CREDIT: IKUKO@DGT (SOURCE) ; jujang@2PMALWAYS (JPN -> THAI TRANS), shiiihx @2ONEDAY.COM (THAI -> ENG TRANS)
- How did you guys debut?Junsu : I entered JYP ever since I was 18 and I trained at a beginner level for 4 years before I was allowed to debut. Amongst all the members I trained for the longest. Before debut I use to train with other trainees who are now in other groups but in the end I ended up debuting with the current 2PM members. Ever since I was a child I used to like listening to music. I started learning and developing my talent for singing when I was in 9th grade. I got my inspiration and motivation from watching the videos “That’s What Friends Are For” with the 4 artists including Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, and Luther Vandross, and that’s when I realized that I have a burning passion to become a singer just like them.
Wooyoung : I entered JYP when I was 19, the first time I auditioned was when I was 17, to be honest I didn’t pass the audition for 4 times. For JYP theres 2 auditions per year, so I’ve wasted 2 years. I loved dancing ever since I was a kid, and I realized and discovered that I wanted to be a singer when I was around 5-6 years of age. Whenver I watched Michael Jackson I’d always daydream about the feeling of becoming a singer. And when I was 14 years old, I watched a documentary on the president Park Jin Young and Rain doing their work in America and I have really decided that I wanted to be like them and that I wanted to be at the top of the world and so I auditioned for JYP.
Chansung : I got to debut because of a variety show. I was involved in the show called [Super Star Survival]. But it was sad because I failed to pass the round, and right after that JYP has offered me to become a trainee and so I got to train both my vocals and my dancing skills. Before debuting with 2PM I starred in a comedy show “High Kick” as well as being a trainee, so I was training to be both an actor and a singer at the same time. It was hard work but it was also the period of time where I was truly happy.
Taecyeon : In my case, I used to live in America, and I auditioned in JYP America, I started my training when I was 19. To be honest when I went to audition I was really only testing my abilities. I didn’t have a passionate dream of becoming a famous singer but when I passed the audition, and trained for 2 years, that’s when I realized I find it fun and enjoyable. I have this habit of doing things to my fullest, whenever I start doing something I won't just quit in the middle I would have to reach my destination no matter what. And when I was rewarded with the title “idol” I realized that I have to push myself harder than ever to make everyone proud.
Nichkhun : I also got the chance to audition in America just like Taecyeon. I was approached by an agent in America but before this I wasn’t really interested in the entertainment business. I lack both singing and dancing skills. And most importantly I didn’t know how to speak Korean at all so I was really worried and wasn’t sure. Then again it happened at a coffee shop I met the same person, all of a sudden there was shutter and the camera flashed. Then the agent said “Then I’ll just have to take the pictures for audition here” (laughs). So then I finally got the courage to introduce myself, in both Thai and English and sang a song for them, it was awful. (laughs) I was so embarrassed but there were cameras so I tried my best then all of a sudden there was loud music booming from the speakers from a truck parked at the side of the road, and the agent said “improvise dance moves to fit to this song” (laughs) If I wasn’t mistaken it was a song by Usher, and I didn’t have any background in dancing before and my dance was again awful. But when I became a trainee, I was getting a lot of knowledge for both my vocal and dancing skill. I finally have a feeling of wanting to do my best and succeed, and I want to be better at both singing and dancing than I am.
Junho : To be perfectly honest I wanted to be an actor more than anything, when I was in high school I joined my high school’s drama club. But when I got to sing and dance I started to enjoy it more and more. I joined JYP when I was 17, the reason why I trained under JYP was because the president Park Jin Young and Rain was considered my role model. When I saw the documentary when Rain and JYP worked in America I thought to myself “I want to make my dreams come true just like them”. I improve myself by studying Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Chris Brown.
- So its like this, since we all know how they all came to form 2PM , I want to know who plays what role in the group.
Junsu : I play the role of a Main Vocal. I love to sing more than anything else and so I push myself to improve my singing skills to improve more and more each day.
Junho : To be honest I’m the main one in 2PM (laughs) I am responsible for everything, especially the acrobatics moves in the dances this is why I always get hurt or injured whenever I practice.
Wooyoung : I’m in charge of Vocal as a group, but in our daily lives I’m like the “mom” of 2PM. (laughs) We all live in a dorm together and I don’t like messy apartments and so I’d always order them to “clean up” after themselves, something along the lines of that.
Chansung : I’m in charge of dancing and singing other than that I don’t think I have any responsibility. I’m like the member who is ignored by everyone else in 2PM. (laughs)
Taecyeon : I am the center of 2PM (laughs) I think.. because I’m the opposite of Chansung I’m the old one so I’m usually responsible of talking to the production crew about our opinions.
- Has anyone ever been the person who stops the fight between 2PM?
Taecyeon : We are the “Beastly Idols” but we never fought before, sure there would be some different opinions from different people but we’ve never fought. Each of us are large in size but we wouldn’t hurt an ant (laughs) We’ve never even had any physical violence.
Nichkhun : Yes that's right, and as for my role and responsibility (referring to the question above) I mostly appear in CFs (commercials) so I guess I’m in charge of the commercial area (laughs)
- If we were to talk about solo careers, I would say Taecyeon has already debuted as an actor in the drama “Cinderella Sisters” am I right?
Taecyeon : Yes that's right. It's a coincidence that I got to debut as an actor before the rest of the members, personally in the past drama I don't think I have given it my all. But in the future which is nearing I’m sure the rest of the members would be able to participate in dramas so please look forward to it.
Junho : Yes that's right. Personally for me I would like to try acting and using the skills which I’ve previously learned when I was still in school.
-What is the one thing you are most concerned about?
Chansung : I would set my priority on singing and dancing. For dancing when I practice I would always make it enjoyable so it isn’t really hard for me. And as for singing, I would always listen to the people I idolize while I sing. This gives me courage. And lately I’ve been putting an idol on replay and he is none other than the famous singer “Kim Bum Soo”
Wooyoung : I would always remind myself that the pain and the tiredness I feel everyday isn’t for nothing. I want to show the fans that we can do it and when I think of that I don't feel tired at all, and it all seems to falter away.
Taecyeon : I’m the rapper in the group, and I’m in charge of all the rappings, so I try to understand the emotions that the song is giving and I convey them through my rapping.
- how are the styles and genre of music by 2PM made?
Chansung : The producer of 2PM is Park Jin young so for example the song "10 points out of 10" is like a series, the song "Again and Again" is the second part. Then he let us choose the third part, and the third part was supposed to be "I'll Be Back”
Nichkhun : Jin Young hyung before composing the song asked us, “what style/type of music do you want” and all of us gave out our own opinion and he took it as a guideline to follow.
Wooyoung : Usually we’ll discuss about the concept, and how all three which include the song, the choreography, and the clothes how it will all fit together.
Junho : And we'll choose the one that most fits the image of 2PM when we get a lot of choices for songs, we usually choose what best fits the image we’re going to show the fans and the fact that we enjoy performing it on stage.
Nichkhun : Yes that's right. When we choose a song we’ll imagine the fact that we’re on stage and we would think “if it's this song, would we be able to perform it like this?” something along this line.
Taecyeon : As for Jin Young hyung I think he thinks that composing music for 2PM would be the hardest. Because it would include a elegant yet stylish peformance on stage and so it's really hard.
Junsu : We try our best to show something along the lines of “we’re not like other groups” by using acrobatics to grab attention.
- Talking about acrobatics in the song “I’ll Be back” the dance move is more than eye catching did you guys practice a lot?
Taecyeon : To be honest it's not really that hard, because we’ve been doing acrobatics since before debut, and it's our signature so you can say it's our expertise.
Junho : Other than acrobatics, I want to try rock music. Because I don't want 2PM’s music to be just classified as one genre, I want 2PM to be a group which tries a lot of different genres and this way most or all of the generations could like and be able to fall in love with 2PM’s music.
- You’re about to debut in Japan in late November, when did you first imagine debuting in Japan?
Junho : I’ve thought about debuting in Japan ever since debut. I’ve thought to myself, “when will we be able to go to Japan?” Before this the company has never really thought about debuting us in Japan, but I’ve always told myself “If we were able to debut in Japan one day, it’ll be awesome”. And now that our chance has come, I would like to thank all the fans that supported us till this day.
Chansung : I’ve thought about debuting abroad ever since we’ve debuted in Korea. And now that we’ve been told that we are about to debut in Japan, I am very excited because this would mean we get to show our talents abroad.
Wooyoung : I’ve learned the dance moves as well as watched the videos by the Japanese dancers and always thought to myself, “this is awesome”, so I want to go to Japan quickly and meet with all those Japanese dancers.
Junsu : In Japan the traditional music is very highly respected, so as an artist I think that that is very cool. My friends who are singers are all very jealous of me that I got to go to Japan.
Taecyeon : At this time a lot of K-pop idols got to work in Japan, and once I’ve heard that, I’ve wanted to work all over Asia, and that includes Japan.
Nichkhun : Me too. When I saw TVXQ, Big Bang, FT island debuting in Japan I thought if we got to go to Japan for even a day that would be great, but to be honest I’ve always wanted to debut in Japan long ago. But honestly there's also other reasons why I want to go to Japan, I love the toys in Japan. (laughs) Theres this card game called Yugioh Card right? I’ve always wanted it ever since I was around 10 years old. And also the snacks in Japan, the packaging is always so cute and the snacks are delicious especially the snack "Hi-Chew". I love it. I want to quickly go buy it once we’re in Japan.
- Does anyone like the traditions in Japan?
Junho : If it's a drama I like “Kimi Wa Pet” (You’re My Pet) and “Gokusen” and if its singers I like L’arc~en~Ciel, Namie Amuro and also Arashi
Wooyoung : If it's music, I like Kenichiro Nishihara and something along the genre of jazz hip-hop and also I like the performance of piano by Yuki Kuramoto, as for films and dramas I like “Love Letter”, “Jose to tora to sakanatachi” and “Hotaru no Hikari” all these Chansung recommended me.
Taecyeon : Whenever I watch “Ima Ai Ni ikimasu (Be With You), I would always be touched, and as for singers I like Arashi because I watched him on a show singing his song I felt that he was pretty cool.
Junsu : If it's japanese music I would say I like the song Pharrell Williams produced and also Teriyaki Boys and FreeTEMPO but overall I love the whole J-POP itself.
Nichkhun : I watch “GTO” for a lot of times. And as for music I like Hikaru Utada the song “First love” and I also want to visit Disneyland as well as Mt. Fuji. I want to take a walk at many different towns in Japan and eat good food.
- Ever since its been made official about your debut in Japan how was each person’s reaction?
Taecyeon : Mostly it would be about the language, they would say “You would have to learn the language” something along the lines of that. Some say that if you’re going to debut in Japan you would have to pass the obstacle of language and adapt to their environment and some also said that they’re jealous cause we get to increase our fan club.
Chansung : Yes thats right, people would also tell me “You have to hurry up and learn the language” and some would say “Finally, this is it” more than “Congrats”
Wooyoung : Both my friends and family are all very jealous of me because i get to go to Japan, even though they know that I’m not going for vacation but instead for debut. (laughs)
Nichkhun : Both my parents that are currently residing in Thailand have gone to Japan a lot of times already, and so they’re happy for me and said “Congratulations, this way we can go find you in Japan often”. My family would always fly to Korea to see us on stage whenever we have a new song so my parents are going to Japan too.
Junho : But for some reason I feel quite pressured. Uhm, even though we haven't even done anything in Japan yet, and yet we still got a good response from Japan, I’m worried that they would set too high of an expectation for us and we couldn’t reach it. But when we got the support of the fans straight from Japan I know we’ll be able to do well.
- On the 8th of December there will be a Show Case at Ryoukoku Kokugikan right? Are you guys studying Japanese yet?
Junho : Yes, I was studying the basics in Japanese and also the conversational languages, I would also go back and watch the dramas that I like so that I can learn but some of the languages are just … “URUSE!” (SHUT UP!) you can't use it (laughs). Even though we ARE the beastly idols we still have to have manners right?
- Nichkhun you could speak English, Thai, Chinese, and Korean, and now you’re also learning Japanese is that right?
Nichkhun : I’ve learned Japanese once when I was 13 years old, back then I thought it was devastatingly hard, but now that I know Korean I don't think that Japanese is that hard anymore. I want to be able to learn it quickly so that when I’m in an interview, I could reply and have a conversation in Japanese. Right now I’m starting from the basics which is letters and alphabets starting from Hiragana and Katakana, and easy conversational phrases. But because we are so busy now-a-days, our Japanese teachers would come find us on set (filming or etc) and we’d study when we have free time. For example in the dressing room when we’re waiting to go on stage, we’d learn Japanese for a brief moment as well.
- Lastly can you tell us your goal in Japan?
Junho : I’m thinking about the Oricon chart. I want to climb up slowly on that chart so that Japanese fans can understand our songs. If we could make you guys understand our song then the rankings on the charts will come naturally.
Nichkhun : In Japan we are still considered rookies, this makes me wanto show the fans our true selves and I want to know how much the fans love us. For now this is our goal.
Taecyeon : But it doesn't hurt to dream big right? Then first place at the Oricon Chart. Afterall, it's just a dream. (laughs)
Nichkhun : Then if it's only a dream and as for me being responsible for the commercials, I want a big poster of my face anywhere in the town of Shibuya!
Junho : And also there's this variety show called “Kouhaku Uta Gakusen” which BoA and TVXQ previously went on, and if possible I want to go too.
Taecyeon : I want to sing live at Tokyo Dome and let all the seats in the dome be filled up.
Junsu : The biggest hall for live concerts is the Tokyo Dome? Then that would be my dream too, to be able to sing in the Tokyo Dome.
Taecyeon : Back in korea we have this concept called “Idol Beast” and the thing is we want to be able to touch everybody’s heart with this image in Japan and become a huge influence on everyone.
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