[Trans] Naver Star Column Part One

Cnblue the first chapter-the birth of Cnblue, the fools

4-member band-Cnblue. In Jan 2010, Cnblue debuted in the nation’s kpop industry, debut song’s title “I’m a loner” sweeped no 1 in all music charts, they were the leads and were a breath of fresh air to the kpop industry. This typhoon blew innocently, which propelled their popularity as album sales grew steadily, and like a core of the typhoon, their popularity continued to grow enormously. The rise of Cnblue impacted korea’s band industry which was previously neglected. It is an undeniable fact that Cnblue’s popularity drew attention to korea’s band industry. Many bands started to perform and sing so that they could be like Cnblue; many bands  started pursuing their dreams so that they could be like Cnblue. Cnblue gave a lot of bands hope and dreams, Naver’s Star Column presents Cnblue and FNC Entertainment’s CEO cum Producer Han Seung Ho, who will share with you their dreams as a singers and actors.

Hello! This is Jung Yong Hwa.We can finally meet everyone through Naver Star Column. Haha! Later we will reveal every single secret to you guys with our FNC’s entertainment CEO Han Seung Ho.  We will also directly ask Ceo Han some questions. Let’s act like reporters for one day? ^^ We will probably ask sensitive questions, so get ready and don’t blink your eyes. (going to meet Ceo Han right away, so feeling kinda nervous) So, Jong hyun, Min hyuk and Jung shin, let’s gogo sing~

YH: Hello, President.

CEO Han: Hello. it seems like its difficult for four of you guys to gather together. I haven’t seen you guys in a long while. Have you guys been practising hard?

JH: 헐(What?) Just talk comfortably, why do you suddenly use honorifics on us?

JS: Seems like our CEO can’t get used to this. 

CEO Han: Oh really(starts to use banmal)? I will start to speak more casually then. Seems like I can’t get use to being interviewed by you guys. 

YH: President, so are you mentally prepared to display  and share all of Cnblue to our fans? keke, now

let’s begin with our first question. What opportunity paved the way for the creation of Cnblue?

Han Ceo: The first questions seems good. Yonghwa seems to have prepared the questions well. Hahaha. When I was still a producer, I saw some Japanese bands, and realized there weren’t bands in korea. It seems to me just a simple thought only. I started to think ‘can we form a band with good

visuals and looks?’ I initially wanted to form three types of colour bands. Ft island represents one type of colour, Cnblue the 2nd,  and the third type of colour band is still undergoing training. 

JH: What do you feel about us when you first saw us?

CEO Han: I can finally say it now but then I didn’t like you guys. When I first saw you guys, I was wondering to myself if you guys can fit into the image I had in mind. I can’t really imagine how you guys will turn out to. And do you know what was the main problem. It was Jung Yong Hwa. 

YH: …Why? (ㅠㅠ)

CEO HAN: Actually you guys know I wanted to develop Cnblue into a pop band. In terms of musicality, when I first saw Yonghwa using busan satoori…Hais, I thought this couldn’t work out. The style and colour of the main vocals were different from I what expected! So I sent Yonghwa to Japan so he could become the type and colour of vocals I wanted. But something surprising was happening. Yonghwa’s singing style and vocals started to change after a few months. If Yonghwa didn’t overcome his style of singing, Cnblue might just turn out to a band without a distinct colour and style.

YH: To be honest, I thought about it at that time. Because I couldn’t find a clear direction in my vocals, i reached a stage of stagnation. But after doing a few performances in Japan, I started to become stronger. There was more and more recordings, and I started to find my clear direction in my vocals. 

JH: Yes…Its not only Yonghwa Hyung. We grew a lot after gaining experiences from live performances.

CEO Han: Till now, I still find Yonghwa very amazing. Yonghwa had lively and energetic vocals which you can usually find in a rock band, but it wasn’t strong.  Because of that, I wasn’t very happy with his vocals. But after going to Japan, he managed to overcome that flaw.

YH: So how did you felt when you first saw the other members? Did you not like them just like when you first saw me?

CEO Han: ummm…When I first saw Jong hyun, I thought to myself ‘Where should I place this kid?’ He had good vocals but a very narrow register. But if he could stay as the 2nd vocal, it will be good, but I felt it was a pity for him to do so. So I told him to practice a lot of ballads and mellow songs. Min hyuk is to weak, you need a lot of strength to play the drums. Minhyuk had pneumothorax when he was young..so how is it possible for him to play the drums…I was worried. He exercised a lot recently, so his body is in good shape now. I feel happy looking at him now.

JS: President, what’s your first impression of me?

CEO Han: When you first came in for audition, I laughed a lot, and I could only remember laughing after seeing you. I remembered you were awkward no matter what you did, whether it was rap or dancing. It was too funny, but because you were too sincere in doing it, I tried my best not to laugh. Because you were a rare gem, so the audition just went past like that. But there, this guy is actually a serious and determined trainee. You can even think of assignments that are more tough than mine. So then, I decided to let you join Cnblue as the fourth member.

MH: But you did not let us debut immediately in korea, but sent us to Japan. We went through a lot of hardships…

CEO Han: I felt that you guys had to go through Japan’s “Live” training so it can push you guys to grow. Before that, when you guys performed together as band, it was horrible. I realized that its not easy to form a band. I hope you guys can understand this through countless Live performances you’ve been through. I felt that Japan was different than that of korea, the performing space in Japan is much wider, that was the main reason why I chose to send you guys to Japan. You guys suffered a lot? When I first sent all of you there, I wanted you guys to learn to overcome this sort of hunger and thirst. Now i can finally tell you guys but I used to tell your parents, not to send any form of allowance to you guys other than basic allowance for food. 

JH: At that time we didn’t have money so we couldn’t even cut our hair. But we started to realize that hunger and thirst was a form of training. We started to learn many important things about life. We had rice but no side dishes, and we could only add chili into seaweed soup which lasted us for 3-4 days.

MH: When we first went, everything seems so interesting so we bought a lot of things. We started to run out of money eventually. From then on, we became hungry. That hunger continued until

we managed to be able to eat proper meals after every performance, and we start to become extremely grateful for that.

JS: Even though we had poor and were suffering, but the four of us developed a strong friendship because all of us were living in a foreign land. If its not for those times, we probably won’t be like now, where we hardly even fight, loving each other like close brothers.

CEO Han: Hmm.. it seems like I was too harsh on you guys. But I felt that you had to experience that tough period, so i was especially hard on you guys. If you guys didn’t had that training in Japan, Cnblue won’t have such distinct strong colours as a band. 

YH: So far, in your years of experience in developing us and Ft Island as band, do you have any secrets you can share with us in the developing and cultivating bands?

CEO Han: I started to form my own band in my university days because of my hobby, after that I became a pop music composer, as I continued to make music, I started to broaden my horizons in the korean music industry. If I had continued to play in a band, I  probably wouldn’t have the chance to form and develop bands. Being a composer at the same time made me realize the endless possibilities in music.

JH: So, who used to be your mentor?

CEO Han: There wasn’t anyone in particular. Everyone was good, but there wasn’t that One person whom i really liked. I feel that pop music is meant to be made to be shared with everyone. Till now, i haven’t changed my perception on that. But I personally like band music a lot. The song that was famous for its composer, The nuts <Nagging>, and it turned out that The Nuts is actually a band. Hahaha.

YH: Okay, Cnblue’s first chat session has ended. How was it? Do you feel that you understand us a little more?The second chapter will be us sharing our challenge to become actors! Have you already started to anticipate our later stories? Just wait a little while longer. Coming Soon!!

Source: Naver Star Column

Translation: Currypoker