SHINee interview with 10Asia

In May 2008, we witnessed the debut of a new boy band named SHINee. Two and a half years later, after demonstrating their abilities through two full albums and three mini-albums, the boys held their first concert. ”SHINee World” took place at Seoul’s Olympic Park Stadium on January 1, 2011.

SHINee’s youngest member Taemin, only a ninth grader during the release of their debut song “Replay”, stated that their first concert marked the conclusion of his teenage years. To reflect upon their growth as artists, the boys held a press conference on January 2, the second day of their concert:

10A: How does it feel to get to hold your own concert for the first time? Did you prepare anything extra?
Jonghyun: During practice, I was excited that I’d get to perform so many songs on such a big stage and I was happy that it seemed like we had improved by gaining a lot of experience. It feels absolutely great to begin the New Year with our fans and it feels like we’ll do well in the year 2011 too.
Key: I was worried about how to do a good job of repackaging our title songs for the concert but we’ve managed to create some fun and interesting performances so I think that’ll be the charm to our concert.

10A: How would you score your first series of the concert you held yesterday, the first day of the New Year?
Jonghyun: Since it’s our first concert, it feels like we could’ve done more.
Key: If I look back at each and every moment of yesterday’s concert, I find that nothing was satisfactory and there is only much to feel regretful of. I think I’ll have to make up for it today by trying really hard. To score ourselves…
Onew: My score is… (Laughs)
Minho: What is it?
Onew: About 30 points…
Jonghyun: Out of what?
Onew: About 300 points?
Jonghyun: The lower we score ourselves, the more we’ll work harder to improve through experience so we’ll try to put on a better performance today than we did yesterday. (Laughs)

10A: You’re known for crying every time you perform at concerts. Who would you say cries the most?
Jonghyun: But we’ve only held a concert once!
Minho: There is one cry baby in our team.
Key: I am usually the first to shed tears in concert…
Jonghyun: Key and Onew are just too sentimental…
Minho: (to Jonghyun) Wait, how dare you try to sneak out of it? (laugh)
Jonghyun: We’d been preparing for and dreaming of this concert for so long that I think we all became increasingly emotional as the end drew near and we ended up crying because we felt grateful toward our fans and staff members. (Laughs)
Onew: I hope you don’t make too much of a fuss over us having cried so hard.

10A: Did any incidents occur while preparing for this concert?
Jonghyun: This isn’t exactly what you’d call an ‘incident’ but we had to go to three year-end award ceremonies in a row so we had to work till very late and then rehearse for our concert till nine o’clock in the morning.
Key: We greeted the New Year at the venue for our concert. (Laughs)
Onew: It was like we became early birds with the coming of the New Year. (Laughs)

10A: Your recent concert in Japan also ended a success, but it seems language will be important to your future activities in Japan. How is studying Japanese coming and who’s the best?
Jonghyun: Everybody started taking Japanese lessons at the same time and we usually study about Japanese culture through dramas or animations. And Key seems to excel at Japanese. He’s really good.
Minho: He’s gifted.
Key: (in Japanese) Everyone, we are delighted to have you all here. Thank you for coming to our concert.

10A: Key, you seem to have grown a lot taller during the past few months despite your busy schedule. What’s your secret?
Onew: He had a hard time having to grow while leading a busy schedule. (Laughs)
Key: I had stayed the same height for about a year and a half after I debuted but I’ve been hearing that a lot these days. I don’t know what I did, I guess it’s just time to.
Jonghyun: Seriously, what’s the secret?
Key: Maybe because I eat a lot? Or eat well? It may also do with my staying in a good mood all the time.

10A: Onew sang opera Turandot’s “Nessun Dorma” for his individual performance at the concert which was quite an unusual selection. Why did you choose that song? It must have been quite different from practicing SHINee’s songs.
Onew: I chose that song with the hope that it will touch people’s hearts greatly but practicing it was really tough. And although I four or five lessons, I went into a brief slump because I was doubtful of being able to pull it off. But I pushed ahead, thinking that I want to impress people and believing that I’d be able to move them if I sang it with my heart.

10A: Minho, how is it performing with Simon D from Supreme Team for your individual performance and you Key, with Krystal from f(x)?
Minho: I performed alone yesterday but I’m performing with Simon D. today. I was looking for a way to encourage the audience to become one with me the stage and to make my performance even more enjoyable so I decided to have Simon D. perform with me. I hope you enjoy today’s performance.
Key: Having decided to sing 3OH!3’s “My First Kiss,” I thought it would be a good idea to have a female performer join me. So I began to think of the person who would be perfect at pushing me away for the performance when I thought up Krystal. She did an excellent job as expected.

10A: Taemin, you’re the youngest member of the group set to turn 18 this year. How do you feel?
Taemin: This will be my last year as a teenager. In the past I think people took my age into consideration when complimenting me for my performance but since that will no longer be the case, I will have to work even harder once I become a real adult.

10A: Your biggest strength is known to be dancing but you’ll be singing “Romeo+Juliette” all by yourself this time. It seems like you have been going through vocal training.
Taemin: Frankly speaking, I hadn’t been that great in singing ever since my debut so the task got me motivated as a challenge to do more. I began practicing and because it seemed like I was improving, I’ve been pressing myself to keep up with it since then.
Onew: Taemin practices singing in the company even after finishing his schedule at dawn. He is really a hard-working guy so the rest of us want to learn from him in that aspect.

10A: I think having performed in front of over 10,000 fans for your latest concert must have helped you realize a new sense of confidence and maturity from within yourselves. What will your goals be for the New Year?
Jonghyun: I don’t think the number of audience and size of the stage matters. We’ll keep working hard to show good performances.
Minho: As it is our goal to improve and show more character with the hope of becoming more familiar with the audience, we will reflect the experience we gain on this big stage on the New Year in our future performances.
Onew: I would like for there to be many chances for us to be with our fans like concerts. Furthermore our Japanese debut is set for March so we’ll be actively promoting ourselves in Japan around that time as well. In the meantime, Korean fans, please listen to our music a lot so that you don’t get too lonely. (Laughs) We’ll keep up the good performance.


Source: Choi Ji-Eun
Credit: Koreaboo, @Forever_SHINee