The following translation has gone through numerous processes of translation, Korean-Japanese-Korean and finally into English. Please bear in mind that this is not the most accurate (but hopefully the most approximate!) translation of the original interview which was written in Japanese.
방탄소년단 -BTS- WAKE UP!
In this interview, we sat with BTS, who recently released their first Japanese album and conversed about their music and future goals.
ㅡ Do you guys know about『Zipper』?
SUGA I was told that it is one of the best selling magazines among teenage girls.
ㅡ Do you guys have any specific fashion styles?
J-HOPE I like funky things. Anything that makes me happy when worn is my style.
JUNG KOOK(이하 JK) I pretty much wear anything that I like but nothing too tight. Although I do not intend on doing so but I always end up picking yellow, red and black items.
V I love wearing over-sized clothes.
RAP MONSTER(이하 RM) I love wearing various styles of clothes so instead of having a certain style, what I wear everyday really depends on my mood in the morning.
JIN Clothes that are unique in design or colour tend to take attention away from my face so I like simple and modern clothes.
SUGA I love accessories. You can really do a lot by playing around with items like hats and jewelleries. And I especially love leather.
JIMIN I do not have any specific style at the moment. (Laughs) I am trying to find my own by looking at others.
ㅡ You just had your first concert in Japan last night. How do you guys feel about that?
J-HOPE I was absolutely surprised at the fact that we were able to fill all 5000 seats. We were really nervous but the cheers coming from the fans helped us a lot.
JIN I really liked and was also in a way shocked that the fans were in complete order, without pushing each other and stuff.
ㅡ Your first Japanese album is quite impressive, a great mixture of Japanese versions as well as new songs. Not to mention your excellent pronunciation.
SUGA Pronunciation is actually one of the most important components as we want to clearly express our messages to our listeners. We always double checked with one of the Japanese staffs during recording.
ㅡ Previous albums involved a lot about fight against the social norms. In contrast, new songs such as “WAKE UP” and “THE STARS” involve more of a fight with my own self and through which will lead to the brighter future.
SUGA That is exactly it.
ㅡ Why such change?
SUGA When I was writing the title track of the album,『WAKE UP』what I wanted to say was that we all need to “wake up”, not in a literal sense but in terms of waking up to the new world, making changes and differences. I intended on expressing our true selves and I guess it just happened to be in contrast with previous albums.
JK “THE STARS” contains hopeful lyrics so during recording I was full of energy and happiness.
JIMIN Although when we recorded it, we had to translate the lyrics from Korean to Japanese and then write its Japanese pronunciations in Korean.
ㅡ Do language barriers bother you at all?
V It really does.
ㅡ Do you ever think about writing lyrics in Japanese?
RM That was actually one of the last things on my To-Do lists of 2014. Hopefully I will have a better luck next year? (Laughs)
ㅡ How do you guys work on music as a group?
SUGA We all have our own styles. J-HOPE, RM and I all share opinions throughout the process. It has been four years since RM and I worked together so we do not really talk anything extraordinary.
RM We are always open for any feedbacks regarding our work whether it is positive or negative.
ㅡ Do vocal lines get any criticisms?
JK We do.
JIMIN I would ask “What if I try like this?” and then try various things.
SUGA In terms of chorus, vocal lines know the best about what they have to do. So even producers do not really touch up on that.
ㅡ Can you say few positive things about each group?
JK Rap lines are really talented. I really have nothing to say..
SUGA Vocal lines are getting more skilful every day.
J-HOPE Moreover, they have something that we do not have, a visual! (AHAHAHAHA)
JIMIN THANKS!
SUGA We tend to put out music forward instead of our visual!
RM This world is equal. It does not give all the great features to a single individual.
ㅡ (Laughs) As a musician and an idol, are there any times where being an idol becomes an obstacle?
RM For sure. But at the same time I feel like being an idol can also be advantageous in terms of making our music more accessible to the public. It is both positive and negative.
SUGA At first, I had some concerns about being an idol as it comes with numerous restrictions and responsibilities. But I soon realized that as long as I make good music, I will always have my fans on my side regardless of my status as an idol and/or musician.
RM For instance, going on a tour is one of the factors that idols are fortunate to be able to do so in comparison to other Hip Hop artists. I both like the fans who like us as musicians as well as fans who like us as idols.
ㅡ You seem to have very subjective and critical perspective towards yourselves. How is that so?
RM I think this subjective and critical perspective kind of comes along when you are trying to do things by yourselves without any help from others. Obviously we do talk among ourselves regarding this matter but even without having such conversation we are all very well aware of it. We all know where we stand at the moment in terms of career and music industry and what kind of reality and future awaits us. You sort of have to adopt that perspective.
ㅡ It only has been a year and half since you debuted in Japan. Are you at all surprised that you are at this point in your music career?
SUGA Indeed it is beyond my expectation. (Laughs) At the same time, since I made 50 songs during this period, I would actually be a bit offended if we were not at this point of our career. (Laughs) A lot of people told me that I would not be successful once I debut. Obviously this was not necessarily true and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that there were not many Hip Hop groups during our debut periods as well as our choreography were quite different from others.
RM I think it also had to do with our shocking visuals as well as our name, Bulletproof Boys. The public must have felt that now people had to do something dramatic and crazy, like our “unique” name (Laughs) in order to survive in this idol filled K-pop industry.
ㅡ (Laughs). Most of your songs contain a word “Dream”. What are your dreams?
JIN My short-term dream would be winning the first place in Korean music program.
JK I want a lot of people to compliment about our songs.
JIMIN I do not necessarily care about being called an idol but I want to be more than just an idol, I want to be a musician.
J-HOPE I want BTS to be accepted and last long as musicians.
V To have a concert at Tokyo Dome. That is my dream!
ㅡ When do you want hold your concert?
JK Next, next, next, next, next, next, next year! (Laughs)
V Five..? Six.. oh in seven years!
Credits :
Zipper Magazine
Picture scan : Chansol_kook
Trans by. 김누나 (@newnumbyeah) Via Chansol_kook