TOHOSHINKI, About something that they want to convey to their fans the best right now,
"Our hearts/souls are connected" The bond between TOHOSHINKI and their fans.
TOHOSHINKI who are celebrating their 10th year anniversary since they debuted in Japan this year. They have agreed to have interview with us. Starting this month, they kicked off all Japan Five Dome tour (5 venues 16 concerts) and they will release SAKURAMICHi commemorating their 10th anniversary on 25th. They are at the big turning point as artists. They spoke a lot about their heart contents.
"Our hearts/souls are connected forever." They convey their never changing thoughts through the song.
- What was your impression of SAKURAMICHI when you heard it for the first time?
Yunho: I thought that it is truly heartwarming and full of hopes. March is approaching pretty soon. Advancing into upper level schools, graduation, and starting a new job… there are many things happening I think this song is perfect for many situations. TOHOSHINKI has performed many flamboyant songs, so SAKURAMICHI which brings very quiet atmosphere from the beginning is quite new. I think it is great timing that we have found this song.
Changmin: The melody is so pretty and the lyrics is very heartwarming, so I thought that it is not too difficult for me to put my soul into my vocal. Near the ending, the chorus part I sang "wow, wow" while imagining cherry blossoms have just started to bloom in spring. This is a perfect song for spring. While talking a stroll along the Meguro river by myself, I wish to drink beer … I looked back such a memory of mine and sang the song.
Yunho: I sang "wow wow" part, I thought over many things that I have experienced in the past and tried to comfort myself. I turned 29 years old and I felt that I am "graduating" from my 20s. This song means a lot to me too.
-How was your recording?
Yunho: I was able to express my feelings straightforward, but it was a bit difficult for me to find keys. This song is set to Changmin's key so it was a bit too high for me. Because the lyrics are great, I wanted to convey the meaning of the lyrics and also sing comfortably .. at lower keys, I needed to sing gently… so it was a bit difficult but at the end, I did pretty well.
Changmin: The recording went smoothly without any trouble. I focused on my vocal but also pour my soul into my vocal. I did all my best. The theme of "departure" is somehow I understood… it was easier to put my soul than love songs. It is really hard to set my emotion when I sing love songs. Because I've never fallen in love (laugh).
Yunho: Really (laugh)?
- Where did you get emotional when you sang SAKURAMICHI?
Yunho: I love the phrase, "Everything should be alright. Our hearts/souls are connected forever." I think this phrase summarizes this song.
Changmin: I agree. "Everything should be alright. Our hearts/souls are connected forever." This is just a part of the lyrics but I think this is the very message that we want to convey to the people who listen to this song and also our fans. This is the season where we have many encounters as well as partings, but it also means that we are facing at the new start line. I believe our fans will feel anxious and loneliness but you all are connected with TOHOSHINKI through this song, so everything should be alright. You do not need to worry about anything. Just like what we did until now, let's keep walking together without change of hearts. I wanted to convey such message to our fans.
Yunho: I believe some people may feel lonely even more by listening to this song, and I wish to give them a message for hope.
- Is there anything that you want to "graduate" from right now?
Yunho: I am at the age of "graduating" from my 20s, I have a lot of mixed feelings… In old days, I was pushing myself hard solely depending on my passion, but gradually I started to take more time to look back and think over. Personally, I wish to continue to be an artist, but I wish to "graduate" from my own character. When I ask staffs around us, they say that I have a warm personality and also a very serious/earnest personality. I wish to forget about such characters of mine, and become genuine/natural to myself. Well, right now, I am sort of genuine/natural :)
Changmin: Graduation…. If I need to pick one, I wish to graduate from dish washing and house cleaning. I want to graduate from those (laugh)
- The MV completed beautifully. How was filming?
Yunho: I remember very well they brought a real tree into the studio for the PV. The train was a set and they used CG for filming. Therefore I felt a bit sorry for not shooting on a real train.. How were they going to finish up? But it turned out to be real great.. I was really surprised about that.
Changmin: I think the retro train adds a good atmosphere. Because we are turning to our 10th year, the director said to us, "I want to indicate the two of you are about to go on a new trip." I have never ridden on a train like that.
Yunho: I have done that before.
Changmin:Oh, I envy you!
Yunho: I have been on the train like that since we debuted. When I go on a trip, I will try and find such a train. I usually go on a trip by myself before preparation of our new albums. So I guess two years ago?
Changmin: You may feel refreshing image through cherry blossoms but this time, the song is not a light one, so I kept my tension low when I did lip-syncing and tried to keep quiet atmosphere.
-At what moment, do the two of you feel, "Spring"?
Changmin: Pollen allergy, no doubt (laugh). I did not have it before, but since I came to Japan, its getting worse every year. It is not spring yet so I am doing okay (laugh). This season is pretty tough on me (laugh).
Yunho: I feel that spring has come when people graduate from all sorts of things and starting new jobs and new schools. Lets work harder with fresh mind! Spring is the season for "evolution".
- It is the best season for going out. Can you think about plans for your ideal date for this spring?
Yunho: Do you mean a date? (laugh)
Changmin: Meguro river.. together .. (laugh) It is my very favorite place. We prepare something delicious together and go one a picnic and do cherry blossom seeing.. that will be wonderful. In the beautiful scenery, I drink beer a little. The outdoor in spring smells hope, do not you think so? In our lunchbox, grilled eel, blueberry, Acai berry, grilled meat.. I love to eat something to give me stamina and some snacks that I personally want to eat (laugh).
Yunho: Its a great season to go cherry blossom seeing but personally I want to go to the Rainbow bridge in Odaiba and do sightseeing there. When i first came to japan, I was really amazed by the bridge. Back then, we just came to Japan and I did not have time to enjoy the scenery. Some day I will go on a date there and talk about something like, "My career in Japan started here."
- You just started the Nationwide Five Dome Tour this month. How is the performance of your new song, SAKURAMiCHI?
Yunho: Everyone was quiet so at first, I thought, "What should we do!?" But it is all because the lyrics are great, everyone was listening to very carefully. I can see people like that clearly so I was able to assure myself that this is a great song.
Changmin: Everyone was so focused and listening to this song, and I am very happy to see people like that. I also love how we are staged to sing the song. To be honest with you, I did not expect that we were able to express the image of the song to the extent at the venue. So I am very grateful to Sam-san, our stage director.
- This is your second time Five Dome Tour. Have you felt confident about your performances?
Yunho: I think the set list this time is the very best so far. We challenged ourselves to a new directing. The concert is over 3 hour but it ends within a blink of my eyes. When I feel that oh, 2.5 hours must have passed, then the next is already the ending. I think its amazing.
Changmin: The venue is large. To compare to a hall or arena, I think there is some technical issues of sound. But I love the set list very much too. We put our souls into our vocals as much as we can and we want to give our audiences the very best vocals among the live performances that we have done so far.
Yunho: We make sure to make TOHOSHINKI's tour enjoyable to anyone every time, but this time of course we do that but we want to give more, more excitement to people. I am the type that its hard for me to cry. But every time at the very last song, I get choked with emotion. Wait.. is there something wrong with me? (laugh) (People) truly makes my heart filled with warmth. I wish to touch everyone's soul through this tour and live each one's life happily. That will be wonderful.
Changmin: I wish to make this live mine.. we.. I should say I really want to enjoy myself. I do not mean that I simply raise my tension.. instead if I sing a ballad song, I pour all of me into keys and rhythms and sing the song. I wish to convey my feelings to the audiences..with the mindset, I sing and dance.. and then I feel that I am able to enjoy myself from the bottom of my heart.
- Can you tell us some episode on a memorable moment?
Yunho: The first day of our tour was happened to be my birthday. On stage, everyone- all our fans and staffs celebrated my birthday and I remember that very well. That day, none of our staffs said, "Happy Birthday!" to me. Usually during our rehearsal time, they will give me a surprise on screen. This time, they did not do that. so I was like, "How come! Today is my birthday…" and I felt lonely. .. At the moment when the date changed.. I was eating ramen noodles by myself in my room so I felt even more lonely (laugh). Of course, Changmin did not say a word… so I was even more happier when they celebrated my birthday on stage. Changmin threw a piece of cake on my face…. please do not stuff a piece of cake in my nose (laugh)
Changmin: I really wanted to smudge cream on his face to my heart content. But the next song was our new single and we needed to sing seriously (laugh).
Yunho: You mean SAKURAMICHI. I am grateful to you for taking the song into consideration (laugh).
Changmin: The place which impressed me the most is Sapporo so far. I have two memorable moments. The first is that it was snowing very heavily from the day before the concert and we have many people who were not able to come to the venue. Sam-san was not able to come to our rehearsal and everyone- fans and staffs had very hard time. The other one is, I love Sapporo Miso ramen very much. I wanted to take a walk to have a bowl of ramen while watching beautiful snows on the ground. I really was looking forward to eating ramen noodles so I only ate little cooked white rice even though I have a live concert (laugh). I was looking forward to eating ramen noodles that much but once we finished our live concert, the restaurant was full with our fans who came to the concert and I could not go there (laugh). For what did I endure my hunger? I was so upset about myself a few hours ago.. and at that night I drank some wine and sulked in bed. Its a bit about my misery (laugh).
Yunho: Last year we had an Arena tour, and we stayed in Sapporo for a week. This year, we had only one day Dome concert so I was not able to enjoy the best of Sapporo very much. If I have opportunity, I wish to go to Sapporo again. I've started to feel stronger about it.
- How are you preparing yourself for the final concert (April 2nd) at Tokyo Dome?
Yunho: I always think about "How our live this time will be?" just before going up to the stage. So I try not to think about it. Most likely, in the stand point of directing and us, we will be in full of confidence. I think we can give people excitement in double quantity and everything will explode on the stage. Wherever we go, we will do all our best but.. we could push ourselves very hard to be close to death .. that is the final concert. We have Tokyo Dome concerts in February and April. So you can experience the difference of the two months. Those who come to the February concerts, please come to the April concerts. We will show you our best.
Changmin: We have experienced Dome Tour for a coupe of times. However, I was not able to watch our audiences during the live performance and enjoy the concert. Somehow out of the blue when we were doing live performances, I caught a clear glimpse of cheers from a few 10,000 people and red penlights. It was my very first experience. I watched our audiences from stage and was amazed, "Wow, its so beautiful~". Finally this year, I am able to enjoy to the extent. By the scenery and absorbing the power of audiences.. I wish to repay the love.. in order to convey such thought of mine, I wish to do all my best, the very best in my career.
Credit: model press
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