JYJ’s First Interview “We Consider Ourselves As TVXQ Before JYJ”

JYJ, comprising of Yoochun, Jaejoong and Junsu from the original Hallyu idol group TVXQ, have taken their first step once more. Through their first heart-to-heart interview, they conveyed their honest opinions on the current situation, plans for the future, and their lawsuit with SM Entertainment.

They, who have been born again as JYJ from TVXQ, stated that they have never forgotten their ‘TVXQ’ roots. Though they are walking down a tunnel that wears them out physically and emotionally with many ordeals such as their continued lawsuit with SM, and the TV appearance restrictions that face them due to this problem, this is something they had been anticipating from the start. JYJ, who sing of hope amidst the chaos and adversities that surround them, are thankful of and treasure even the smallest things, as if they’ve embraced once more the feelings they had during their times as rookies.

What should be especially noted is that fans are an absolute presence to them. If talk of fans came up even when we were conversing pleasantly, their voices would drop deeper, and their eyes would tear up. We listened to JYJ’s story of spreading their presence out into the world with the fans’ support on their backs.

-What’s different about having activities as JYJ than before? What are the good and bad points?

▲ A good point would be that we’ve definitely fixed what needed to be fixed contract-wise, and the agency and the artiste are now on equal levels. We control what we do and how we do it from the beginning to the end. Those would be the advantages and we’ve formed an attachment to them.

A disadvantage could be that our current agency is weaker system-wise than our past one as it is quite new, which may be causing some of the ordeals we are still facing. But we don’t see it as a disadvantage because we see this as the process of becoming stronger. We are slowly but surely strengthening our system.

-The two members of TVXQ under SM will begin their activities in January? What do you think about this?

▲ We hope everything goes well for them. Our two friends’ comeback is something to welcome and we wish to support it. But honestly, we do feel sad that they’re using the name TVXQ. It’s not that they are TVXQ and we are JYJ. We consider ourselves as TVXQ before JYJ. It isn’t that the name TVXQ and the members are separate, it is that the name is meaningful only when the five of us are together. That is why we decided, after much thought and consideration, to use our initials to create JYJ instead of using the name of our group TVXQ so their decision makes us feel all the more sad with mixed emotions.”

-The Beginning album is in English. Why is it in English? Why did you choose to make a worldwide album?

▲ It’s not that we insisted that it had to be in English, we just decided to create a worldwide album because we have fanbases, not only in Korea, but in other places such as Asia and the US. We are so happy to have been able to meet with such top producers.

-Participation by representative artistes such as Kanye West and Rodney Darkchild Jerkins made your album a hot issue. What was it like?

▲ Before we met them, we felt a little pressured and wanted to keep our distance because they are such famous individuals. But once we met them, we found them to be great people who made us feel comfortable. Though we were distant at first, in the end, we felt that, ‘They’re people, just like us.”

-Your concert ended recently. There were many ups and downs, but how does it feel to have ended your concert well?

▲ The story of the concert is like a movie. We prepared so much, our anticipation was so high and we did our best to get ready, but we were met with hail and snow on the first day, which meant that we had to take down the roof cover that we had devoted the most time and energy on; it was so distressing. Because of this, there were 3~4 programs that we didn’t get to show our fans and we were upset because it felt as though we had failed to keep our promise to our fans.

But we were satisfied with the new type of choreography that we tried out with America’s best choreographers, the performances and the new songs. We were happy to have fans there with their warm support though it was such a cold day and we believe that the concert was a satisfactory one overall. After it was over, the members got together and cried our eyes out. We suffered by sleeping two, three hours in a week and there were many up and downs, but we feel happy to know that we showed our fans everything we wanted to show them.

-The lyrics for the song ‘Pierrot’ became a hot topic because of their profound meaning. What meaning do your compositions have for you? Do you write songs in your spare time? Does that mean we can presume that these compositions will be included in a new album soon?

▲ We do not feel that you have to write songs in order to be a musician. We write songs in our spare time for fans because we like music and we enjoy composing music and find it fun. Another reason is because we wanted to sing songs in Korean for our Korean fans at our concert. Because the songs were well-received, we want to release a commemoration album and we’re preparing one right now.

(Jaejoong) For the songs I composed, I wrote them thinking back to the times when I first began writing songs. Nine, which was written with the most basic chords in music, is meaningful as it reminisces of past memories, and I wrote Pierrot because I’ve always wanted to write a song criticizing society, much like many of the songs that came out during our rookie days, and I wanted to write about the stories of students trapped in school.

-Haven’t there been interferences in your activities, such as problems with appearing on TV and distributing your OST? How do you feel about these?

▲ We think it would be more adequate to call them hindrances, rather than interferences. Those were difficult times. But this was something we had anticipated from the start. It’s hard to decide to leave your agency if you aren’t prepared to accept that you may never be able to sing on stage again. We had mixed feelings and would think ‘How could they do such a thing’ at times, but we never gave up and thanks to our fans and our management family, we were able to reap good results. We believe we are now making great progress.

-We can’t not talk about the lawsuit. Recently, there has been much talk about your relationship with C-JeS, your current agency, what kind of contract do you have with them?

▲ C-JeS isn’t our ‘entertainment agency’, they are our ‘management agency’. We are trying to integrate a system that has never been tried before in Korea but is used in Japan and the US. It is where you sign a contract for each specialized job, such as management, distribution and advertisement. Not only are we using this system because we can’t sign on with another entertainment agency, but also because we want to work hard with a sense of duty as many people are watching to see what we’ll do next. C-JeS respects artistes and have been taking the role of an assistant till now, helping us to achieve good results.

-Your Japanese agency decided to suspend your activities indefinitely due to your relationship with C-JeS, what will happen to your future activities in Japan?

▲ It’s a frustrating problem. We’re trying as hard as we can to resolve the issue.

-Please say a couple of words to greet 2011 for your fans, who have been waiting to meet JYJ.

▲ (Yoochun) Because 2011, full of hope, is approaching, I don’t want to talk about this and that of my past anymore though it may be hard to keep it in. JYJ is prepared to show you the ‘epitome of working hard’ by working as hard as we can. I want to meet with fans in a casual environment. Next year, I will have fun while participating in our activities.

(Jaejoong) Me too. I don’t know what I should say because I have so many things to say, but honestly, these days I feel a bit confused. Please take this in a good way. I was confused as to who I should put as my priority in my life, is it me, is it our fans who helped me overcome the many waves that crashed down on my life, or is it best to prioritize both myself and our fans. People probably saw the fluctuations in my emotions through the tweets on my Twitter account. If I think of myself before others, I feel cold-hearted but if I think of our fans before others including myself, tears spring to my eyes. It’s been hard trying to find a balance, but I don’t think there will be any days in the future that were harder than those early this year. I will work hard for myself and for others.

(Junsu) What I can honestly say is that it’s a miracle that we’ve been able to come so far though we’ve gone through so many ridiculous ups and downs and it’s all thanks to our fans that we’ve been able to attain such an opportunity. I sincerely thank our fans. And our members, who held on much better than I did. I’ve been able to stay strong thanks to those two. We’ll keep knocking as hard as we can to open up more doors and possibilities.

JYJ's New Leap "The Broadcasting Restrictions Are A Shame"
Unable to engage in regular activities due to problems with their former agency
Their album will be released in the US early next year, followed by a world tour

They are honest and austere. The three members of JYJ, Jaejoong-Yoochun-Junsu, are passionate youths in their mid-20s, no different from their peers. When we asked Yoochun, who recently starred in the drama <SungKyunKwan Scandal> as the lead role, "We enjoyed your drama. Do you plan on taking on a non-historical, modern drama?" he gave us a taste of his 'lame humor' by saying "Hyundai Geuk (modern drama), Kia Geuk, Samsung Geuk..." Everyone burst out in laughter a beat late.

But when we brought up the topic of their legal dispute with SM Entertainment, the agency of their former group TVXQ, a shadow was cast on the three youths' faces. Last July, the three members filed an exclusive contract suspension injunction stating that, "13 years for the contract length is too long, and we have not been receiving just treatment with regards to things such as income distribution from album sales." The Courts ruled in favor of JYJ that, "Until the verdict on the lawsuit is made, SM cannot interfere with the trio's independent activities in the entertainment industry," and the lawsuit on the exclusive contract is currently underway. With regards to the reason of why they filed the lawsuit, Junsu stated, "It wasn't just because of the unjust nature of the contract," and "We were hurt and scarred by the agency in areas where we put our trust in them so we began to think about searching for a happy life."

Though JYJ released their first album <The Beginning> in October, they have not been able to engage in regular activities due to many problems, including SM claiming that JYJ are locked in a 'dual contract'. The Korean Federation of Pop Culture and Art Industry sent an official document to broadcasting companies requesting that they refrain from giving JYJ appearances on their shows. Junsu stated, "It's a shame and it's frustrating that we don't have the freedom to appear on TV like other singers. Because our relationship with AVEX, who was in charge of our Japanese activities, no longer exists, our door to Japanese activities is blocked as well."

They are currently holding activities after signing on to an agent contract with CJeS Entertainment. What is different from before? "Everything that we thought was unjust has been fixed. We feel a greater sense of accomplishment because everything revolves around our opinions, no matter what it is. We've learned to be thankful of even the small things that we used to easily brush off before." (Junsu) "Each and every detail on the album, from the cover to the recording and mixing of the songs, was decided upon through discussions between the agency and the three of us. The thought that 'Doing things this way is really nice' was reinforced through the process." (Jaejoong)

"Back when we were TVXQ, there was too much work and no time to spare. When we were working on an album, the staff, excluding us and our composers, would hold discussions and just send us their decisions on everything." (Yoochun)

The trio decided to include songs composed by each of them in their album. Junsu stated, "We enjoy writing songs, but we won't insist on having to include songs composed by ourselves," and "What matters most is that we're singing good songs, regardless of whether it was us who wrote the songs or not." In their first concert on the 27th and 28th of last month, they sang Jaejoong's new composition 'Nine'. It is a song about the nine years the five members of TVXQ have spent together. "When I look back on the past nine years, there were times when we shined and there were times when things were rough... It's hard to express it all in one sentence. What I included in the song is only a small portion of what I feel." (Jaejoong) "If we were to express in song, everything that has happened till now, we'd need to compose at least 500 songs?" (Yoochun)

The trio still have a strong attachment to 'TVXQ'. When asked about their feelings on U-Know Yunho and Choikang Changmin's comeback as TVXQ next year, Jaejoong stated, "We support them and we hope all goes well for them." But he also added that, "But we do feel sad that they're using the name TVXQ. Because we think that TVXQ can only truly be TVXQ when the five members are together, we decided to use another name. TVXQ is a name that is as valuable to us as our lives." Yoochun added, "Though we are currently facing many difficulties, we are always open to the possibility of a TVXQ reunion," and "That would be like Utopia for us."

JYJ will be kicking off their US activities with the release of their album in the US early next year. Jaejoong stated, "While we're in the US, we'll be working on some music and holding a world tour." Junsu sounded bitter as he stated, "There is the aspect that due to the restrictions on our domestic activities, we've had to entirely focus our attention on overseas activities."

We asked them one final question. We asked them whether or not they felt sad that other singers were reaping the rewards of the hard work the members had put in to get the 'Kpop' wind blowing in Japan as JYJ are unable to perform there.

"Not at all. We were able to be loved in Japan thanks to BoA and Bae Yong Joon. If what we've done benefits our juniors, then that's something to feel good about. If our juniors to well and the Japanese market expands, we might be able to perform in Japan again." (Junsu)

Source: [hankyoreh+DNBN]
Translation credits: jeeelim5@tohosomnia.net
Shared by: tohosomnia.net
Do not remove/add on any credits