JUNGKOOK @ BTS () 7-Second Interviews

JUNGKOOK @ BTS (방탄소년단) 7-Second Interviews

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[ARTICLE TRANS] BTS X GQ Japan Magazine, October Edition 2020

Cr twt trans kookceptional & pics twt bts_nanak / Photo-Scans HERE & HERE HD Cover HERE Behind the scenes video HERE Special message video HERE Gifs by @mimibtsghost​

BTS – who debuted in 2013, and had their 7th anniversary this year. Just like V said at the end of the interview, their days have become a story of growth, stepping up the stairs one by one. A thrilling story of 7 boys, who dreamed of becoming singers, debuting as hip hop idols, surpassing the biggest groups in K-Pop, and enthralling the entire world in the BTS syndrome. Standing at the glorious peak of the world, BTS released their 4th album MOTS:7 this February and unfolded the highlights of the “BTS Universe” that have been accumulated from their debut album (Their 4th Japan album MOTS7: The Journey was released in July). On a day when it became clear that COVID-19 wasn’t just a transient calamity but something in which humans had to prepare for an era of “the new normal”, we met up with BTS.

“We were supposed to be busy flying around the world doing concerts at this time, but everything has been canceled, and we’ve been spending each of our days at home or in the studio.” RM, came into the interview room after his solo shoot, explained. From the slightly shy nature of RM– who eloquently delivered a speech at the UN in 2018 – I could see a pure, boy-like side of him. For BTS who have kept on passionately running [for their dreams] for the last 7 years, it was a period of time they had never planned to get. Because of the “STAY HOME” lifestyle, RM said that it made him focus from the external aspect to the internal. “I’ve come to understand the peace and enjoyment you can attain from immersing yourself in trivial actions that can fulfill your daily life. For example, every morning I water my plants right after waking up.” Watching him, it felt as if the aura of his mixtape “mono by RM”, where he calmly reflected on himself and wrote out his story, came into reality right before my eyes.

What did the change bring?

“We’re able to safely live everyday thanks to the people who have been pouring their everything [for everyone], starting with the medical workers who have been fighting a lone battle. We can’t go without acknowledging that,” said Jungkook. Even when talking with a serious expression, his signature sweet smile never left his face. “That’s more so why I want to  be productive rather than just lamenting our circumstances and waiting for it to pass – through working hard to make myself become a better human, even just a little bit.” He apparently is relearning boxing and guitar, things that he couldn’t quite do until now.

“I want to accept this [resting period] in a positive way”, talked V as well. V is the kind of person who can give a surprising amount of comfort to the person sitting across, even while having a gaze and a voice that can only be explained as “mystical.” “I feel like the more time we have to prepare and think, music with an even bigger depth can be created. That’s why I have high expectations for our 4th Japanese album MOTS7: The Journey.”

Jin said that it gave him an opportunity to re-acknowledge the value of family. “I couldn’t see my family frequently when I was doing my activities, but I’ve been able to spend a lot of time together recently. The ordinary moments of eating together at the dinner table were very liberating and made me happy, and I became grateful for them even more.” It seemed like a custom of Jin to be able to talk brightly about serious topics without letting the mood get too heavy.

J-Hope actually came to feel the value of working, once more, during these circumstances. “When I was busy with work, I never really got the chance to reflect on how important work was for my life. Looking back, I realized that it was the most important driving force for my life.” –  said J-Hope, who held just the right balance of a professional attitude and an element of playfulness, like his groovy yet well maintained dance line in the introductory part of “MIC Drop”.

SUGA, exuding a sense of authenticity even with a poker face, also talked about his love for work. “In the midst of our world tour, I was sometimes so tired to the point where I couldn’t even identify the city I was in. I’m always filled with happiness the moment I go up on the stage, but whenever I got back down, I sometimes became a bit weakened in spirit, thinking about how much my body can bear. But after undergoing the circumstances this time [with COVID], even if I’m placed in the same spot again, I know I’ll strongly feel the value of work and try to live the moment to the fullest.”

Jimin let out his feelings, as if he was speaking for all the people who had been struggling to get through the current circumstances. “I’m just hoping that this all ends as soon as possible. It’s frustrating not being able to do what I want to do, and it’s hard.” Jimin, who let us listen to his extraordinarily sweet voice in “Intro: Serendipity,” said in a voice one tone lower.

Their new challenge utilizing the “digital”

The last time BTS stood on a live concert stage was last October, when they had their “LY: SY [THE FINAL]” world tour final concert at the Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul. They were scheduled to embark on a new world tour starting with Seoul in April, but it became inevitable for them to cancel all of the dates. Their passionate feelings for the stage that had been distanced for a while must’ve been partly fulfilled during the paid online live “BANG BANG CON The Live” carried out on June 14th. The 90 minute live of 12 songs which included ones from their 4th album was connected to a specially built URL as a livestream, compiling around 750k viewers in total. A digital contact live – hosted in an era where a lifestyle with an absence of in-person contact has emerged as the new normal. BTS, who had been efficiently utilizing online platforms like SNS from around debut, is fulfilling the role of leading the way for change and sharing a new culture. This also became the unifying force for their global contemporary art project “CONNECT BTS” which revolved around their philosophy of “diversity” “communication” “connecting.” If it weren’t for BTS, it wouldn’t have been possible to gather top class artists in the contemporary art world like Antony Gormley and Hans Ulrich Obrist in a single project. Through this project, people were able to stroll around the colorful mist created by Ann Veronica Janssens at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, and take a selfie in front of Antony Gormley’s huge three-dimensional structure at the Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York. “Being able to create an event that could be enjoyed together with our fans was fun enough. It was nice to be able to step closer to a field difficult to approach like contemporary art, and it was a project that made me feel a variety of things.” Like Jin said above, tons of people in cities around the world were able to experience a source of communication through art, through the project.

There were even more collaborations in music. The MIC Drop Remix created from a collaboration with DJ Steve Aoki blew up on an explosive scale. In addition, Boy With Luv, which featured American musician Halsey in the vocals, achieved universal popularity. In the beginning of the year, they created an art film released along with the soundtrack “Black Swan” included in their 4th album, in collaboration with Slovenian contemporary dance team MN Dance Company. “Encountering artists with energy and experience in a different field and being able to develop something out of it gives you a truly special sense of happiness!” J-HOPE explained the benefits of collaborations with sparkling eyes, and JIMIN continued, talking about what can be learned from that process. “The end result is of course important in collaborations, but you naturally learn about things that you never expected to do so during the whole process. There’s really a lot to learn from the skills, attitude, personality, and everything that the collaborating artists have.”

The 7 boys sitting across for the interview had a kind of a shared composure that made you think of words like “calmness” and “reliability.” With dominating the Billboard Charts, their global tour, speech at the UN, surpassing 1 billion views on YouTube (with DNA), etc., BTS’ 7 years had seemed like a success story paving a new history for K-POP, looking at the big picture. However, after meeting the 7 members, it seemed more fitting to define their time until now as a growing period in order to become true professionals. As years went by their stages have become even more grand and magnificent, but they’ve also immersed themselves deeper and accumulated training for those stages, building a world of their own. It seemed, to me, that the composure they have now is a culmination of a kind of humility and firmness that can be felt from those who rigorously polished up their skills in their respective fields.

“Maknae” JUNG KOOK’s new song that all of the members love

Finished with the interview and standing in front of the camera with the blinking flash, the 7 members took on a natural kind of rhythm and started moving around. Watching them, the scene overlapped with their legendary stages – Their performance of ON at Grand Central, their 2018 BBMAs stage where they performed FAKE LOVE which was overflowing with a sexy but tragic kind of beauty, their IDOL performance at the 2018 Melon Music Awards where they fused traditional musical rhythms and dances, their DNA stage at the 2017 AMAs where the audience showed an explosive reaction, and the many live stages performed in LA, NY, London, Paris, Tokyo, Amsterdam, etc……. As speakers for the youth expressing anger and dissatisfactions, the members have countlessly proven themselves on the stage and showed an unlimited amount of growth.

The 7 members who each have completely different personalities, demonstrate their unity in songs and performances while also incorporating their own personalities into them. This kind of energy is unique to BTS, and can’t easily be imitated by anyone else – more than anything, teamwork is the foundation. When asked what they wanted the listeners to be excited for in their MOTS7: The Journey album, the members answered with the same thing as if they prepared their answers together beforehand. “Personally, I’m most excited for Your Eyes Tell, which was created by JUNG KOOK. I think all of the fans are as well.”

When Jungkook sat in front of me for the very last interview and I told him “All of the members were talking about the song that you created,” he said “Really?” and teasingly rolled his eyes as if he was shy. He went on to talk about how Your Eyes Tell came to be recorded in the album. Those words exuded a sense of sadness/painfulness and carefulness felt when talking about things of sentimental value. “I started composing the song writing the melody and the lyrics at the same time, and it went very smoothly. There were opinions saying how it would fit right into the Japanese album we were preparing for, and so we matched it with sad but beautiful lyrics, and starting recording it in that direction. Jimin’s vocal range was pretty high, so we upped the key. I hope all of our fans enjoy this song.”

Like with the beauty melody in Magic Shop created by JUNG KOOK, this made me want to listen to Your Eyes Tell.

~But then, looking back, actually I feel like it’s not that I wanted to become the best, I wanted to comfort and move your heart, I want to take away your sorrow and pain~ (Magic Shop lyrics, credit to twt doolsetbangtan)

Magic Shop is known as a serenade for BTS’ fans, ARMY. BTS also brought about a huge change for fan culture. ARMY’s not only go to concerts and buy CDs, but also hold a sense of solidarity with the artists, a fandom with a new concept. Reproducing and spreading BTS-related contents is a must, but they also engage in activities that align with BTS’ philosophy. The “fan activities” of ARMY on a whole another scale have even become themes of research for popular culture studies. I could feel during the interview just how much ARMY meant to the 7 members of BTS. V said that communicating with ARMY on the global fan community platform “Weverse” was a fun daily activity for him. “Whenever I find beautiful sentences in the warm words written by our fans on Weverse, I sometimes note them down on lyric notebooks. I initially started leaving comments on Weverse to deliver some energy to ARMY, but nowadays I think we are the ones getting more from it.”

The new album is an abridgment of the 7 years until now

MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 is a new release in 10 months following their mini album MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA which was released last year. Excluding the individual mixtapes and albums released outside of Korea, they’ve built up a “BTS universe” through each of their trilogies.

The “School Trilogy” where they depicted dissatisfactions and fears felt by teens, the “HYYH trilogy” where they projected BTS’ worldview into people around the world and sung a spectrum of emotions of youth, their “LOVE YOURSELF trilogy” where they started talking about connecting and bonds, and now, BTS’ worldview is at the second piece in the MAP OF THE SOUL series. “It’s an album that’s filled with our experiences and feelings that we’ve had through the 7 years we’ve been active since debut. It’ll probably become something like an abridged version of the BTS story for people who don’t really know about BTS. For fans, I think it’ll be an album that becomes a bridge to reflect on the memories that we’ve made together,” Jimin talked about the meaning of the album.

The start of a “journey to find yourself”

If the “LOVE YOURSELF trilogy” delivered a kind/heartwarming message saying you should “love yourself,” MAP OF THE SOUL is focused on the theme of “finding yourself.” The road the 7 members walked to come to this place hasn’t been easy at all. They’ve become stuck at times, and felt pressure and fear as well. This album is comprised of songs that the members, who found out that all those internal struggles and scars are also a part of their genuine selves, created after finding their “complete selves." 

“From now on, I want to be generous to myself.  Our music, at the end of the day, were words that were meant for myself. I’ve recently been listening to our music again and becoming energized from it. I’ve started loving myself.” Hearing SUGA’s story, BTS’ past songs passed through my head like a panorama. We’d reflected on the past 7 years, but what kind of days are waiting for them in the next 7 years?

“We often get questions asking where we’ll be in 5 years, 10 years from now. We’ve grown by  climbing up the steps one by one, so now I’m not afraid of falling to the ground. If we can continue showing us challenging ourselves and spending time together with ARMY, that’s enough” V said straightforwardly. I wanted to tell him that I’d be filled with happiness if BTS kept on making the landscapes of their lives and internal sides into music. 

it has been a while :)