HS: Yes. I’m going to continue holding concerts in future, and it’s not easy to be performing ballads for two whole hours, so I felt that I needed songs that are more upbeat or songs that could heighten the atmosphere. So during the production meeting before we started preparing for Vol.3, as the first two solo albums were ballad albums, so we agreed on trying something different for the 3rd album. This I wanted to try, that I wanted to try too, and it was getting difficult to contain everything in one album, so we decided to just split the album into two, with one being a non-ballad album, which was what we released last summer. The remaining songs formed the ballad album which is the one we just released.
It’s a different kind of double album. These says where it’s getting difficult to even see full albums, what’s the reason behind the decision to do so?
HS: These days we see mostly digital singles or mini albums. Although I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but I do feel it’s a pity. In the past if my favourite singers released new albums, I would wait until that day, and buy it regardless of the title track, then listen to all the 10+ songs that are on it. I’m from that era, so I’m familiar with doing things that way. Nowadays although there are many releases, most are single albums with a few tracks. If it’s not an album, then all the songs other than the title track will all be unused, and perhaps because of that, people think that only working on the title track is necessary. That’s why there is an increasingly prevalent trend of people who choose to listen to singles rather than albums. It’s a little worrying. So when I make an album, I’ll try my best to make people listen all the way until the last song. Actually if I want to make an album, and I need to consider costs, I’d rather cut back on the CD jacket or another elements so that I can make an even better album.
Looks like you’re very insistent on albums?
HS: It’s not that. I can release digital singles too. But to a singer who has released only 3 albums, there is always a desire to release full albums.
Although the title track ‘Why Did You Call’ is a good song, but it seems like an album where one needs to listen to in full. If there aren’t the short interludes like ‘Keep Leaves Part 1′ and ‘Keep Leaves Part 2′, it seems that the emotional distance between ‘Love Disease’ and ‘Love Letter’ would be even further.
HS: We spent a lot of thought on the song order, to allow the few people who can listen through the whole album to not feel tired. So we decided to include interludes like ‘Keep Leaves Part 1′ and ‘Keep Leaves Part 2′ to maintain the atmosphere.
It’s not a ‘few’ people, apparently there are more than 40,000 pre-orders. Just like what you told us, the fans who wait to buy the albums at the stores, they have stuck to doing this.
HS: I’m really grateful. I have a feeling of the fans growing old with us and taking care of us with even more thoughtfulness. Although I make albums firstly for the things I want to achieve and protect, on the other hand it’s also a gift for the people who have been waiting all this time. In fact, other than singing I don’t really involve myself in other activities, and fans don’t get to see much of me in between albums. For that I feel very bad, so I want to use my albums to express my gratitude.
“Besides singing, I don’t have ambitions for other activities
It’s a interaction method unique to singers.
HS: Actually I’m envious of people who multi-task in different fields, I think they’re amazing. It’s just that I want to stick to the things I like to do and do them well. Although it’s not like I’d rather die than to try new things, it’s just that I feel that I have too much room for improvement, and I still need to be more prepared. I just don’t have that kind of ambitions yet.
It seems that you would do very well if you do it, that’s why everyone hopes that you will, isn’t it?
HS: Me? Actually compared to Junjin, my humor cells are even more… (laughs) I would try it once someday. But I can stick to only singing like Lee Seung Chul sonbae or Shin Seung Hun-hyung like now. For now, there’s a higher possibility of just sticking to singing.
Do you look forward to becoming like those sonbaes?
HS: I really respect them, and to be like them would be my goal. Of course, like their experiences of getting mobbed wherever they go, I’ve had similar experiences too, so I’m not coveting this kind of popularity. Compared to that, my goal is for people to think, “You can’t go wrong with a Shin Hyesung album” whenever I release an album. I hope that they will have this level of trust in me.
For a singer who already has 11 years of experience, there are people who expand their areas of activities and there are people who go deeper in their own area of expertise, you seem to belong to the latter category.
HS: It’s true that I go deeper into music. I can’t say that the 11 years have all belonged to myself, I have to exclude the first few years with Shinhwa. We were really doing things without knowing what was going on. But with more experience, I started to understand music better, and slowly learnt to provide our opinions on programmes or music, and developing our own unique characteristics. It hasn’t been long since we learnt how to do that. So although I’ve been here for 11 years, I still have lots to learn.
Then during the time with Shinhwa, when did you start having your own ideas of music?
HS: It’s hard to say, but probably around the 4th or 5th album? We didn’t know anything during the first album at all. We were just told, “This is your title track, this is how you do it”, and we didn’t think about changing anything whether we liked it or not. By the time we reached the 6th album ‘Wedding’, we wanted a different title track, because we wanted to try something with a different style. It was the first time we made such a request. Of course it’s not that (Yoo) Young Jin hyung (who wrote ‘Wedding’) had a bad song, it’s just that we wanted to try something new, in the end Young Jin hyung said that we did well. From that time onwards, we started to have that kind of courage.
Source: 10asia
Chi trans: jojoyu7@shinhwachina
Eng trans: midnightgirl13@absolutshinhwa.wordpress.com
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