They threw away the ‘synchronized choreography’. They took off the stage outfits that fit their bodies perfectly. They forgot the other five members for a moment. Infinite’s hiphop unit, INFINITE H, formed by Dongwoo and Hoya appeared with an image totally different from their fundamentals. They rap as if they were singing and made their stage unique by moving their bodies to the groove. Moreover, Primary participated as a producer, and many other outstanding musicians such as Zion.T, Beenzino, Dynamic Duo’s Choiza, were mentioned in the first album as they participated in the lyrics, composing and featuring, this album is a refreshing try, we couldn’t find anything similar with the idol groups until now. Dongwoo and Hoya who dreamt of free stages continuously since before their debut told us that their thirst got quenched a little bit only now. And they told us excitedly about the experiences they shared while promoting together as INFINITE H, experiences that the other members don’t know about.
‘Dongwoo & Hoya’ begins
When did you really start working on this album?
Hoya: When we were promoting ‘Paradise’, our CEO told us in KBS ’s waiting room “Do you guys know Primary? You will get to work together on your album”. After that, it was hung fire for approximately 6 months and we started recording the album last summer.
Dongwoo: In Infinite’s first full album , there’s a song called ‘Crying’ composed by Pe2ny hyung. Hoya and I sang it and a friend named Baby Soul from the same company as us did the featuring; that was the beginning of INFINITE H in my opinion.
Hoya: Truthfully, I thought we’d go by the name ‘Dongwoo & Hoya’. It’s only after the album came out and that our subunit name was confirmed as ‘INFINITE H’ was when I knew. (laughs) At first, we didn’t know either what it meant so we were wondering “What’s the H?”, and it turned out it was ‘Hip hop’. If we just wrote our names, it would have been easier to know who’s singing though. (laughs)
How was it to work with Primary who was in charge of the producing the whole album?
Dongwoo: When we met Primary hyung in person, he was the type to lead us. Even when recording, rather than requesting things, he’d expose the situation comfortably. ‘Since it’s your album, you have to put in your ideas to make better music, so let’s talk about it together’. He respected us so I think that it made us work even harder.
Hoya: And since hyung likes tonkatsu, he connected with us even better (laughs).
Since it’s a hip hop album, you must’ve learnt again how to make the rap flow well too?
Dongwoo: In Infinite’s songs, the rap verses were from four to eight lines. But in our title song ‘Special Girl’ for example, there are a lot of rap parts so in order for us to deliver high quality, it required some skills. If we had to rap strongly before to give an intense feeling, here, we had to learn how to control it to emphasize on the emotional parts.
Hoya: We usually write the rap that suits us by ourselves but singing something someone else wrote for us, at first the tone didn’t match well. Especially in the title track, there’s a melodic rap and it sounded a bit flat when we were singing it while moving. It’s a song where we have to alternate between singing and rapping so it was also hard to control our voices. That’s why, during our first week of promotions, we had the strong feeling that it [the song] wasn’t ours, but we slowly got used to it.
The actor, and the one who isn’t an actor
In the music video, the two of you both appeared with the female lead (Song Haena).
Dongwoo: Because I never acted before, I really thought I was going crazy. Even the director said bluntly in the words, “You really look like a nerd right now!” (laughs). Very luckily, Song Haena is a model and she is older than me so she led me a lot. So I don’t really feel like I did anything worth calling acting. I had a lot of NG. If we filmed for 30 minutes, 20 minutes of it were NGs and we used the 10 minutes that were filmed well to make a scene; it was to this extent. I was very sorry.
Hoya: But the expression of you liking her came out very well. Dongwoo hyung was smiling from ear to ear (laughs). In my opinion, hyung fit perfectly in the music video or CF acting that needs to give an impact in a short time. Even though I don’t really know since you didn’t film a movie or a drama yet.
In your album’s thanks to, you even designated Kwak Jungwook (aka Oh Jungho in KBS ) from the same company as you as your acting teacher though, was it that his instructions didn’t have any effect? (laughs)
Dongwoo: I just wrote it [T/N: for no special reasons]. (laughs) It’s a friend I underwent hazings with when I started my trainee life, I was always close to him. Starting from then, Jungwookie talked a lot about acting. “When the camera comes around here, you have to say your lines” he told me things like these too. Because I suddenly thought back about that I wrote Jungwookie’s name. I couldn’t watch at all.
Hoya: Hyung didn’t even watch I appeared in.
Dongwoo: I didn’t watch any of the dramas the other members appeared in either. You have to watch a drama as it broadcasts for it to be fun, first our schedules don’t allow me to watch it and even if I have time to watch it, I’m the type to not watch [dramas] well. It’s not only me but all of the members are like that. (laughs)
It’s been quite a while since Hoya’s drama ended, wasn’t it a bit awkward to act again?
Hoya: It wasn’t. Actually, as soon as , I got a role for something else but because of Infinite’s Arena Tour, I couldn’t make it. As much as I was disappointed, I got to act in the music video. I was so excited I had a lot of ideas on the filming set and I had fun filming.
Speeding in the direction of radio DJ
How was it appearing just the two of you in KBS ?
Hoya: The recording of our first stage was in the middle of December, back then we had a lot of schedules since we were preparing for each year-end ceremonies’ stages and recording an album at the same time. Moreover, we had to write by ourselves the lyrics of the arranged version so we really didn’t have enough time to practice. We could only do things like listening to the song while doing an interview, etc. I couldn’t even recognize the arranged version’s melody until the dry rehearsal, it’s the first time I felt like I wanted to run away. Should I call it a kind of stage fright?
Dongwoo: Didn’t we mature a bit with this opportunity? (laughs) We were really tired enough to get an IV but we learnt to focus in a very short amount of time. And another good point was that we got to do a lot of stages we won’t be able to do in the future. We sang soft songs, unlikely of us, we had a performance where we gave roses like romantic guys. As the 4 weeks went by, we had less and less time to get ready but on the contrary, we slowly got more relaxed.
Until now, Dongwoo was generally in charge of the reactions in variety programs, but since you’re only the two of you when you’re promoting as a unit, you must comment a bit more.
Dongwoo: These days it’s really like that. When we were going on variety programs with all of the members, I was a bystander. Because it’s really fun to listen to them talking together, if the MC asks me a question seeing this, I’d go “Excuse me?” and be at loss for words. But these days, I think while Hoya is talking. I’d think about things like ‘Wait, I think I have to say something after this?’.
Hoya: At first hyung was really a spectator. (laughs) But while promoting as INFINITE H, he’s talking a lot more. Since hyung’s dream is to become radio DJ, I think he’s doing more efforts toward his goal.
Why do you want to be radio DJ?
Dongwoo: My favorite TV program is KBS and the thing I want to do the most is to listen to the listeners’ stories. While doing so I want to lessen these people’s worries. I also like the idea of reuniting with guests to listen to music. And more than anything else, you don’t have to worry about your facial expression on radio so it makes me feel comfortable. I make blank expressions very often. (laughs) I like the fact that I don’t have to put on make-up and do hair styling too. When I put on make-up, I feel like I’m writing stuff on my face so it’s frustrating, but the radio feels comfortable.
Hoya: I don’t think there’d be any problem if hyung joined a radio program right now. The only thing is that, rather than DJ-ing by yourself, I hope you can do it with me, as two DJs. Wouldn’t it be nice to DJ on radio together at the golden time slot of 10PM? We’re both the style to recite so the listeners will slowly get sleepy. (laughs)
Uniting through a bean paste stew with beef!
Since the two of your have totally different personalities, aren’t there things you disagree about? Dongwoo seems to have a somewhat carefree style while we know that Hoya is the type of person who has to prepare everything thoroughly.
Dongwoo: While promoting together, there isn’t anything that went really wrong. When we’re the seven of us all together, I sometime miss the timing to say something but now we set everything directly. We say that we’re sorry quickly and we also get to say thank you quickly.
Hoya: While working together, we didn’t fight for trivial matters. I feel like there are a lot of times where we’re really connected instead. For example, when we’re ordering food, there are times where hyung orders first and I order later, but then it turns out that we both chose the same menu. It was the bean paste stew with beef. (laughs) This kind of things happen very often.
We’re not sure about it before but are there things you learnt about each other while promoting as INFINITE H?
Hoya: Hyung really sleeps a lot. (laughs) I didn’t know it before. When we’re the seven of us together, we’re all moving so your sight gets dispersed and you can’t really pay attention to what each member is doing. And since we got more schedules than ever these days, it’s obvious that we’re lacking sleep.
Dongwoo: Until now, I felt that Hoya was hiding something and keeping it for himself. He can show me more things. When we’re promoting as Infinite as a whole, even if there are things he wanted to express on stage, he must’ve kept it to himself because he was limited. But during these promotions, I feel like he expressed himself a lot.
*You will find a more detailed story and more pictures in the March issue of the monthly magazine <10 tar="">.
trans. cr; emilie @ infinite updates | source cr; 10asia ; take out with full credits
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