Friday, May 18, 2012

Melon Music interview: Being together for 14 years as Shinhwa (Pt 2 of 2)

Q: You also came up with the dance choreography, right?
Minwoo: All 6 of us did.
Hyesung: It was mainly the dance team leader, Minwoo and Junjin. The rest of the members just supported them.
Minwoo: Shinhwa’s dancing machine is Shin Hyesung.
Hyesung: Then that’s a misunderstanding again.
Q: Just like Hyesung-sshi’s sexy lyrics, I suppose his dancing would be sexy too.
Minwoo: Yes, it’s the sexiest of course.
Dongwan: He’s always thinking about being sexy!
Minwoo: It’s Hyesung’s instinct (everyone laughs)
Q: Seems like the members are all very interested in gags. And your sense of variety is well displayed on ‘Shinhwa Broadcast’ these days. In the past I thought only Minwoo, Dongwan and Junjin have good variety sense.
Dongwan: That’s true! (laughs)
Hyesung: But Eric and I have been working hard too, really. To the extent where everyone is wondering why we are working so hard these days.
Q: All of you have no hesitation about embarrassing yourselves. You can only do it if you can let yourself go.
Minwoo: Because even Hyesung and Eric who aren’t adept at variety are doing it together with us, that’s how we can let ourselves go.
Hyesung: If we let ourselves go on other variety shows, no one is going to help pick us up. (laughs) If we do it together, Choongjae (Junjin) will pick us up after that, so..
Eric: I can do this type of variety on Shinhwa Broadcast, but I don’t think I can pull it off elsewhere.
Q: Today’s interview is just as interesting as Shinhwa Broadcast. I guess there isn’t much of a difference between Shinhwa in real life and Shinhwa on TV.
Hyesung: What you see on TV is what we’re like in real life.
Dongwan: That’s true. Personally I’m sick of it.
Hyesung: Because it’s not suitable for use on TV, there isn’t a lot of footage that can be used.
Minwoo: Dongwan says that he’s sick of it but actually we’re enjoying it.
Dongwan: Actually I’m more of the serious type in real life. Quiet and reserved…
All the other members: (burst out laughing) Really?? Really??
Q: Actually when I was in high school, I grew up listening to Dongwan-sshi’s radio show.
Dongwan: You know, right? That’s my style to start with, the radio style.
Q: No, you were like this back then too.
Dongwan: What! (haha) If anything, I’m less (outgoing) than what you see on TV, certainly not more. But the others are more so, compared to when they’re on TV.
Eric: That’s right.


Q: Even so, Eric-sshi and Hyesung-sshi, these days the two of you have been working the hardest on letting yourselves go.
Hyesung: Andy too…
Andy: I haven’t really…
Dongwan: No, your variety sense these days is crazy…
Eric: Andy has really gone crazy these days…
Andy: I’ve heard a lot that I’ve gone crazy these days. That’s what the title of Teen Top’s song is ‘Going Crazy’… (laughs) Haha I’m kidding. I think everyone is working harder for Shinhwa Broadcast, which is really great to see. We would send text messages to one another as we watch ourselves on TV. Once it finishes, about 100 messages would arrive continuously, saying that it’s amazing, that they didn’t expect me to be like this. And images of those times when we were young and first made our debut keep popping up in my head.
Q: During the press conference, you mentioned that you wanted to carry on with Shinhwa Broadcast for a long time, just like MBC’s ‘Country Diary’. But filming for the show goes on late into the night and it’s going to be really tough, can you really carry on with it for a long time?
Minwoo: We don’t film everyday and it’s once a week. Once we’ve got our footing we’ll be filming once every other week, so it’s not too taxing.
Dongwan: When we watch the show, we find it even more interesting.
Hyesung: We’d feel uneasy if we only shot a little bit of footage. Since it’s our own show. So we told ourselves that we have to put in more effort.
Andy: As much as it’s tough, the resulting footage turns out to be interesting too. When we first started filming, we kept saying that it’s tiring. The next day, we still kept saying, “It was really tough yesterday.” But when we saw the result, it was really interesting, and we started to see the significance of it, and so everyone’s working hard.

Q: Is there anything you want to say to the fans and viewers who have been supporting and worrying about Shinhwa Broadcast? For example, “don’t you worry” (a catchphrase from Shinhwa Broadcast Ep 6)…
Hyesung: To wrap things up, let’s have Junjin-sshi… Don’t you worry
Dongwan: People shouldn’t realize it when you’re saying “don’t you worry”.
Eric: When the mood gets sad, Jinnie will go “don’t you…”
Junjin: (nods)
Hyesung: We know what the fans are worried about, but they don’t need to be. Because we will go on the show as comfortable as possible. Please pick us up as much as possible when we let ourselves go.
Eric: I observed the reactions to the show, and I think everyone got worried because there wasn’t a clear format in the beginning. Actually the production team had their own plans, but we said we wanted to do it more comfortably. This is a show named after Shinhwa and will carry on with this name, if we want to continue with this we have to be more free and comfortable. All variety shows need some time for things to adapt, and we want to shorten the time for that, so right from the start we’ve really embarrassed ourselves to carry on comfortably. Now we’ve established some kind of format, and the worries that surfaced in the beginning have reduced. We’ve done things like the SF special and the Unusual Olympics special, the facial contortions game, and we’ve also shown reality through the documentary special. Viewers and fans like it that we show our natural selves. We find it very interesting when we watch it ourselves too. We have distinguished ourselves, and we all look forward to what’s coming up next. We’re active after a very long break, so as far as possible we’d like to get closer to the public and let them know about Shinhwa. Lately when you turn on the TV, Shinhwa comes out on TV about three or four days, so I’m really very happy. Even so, the show I’m most looking forward to is still Shinhwa Broadcast. Maybe because only Shinhwa appears on the show, so I don’t know if that’s why I feel particularly attached to it. I feel like a viewer, wanting to go home quickly to watch the show.

Q: Lastly, please say something to the Melon users who love Shinhwa.
Andy: We released an album after so long, and we’re really glad that it has received so much love, thank you all so much. In future we will show everyone an even better side. We want to repay the fans for having waited so long. Like all of us altogether that you see now, we will work hard to show our best.



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