Thursday, February 19, 2009

[09.02.18] Some misconceptions about Shin Hyesung


Do you know 12-year-old long-running group Shinhwa well enough? If you do, then do you know main vocalist Shin Hyesung well enough? Looking at Shin Hyesung’s past 10 years, perhaps you already think of him as “our own Shin Hyesung”. But Shin Hyesung - who’s back with his new album, Vol.3 Side 2 ‘Keep Leaves’, and his title track ‘Why Did You Call’ - is a little different from what we’ve always imagined him to be.

Let’s look at some of the misconceptions we have about Shin Hyesung.

12 years since his debut, a seasoned entertainer?

Making his debut in 1998 with Haegyulsa, Shin Hyesung has already been living the life of an entertainer for 12 years now, and has already filmed enough footage to make up thousands of tapes, but no matter how long he has spent in the business, he confesses, “I still get nervous in front of the camera”.

“Everytime I release an album, I always lose sleep the day before because I’m so nervous. I think I have a slight phobia of cameras too.” He says that he’s at his best in front of the cameras when he’s with the other Shinhwa members.

“When I’m on the stage where there are many of the juniors around, I should at least pretend that I’m not nervous, but my nerves still show. Singing aside, if there are video interviews or joint performances, I usually don’t say a lot.”

Shin Hyesung, who looks like he can handle the cameras with ease, is actually still camera-shy.


Shin Hyesung is only good at ballads?

When he decided to be a ballad singer and when his first solo album ‘Love Of May’ was a great success, people started to have the idea that “Shin Hyesung is only good at ballads.” But he is, after all, the main vocalist of Korea’s longest-running group Shinhwa. Not only can he handle dance tracks, but he has also attempted rock-style songs for his last album, Vol.3 Side 1 ‘Live and Let Live’.

“Side 1 has really helped me a great deal. In the midst of my promotional activities I was also preparing for Side 2 at the same time. It actually helped me to feel more settled. As it took me some time before I came back with this ballad album, so the fans’ anticipation was even greater. The response has been really great, and I’ll continue to work hard on my activities in the future.”

Although in the meantime fans won’t be able to see Shin Hyesung dancing like he does in Shinhwa’s performances, but Shin Hyesung is saying to the fans, “Just come to my concerts”, and gave a meaningful smile.

As a singer at his peak, he has nothing more to learn?

Being part of Shinhwa, a top group that has continued to stay at the peak for more than 10 years, and he is also considered as a singer at his peak, the pride of this should already have been embedded in ever part of Shin Hyesung’s body. But he waves this off, “There is still a lot to learn.”

“Everytime I release a new album, my skills become increasingly mature as well. It’s not like everything comes all at once, instead it slowly develops and evolves, and fans find this kind of change interesting too. I think it’s rather sloppy to release a brand new album when a year hasn’t even passed yet. It will be interesting to correct the things that I wish I had done better.”

Believing that he still has a long way to go, he says that only people who have really been at the peak, will find that any room for improvement would be completely filled.

Source: StarNews
Chi trans: 宝宝爱王子@S.C.I.C
Eng trans: midnightgirl13@absolutshinhwa.wordpress.com

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