded we felt we had more options Q. Can you explain the fighting in the “Badman” MV? (Daehyun) Well, there’s a fight and we’re third-persons, observers, who are watching it and telling the story as the song. Q. The episode you talked about (before the interview began)? (Daehyun) Apparently, the extras in the fight immediately went to film Transformers the next day. There were about a hundred of them, a mix of white and black people. We’ve been told Detroit has few people actually living there and is geared toward filming, which is why our extras worked with us one day and the Transformers crew the next. Q. What is the concept of ‘Badman’? (Yongguk) There’s a lot of crime in the world today, but people see it on the news and then immediately forget about it. So we wanted to remind people. The story is what we are saying to criminals. Q. K-pop groups these days emphasize concepts. Any comments? (Himchan) We have a story and it’s not about sensationalism, so we feel we’re different. Maybe better, too? Q. Comments on your past year? (Yongguk) We’ve all worked hard, but there is still a lot to do. We’re still like frogs in a well; we haven’t yet seen everything. We think this feeling intensified because we had glimpse of the world during this tour. Q. I’ve always meant to ask you, Zelo, but what’s your real name? (Zelo) It’s Jun-hong. The interviewer replied, “I think I can understand why you would use Zelo.” © KPOPPlanet ~BabyDae_Nai~
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 08:16:57 +0000