Soompi Exclusive : SHINee Interview (Part 1)

The day before Halloween, I had the privilege of interviewing the awesome boys of SHINee. They were friendly, fun, laid back, and just plain awesome.

Thank you, SHINee, for a great interview and taking the time to share a little bit about yourselves with your fans on Soompi! ♥

And without further a do, the interview. Enjoy!



Q: What do you think or feel when you go to a country you have never been to before and see hundreds of excited fans gathered to see you?
Taemin: We’re just grateful for the fact that there are fans in countries we’ve never been to who know us and have an interest in us. By all means, I want to go to those countries and share a little more about us. If we have the opportunity to promote in those countries, I would really like to go.
Key: When there are a lot of fans waiting for us in a country that we’ve never been to, all I can think of is how amazing the internet is and how fast it is. I mean, when we release a music video [in Korea] it’s basically the same thing as releasing it worldwide. We love Youtube very much.

Q: What country or place do you especially want to visit?
Onew: Alaska. I want to go at least once.
Taemin: The North Pole.
Key: Europe.

Q:The number of international fans of K-pop is constantly growing. How does this affect your training, your songs, and your promotional activities?
Onew: The more support we get, the more we feel we have to work harder. We always want to show our fans better performances so we work hard to train and practice more.
Key: If there’s a country where there are especially a lot of people who love our music, I think it’s possible to make plans to do promotions there. Of course, our licensed albums are always available. But, for example, we go to Japan every so often after we finish promotions in Korea. [To do this] we study Japanese and things like that, which is definitely an influence that comes from the rise of international fans.

Q: SHINee is quite popular now amongst the K-pop groups in South East Asia and the United States. Do you notice any differences between your Korean fans and your international fans?
Minho: The way Korean fans cheer for us is a bit different because they can understand the lyrics. For international fans, because they don’t understand the lyrics, I think they cheer more for our performance aspects. We heard that many people learn the Korean language because they love Korean culture and Korean music, and through that, they try to understand our songs. We’re really amazed by this and the effort that international fans put into learning Korean to tell us that they love us.

Q: What was your favorite or most memorable music video to film?
Key: Our debut album music video. It was our first one and I was really nervous about it. It was cold. It was fun. It was dizzying. I was nervous. I was concerned about so many things. After that one, though, I thought, “Wow, music videos are nothing to worry about!”
Taemin: Lucifer. We shot the group dancing scenes for about 11 to 12 hours. It was difficult because we just kept on dancing – that’s why it sticks out more in my mind. Also, the set was fun to work with.
Onew: When we shot the Ring Ding Dong video, there was a scene shot in the water. The water wasn’t up to our heads or anything – it was just our up to our feet to give a splashing effect. During the shoot, we wore boots and so much water got into them that we couldn’t move our feet. (Key: That shoot was alsovery cold). And we shot on a set that was kind of like the top of a building, which was pretty fun.

Q: What is your favorite or must-sing song for karaoke?
Onew: I went a lot when I was younger, but since our debut, I haven’t really been. But before that, there’s a Korean song called “Let’s Race Horses” (“Mal Dal Lee Ja”) that’s really exciting. It’s a great song to set the atmosphere.
Taemin: When I went with my friends after our debut, they would always make me sing our own songs. They would make me sing the first verse of all of them.
Minho: When I go with my friends, I sing our songs a lot. But also, the most exciting song, the one song that I think I always have to sing, is Psy’s “Champion”. I think we always sing it because it is just so exciting.
Jonghyun: I went a lot when I was younger and I sang a lot of ballads. For example, songs by Buzz or S.G. Wannabe. I was a student then and their songs were really popular at that time.
Key: My must-sing songs are all the new K-pop songs. You know, all of the songs on the last page in the karaoke book. (Taemin: The new songs for November are already too old for him.) I can’t really remember old songs …

Q: What is your favorite song off of your albums?
Taemin: I think the song that all of us really love is “Replay”. It was our debut song and the nervousness that we felt together, the practicing, the shooting of our first music video – all of these things are special memories for us.