Hongjoong of ATEEZ

Propel Fitness Water. With Gatorade Electrolytes, Zero Sugar, and Vitamins. Propel hydrates better than water to help you get the most out of your workout and get back to your best self. What propels you? Propel with Gatorade Electrolytes. This time, I think, made me a better person now. Me too. Yeah, because I never talk about this conversation, like I never show this kind of this conversation to like our fans or like other places. So it's very like good time to me too. Yeah, it was really cool. Hong Joon. Yeah. How you doing, man? I'm doing great. Welcome. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Thanks for coming. Yeah. Are you in LA a lot? Yeah, so like not that a lot, but like twice a year. Yeah. Kind of. And when we. Touring, we always in LA. Big shows here. Yeah, big shows. Okay, so I love Tokyo. Ah, you love Tokyo. It's my favorite. I've been going there. I'm a lot older than you. No, yeah. Oh, I'm very old. You know, I'm really big fan of your music. Really? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for saying that. It's very nice of you. Thank you so much. That's a compliment. So I've been going to Tokyo for 26 years. Mmm. Right. So older, longer than you've been alive. I've only been to Seoul once. I saw it once, just once. And I'll tell you why only once. Oh, why? Because I think you need someone there to like show you around. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I understand. You need like people to show you where the cool shit is. Yeah, yeah, right, right. I went solo and I didn't. Oh, really? Yeah, and I didn't because I was stopping over. Ah. And I was like, oh, I'll check. I'll check Seoul out. So how long you? Just a few days. Just a few days. So it wasn't the right way to see it. Next time, if you come out here, introduce every good place. Oh, that'd be great. Yeah. That'll be like first class. Yeah. Yeah. Big time. Yeah. I will try my best if you come. You got Seoul dialed? Seoul? Do you have it like dialed? Ah, not that much, but I have litter and I have some goose plate, good place that I like, so I can introduce every places. Okay. So what I was saying, so Tokyo to me was like 20 years ago, it was like the leading edge of like fashion, music, culture, like, and I still think that I think it like emerged in culture and had like this big moment and then it established itself and like everyone knows, like you go to Tokyo, there's cool shit. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think that's happened with Seoul. Ah, these days. In the last five years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I understand why you mean. And now it's become what it was growing to be in popular culture and the zeitgeist in, in modern kind of like, it's interesting to me while Korea and Seoul. Yeah. It's always been itself. Yeah. Yeah. With K-pop and other things. Right. Like I think some fashion and all this stuff that's happened and come out of, uh, uh, out of South Korea and Seoul and Seoul. Yeah. I think it emerged to its full mature, like it's always been that to itself. And I think, but people became aware of all the cool shit. Yeah. Yeah, I understand. So actually I felt that in Korea too, cause like these days there are many like good musics came out and also like culture, like kind of like K-movie or yeah. K-pop. Korean movies, TV, drama, and everything is very good at every places. So yeah, I think Korea really, so for me, yeah, in my case, I'm saying that I really like our traditional things, but these days, like our traditional things and like every trendy things are very matching, but that's why like our Korea, like Korea culture and like, kind of. Kind of K-things are like popped off. Yup. So I'm so happy that I live in that. Well, you live in that time, but also if you, if we analyze it, you're a part of it. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Right. So, yeah, I'm so, I honor to be one of them. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Thank you. Because think about it. Yeah. Like I said, when I went years ago, this is a long time ago, 10, 15 years ago, it's a place to itself in a sense of like, it's being itself. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not trying to keep up or be or whatever. And when I think about music and art, the best artists sometimes takes a long time. Yeah, I think so. They have to like go down the long road and they become themself. Yeah. Right. And then they emerge and it was like, oh my God. And they've been here the whole time. Yeah, right, right. When I think about what I've seen in the last five years or so, it's not that Korea wasn't popping off. It was, it was, it's always been Korea. It's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's, this moment has happened on a global scale that's not following anyone else. Yeah, that makes sense. Just being itself. Yeah, yeah. Right. I think so. The movies, the TV, fashion. Fashion, yeah. Even tattoos. Ah. So you like, you like tattoos. You like to see Korean tattoo artists. Some of the best tattoo artists. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are coming out of Korea. Like it's a different style. Yeah, yeah. And it's itself. It's emerged. Like it's decades of practice. Yeah. Of doing its own way, doing its own thing. And I think I see that like, that's what the movies are. It's decades of a practice. Yeah, that's right. That have emerged and the world has kind of caught up almost. But I just think it's cool. It's interesting. And a big part of. That story is K-pop. Propel Fitness Water with Gatorade Electrolytes, Zero Sugar and Vitamins. What propels you? Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah, it's very interesting. And like, you know, I live in Korea and I based in Korea, but I always surprised about like of many. Things still because you already mentioned about originally Korea's culture and everything is originally cool, but now we matched with like world scale kind of that. So I'm really happy with our like when I was young, I really look forward to see Western cultures, too, because I love band music. Yeah, include you. And also I love, like, K-pop from here. Yeah, but after a few years, I grown up with the Western culture and also I really into Korea culture, too. So, like, after I grown up these days, I try to show my own and our Korea culture to worldwide, but it's very natural and many of Western artists and many of. Like, someone who I really respect, they already mentioned about the Korean culture and like K-pop and K-movie. Then that means a lot to me. So these days I really surprised, too, at the same time. Yeah. Yeah, I think that, like, it's interesting. It's good to look out and look at other cultures. Yeah. And it's always going to be interesting because it's. Me, too. For me, I was always I grew up in a very small place and I didn't get to travel, you know, and things like that. So when I when I started my music and I finally got to see the world, I was very excited and curious and all the things everywhere I went, I was excited because I'd never experienced. Yeah. That's why I love saying, you know, save it there. Yeah. But you take that back. Yeah. To home. Home is home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you get ideas, you get influences, but it's always going you're always going to come back. And those things may, you know, for me, it's just getting the experience to on the journey of finding out who you are and who you are is who you were all along. Ah, yeah, I think that makes sense. You know, yeah, I was from this small place and I didn't think it was enough. I didn't think it was cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't think it was. So I wanted to go and. Yeah. And in that process, we become the fully realized we get the clothes or we get the we get our swagger. Yeah. And we got new flavor to. Get some flavor. You pick something up in Tokyo, you pick something up in London. Yeah, that's right. It's experience. Yeah. And you go all the way around full circle to find out the fully realized version of you is still the kid who had like a dream. Yeah. And who maybe thought he wasn't big enough or wasn't good enough. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, because I really. like me really same that same with that cuz like when I was young I don't have that much to treat with my family mm-hmm cuz we are mother mom and dad they have job mm-hmm so they are so busy always working yeah always working to like make me better yeah take care of you yeah treat me better so like so that's why when I debut and then we immediately go to tour yeah our company tried to be like show our moment as soon as possible to word right so yeah after we debut after just four months we just have two albums but we go to or immediately so then then I felt that Oh word is so big and then I I trained a lot for the debut but when I see whole city like whole tour cities and whole stops I felt like oh I get more interesting that I thought and like that city is that moment and this is that culture would be really good to like make music and yeah yeah and one of my favorite city when I was like go first touring is Dallas Dallas yeah Dallas Texas yeah Texas yeah because they have some like our fans in there they taught me that like yee-haw that thing yeah but yeah it was so interesting to me yeah I just the cowboy culture yeah I just watched it in the movie yeah but everyone is here like really vibe like that it's a real vibe so I think that I try to make kind of that vibe music yeah with like country but little country vibe yeah I want to mix with the k-pop so how I can discover the best like music yeah I try a lot and then make me like grown up with another genre of music yeah yeah so yeah I always experience kind of that yeah yeah it's a good way to look at the world yeah yeah be interested in yeah the Western yeah yeah the Western music yeah the Texas especially is special yeah yeah and you go there and there's people like that's their life yeah yeah that's right that's what I want to say yeah yeah it's cool yeah that means a lot to me that time yeah when did you start eight years ago eight years ago yeah it's like a lifetime oh no like yeah I'm actually I'm 27 right so you were 19 yeah start from there so starting in the sense of when you got let's say signed up so you mean the yeah we have the culture that trainee right yeah in company we have when did that start yeah yeah that's the start that is the like almost 16 so you were 16 yeah I was so I would say that's the start yeah that's the start yeah you know when maybe when everyone got to know you yeah different how long before that did you know that's what you wanted to do it's it's very short like 15 because of Michael Jackson yeah because when I heard about his song for the first time I'm really curious about how to make that beat you know that time I'm not singing and I'm not rapping and I don't know how to use my voice I just listened about the beat because like some drum source that's not real drum but I'm really curious about how to make that drum sound into the music so that's why I just love myself the midi programming mm-hmm that's the start so you started making beats and yeah making bits yeah before before oh before she's in your bedroom yeah so yeah so I just I just love myself with the YouTube yeah in my bed like how to yeah and then I just I just make some demos and um send to this company and then they asked me how about doing some trainee to be a K-pop star so I I'm I was oh can I yeah can I do like that and can I do some K-pop either and then they told me yeah I think you have talent so okay I mean and then I'd be like this would you say you saw yourself before that you're in your bedroom you're on your Mac yeah making beats yeah that time maybe I I did there was window windows yeah yeah I used the Cubase yeah okay yeah okay did you see yourself like maybe you thought oh I could just be a producer and then someone saw you and said no I think you may be more than that maybe you're also yeah uh star yeah and then you were like okay I'll go give it a try yeah okay so I'll explain to you I am like a pedestrian K-pop I don't know a lot about K-pop yeah it's okay yeah so I'm more interested in K-pop yeah I can explain or right yeah that's it yeah yeah so I've always been interested yeah I've always respected it yeah yeah I've been in music for 30 years so I've watched it emerge and grow yeah I know it's been in Korea yeah but it's over the last 20 years it's just just yeah yeah globally yeah and now I would say it's bigger than it ever it's ever been oh in the sense of like these last like five years yeah and so I'd say you've been inside of that and a part of that yeah so it's interesting to get your perspective because I don't know a lot about it other than someone who sees it yeah and I like the music and I see so I think it's cool yeah but I don't know a lot about it ah yeah so I wonder like one you're making beats you send them they say hey we think you you got something coming come train yeah at what point in that process did it click for you or like I could do this ah yeah I can explain from that like you know when I was young like I grown up with the K-pop too so that's why when I think the K-pop star is very shine and they singing and dance at the same time and it's very hard to do yeah so that's why I respect them from like when when I was young me too yeah thank you so you didn't see me that's hard it's hard work yeah it's hard work but you know at the same time I really big fan of the like other journalist music too so that's why that time like if my company asked me yeah can you do some K-pop Idol and then I think that I never had kind of that gore and that dream when I was make music alone I just think about like I can be a producer not singing them rapping but I can I want to give someone to sing it this song yeah but that time they ask me and then in my head I got some like on the stage the moment that on the stage and many fans like love me and then like that is very like different that I thought so that's why okay I will try right and because I think that's cool right and after like you like like after debut I think it will be pop up like very fast because our company have huge vision for the for my group for my band and what's the company my company what's it called KQ okay yeah KQ KQ had the huge vision right but you know that that was the interesting point in there when I signed with the company there was no trainee I'm the first one who in that company oh wow yeah so actually my company KQ was really small that time but I don't matter about that because I want to be a K-pop star when I listen that vision right and they saw you yeah they saw me and there's something to that yeah they I think the one person in that company had the strong belief to me right but I don't know why yeah still well they were right well they were right they're right yeah they were right I think the success says yeah and thanks for to my boss yeah yeah everyone in my company as a K-pop star or would you say Idol so in Korea we use both both okay yeah but what's cooler what's cooler to me yeah I think I'm not answer okay yeah okay I'm not answer smart man yeah I'm not answer yeah well I love both as a K-pop king I love that yeah yeah um I would I would try like that I guess I always wonder from what I see from what I understand yeah there's a real regimented um you work all the time you train yeah today I can like I can uh say every thing about kpop for you yeah so so yeah many people think like uh kpop either and like who in kpop they work 24 7 right but i think that's i think that's not wrong thinking right yeah because we worked really hard and we worked really long time for make one thing but i think that point is same with the like america but i think but it's the difference is speed speed yeah but you know i just talk about some very typical like kpop artists that like we try to make me like make whole production very fast because we think i think uh everything have a timing right and kpop artists there are so many band debut uh year so we have to show our things as soon as possible and as soon like as good like good timing with the good timing right so that the the challenge yeah yeah is make the best thing you can make yeah that's as quickly as possible yeah and get it out get out that the in a good time and in a good way yeah good way yeah but you have to stay have a plan have a marketing have all the stuff but doing it fast yeah it's actually really hard yeah it's really hard and we have to keep that quality too yeah the quality yeah yeah if quality lower like our kpop now these days the word someone who think word focused on kpop we don't want to make this point for to them so we worked hard because yeah that's the reason we want to show moment as soon as possible right but we want to show with the good quality yeah so that's why we worked really hard right so it's literally i think it's difference with that's why we can think it's different with the other like genre yeah but like you know this this is the trend is very fast yeah and like tick tock and everything is so fast to like so fast and so smooth so that's why i think the kpop like kpop is so fast and so smooth so that's why i think the kpop is one of trend these days yeah because we make the music and whole production so fast and then we show we really good at like express that things to audience yeah yeah and some of american artists is doing like that too yeah absolutely so i think that it's very like the very natural thing yeah it's a good thing i think i would say that um i find it that's not so different from i mean for from us when we started i was 16 no and it was similar even though we we weren't at a company yet you know we didn't have a record company or any of that we worked around the clock all the time to try and figure out how can we record where can we practice how can we how can we get a show yeah where can we play and then to me it feels like what the company's figure is and what the company's figure is and what the company's figure is out is how to put a process in place to organize more yeah yeah because all the great artists are kind of doing that on their own but with some structure and some process you can get a lot you can get a lot more done you can get further faster if you actually have a process yeah that's right you know and you call it what it is yeah because the other thing i like about what you're talking about is that it's like a stage from the k-pop playbook yeah right yeah it's worked yeah right you've seen it we've seen it yeah and so people can learn what i found was the first five years of our career we were working like that but no one around us was taking it seriously do you know what i mean yeah and so when you have a company that takes it serious yeah and work yeah you believe in it even more yeah you know yeah yeah i can feel it and you know when i debut the company and us have some like relationship like like that like i think you have to do like that yeah companies told us yeah next next step will be go like this right and we have we will mark mark we will do some vital like this we will take us some that venue to tour and we will do kind of this thing to promote we have that relationship when we were debut but i think that time we thought that we had to right like that because we don't have any information and like many good like good advice from someone right so we don't know about that because we just we were just training right we just trained we just like let get let the lesson for the good walker and good rapping like that so after a few years now these days we asked the company that like company asked me we want to take this venue and then we talk them why like yeah you've got the experience yeah i think this one is better because yeah so there's it's a partnership that really works and you've got the experience because you're out there to come back and say actually this one yeah we were there this is how it is and you work together yeah that's right and also i really for me i'm really curious about like your work too because when you told me when you were young yeah you just do some like you find something to do and then because i never do like that yeah so when i was young so i'm so like curious and someday i want to try kind of that process too like if we take uh like a year or like more months to make a album and we don't know how to promote like the company have done like company didn't give us some like detail or promote i just want to make some my own vision and then i asked the company and then i we we want to try like full time for like a year or like two years to make a album yeah i want to try that someday you should yeah i think it's good to when you can so sometimes i think when you're in the career like you have a big career yeah you have a big if you say like that that's right you have a big career yeah um well i'll tell you this okay yeah i was outside there's a band that i know that are here today they're working on a new album and they're working on a new album and they're working on a new album they're called chase atlantic you know chase atlantic yeah you should check them out yeah very cool band super cool big band they're like uh like sold out o2 arena multiple nights like big band yeah but they're very cool guys yeah and they know everything they know all the bands and and i told them i was talking to hung june from a tease and they were like oh shit yeah that's what they said they went whoa they know they know me of course oh really yeah yeah yeah that's so like interesting yeah that's cool yeah what you've built now is what will be uh your legacy right but you're in it now yeah yeah yeah right it's all career right yeah so what you had to do to get from there to here you had to do all that stuff yeah they had to go fast fast fast fast and then you got and now here you are yeah so you don't have to go as fast sometimes yeah yeah i think so right but then sometimes you do have to go fast yeah yeah right yeah so you have to know yeah because that's just the career yeah yeah i think so and and then you have your partners you have your company you have your uh your team and everybody circles up yeah and they go i think we have to go now yeah and you all discuss it and then you're like okay let's go and then you do it yeah and then the results we can't control yeah and so you're navigating this like really interesting obstacle course almost of like stuff and so sometimes you gotta go fast yeah sometimes when the opportunity's there you gotta go but then sometimes you see a moment where you're like and it will probably come because you thought about it yeah but you're already like man what if i like took a year yeah or something six months yeah and i tried to make this like album just by thinking about it it will likely like emerge yeah somewhere yeah in the future yeah and then you just have to keep an eye on it when it when the opportunity does come it'll be another interesting chapter after yeah of the like next what will be the legacy you know yeah you know uh actually i think when i listen your yeah use your words i think i already I already do like that, like I already spend the much time for my own thing yeah you know i really love like work with our band ats our members are so good so i'm really happy with them and almost of time it's a big group though yeah yeah there's a lot of people yeah yeah yeah a members yeah including me so i spend almost time to make our ats career at the same time i just try to figure out what's my flavor too because i think from like two three like one two years ago like i just think about that continually because that makes me give another motivation when i'm with the members because i just want to know who i am and like in ats who i am also like i go somewhere i'm hongjoong of ats yeah yeah but at the same time i just ask me what really i like and what really i love like for music side or fashion side every size so i still learn myself about me yeah to make music with other people and like go somewhere when i see something and get some inspiration from there yeah so i think that's the long-term season that i like try to find myself and then yeah maybe i don't know when it will be show to like our fans or audience for my own thing but at that time i can say that i spent two years three years for that yeah so i think i already did that i'm already doing that your mind goes there you're thinking that way yeah yeah yeah that's right i think it's very natural yeah so when you give so much time to a group yeah every part of the group matters you know so to do something as a group it's like being in a band right there's five of us and we're all in we're we're going you know together we have to rehearse we have to do this we have to do that and then you give years yeah and you're in it years what people don't understand yeah is when you give what it takes to be great it takes everything to be great yeah it's like uh professional sports kind of yeah yeah to be great yeah to be on the big stage yeah to succeed yeah you have to give everything yeah what you sacrifice is everything yeah it's natural at some point especially around your age you do have a moment where you stop and go like who am i i'm the same guy who started but i'm 10 years older so here i am and sometimes you're like your mind goes to like what you're saying like i wonder what i would create the thing i will say that's like just from my it's not advice just my experience i want to get there is it's good and every group should understand that yeah the better we are alone the better we are together right so if i'm not healthy alone yeah i won't be as healthy yeah that's right with you yeah that's right and so if i don't stop and ask myself what do i like who am i now but i would say to artists yeah keep creating and keep putting music out yeah and in the moments where maybe because this happens in all careers because you go up and then maybe you go down and then you go up and then you go down yeah don't be afraid by the down yeah yeah that that's the that's the rear point that i like me and our members these days we talk a lot about that yeah because after we debut we slowly we just grown up with everything our own things too but at the same time popularity popularity or like everything is only grown yeah slowly so that's why these days we get little fear about the like when we go down natural yeah what can we do like how we like escape of like down yeah breath so we never like we never suffered that before so that's why we just like curious how what can we do that if we get that time so like these days we talk a lot about that yeah i think it's natural yeah to wonder what i like though about that is most people won't admit that they are worried or that they yeah that that because when you experience like a success like you have yeah it's amazing you know the fans it's amazing all the opportunities all that i think it's natural to be afraid of like what if yeah you know yeah but what you said before is what i think is the cure yeah i think if you continue to just know yourself yeah and continue to ask like who am i yeah in this and out of this yeah they both matter yeah and they both together they they have they have to they need one another uh yeah like you out of this yeah needs you in this yeah that's right and you in a tease needs hung june out of a tease yeah and the more you continue to like have i think a relationship with both mm-hmm the more you'll be okay with you'll navigate in a way where um let's say you know when um a moment happens where you put something out and it's disappointing it didn't go how you plan if you know who you are you'll you won't look at it as negative yeah you'll look at it and go like huh like like i think it's i think if this moment doesn't happen that moment that's ahead yeah couldn't happen and what if that moment ahead is much bigger than anything i could have imagined because of this moment yeah so it's like is it good luck is it bad luck yeah you know what i mean yeah i understand so i think the balance of the yeah like in group and yeah our group is very important and these days we talk a lot about this theme too like this topic with the members yeah and members be like you know these days we have choreo choreography choreography choreography you know these days we have choreo choreography yeah you know or or almost of our song yeah so when we get some practice ourselves we get into like practice room some huge practice room and then we just dance two three times and then we gather soccer in like middle of the practice room and we're just talking like this yeah like yeah sometimes we need a balance of like we need a balance of like like in group and out of group but like this moment like this season someone who said i want to do kind of this thing in these two three weeks yeah and then i said yeah okay let's take a kind of that timing so who wanna get break and then someone said oh i want to get break okay you break and then okay then i will go like this so let's do like that and then but after that we have to do this all together yeah so you have to think about this yeah yeah and then like that we these days we balance like this and then we up to the boss yeah and then hey boss we have idea and we want to do like this so how do you think and then we'll say yeah that's good idea but but this moment i want to do like this and then we discuss about that too and so it's very natural and all of like you said i really understand and i really like feel the same way with you i respect yeah the whole world of k-pop and i respect the art i like the artist yeah i think to succeed at k-pop yeah you have to work very hard and you're up and you're competing against or up against or a lot of people want to be k-pop stars yeah they don't all get to be k-pop stars i think that's why more k-pop artists came here right come here it's the future near future more k-pop artists have to come here and talk with you right yeah to show that like many other audience and not in k-pop fans like we have to like talk about our life and our thinking right because i think most people want to know what it feels like to be you yeah my perception of you was good when i i look at everything you've done i have so much uh yeah i mean you you've done a lot yeah i'm i'm too much you're accomplished yeah right you're a successful guy yay um you you are you're a successful guy good looking successful guy but all we perceive or all we see is the you that's up there on stage and so to get a sense of you the person that did that before he was a star yeah you understand like the kid who yeah yeah made the beats yeah sent them yeah because yeah went to the place and started training and in order to make it yeah you have to want to make it and you have to work you sacrifice your life you give everything to that thing yeah and all all of you guys and then to make a group work it's so incredibly hard yeah but not just to have hits yeah but just to be in it and just to get to the point where you can even have the hit yeah yeah and then to have one hit and then have another hit and then come over here let me read you some of your accomplishments oh not that you want i'm out for the five minutes yeah if you if you talk about my history yeah that's right because i got a little shy i love it but i got a little shy well you've accomplished a lot yeah i received the video yeah i love it but yeah you've got 178 songs credited to you you're i heart radio's k-pop artist of the year in 2025 last year not five years ago the grand artist award highest honor in korea grand music awards i can go on the prime minister gave you a commendation at the 2025 popular culture arts awards it's a big deal yeah huge man anyways i say all this to say in music yeah to have one one hit or to have one sold out tour or to do one thing at the highest level is very hard yeah to have a career yeah has taken you everything you have yeah you you've had to give it all also think about it you're the first trainee and first signing at the company yeah that's right you're the captain of the the group ats and you're still here yeah and you're still in the world yeah and you haven't lost your mind you know a little bit but you're okay um but i'm just saying do you ever stop yeah and like pat yourself on the back and go like that kid it was 16 or 15 that no one knew no one yeah you know before at all had to believe in himself to to start yeah down the road no i don't know i think it's just something that when you're in it you may not stop to realize what you've accomplished and what it's taken you know yeah i'm gonna cry yeah so like me i really proud of my or accomplishment like that you read and also there's more yeah there's more i i bring it to my home i want to be a ball man you like that yeah you like the brand i like that yeah baller dude i love that very cool yeah very cool not just yeah not just big it's cool yeah i love that's why i really love like fashion icon yeah so that's why i really proud of like should be yeah so you know every moment like every accomplishment for me it's all with our fans at&t so that means a lot to me because when i go up when i go up i'm with our members and our fans but if i go down i trust my fans that they like still looking forward to my next step yeah so that's why like i got that pressure that i took a lot for the yeah so yeah my accomplishment gave me some another motivation yeah and another like positive energy to me so yeah i really i really proud of that and also you talk about my 16 years or when i start no one focused on me but i just trust myself and then just going you know that day i go to post office yeah i went to post office to send my cd that's the kid that's the kid i like that kid yeah you know what i mean like no one told that kid yeah yeah to do that yeah no one told me he did it he just went and did it so i like that kid too yeah he's cool yeah yeah like that kid too but that's the part of you though that that i think uh you you know we can't compare ourselves yeah i think we can't compare ourselves to other everyone's on their own journey yeah their own success yeah you're young so you have a lot long career ahead of you and i always just feel like the need to like encourage people to keep being that kid oh that sends the thing at the post office wow you know i also respect how much loyalty you have to uh your company uh it says a lot about you yeah they you know my our boss yeah always told me i really love you yeah because like he told me always like if without you how can like be like that this like that actually some point i think like that but some point me i did great at that time but also after like few years our members and like our company trust me too so that was big thing too in my opinion like i trust myself that day but after that like everyone around me trust me too so i really thanks for for that and that's why i can do my own thing with the confidence yeah so and it takes a team yeah it takes a team everyone plays a role yeah everyone have work but like i think our band is a little weird that everyone have four but everyone is good at the other world too oh yeah they're gonna yeah you could all do each other's jobs yeah yeah so i think or everyone have like 20 jobs right in in their life like i'm rapper i usually rap okay but before this i singing at some content yeah and do you ever sing too yeah okay yeah i think you rap sing and rap and soon guitar yeah on the guitar yeah and soon drummed yeah yeah so and our vocal members really good at rap right so sometimes i i got some some fear if they rap better than me what can i do like it's good competition yeah yeah competition and i have to sing like get vocal lesson if they rap like that and like everyone dance really good yeah and some of members like in this song he's the best dancer but that song he's the best dancer yeah with our members we get some like competition it's good it's healthy yeah it's very healthy so that's great if we're gonna promote one thing ah what would we promote last month we released a new album new album yeah what's it called like tighter tighter is bad okay the whole song's about like it the vibe is very summer okay summer taste and summer vibe it's summer vibe and like it's very like new vibe to us and also i think it's very new vibe to our fans like oh 80s do like that yeah oh this time 80 tried that genre like that cool so are you happy with the record yeah good i was really and or most of my lyrics is english so because for this one we want to express like more ordered love uh-huh yeah not that young vibe right yeah so this time i'm really happy with that yeah all production and or recording and all the songs that we had so yeah please check it out check it out yeah check it out then i really love getting to hang out with you oh i'm serious i'm being serious i've always really admired respected liked k-pop the world oh really and i've always wanted to hang out oh and just like get a vibe yeah get a vibe yeah what's it like yeah what's the k-pop world like what's the k-pop life you have to come to korea i would love that yeah i might do that yeah i will make the similar studio like this okay yeah like like just do three days in korea yeah you don't have to hang out with me the whole time yeah yeah just one day yeah take me around yeah i won't be too much trouble yeah no it's it's worth it too yeah it's worth it yeah it's worth it to hang out with you yeah have a day with you i would love that yeah where would you say outside of uh korea where's the the most excited crowds the places you feel it where you're like damn these people love us is it l.a l.a dallas i love l.a and yeah dallas too but like for me l.a is very that kind of that city it's like home away from home yeah okay like that yeah and you told me the very patience crowd is i think every series these days like wow when they like our first tour is we have some difference of of the crowds right reaction but these days i think almost of cities have like high energy so i never like disappointed right but like their reaction when we are on the stage you guys tour the whole world yeah whole world wow yeah last year we did europe and u.s and this year we already did almost of asia tour and australia oh yeah australia we went to morocco to go that's cool magazine festival and also yeah yeah the south america too almost of forward i think next gonna be like moon or yeah somewhere there like the moon yeah hope to yeah yeah it's awesome um what do you feel like the next 10 years looks like wow i just so exciting just thinking so next 10 years i think it's not that different with now because during one two years we already think a lot about our next 10 years because we make re-contract with uh with our company last year okay but that's not short the contract is really long but it's a good contract yeah there you go yeah that's why 10 years is very familiar to me right yeah not that like strange or like afraid like that so well yeah because you've already spent 10 years getting here yeah and it goes fast yeah it goes fast so you realize like yeah 10 years isn't actually that long it's long but it's it's short to me yeah so next 10 years i want i gonna be 37 i'm so curious about my life but like i can assure that i'm still with members and then i always like try to make the best decision for our members and our fans if even like sometimes we do work like separate like we do some individual things sometimes but we still know we're part of like hugh's band 80s yeah and you know we're still we really proud about that so i think it's almost similar but we can do more like we can work in the more side more like so i think that's that's it i think what you just said i feel like if you have any hesitation hesitation or if you have any fear i'm only telling you from my experience because i'm way older than you like i said i'm 20 years older than you i love to listen your 20 years 20 years if i could go back yeah until 27 year old me i would say at 27 to remember that kid that made the beats that sent it to the company that was the first signing of the company that is here now is still the one who's gonna feel something or think something or go i think i should try that or i'm interested in that and and i think that's the thing you you always got to trust is that no that's your navigation system but yeah it's great hanging out with you man yeah i really enjoyed it yeah i i really i really enjoyed it too thanks for coming on the show thank you thank you so much for having me you know like this time i think make me better person now because me too yeah because i love your advice that you gave me because i always need kind of that advice to me because i don't have that many others around me so well i felt like today was cool because i've always wanted to get a real true kind of inside take on the k-pop life yeah which i think is really cool yeah i think i'm i never talk about this conversation like i never show this kind of this conversation to like our fans or like other places so i it's very like good time to me too yeah it's really cool it's really cool yeah k-pop's cool man no and i wouldn't even define you i wouldn't just i wouldn't limit you to that i would say it's what you what you're from and what you represent i'm not just saying you're only k-pop yeah i don't want you to think i'm in boxing you in but as an artist and as a producer and as a performer yeah what you come from is really important yeah and you represent it really well yeah i love that too because you know i don't know where it is like where to where is k-pop these days so like i think it's ragged same too where to where is like we can't yeah we can't define that it's like we label things so that we can understand but it it doesn't define the thing right so k-pop isn't just k-pop yeah it's the first thought i have because it helps me understand like what you came out of what you come from yeah but then you talk to someone it's so much more no yeah you know what i mean so now you like i i can less pressure yeah because i'm not represent k-pop you told me it's one of i love it i yeah i would say it's to me like i say about rock like i come from rock yeah not only thing i am yeah that's right i come from k-pop yeah and i can live in rock i i'm comfortable there sometimes you're here yeah so you can be k-pop too right someday yeah imagine your fans of iwalk who's this old guy um but yeah i only say that to say like i know there's a bunch of people listening that are k-pop fans and then there's a bunch of people listening that are interested like me that yeah that knows stuff yeah yeah that's right but we haven't lived in it like like you have yeah i want people to understand how much i respect yeah i've heard that artists yeah and what they do and where they're from and what they've had to what they've gone through yeah and what people know about you is only one aspect of who you are what you've had to do to get here you could write a book on it yeah do you know what i mean like we couldn't cover it in one conversation yeah so it's so much more yeah but do you know what i mean so i don't want anyone to think i'm defining you that means i have to back again yeah yeah to talk with you yeah yeah this is i just talk about a few pages of my that's right just one little yeah it's great if i have another issue or like if i wanna anytime hang with you again anytime i will come back to talk about another pages too anytime yeah thank you bro thank you so much appreciate it thanks for coming thank you thank you for listening to this episode of artist friendly you can also watch the next episode of artist friendly on our website at 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