Q. You made a comeback with your 10th anniversary album. How do you feel?
Lee Hongki: There have been a series of challenges during the past 10 years. We once were arrogant but we settled down ourselves after realizing reality. We put our past 10 years and years to come in our new album. And I want to say that we can exist thanks to our fans.
Q. What do you think is your greatest achievement?
Lee Hongki: I think we've shown that idols can be as competent as other singers.
Song Seunghyun: I think the fact that we've been together for 10 years is our greatest achievement. I feel sorry because there are many groups these days who are disbanded due to conflict and discord. We could be together for 10 years because we fit together.
Lee Hongki: Yeah, we've never thought about disbanding our team. I'm so happy to be able to perform music with the members. We'll join the army altogether too.
Choi Jonghoon: As a leader, I'm so thankful because all the members are good-hearted and they understand about what I do.
Q. When was the toughest moment of your career?
Choi Minhwan: I was so happy when we were loved by so many people. However, sometimes I didn't even know what I was doing. I was in a slump and I was never happy to perform on the stage. I'm thankful that many people still like our songs such as "Love Sick" and "Severely", but frankly speaking, the songs were not songs we wanted to sing. That's why we began to write our own songs. Yeah, songs like "PRAY". But it's true the song was not that popular among the public, and I think we're still having a tough time.
Q. Seunghyun, you're not an original member of FTISLAND. Didn't you have difficulty adjusting to the team?
Song Seunghyun: At first, it's true some fans were hostile to me, and I had hard times. However, it's like we're a family now.
Q. What's special about your new album?
Lee Hongki: We've thought a lot about the album's concept and songs. There were many possible titles for the album, but we chose "OVER 10 YEARS" as the title because we thought it was the coolest title.
Lee Jaejin: The title means we put our past 10 years in the album and we hope our fans to look forward to 10 years to come.
Q. Tell me about the title track "Wind".
Lee Hongki: I took part in writing the song, and I think the song has both popular appeal and musical quality. The beginning of the song will remind you of our old songs, but in the later part of the song, you'll be able to enjoy grand sounds.
Q. It's notable that a remake version of "Love Sick" is included in your new album.
Lee Hongki: Even though the song doesn't fit with our current musical characteristics, I like the song because I could become a singer because of the song. I think the song made us who we are.
Q. It seems like not a few people are still biased against you because you are an "idol rock band."
Choi Minhwan: FTISLAND is a rock band since birth. It doesn't matter if people call us idol, but we want to be just a band because we didn't enter FNC to become idols.
Lee Hongki: Personally, it doesn't matter how people call us. It could be idol band, band, or idol. What's important is that I should do well. And I want to invite our haters to our concert and show them our ability instead of accusing them.
Choi Jonghoon: At first, I really hated to be called idol. But now, I don't care. If you must, please call us handsome idols, haha.
Q. What do you want advise young idol groups?
Lee Hongki: The important thing is team work. All the members have to try to avoid sticking out, and the most popular member should be always modest.
<K-pop Secret Vol.2: Unknown Stories about K-pop Industry>
K-pop Secret Vol.2 contains unknown stories about k-pop industry. The author, who has been working as a k-pop journalist since 2010 gives you answers to some questions about k-pop industry such as “Do k-pop idols really sing live?” “How do k-pop chart shows choose their no.1 of the week?” and “Who’s the best singer among k-pop idols?”
iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1225054626
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XZHV4ZN
