BEAST returned after a year and two months to display their comeback stage with powerful vocals and perfect stage manners. All the times they spent preparing for their comeback paid off as they captivated the crowd with perfect harmony and new changes.
★ The knowledgeable idols who know when to change
BEAST, who had been well known for their manly performance and emotional vocals, returned after a year and two months. Their style became more colorful and their attitude for enjoying the stage became more free. However, their refreshing vocals didn’t change.
“To be honest, we were afraid of change. And we knew that our results will not be able to compare with the past results. However, it was a time we needed change, so we changed. Regarding the change, we are about 300% satisfied about it. We experienced fun in changing and transforming rather than being afraid of it. There are no regrets for our change,” Doojoon said confidently.
Yong Junhyung added, “It felt like we were getting a lot of attention from the media so it was overwhelming, but as we were preparing the album it was fun. The anticipation that we will be meeting the fans soon kept us going and there have been positive responses about the stage so far so we are promoting with joy.” In addition, on BEAST’s album, the members showed off new sides as they left their position behind and tried out new parts.
“Of course each member has their specific position, but that doesn’t mean that the member can only do that part. If Yoseob couldn’t dance, then he couldn’t have done his solo dance and if I was really tone deaf, I wouldn’t have sang ‘Paradise’ on stage. We all have a specific position, but we believe that anyone can challenge it (Junhyung).”
Kikwang explained, “We left our comfort zone, but it doesn’t mean that we grew musically. We just tried something that we already knew how to do. So if you look at it from our point of view, it feels as if we showed our all of our sides to the public.”
★ Change to the bad boy style
As their musical style changed, their musical theme changed naturally as well. In the past they had been the sad boys who were always rejected and clung to their girlfriends, but through this album, they became the bad boys who know how to play well. Yang Yoseob stated, “We didn’t change the depth of our song, but ended up filling ourselves with different song themes with the transformation.”
In particular, Yong Junhyung, who is an active singer-songwriter writing his own songs and composing his tracks, attracted attention through online portal sites with the song ‘The Day You Rest’ as it displays a guy who feels uncomfortable letting his girlfriend rest. To this, Yong Junhyung stated, “I’m not the style to cling on to girls. But, I feel comfortable expressing my emotions with such topics. Other composer hyungs tell me that there are comfortable topics for them too. I think I am like that too.”
Son Dongwoon commented, “There are a lot of parts in the lyrics which guys can relate to easily. Isn’t it fun for people listening to the song to relate to it too?” Then the members joked around as they said, “Junhyung is never the style to cling on to girls for sure.”
★ Unusual Teamwork
BEAST’s teamwork is rumored to be so strong to the point that it is unusual compared to other teams. When we mentioned teamwork, Yoon Doojoon raised his voice saying, “We probably have the best teamwork. Well, that’s what others say. But, we really have the closest relationship.” Yang Yoseob stated, “We are so close that it hurts.”
We remembered that Yoon Doojoon expressed strong signs of affection during the ‘It’s a Beautiful Night’ MV making film as well as other videos. When we mentioned this, Yang Yoseob started out by saying, “He (Doojoon) hits a lot. In front of the camera he hits us lightly though…” Yong Junhyung cornered Yoon Doojoon by saying, “If you look carefully, you can see Yoon Doojoon’s excessive affection and abuse towards us in every video clip.”
Yoon Doojoon said, “It’s my way of expressing affection because I really love these guys. It’s really a joke. But, I think I need to stop now. At this rate, I might be hit by their parents.”
With 7 years being the longest, these guys knew each other during times that they were the most sensitive, which means that they could have been hurt or faced alienation from each other. However, we wondered how they kept their teamwork despite these possibilities.
Yong Junhyung stated, “To be honest, there are a lot of times when we fight with each other and there are times when bad things happen between us. But whenever that happens, we just talk about it and solve it well. Where in the world will you always remain happy? However, there is that saying that when it rains the ground becomes firm. There are times when our opinions clash and in those times we get over it. And when that repeats, we may not understand each other fully, but we start to understand each other slowly.”
Yoon Doojoon added, “You aren’t considered to be close because you don’t fight.” Yang Yoseob said seriously, “I think it’s more important how you solve and understand that problem when something happens.”
★ We are curious about their group chatting
There is a chat room we can’t forget about when talking to them. It’s Kakao Talk.
According to Son Dongwoon it’s their “ultimate method, invention of the century” behind their friendship. Like his words, Kakao Talk serves as an important location for BEAST members to understand each other and eliminate any misunderstanding. We wondered about the KaTalk style between members.
Yoon Doojoon revealed, “Because Hyunseung can’t make us laugh himself, he keeps finding funny stuff on the internet and sends it to us. He is the type to rely on internet humor,” shocking other members. Son Dongwoon added, “Kikwang hyung is the style to come back into the chat room an hour after our conversation is over and ask ‘What are you guys saying?’”
What would happen if their chatroom was to be exposed? Jang Hyunseung simply said, “Everyone will disappear” making everyone laugh. Yang Yoseob said, “I send a lot of funny pictures to make them laugh, but I don’t think people will like it if they see that.” Yong Junhyung joked again saying, “That is why we plan to open a photo gallery with just pictures of Yoseob.”
★ BEAST’s greatest danger
We settled the hyper mood down and asked them a serious question. When was the greatest danger for BEAST or the members who have been in this industry for 3 years
Son Dongwoon revealed honestly, “I experienced the greatest danger preparing this album. If we prepared this album the BEAST style, then the song ‘Midnight’ would have been our title song. As we prepared for the album, the musical color changed and I wondered the whole time if this was our color. So it is true that we were afraid of change.” However, they were more than satisfied with the results.
Son Dongwoon added, “We personally think that it means a lot to show new images and songs. I hope that we get the image of a group being able to digest different genres.”
Yang Yoseob and Yoon Doojoon chose the ‘Bad Girl’ era as the time that they faced the greatest danger. Yang Yoseob stated, “To be honest, I was so confident. Strangely, I think I had confidence without any evidence. I thought that when we debuted, it would all go well, that it was going to be daebak, that everyone was going to love us, I don’t know where I got that confidence…but the result was different. It was just a lukewarm response. I thought we were in danger.”
In the midst of this serious conversation, Yong Junhyung chose the ‘Mystery first broadcast’, which became a big issue in the past, situation as the greatest moment of danger for him making other members laugh. Yoon Doojoon added, “Everyone seriously had the definition of mystery clothing except for Hyunseung. Everything was a mystery. Thinking back now, it’s still a mystery.”
★ Separate and then together
With idols busy doing their own activities, BEAST is no exception. Lee Kikwang is busy in the variety shows, Jang Hyunseung is busy with the unit activities and musicals, and Yong Junhyung is fulfilling his busy schedule by working with other singers through featuring projects.
Lee Kikwang, who is busy on KBS 2TV <Win Win> continued to appear on variety shows despite traveling all over the world for his World Tour. He stated laughing “I am human too, so I get tired and exhausted. However, I enjoy being able to laugh through variety shows and it helps me to relieve stress. Also, the hyungnims on <Win Win> treat me nicely so I enjoy recording. Even Tak Jaehoon hyung’s obnoxious jokes are okay because I know he is only kidding. I know that he acts that way because he likes me.”
Jang Hyunseung, who acted as the young Mozart for the first time on the recent musical <Mozart!> stated, “Acting crazy was easier than I thought, but the detailed acting was hard. I think it was hard for me to act out the regular everyday conversations rather than something dramatic.”
In addition, Jang Hyunseung worked with 4minute’s Hyunah as Cube Entertainment’s first and successful unit group ‘Trouble Maker’. What if another member was the Trouble Maker? Yang Yoseob stated, “If it was me, I would totally have not matched it. I would have ‘ate’ profanities and gotten digestion problems from it.”
Then suddenly, Yoon Doojoon, who thought of a past event, said, “Yang Yoseob matches Mario hyung the best,” as he grinned. To this, Yoseob said, “Before debut, I sang the song ‘Superman’ with Mario hyung. It was for a short time, but it was before Trouble Maker and it was Cube Entertainment’s first attempt at a unit group. It was also Cube’s attention-grabbing unit as it had Cube’s tallest and shortest members,” bringing laughter to everyone else.
★ World Tour
They had decided on the world tour for their one year and two months as they went missing. They went around meeting KPOP fans in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and more in Asian countries as well as fans in North America, South America, and Europe. However, they received much criticism for leaving the fans in Korea in sadness for such a long time and starting the world tour so early.
Son Dongwoon stated, “The world tour was such a great chance for us. However, we are disappointed about having to rest for a year and two months in Korea. We are sorry for having our domestic fans wait.”
Yong Junhyung revealed, “We talked about the world tour between us for a long time. Even though we knew that it was early and that it was going to be difficult, we put everything on the line saying that we should just give it a try. Despite all that, I think it is most important that the members got to experience a lot from it.”
Then how many miles have they built up from traveling to all those different countries? “There isn’t that much. We have about 100,000 on each airline company and there are places we never got the miles for and some places we went because we were sponsored. But, we can travel anywhere domestically without worrying about miles.”
★ BEAST’s reality, confidence in their future
During the interview with BEAST, we ended up talking about their documentary which had the traces of them before debut. BEAST commented that they watch that documentary from time to time. “When we watch that, it really seems as if we were kids back then. However, I think I looked better then compared to now” (Kikwang). “I was a minor then… I think in a way I was better back then.” (Dongwoon).
Then what is their position right now according to BEAST?
Yoon Doojoon revealed, “Thankfully all thanks to luck, I think we are near the top. There are so many people to thank. To be honest, we aren’t obsessed about winning awards. Of course it’s great to win awards, but we aren’t really obsessed by it. However, it feels as if the people around us long for it. So from time to time we feel overwhelmed by it.”
In addition, the members stated that there still seems to be a lot of people who have certain images of them and the members’ current issue right now is about how they should break these images. To people thinking, “let’s see how long these guys last,” they are working harder with the thought, “okay, then you just keep watching us.”
To be even more honest, the members stated that they wanted to invite these people to their concert. “I want to show them our stage even for free. How hard we work, how much we prepare, and how our group has so much to show. To people who only see a side of us, I want to show them all the different sides.” They added confidently. “We still have a lot to show.”
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CREDITS : @STAR1 (SOURCE), YONGISM @ B2STRISING.COM (TRANS)
