WINNER: The five who were chosen after winning a fierce battle
“Everyone is so kind and the food is great. Through the tour we felt a sense of affinity to Japan.”
Interviewer: This is “What’s IN?”‘s interview. Pleased to meet you!
SeungYoon: Pleased to meet you too (reading What’s IN?) Oh! This is our senior, SEUNGRI!
MinHo: So cool!
Interviewer: Could you guys tell us your name and favorite type of music?
SeungYoon: I’m the leader, Kang Seung Yoon. I like Rock music the most, like British rock.
MinHo: I’m the power rapper, Song Minho! I love Hip Hop like Kanye West, Jay Z, Lil Wayne..and more!
Taehyun: I’m the vocalist, Nam Taehyun. I listen to many kinds of music but my favorite is R&B.
SeungHoon: I’m the rapper, Seunghoon. I love Hip Hop and R&B. I like black music.
Jinwoo: I’m the vocalist, Jinwoo. I usually listen to dance music.
Taehyun: EDM? (Electronic Dance Music)
Jinwoo: Oh, yes! (laughs)
Interviewer: This time you joined BIGBANG’s tour as an opening act. How did you feel?
SeungYoon: It was an honor for us to go on tour with our seniors, BIGBANG, and we haven’t been on a big stage like this before so we are grateful.
MinHo: When we started performing on Seibu dome, we were so nervous but we slowly became relaxed. After that, we could breathe with the audience. Because of that, we learned lots of skills so I’m really grateful.
Taehyun: We also ate delicious food of each region! Everything was impressive.
Interviewer: Which one was delicious?
Taehyun: Kobe beef! (answers spontaneously)
MinHo: Taehyun really loves meat.
Jinwoo: Takoyaki and Tebasaki (chicken wings) were also nice.
Taehyun: And motsu nabe (giblets cooked in a hot pot)! Mino likes nattou,right?
MinHo: Yes. It’s really yummy.
Interviewer: You are completely familiar (laughs)
Taehyun: Everyone is so kind, clean and food is great. Through the tour we felt a sense of affinity to Japan.
MinHo: Especially Osaka was so exciting.
Jinwoo: I think BIGBANG fans got sympathy for us.
Interviewer: What did you think about BIGBANG’s live performance?
SeungYoon: They are really cool and there are lots of things to learn from them. Rather than watching it live, it was just “study, study” for us.
Interviewer: I see. WINNER won their debut with the Artist debut project “WIN-Who Is Next-“. What did you feel during the program?
Taehyun: I was at my wits’ end.
SeungYoon: It was really cruel and difficult for us because we battled with trainees with whom we worked together for several years. But we also strongly wanted to debut.
Jinwoo: Probably I was the one who went through the most difficult time. I am the oldest so I thought I have to work harder and because of my age I didn’t know what would happen if I lost this battle… So I’m so thankful to the members for supporting me.
SeungHoon: We were losing at the beginning. “We might not be able to debut”, “Should we choose a different way?”, we were thinking like that before. However, as we started to empty our minds and tried again, we started getting better little by little.
Taehyun: The five of us have strong personalities so maybe that gave a strong impression to viewers. I think that took us to victory.
Interviewer: Could you introduce your personalities to us?
SeungYoon: Yes. Mino is our mood-maker. He cheers us up even when we are down. However, he is very serious while he is making songs and composing rap. He is very polite to elders too. He is great.
MinHo: Taehyun is…
Taehyun: (covers his ears)
MinHo: (laughs) Taehyun is our maknae but he’s not the cute type. He is more of a quiet type. He’s serious about music and his attitude of self-development is so impressive. I think he is the core of our team.
Taehyun: Seunghoon has very unique ideas. He is very unique but somehow mysterious. We don’t know what he is really thinking, so he is a like chameleon in our members. (laughs)
SeungHoon: Chameleon..(laughs) Jinwoo is the oldest and our big brother. I had the impression that he was unreliable at first (laughs) But the more I got to know him, I found out that he has a strong mind. When I have a personal problem, I talk to him first.
Jinwoo: Thank you for the compliment! (laughs) Leader Seungyoon is younger than me but he really cares about everyone. He’s often scolding us like a mother too. Seungyoon has experiences because of his solo debut so he can give us good advices.
Interviewer: What kind of advices?
SeungYoon: For example, communication with the staff, timing of fan-service and how to do it. We record the rehearsals and discuss about it, for example, our pitches and our movements.
Interviewer: Okay. You guys live together. Do you go out together too?
MinHo: Since WINNER TV started, we went to many places.
SeungYoon: Yes. The TV program made us closer. Like this tour, when we are in Japan, we are always together so we made a lot of memories.
Taehyun: Like when we skied in Sapporo.
MinHo: Kawagoe was fun too~
Interviewer: Kawagoe in Saitama? Cool! (laughs) Now that your debut in Korea has been decided, I believe your music activities will be on a full-scale. What kind of music you want to do from now on?
SeungYoon: First of all, each one of us has a different color (in music)… We want to combine hip hop, rock, R&B, punk and dance music. Of course what we want to tell to the people as a group is important too. WINNER stands for “Winner” so I want the people who listen to our music to enjoy the feeling of the “Winner”. Also I want to make music that many people will like. I want them to feel sad and fun things with WINNER.
Interviewer: Lastly, could you share your goals with us?
SeungYoon: I want to stand in the dome with [WINNER]’s title. We have to go to the top level to get this goal though.
Interviewer: When do you want to make it real?
Taehyun: 2 months later?…I’m just kidding! (laughs)
SeungYoon: (laughs) We want to experience many things and come back to the dome.
Translated by Juju @ WINNER_UAN
Scan by @5KI2NE8
WLSY 