Soompi Exclusive : SHINee Interview (Part 2)

Soompi Exclusive : SHINee Interview (Part 2)
Q: Now that you are past your 1st and 2nd albums, what styles of music or concepts would you like to experiment with in future albums that you have not had a chance to do yet?
Onew: I want to try band music.
Taemin: I want to try something like Linkin Park. It seems really stress relieving.
Key: Definitely not trot music (Korean folk music).

Q: If you were not a singer, what career would you be interested in?
Taemin: My childhood dream was to become a pilot. But that changed to becoming a celebrity. After becoming a celebrity, I thought about it and I kind of wanted to become a fisherman. However, we rode a boat once and I found out that I get very seasick. So then I thought, “Ah, I should just stick to being a celebrity.”

Q: Have your families always been supportive of you being a singer?
Onew: Ever since I was a younger, my mother always suggested that I become a singer. At first I told her I didn’t want to, but I changed my mind in 9th grade. Since then, she has been very supportive.
Minho: For me, they were quite opposed to it at first but when I told them that we were going to debut, they became very helpful and supportive. After our debut, they were very happy about it. You know, since we’re on TV and things like that.
Taemin: Like Onew, my family was pretty supportive from the beginning.
Key: My family was really against it. They really didn’t like the idea of it. (How did you persuade them?) I just kept going with it and at first they were like, “Fine, go ahead.” But afterwards, they were really happy about it.

Q: What is the strangest habit of the person sitting to your right?
Key on Taemin: He keeps losing things so every day, it’s our job to find things for him.
Taemin on Onew: He has a lot of weird sleeping habits. For example, he sleeps with his blanket covering him from head to toe. He can’t sleep if there’s any light. (Onew: But they always keep the lights on. ) So he sleeps like that and in the morning, he wakes up covered in sweat.
Onew on Jonghyun: Jonghyun sleeps with his eyes slightly open. Just very slightly, though.
Jonghyun on Minho: There are moments when he gets very serious very suddenly. He always takes our jokes seriously. We joke around a lot all the time, but he takes them seriously by himself. In the end, we always have to make sure he knows we’re joking. (Key: He says we can joke around with others but not him.)
Minho on Key: Key is from Daegu (a Southern province of Korea). When he talks to us, his accent comes out only from time to time. But when he talks to his friends or his parents, he speaks completely in a Daegu accent. (Key: My accent comes out when I get really excited about something, too.)

Q: Do you have any odd eating habits?
Taemin: I used to be a really picky eater and ate only the things that I liked, but not so much anymore. For example, if there was kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup), I would pick out and eat only the meat.
Onew: I hate when stuff gets on my face so if something gets on my face, I wipe it off immediately. When I ate jjajangmyun (black bean noodles) when I was younger, I would wipe my mouth after every bite. In the end, I’d have a pile of napkins by my plate.

Q: What is your favorite Korean side dish?
Taemin: Anything meat.
Onew: Right now I’m obsessed with “nak jee bokkeum” (panbroiled octopus seasoned with red pepper). I like when it’s really spicy. It’s delicious.
Jonghyun: I don’t really have a favorite food, but I love meat.
Minho: I really like ramen noodles. (Is there a special ingredient that you put in the ramen when you cook it?) Sometimes I don’t put in anything extra, but sometimes I put in Chungyang red peppers. (*note: very, very spicy Korean peppers)
Key: I really like cream pasta, but my favorite Korean dish is green onion kimchi.

Questions for Onew
: You’ve participated in several musicals up to now. Do you have any desire to act in a drama?
Yes, I think it’d be a lot of fun.
: What type of character would you like to play?
I haven’t really thought about it too much.

Questions for Jong Hyun
: How did you realize your passion for music composition?
Ever since middle school, it was always my dream to become a composer or a vocal trainer.
: If you could do a dream collaboration with any artist of your choice, who would you choose?
I would want to work with someone who isn’t the same age as me and isn’t Korean, an artist who is much older than me and understands culture from before I was born. Working with people like that would give me a lot of experience. In terms of Korean artists, someone like Kim Gun Mo and in terms of American artists, Babyface. I really like him as a producer.

Questions for Key
: Recently, on Soompi, our members were talking a lot about your use of make-up and “guyliner”. The overwhelming response was that our members think you are very sexy when you wear eyeliner and make-up. What are your thoughts about being recognized for this characteristic?
I do it because I want to. I think that make-up is an extension of our outfits. Hair, make-up, clothes – it’s all a part of a concept. So I do it when it fits the concept. For example, in “Hello”, I don’t wear make-up because it doesn’t really fit. But for “Ring Ding Dong”, it fits.
: Did you get any shopping done in the states while you were in L.A. for Hollywood Bowl?
We didn’t have much time when we visited last, so I was only able to buy an iPad. When we went for our first Hollywood Bowl, though, H&M wasn’t in Korea yet, so I bought a ton of accessories [from H&M].
: What do you think of fashion in the states compared to fashion in Korea?
I think American fashion is closer to the style that I like – I mean, designers like Jeremy Scott live and work in L.A. Also, whatever country you go to, there’s always a concept of “teen fashion”. For example in L.A., I saw a lot of teenagers wearing a white shirt with jeans and a pair of Nikes. This is just a normal, everyday thing in L.A. but if that comes to Korea, it’s considered a type of “style”. In the same way, if Korean “teen fashion” were to be adopted in L.A., it would be considered a different kind of “style”, too. I find this really interesting.
: If you could have a shopping spree anywhere in the world, where would you go?
England. I want to go to vintage shops there.

Questions for Minho
: It’s well-known that you love sports a lot. If you could pick your dream soccer team, which celebrities would you pick for it?
I don’t really know who’s good or not so I’ll stick to people from SM. First, Eun Hyuk and Dong Hae from Super Junior. For goalie, I’d pick Shin Dong.

Questions for Taemin
: What choreography do you like the most from your promoted tracks?
I like the choreography for all of our songs but the choreography for “Replay” was very fresh and exciting for me. We worked with a foreign choreographer for the first time. It was very exciting and shocking to me, and I remember really liking the choreography.
: How would you compare your dancing skills today to when you first debuted?
Working with and learning from many different teachers, foreign choreographers, and dancers has definitely helped me improve little by little. Also, I have a lot more experience performing on stage than I did before, which has helped me improve, too. So in conclusion, I am much better compared to before.

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The interview ends here, but the fun isn’t quite over yet!
Stay tuned for a SHINee autograph giveaway!
Details coming soon!
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And here are some pictures! We couldn’t take any pictures during the interview, but we were able to capture some of the silliness that happened afterwards.