[INTERVIEW] MBLAQ “The confrontation was fine” [Trendy Interview ①]

Five-membered male group MBLAQ who ‘can actually be more successful…’ are idols who are united in their musical voice and excellent variety sense.

MBLAQ managed to rise at a frightening speed and took on the challenge as a male group when the first batch of their comeback full-length album ran out of stock. However, bad fortune knocked on their door when their released album was overlapped with comebacks by some of the nation’s top idols. MBLAQ’s ‘Trendy Interview’ was conducted to expressed their feelings about the last broadcast of this special album.

✔ Last broadcast already, this album was released during the comeback of many great idols, do you feel any regrets or lacking while wrapping up the promotional activities?

It’s really too bad. (MBLAQ)

There were always a lot of singers around during our comeback. After we debuted, we’ve also promoted during the same period as Jihoon hyung (Rain) before. We would just have fun. Rather than thinking ‘other singers are out, what should we do if we can’t make it’, we never forget the in-between spaces and hope that people will still check us out. When we came out without anything in the beginning, we didn’t have a goal to be No.1, so we just promoted with joyful hearts. However, we do feel regretful now because we really want to win No.1 but we’ve yet to reach this target. (Seungho)

But we managed to learn a lot when promoting together with fellow cool idols. (Lee Joon)

✔ This album portrays even more chic charm, you still want to be known as ‘neighbourhood oppa idols’?

First and foremost, we definitely perform on stage in a way that is suitable for the songs, we want to show a more honest image in variety or reality programmes, so we feel that ‘it is nice to be called ‘neighbourhood oppa idols”. Our fans know about this, rather than hiding MBLAQ and becoming a lie, we prefer revealing ourselves without filter because this kind of image shines the most. It is great if MBLAQ is always this happy and comfortable. Jihoon hyung (Rain) initially planned for us to have a group image like our g.o.d. seniors. (G.O)

✔ MBLAQ’s order of rank

Joon’s birthday is in early ’88, his birthday is actually earlier than my friends (in Korea, they refer to people of the same age as ‘friends’). However, Joon entered school a grade lower than me, therefore I easily became his hyung. We entered the agency and started training at the same time. One month later, I received a text message from Joon which said ‘Today is my birthday’. Then, I asked him ‘Why do you call me hyung? We could just be friends’. He said ‘I feel more comfortable calling you hyung’. Ever since then, he has been calling me hyung. So, G.O also naturally became his hyung when he entered our company. Nevertheless, I never saw Joon as a younger brother. I tend to set clear standards for this, if you’re younger than me then you’re younger, if you’re older than me then you’re older. Joon was very poor during our trainee days. One day, I decided to treat him for a meal and asked to drop the formal speech between us. In order to relieve the awkwardness, G.O and I also naturally dropped formalities with each other. (Seungho)

We’re all very comfortable, just like friends. (Lee Joon)

✔ Any particular nicknames the members have always wanted?

Mine is ‘Jjang (best)-dol! I want to be the ‘best idol’. Haha (Lee Joon)

Ah… ‘Jjang-dol’ is too much… Um I want to be macho-dol! Our released songs are very manly so it would be good if we can deliver it that way. (G.O)

I think I like the one we’ve been using from the beginning ‘chic-dol’ since I’m no different on stage and off stage. (Seungho)

I’m the ‘torn-comic-dol’! I think I like it the most when people say I seem like I appeared from torn comics. (Thunder)

✔ Teacher Rain, have you seen him lately?

Not long ago, we went to see him when he was filming his movie next to the M Countdown building. We waited while he was filming and managed to greet him after that. The people closest to us were never able to receive a CD from us, hence this time we would like to deliver this repackaged album and apologise. All the best in your filming, we will always cheer for you. (MBLAQ)

✔ What are your future plans now that your advancement to Japan has been affected by the earthquake aftermath?

We’re sad because we did have plans for activities in Japan. We don’t have anymore specific plans yet at the moment. We still have songs in the works and we need more preparations. There are no fixed plans on whether we would have activities in Japan for a while or release an album in Korea consecutively. No matter what, we will continue to study music and we may have plans to come up with good music whenever we can. (G.O)

MBLAQ’s Japanese activities have been extended indefinitely. There were many casualties caused by the earthquake, I hope that the situation will be restored fast. (Seungho)

We’re only taking a break from activities in music shows from now on, we will continue appearing on other variety and reality programmes. (Lee Joon)

I was very busy with our promotional activities during the Japan earthquake, I didn’t know my sister (Sandara Park) was in Japan. I found out after my Mom called me. I was a little shocked when I got the news because I was worried. I hope they will stay strong. (Thunder)

SOURCE: bnt News

TRANSLATION: Choi Yoori@AbsoluteMBLAQ

PLEASE TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS. DO NOT ADD ADDITIONAL CREDITS.

ABM Blog post by msshady @ AbsoluteMBLAQ