[INTERVIEW] 120618 - Infinite, “I was very worried about the hiatus” (Part 1)
In the current music industry, Infinite is obviously the most self-made group. Along with splendid marketing, they did some acting and variety at the same time, without any help, they made their characters familiar and thanks only to their performances, they raised their popularity. In a time where the members’ names and personal talents are used in front line, Infinite is one of the rare teams to be remembered for their music first. Furthermore, their performance stands out with the guitar riffs of their song and their choreography, showing a totally different temperature than the trend these days’. These last 2 years weren’t an easy path made of luck and know-how, it’s the story of their efforts to convince people of their thoughts while they stayed quiet. Also, Infinite made their successful comeback with ‘The Chaser’ that gained the public’s trust and the fandom’s love.
However, the young men are saying that their trophies are still amazing and surprising. They told us that even now, what was important was practicing and making efforts as well as the people around them who strive for the team’s success. Their excessive modesty could even be mistaken for insincere greetings. But rather than taking about themselves, leader Sunggyu talks with even more heat when praising the other members and even every time his hyungs’ reply, maknae Sungjong nods and repeatedly comments: “It’s really like that”, “Hyung, you really became cool”; when listening to the seven members’ stories with young men’s freshness and youths’ passion in both of their hands, we got to know that their shiniest weapon was their innocence. The tears they shed on stage and the sweat dripping in their practice room are still absolutely real. Also when sharing stories with them, we didn’t get bored at all. Right now, we’re revealing seven stories that can guess what is going to make the day of Infinite who are stepping on the takeoff board.
Sunggyu - “The team being successful is always my top priority”
We thought he was the delicate voice who used a lot of breath but it seems that for this album his voice got a lot stronger.
Sunggyu: I was in charge of the chorus in ‘The Chaser’, but I did my best to make my voice cooly louder to give a refreshing feeling. It’s a song where I personally did a lot of new experimentations.
It’s known that the CEO always participates deeply in the whole producing too but, concretely, what kind of concept did he suggest this time?
Sunggyu: When we just debuted, we were watching movies together or when we were filming the music videos, he told us ‘Your eyes have to show it better’ while showing us personally but now, he doesn’t talk to us about this by himself that much.
L: Now he trusts us and leaves it to us, instead he jokes more. He told us ‘This time you will have to go wearing hanboks’
(T/N: Traditional Korean outfits). (Laughs)
Sungyeol: Really, until the day before our comeback, I thought we would have to tie our hair in topknots.
Sunggyu: He only talked to us about things like these. ‘This time you have to show something more Korean’, ‘It will have to hold the Orient’s beauty’.
As the main vocal, appearing on KBS ‘Immortal Song’ gives you a chance to win, did you prepare something especially for it?
Woohyun: I appeared on ‘Immortal Song’ too and I got a lot of aunt and mother fans, I think that Sunggyu hyung will get a lot of mother fans too.
Sunggyu: Actually, there isn’t such a thing as bids for victory. It’s just about overcoming my nervousness to do well because no matter who sees it, if I do my best, they will think nice of me. Also, the bids for victory are Infinite to me. The team being successful is always my top priority.
With your solo activities and overseas promotions, your schedule must have been busy, it seems that it got harder, little by little to take care of your dongsaengs as a hyung, who is the leader.
Sunggyu: I think it got easier instead. Because even if I don’t say it they all know how I feel.
L: Right. Because we know he’s scary. (Laughs)
As your dorm got better, you must have less things to nag about too.
Sunggyu: Because we’re all busy, we don’t really have the time to talk about our life in the dorms, because I don’t clean, I’m not in the position to say anything to the other members about it.
L: Yeah, I’m the one working hard cleaning!
Sungjong: L hyung is the really clean style. He cleans up every messy thing.
Sunggyu: If you get married to this kind of man it would be tiring, really. Because it’s not good if he’s too detailed.
L: No. I would clean everything and even wash the dishes? I feel good only if I do so.
If so, what did Sunggyu scolded you the most about lately?
Sunggyu: I really don’t say anything to them. These days the misunderstandings about me keep on piling up. I said it on SBS too but people think that I get tired the fastest. I actually get a lot of medications as gifts, I’m not even the style to take these meticulously, even worse, I thought that rather than taking vitamins as pills, it was better to get them from fruits, I’m the style to be really bad at doing things for my body. Really, the thing I take care of the most importantly is food. It’s all I need.
L “Following the concept, I change my character”
These days, the word ‘L-Co-Removed’ (T/N: L-Cosplay-Removed, the fans made this up from the word ‘Ordinary-Person-Cosplay-Removed, the fans call him that when he takes off his ‘L cosplay’ and is his normal Myungsoo self) is popular among the fans. It seems that when coming off stage, you show the real Kim Myungsoo more clearly than the L concept.
L: Following my mood, I also think I got a bit brighter.
Sungyeol: We also think that he’s really different on stage.
L: Oh, how?
Sungyeol: Ah, it’s not the Myungsoo we knew, why does he look so cool on stage?
Sungjong: Myungsoo hyung has a fresh charm and the hyung on stage shows charisma. He has two kinds of charms.
L always introduced himself saying that he was in charge of ‘the cowardly image’; for this stage too, does the concept have the same extension?
L: It changes for each song. When we were doing ‘Be Mine,” I had a cowardly expression, now I’m trying to show an image that is a bit more manly. Following the concept, I change my character little by little, I try to have emotions that match it. Like how Sunggyu hyung had a wounded sexy charisma. (Laughs)
Did accomplishing your performances this way help for your acting? tvN ’s Hyunsoo’s character has actually a lot of common points with L on stage. Since he gives a taciturn and serious feeling.
Sunggyu: That’s why it was easy. Because he lived while transforming from daily Myungsoo who is very mischievious to L on stage, he could suddenly transform to serious Hyunsoo when he was filming. (Laughs)
L: Of course, there’s that (Laughs) but there were also a lot of difficult points. L and Hyunsoo are similar but in fact, L is a celebrity while Hyunsoo is a character that can exist in real life. I studied this subtle difference and got ready, but I was really worried because if I got it wrong, it would look like both were L. Moreover, because I personally never received acting lessons, I received a lot of help there.
Sungjong: Really, this hyung did a lot of research.
For this concept, you also showed to the fans that you matured as a vocalist.
L: It’s not to the point where I can brag about it, it’s because Toy’s ‘Living By Your Side For A While’ (T/N: The song Myungsoo sang at Second Invasion) was the song I sang when I attended the auditions for Infinite. Because I wanted to set a stage with a special meaning to me, I went to suggest to the CEO myself that I would sing that song. And for the encore concert I sang ‘Love Generation’, I selected this song because I felt like I had to repay the fans who cheered for us at the concert. It’s the performance that made me think that Inspirits are my girlfriends, because the reaction was so big I was really taken aback.
For this album’s promotions, it looks like you really expressed your love for the fans a lot.
Woohyun: Rather than thinking we got 1st place because we did well, I was even more thankful to the people who cheered for us so it made me cry.
L: Truthfully, I was really worried about the hiatus. But the only fact that our fans were waiting for us like this, made me really very happy. Being able to be 1st once again, I think that’s why we got even more moved than when we got 1st for the first time. I’m thankful to everyone who loves our song but I really felt that my love and thankfulness for the fans got even bigger for this comeback.
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trans. cr; emilie @ infinite updates | source cr; 10asia ; take out with full credits
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