Kpopmap got to meet face to face with SISTAR at their showcase on June 21st at the Yes24 Live Hall stadium in Seoul. We had also brought the girls up close for our Kpopmap readers through a live feed of their showcase at real time! Our readers were able to share the experience of the showcase through Kpopmap’s Twitter and YouTube pages. For those who had tuned in should know, the girls held a time during their showcase for an in depth interview relating to their comeback and the personal aspects of each member. The questions covered from the specific concept themes of their new comeback to a look into each member’s private thoughts. Check out the translations of each Q&A from the SISTAR members, brought to you by Kpopmap!
Showcase Interview with SISTAR This is a translation by Kpopmap.
Q. Please introduce “Say I Love You” for us. SoYou: HyoLyn unnie actually composed and wrote the lyrics for the song. It’s called “Say I Love You”. There’s a part where we all say “Hey!” with the audience. HyoLyn: It’s the first time I got to release a song that I wrote. I wrote it while thinking about my members. SoYou: We recorded the song all together, and we conversed with each other a lot during the process. This song holds a lot of meaning for me. HyoLyn: I was really glad that the members and I were able to discuss the aspects of the song while recording the song. They participated a lot. DaSom: HyoLyn unnie writes a lot of songs. Before, she used to write songs that were definitely in her own world. However, this time around, she wrote a song that would appeal to the mass public that’s also really good to listen to and melodic.
Q. How would you feel if other artists asked you to write songs for them? HyoLyn: I would love it! As long as they ask, I’d be more than happy to. Q. How did each member spend their 1 year break since the last comeback? DaSom: I participated in some acting activities. During the spring, I filmed for a Chinese-Korean movie that’s set to release this August. The title is called “The Strange Cohabitation”, and it’s scheduled to be released in both China and Korea. HyoLyn unnie said she’ll go see it. HyoLyn: I didn’t do anything in particular. I was busy composing and writings songs. I also exercised. I spent a lot of time for self improvement. BoRa: I frequently guest starred on variety shows, and I also took time for self improvement. I practiced rapping, and I practiced dancing, and I also tried my hand at composing. SoYou: I suffered a minor hip injury, so I took time off to recuperate. I then focused on making my body healthier and stronger. I hate being sick during promotions, because I feel apologetic to the fans.
Q. Please introduce us to your new album. SoYou: Our new album is titled, “Mol Ah Ae (Insane Love)”. It means the type of love where you put all in into loving someone. We tried to portray our concept as other worldly. We focused a lot on not just the songs, but also the performances. DaSom: Our album concept is called Neo-Orientalism. We took into a new perspective of the fashion and culture of the orientalism.
Q. You know that many people will be doing cover dances for the new song, right? SoYou: We’re actually a little worried about that. Our previous songs like “Shake It” and “Give It To Me” were easy to follow, but our new song focuses a lot less on easily imitable choreography. It’s going to be hard to do cover dances. BoRa: We look forward to the cover dances.
Q. Were there any episodes while recording the new album? BoRa: We haven’t seen any ghosts, or something like that, but we did struggle a little because of the skirts. We have two outfits, one where the skirt is attached to our clothes and one not attached. We would have accidents where we would step on our skirts while getting up or not being able to hold the skirts correctly while dancing. DaSom: I actually saw a ghost. A SoYou unnie ghost. I hope that they show it in the making films. We have this cut where we throw our skirts behind us, but SoYou unnie’s skirt got caught in her hair. SoYou: Because the filming set was so hectic, I didn’t notice that the skirt was covering over my face. Everyone was laughing. The skirt is see-through, so I could see through it and didn’t realize that it was stuck. I continued to stay in the form position. Q. Was there anything specially prepared for your new comeback? BoRa: As you probably have noticed, it’s our first time not featuring a guest on our music video. We always had at least one guest on our set, but this time we tried to focus all on us 4 members. DaSom: We prepared a lot on the visual aspects. If we focused on the dancing for our previous songs, we focused a lot more on the story aspects this time around. Q. What do you think about a love like “Mol Ah Ae (Insane Love)”? HyoLyn: I don’t think it’ll be good. I think it’s unhealthy to be so devoted to someone. Once they leave, the emptiness will be tremendous, and the level of hurt that will come will be as great as the amount that I loved. So for me, I don’t think it’ll be good. Q. (HyoLyn) Can you explain why your music as a composer changed from your original not-appealing-to-the-public kind of song? HyoLyn: The reason why I started writing songs was because I wanted to try making songs in genres that I wanted to challenge. Because I started the process with the greed to try something for myself, I was unable to think broadly to match the tastes of the general public. I started to change my way of thinking, and through it, I was able to start making songs that would be easy for the public to sing along to and enjoy. “Say I Love You” was written with the members in mind, so it made sense for the company to put it on the album. But I’m still stubborn about my specific style and color in music. Q. Why was DaSom chosen out of the members to have the tattoo on the music video? DaSom: I’m not sure why I was chosen, but I think it was because of the pale skin when you think of orientalism. I think I was chosen because my white skin matched well with the dark ink. The tattoo comes from a poem titled “Autumn Night”. The poem talks about the person they miss on an autumn night, much like the lyrics to our song.
Q. What was the best phrase you heard this year, or wish to hear this year? SoYou: “They’re like a season.”, “They’re not bad.” HyoLyn: “They got prettier” BoRa: I agree with SoYou. I have a lot of phrases that I want to hear, but it only comes after the effort that I put into improving myself. HyoLyn: “They keep getting better.”, “Infinite amount of possibilities.” DaSom: I also agree with HyoLyn unnie. “They keep getting better.” I also want to hear “We missed you.” Q. There are about 17 K-Pop groups who plan on making a comeback during the summer like, GFriend and the Wonder Girls. Are there any groups you consider a rival? DaSom: Even last year, we came back around the same time as other girl groups. Every time, we just want to be able to have successful promotions with everyone. It’s a good thing to have a lot of artists out that can please the audience. BoRa: I think the public would feel happier the more good artists come out to promote. And we feel the same. If more artists are promoting, there are a lot more artists to have fun with during promotional events. We also are looking forward to our favorite artists’ comebacks, so we’re happy. HyoLyn: There are many artists with a variety of songs from different genres, so it’s fun to see other groups promoting at the same time as us.
Q. Are there any variety shows that you guy want to feature on as a group or as individuals? SoYou: There are a couple of shows that we are already scheduled to go on as a group. We can’t specify, because then it’ll become a spoiler, but we’ll be participating on “Fantastic Duo”. BoRa: We’re going on “Fantastic Duo” as a 4 member group, and there a a couple more~ HyoLyn: I really want to go on “Running Man” as a whole group. BoRa: I actually told Kim JongKook that we want to go on RM as a whole group, and he welcomed the idea! DaSom: We filmed a reality show called “Showtime”, and I would love to do it again. I had so much fun and made so much memories while traveling together. I want to do it again. SoYou: Since we’re always promoting during the summer, we were unable to go on summer vacations. So even if it’s for two days, I want to go on a summer vacation with the members. I also want to participate in the filming for “Three Great Emperors”! Everything looks so delicious there. DaSom: I also want to go on “God of Music 2”! Q. Were there any points that set your new concept apart from your previous concepts? SoYou: Our song like “I Like That” is different from our other songs in that if our previous songs were more bling-bling, the new concept is more down and simple. BoRa: We wanted to maintain our sexy image, while being more sophisticated. Before, our songs were good to listen to underneath the blazing hot sun, but our new song is more fitting for listening under the shade. HyoLyn: We focused on a lot of performance that relied heavily on the perfect visuals.
Q. How did you celebrate your 6th anniversary? DaSom: We practiced on the day of our anniversary and then we went out to eat something delicious. BoRa: We spent it just with us 4 members. SoYou: We used to celebrate with other dancers and friends, and we would go bowling and have a party. But this time around, we spent an intimate night with just us 4 talking, laughing and eating good food. Make sure to check out SISTAR’s hot new mini album “Insane Love” & stay tuned for our next K-pop showcase coverage!
