On the stage of GD&TOP’s Knock Out, G-Dragon, also known an GD, kept moving around on stage and made the stage for lively. On the the other hand, TOP stood on stage or would slowly move about the stage while rapping. But no one would say he’s not moving around enough. When GD’s swiftness and and TOP’s heavy aura come together, and also with their unique hairstyles, others are well aware of their character and their existence, making the Knock Out stage a perfect one. Also, TOP’s movements have changed dramatically that it seems like he would “eat up” the audience. During their debut, he was the member of Big Bang who worried the most because he couldn’t dance. But now, even if he doesn’t move, all eyes are on T.O.P. Continuing on from GD, TOP has revealed his thoughts on being on stage, his thinking and his confidence. Tomorrow, we’ll continue with an interview of both GD&TOP.
It’s a coincidence that were doing this interview on Christmas. (Laughs) You performed yesterday, and it seems like we’re making you more tired.
TOP: Not at all. (Laughs) What did you think of our performance?
We uploaded pictures from your performance on Twitter and some of the followers got angry. It’s because I was the only one watching a great performance.
TOP: I’m thankful for that. (Laughs) Truthfully, during a performance, there can be problem with the sound, but even during the worse time, it’s our job to do our best. We’re very thankful to those who are always with us and is always working hard to make our performance more fun for us. At the music programs, when we’re going up, a lot of people are cheering for us and they’re always working hard to make a great stage for us and it’s been a while since we’ve made a comeback but we’re having fun performing and we can feel the warmth from those people.
“I wondered what the audience wanted from me”
The TOP on stage seem to have changed from before. At the YG Family Concert, you got up close to a fan and started rapping and the feel of that seemed to have changed.
TOP: It wasn’t planned or anything like that. When I’m on stage with Ji Yong, it’s mostly ad-libs. After working a long time together, I would it’s a strength that we earned. Of course acting is important but when we deliver our song to the audience, we don’t calculate everything but instead, we express the song with how we feel about it. To be able to do that, I believe it’s a strength that comes out from our confidence.
On this album, it seemed like there’s more confidence in your performances and in the lyrics. During Knock Out, you wore smokey make-up and also had a natural talent for being calm on stage. Is there a special way to be able to achieve that?
TOP: There isn’t really a special way, but during the last year, I asked myself questions about myself. Long ago when I was still young, I asked, “What’s the reason that I’m doing this?” and thought really hard about it. It was kind of burdening for me to do this kind of work but mostly it was burdening because I thought this job didn’t fit well with me. But as I grew older, I changed my question. “What does the audience want from me?”
Then does that mean your answer was confidence?
TOP: When people see entertainers on stage, they’re happy about it and I also think they get motivated in life. That’s the direction it was going for in the lyrics of Turn It Up and in this album. The outer looks that many people see isn’t for my own personal gain. Even if I boast about myself, I thought, “At least I’m confident in my job so the people should also feel confident in themselves.” I don’t know how the listeners interpreted it, but I wrote it with a lot of thought.
So is that why you wrote a lot of famous brand names along with your thoughts? I feel like you’re saying, when people look at themselves, they should think, “It’s okay to take in the way I am.”
TOP: It got a bit aggressive. Truthfully, I’m the type that thinks a lot and worry a lot so I was careful about that, but when I turn around, I ask “What does the audience want from me” and “Which is the right one” and when I think about those things, I believe going about it the way I have been these days is a fresh idea. For those people who have a lot of burdens on their shoulders, I hope that when they listen to this song, they’ll be motivated and have strength and if they do then I’ll be happy. Whether this sounds like I’m boasting or not, I want to express my feelings without provoking people and without looking spiteful. (Laughs) I think that’s one of the way that I express myself.
“I think I let go of myself aggressively”
Before, I felt like TOP kept everything to himself and I think it’s because of the people around you. How were you able to change from that?
TOP: I think I began to think of the bigger picture. The world is too crazy and there are too many people in this world who are having a hard time living and I thought about that. But those people are people who support me, who support Big Bang, or they just listen to music. I thought it would be great if those people listened to someone’s music and gained happiness from it. So in order to do that, I wanted to start expressing myself.
Then do you think that mindset is what got you here? The thought of doing something for someone is a big responsibility and need to have that positive affection.
TOP: Truthfully, when I was young, peoples’ interests or love was a bit too burdening for me. I wasn’t able to enjoy that. But I threw my greed away and those things became natural for me. It’s my greed towards music. And my thoughts about doing something with music disappeared as well. Before, when a new song came out, the phrase, “I hope you expect a lot,” was used a lot, but now, it’s okay if people don’t expect anything. Instead, I want to be a person who can give big expectations. That’s why I want to give back as much as I received, and I began to want to study music more and to do that I began to work myself really hard.
Would you say you have a relationship with yourself? You were doing activities as an actor and now you’ve released an album where you were able to do the music you wanted to do.
TOP: After I was done with Into the Fire and returned, GD was already working on the songs and as soon as I returned, I started working as Big Bang. During that time, the flow of the music had changed dramatically as well. A lot of talented people were performing too. So that means I was out of the flow. So I took a step back and gathered my thoughts.
Because of that I think your way of expressing yourself changed as well. Before, on stage, you said, “I’m acting out a virtual character,” but in this album, you expressed that you wanted to meet, “only through speakers or ear phones.” Did you make yourself a character?
TOP: Yes. At a young age, we stand in front of a lot of people. Of course we’ll get both good and bad comments and that process really was tiring. So I managed to keep some distance from people, and I want people to see my existence on stage or through music and I wanted to show that. But because making the listeners happy was the most important thing, I thought long and hard about how I would bring these two together and this album made me think about that.
But doesn’t that existence seem unrealistic? Big Bang members aren’t living in reality as ordinary people.
TOP: I do think about that. GD and I would go out to drink at times and as we talk, and everyday is very sweet but it’s also bitter as well. There are hardships that are hard for us to handle at our age. Of course there are that many losses but there are a lot that we gained so at times it does seem like I’m living in a dream. Truthfully, it’s hard for us determine if this is a dream or reality sometimes.
You have continuously gotten comments from others, and if you think about it in business terms, it must be hard to go in the direction that you want to go to.
TOP: That’s something that I always think about. But now, I think I’ve somewhat answered that question. If we take music for example, rather thank asking these questions, “What kind of music does the audience like, what kind of trend are we going to set,” there are a lot of things that I haven’t tried yet and want to do and I believe I can achieve that within my own range. If I were to make a wrong decision, then there are people around me who can help me with me. Because I believe those people, it’s always new, and although it may not seem aggressive, I want to take road aggressively.
It’s hard to live as a star in Korea, and GD is like that as well but it seems like that for you TOP.
TOP: It was hard. (Laughs) I’m joking. I think I just aggressively let myself go. (Laughs) I think there are a lot of people who see me and the Big Bang members with colored glasses. But it doesn’t matter. Those attentions are what drives us to improve. I’m not saying I enjoy reading hate comments but because of those we tend to work harder. It’s something I’ve been thinking about, but the biggest strength that Big Bang has is that we all enjoy trying to make those improvements. It’s not because we’re greedy but we enjoy making improvements. I think that’s our biggest strength.
“I want to be a vitamin of life to people”
I think that’s why TOP’s lyrics is positioned at a unique place. A rapper is like a virtual character because at the same time you’ve expressed yourself through music with confidence.
TOP: When GD and I decided to work together, the first thing we talked about was writing a song that only we can do. Anyways, at a young age, we were expected a lot and were also hated a lot. The things that we felt during those situations is what we wanted to base our lyrics on. Some people might think bad about it. But when you take the lyrics one by one, we wanted to write a song that was hard for people to come up with a rebuttal for. It’s like, “This is what we are, can you come with a rebuttal for that?”
I think the Intro really did that. The sound was like old-school hip-hop, it’s like I’ve gone back to the rap music when I was in middle school.
TOP: Yeah. With a sampling from old-school hip-hop, GD and I wanted to show our diversity. While doing that, I wanted to ask what kind of rap is sincere because I’ve told my story recently, the way I wanted to.
Then was the song Oh Mom expressed opposite of what you said? The other songs that you and GD made seemed different because it seemed like in the song, it’s not how people look at you but how you personally present yourself.
TOP: Oh Mom is a true story. I can’t explain in details but I can say that it’s a present to a sick friend of mine and I wanted to write a letter to him. This song is vert precious to me so it wasn’t on the track at all at first but I really wanted to put it in so it went in.
Oh Mom was made into rock. The drums on the song is very loud. Is there a special reason why you did that? It seemed like you could’ve made a different approach with the rhythm part.
TOP: I wanted to give it a more analogue-like feeling. If I say it differently then I wanted it to give warmth but these days the trend in the music industry is rapidly changing and 2 or 3 weeks later, it disappears from peoples’ minds and it happens a lot. That’s why I think people are getting tired of music. Electronica songs are good but if you just go with that then it gets tiring. So for the fans, we tried going for an analogue-like feeling and GD and I have been interested in rock these days. That’s why our rap style has changed a lot. Before we tried to rap with a heavy and husky voice but now we’ve worked hard to give a inviting and comforting feeling. If you were to image it, it’s like a bookcase that hasn’t been decorated. (Laughs)
In Baby Good Night, the rap was especially insightful. Before the rap made the sound pop out and made it seem like it grasped the music, but the sound in the song seemed close to melting together. It’s like a whip cream the way the sound and the feel matched together.
TOP: We wanted to deeply express the feeling so we chose that route and Baby Good Night is a song that can be listened to without hurting your ears and we tried going for that. These days if a song goes over 3 minutes, they say it’s long and if the songs doesn’t catch your attention at first then they say it’s boring. But even if it doesn’t do that, it’s not boring and there are so many music in the world that can be listened to. That’s why the people who like Big Bang and us two, especially the 10′s and 20′s group, this kind of style of music is something we wanted to let them know. Even though it’s long, or it become unpopular, it’s still music.
On that part about music, I think TOP’s personal goal and the audience’s thoughts are the same.
TOP: Rather than making it complicated, it’s a song that just came out and we achieved a lot as Big Bang at a young age. But we’re also little kids who, truthfully, want to just do music. Within that, we feel a lot of emotions, we try to express all that, and try to find a goal. But once one foot is off the ground and we think while doing that, we see the bigger picture and little by little, we can clearly see our goals. That’s why we want to give confidence to the audience and that’s why I want to become a vitamin of life to people.
That’s really a Knock-Out like confidence. (Laughs) I’m sure there are people who are sharpening their knives every time you two are on stage, so what do you think about that?
TOP: Our knives are strong. (Laughs)
Source: 10asiae.co.kr
Credits & Translator: solshin3 @ 21BANGS.com
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