CNBLUE held “First Step”
Showcase Press Conference
March 21, 2011
After releasing their first official album, “First Step,” and the MV for “Intuition” on March 21, 2011, CNBLUE held a press conference at the M Pub in Seoul’s Time Square, and took their first official step into their comeback
- The members’ introductory on the album track
YH: “I participated in writing, composing and arranging for the track “Love Girl”. The melody is beautiful and sweet. The instruments playing one after another is one of the highlights of the song.”
YH: “The title song “Intuition”, it’s a song showing the feeling of someone who’s being left by their lover”
JH: “I participated in the “Love follows the Rain (aka eclipse)” track and I’m also the one who sings the song. We’re trying to harmonize acoustic guitar and vocal in the first part of the song while bringing much of the pop for the 2nd part. It’s a song in which people who experienced separation can relate to. The lyrics are about remembering that person on a rainy day.”
MH: ” The 7th track, “one time” is the track that we had released in Japan. A song that Jung Yonghwa wrote and composed. This was the first song that made CNBLUE enter the Oricon Chart. It has strong characteristics.
- Album satisfactory points
YH: “I want to give 50 points for this album. There are still parts of the album that are still lacking, but we have given our best, so I give this much.”
MH: “I also want to give 50 points. I indirectly participated a lot in this album but I didn’t participated in writing lyrics or composing myself. I think it’s a pity. I want to show my creations in the next album.”
JH: “I keep on practicing even when we have activities. Coming to the studio for recording, there are a lot things I wanted to accomplish, but not all of them could be shown. So I feel that it’s still lacking. But considering how far we’ve grown since last year, I want to give it 60 points.”
JS: “I want to give it 65 points. I give this score because every time we release an album we always work hard till the wee hours in the morning.”
CNBLUE: “Our current image is smart, but now we’re coming back with a manly and chic image; this album title “First Step” symbolizing our first step as a musician.”
- Netizen’s reaction on the album
“We’re checking for the public response through our mobile phones. We’ve been getting good responses so far, so we feel proud. I hope we will receive much love for a long long time.”
- About wanting to be like “Rolling Stones”
“We want to be like the Rolling stones. While watching the Rolling Stones video the other day, we were hoping that we can also last for a long time like them. It’s nice that bands like Bon Jovi have popularity for a long time.”
- On being Idol band
CNBLUE: ” This album means a lot to us as we participated in the making of the new songs. We can feel our growth (through this album)”
YH: “We remade the title songs of our Japanese albums into Korean. Though it’s a pity that the title song is not our own song, but we have put a lot of effort in this album, so we feel proud.”
MH: “Sometimes we get misunderstood, because we couldn’t play live in every show. Hearing those criticisms just make us want to work much harder. It’s only been a year since our debut, slowly by hearing our live performances, we will get our talent recognized.”
- On their Japan experience
JH: “We really started from the bottom in Japan. We gave out flyers to the people on the streets trying to let them know who we are.”
YH: “That time, when we went home in the evening, we talked about how many people we could get eye contact with. Our biggest satisfaction was to see our fans increasing one by one.”
JH: “Our time in Japan was difficult but I kept telling myself that this is time to study. Everytime we feel like slacking, we back up by remembering the passion we have at that time.”
YH: “We just came back from Japan not long ago, I feel quite surprise and sad upon hearing the earthquake news. We have left a message through a video on the Japan fansite but I hope that Japan can recover soon, and we hope to have do a concert there again soon.”
- On Yonghwa’s weight loss
While preparing for the album, Yonghwa had lost 8 kg within a month. He said, “I feel like I have put on weight while working on my activities all these times. Thinking of how I first started, with that mindset, I dieted.” Yonghwa lost weight by eating less portions of rice and was satisfied with just chicken breast and bananas. He also made sure that he exercised on the treadmill before going to sleep, no matter how late the time was. When asked if he’s working on his abs and if he will reveal them, Yonghwa said while laughing, “Since I’m on a diet, I don’t have much energy so I couldn’t working on my abs yet. Even if I have it, I don’t think I can show it in front of the fans.”
- On the new drama “Festival”
Yonghwa has been casted as the leading role in Pyo Minsu’s new drama “Festival”. He’ll be playing the role, Lee Shin, a cold city man, who is only interested in music and nothing else. In the interview Yonghwa said, “To get immersed in the role, lately I have been acting cold to the members. Lee Shin is also a vocalist of a band so the character is similar to what I am right now. I’m currently in the process of understanding the character.”
Yonghwa also revealed in the press conference that his band member Minhyuk will be playing along side him in the drama and that they’ve been practicing acting together. Minhyuk said, “Jung Yonghwa is the lead role in the drama, and I’ll be playing the character of Yeo-Joon. This will be my second drama after ‘It’s alright Daddy’s Daughter’. i will show a better improve side of my acting.”
Yonghwa also said, “It just happened that the drama first broadcast is on June 22nd. It is also my birthday. So I have a good feeling about this.”
Yonghwa began, “We gathered together the songs we liked from our Japanese releases and recreated them for our album. If there’s one thing we learned from this album, it’s that there’s joy in writing and producing songs. Thanks to those skills, we’ve become better at interpreting songs. Our official album took a long time to prepare, especially the recording. We’d re-record and edit whatever didn’t satisfy us. Thankfully, the response towards the album has been positive so we’re quite proud.”
The members participated in the writing, composing, and arranging of nine out of the album’s 12 tracks.
Jonghyun, who wrote “Love Rides the Rain” and “Lie,” commented, “Usually, I write and compose songs from the feelings I come across in my day-to-day life. But because of our busy promotions, I lived vicariously through movies and dramas and produced my songs from there. This album is important in that it shows the true color of our band.”
Yonghwa continued, “Honestly, I want to give our album 50 points. There are lacking aspects, but we really did try hard and tried to create everything from our own efforts. To say we’re 100% satisfied is too much, as we’ve still got a long way to go.”
When asked about his “We Got Married” wife Seohyun supporting the group, he replied, “I contacted her and she said she would come to the showcase to support us. I asked her if she was serious, and she said that she’d be supporting us with her heart. I’ll be supporting Seohyun’s promotions actively as well.”
On ending his virtual marriage with Seohyun, he stated, “I’m upset that I wasn’t able to treat her better. Over the year that I’ve spent with her, I experienced a lot of things that I otherwise couldn’t have. I’ve become fond of her, and I’ll be sure to support her from here on out.”
He continued, “Although I didn’t experience marriage life directly, I feel that it’s vital that couples treat each other without even 1% of anything lacking.”
Earlier, it was reported that Yonghwa was cast in MBC’s upcoming drama, “Festival.” At the press conference, member Minhyuk was revealed to be casted as well.
Yonghwa revealed, “Not only will we be promoting through our drama, but through dramas as well. Kang Minhyuk has been cast with me for ‘Festival’ and is busily taking acting lessons. My role in the drama is ‘Lee Shin,’ a cold man that knows nothing but music. I’ve been trying to get into my role lately and have been treating my bandmates coldly. We’re alike in that we’re both band vocalists, so I’m working to bring that out.”
He continued, “As a way to express the meaning of starting fresh, I began a diet and lost about 8kg.”
Minhyuk added, “In the drama, Jung Yonghwa is the main character, while I’ll be playing a character named ‘Yeo Joon.’ It’s not my debut drama, but my second, so I hope to show how much I’ve improved.”
Jungshin stated, “I want to try acting as well since I have interests in both dramas and movies, so I’m preparing for that. I’ve also wanted to model, and recently received the opportunity to walk at the Seoul Fashion Walk this month.”
At the mention of the band being stereotyped as a ‘flower boy band’ that relies on looks over skills, Yonghwa replied, “Honestly, we predicted such views and reactions. We knew, however, that if we were confident with our music and worked hard to show that, people would be understanding.”
Jonghyun continued, “Our focus is on music, no matter what. We often wondered how we’d deliver the things we wanted to feel and share with the public.”
CNBLUE member Kang Min-hyuk attends a press conference marking the release of their first full-length album “FIRST STEP” held in Seoul, South Korea on March 21, 2011. [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]
Korean rock band CNBLUE member Kang Min-hyuk has said he has been cast in a new MBC TV series starring leader Jung Yong-hwa.
Kang made the remark during a press conference marking the release of the band’s first full-length album “FIRST STEP” held in Seoul, South Korea on Monday in response to a reporter asking about each member’s recent activities.
“I’ll be taking on the role of Yeo Jun-hee in the upcoming drama ‘Festival’ with Jung Yong-hwa,” Kang said. “I hope that I’ll get the chance to show that I have grown as an actor.”
Kang has appeared on both the small and big screen before including in daily series “I’m Okay Daddy” and omnibus film “Acoustic.”
Meanwhile, the group went onto to explain how they all took part in writing, composing and arranging nine out of a total 12 tracks on the album and introduced several of the songs as well as revealing the music video for title track “Intuition” for the first time ever from “FIRST STEP” which went on sale today.
“We shot the music video in Japan and it was a lot of fun even though it took all night to do so,” Jung said, while the other members spoke about how they liked how cool they looked in the video.
Composed of other members Lee Jung-shin and Lee Jong-hyun, CNBLUE made their debut in Korea early last with their hit single “Alone” and mini-album “Bluetory” after releasing two singles in Japan.
They shot to instant fame in Korea with Jung’s appearance in popular TV series “He is Beautiful” (SBS, 2009) alongside actors Jang Keun-suk, Park Shin-hye and Lee Hong-ki.
CNBLUE has also led a successful music career overseas, going double platinum in Taiwan and placing in the top ranks of the prestigious Oricon chart in Japan. They have also held several fan meetings and concerts in the country which were attended by several thousand fans.
Outside of their group activities, the boys have expanded their careers in the entertainment industry, appearing in dramas, movies and a number of variety shows.
CNBLUE will officially kick off their promotional event for “FIRST STEP” with their guerilla concert later on tonigh
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