[조이뉴스24 이미영 기자] “We don’t want to be staying at the same place. It’s not fun making the same style of music just because it turned out well.”
4th year idol-group WINNER challenged on ‘broadening’ their musical spectrum without being stuck as the ‘emotional idols’. They agonized to create new and different music, which turned out to be the right decision. The group captured the ears of the public once again with the song ‘EVERYDAY’, starting out April with a happy mood.
Group WINNER released their 2nd official album ‘EVERYD4Y’ on April 4. The faces of members displayed thrill, excitement, and confidence while introducing their new album.
“It’s our full-length album in 4 years, that contains ourselves in the past 4 years. The album contains various tracks from songs created 4 years ago, to songs created recently. It’s a collage of our past 4 years. I’m excited, yet nervous.” (YOON)
“At first, our president (YANG HYUN SUK) was skeptical of releasing a full-length album. He said that would be meaningless if we have songs without great quality. We recorded even in the weekends, and worked on 2 to 3 songs in a week. After listening to the songs, he said they’re good enough to be released as an album. It was physically tiresome working on two to three songs a week, but we wanted to gift our fans with a new album. I would like to pat our members for working so hard.” (HOONY)
The album contains a total of 12 tracks, and is composed of various genres including Hip-hop, Trap, Acoustic, Ballad, and Pop. The members wrote the melodies and lyrics themselves, establishing their position as a producing group. The members stated, “We worked on a lot of songs. We couldn’t even count how many”, while explaining their hard work. The even called the album as ‘my child’, which proves their affections towards the project.
Above all, WINNER’s musical transformation caught the attention of listeners. The title song ‘EVERYDAY’ is harmoniously composed of sophisticated Pop and trendy Trap elements. The lyrics that wittily states an ‘every day with the one you love’ grabs the attention of listeners.
WINNER stated, “We put songs in genres we didn’t try out in our first album. People will feel our growth when they listen to emotional music, while feeling our new challenge while listening to other types”. They explained, “We gain ideas and inspirations from trendy and easy music, which naturally made us transform this way”.
With mega-hits including ‘REALLY REALLY’ released last year on April and ‘LOVE ME LOVE ME’, WINNER established their position as a group one can ‘trust and listen to’. The members put their burden on results down while creating the album. The goal of the album was not to achieve commercial success, but to let people hear WINNER’s music.
“It would be a lie if I say I don’t expect for anything. I hope people have been waiting for our music, since we received a lot of love and support last year. It’s hard to determine something with chart rankings these days, and a lot of influential artists make comeback in the Spring. We put down our burden and decided to put meaning on presenting our full-length album in 4 years.” (YOON)
“We just have to empty our minds and wait. It’s always suffering while checking out the chart. One hour feels like a year when checking reactions and chart rankings. I’m trying to control my mind, to not get stressed”.
Despite the ‘letting it go’ attitude by members of WINNER, the reactions by the public on good music are heated. After the interview, WINNER expressed their gratitude towards their fans by stating “We feel great. We feel grateful that our new challenge on music, and the music we made for the fans were placed at no. 1. We’re happy”, through YG Entertainment.
WINNER became YG Entertainment’s ‘representative group’ in place of BIGBANG who are currently vacant due to serving military duties. YG’s other boy-group iKON is a competitor in good faith and companions, who started out through the same program.
“We feel responsibility. Rather than filling in the gap of BIGBANG’s vacancy, we feel like we shouldn’t mess up the path they paved throughout the years. A lot of artists grow without being no. 1, aiming for a mega-hit and alternating through joy and grief on the results. We feel it’s important to broaden our spectrum and present matured music. The reason why BIGBANG was popular is because they grew, and focused on the music. We would like to walk the same path. It’s our goal to show and prove our growth to the public.” (YOON)
“Rather than the burden of having to fill up BIGBANG’s gap, we want to continue to good spirit of YG Family. iKON and BIGBANG all turned out well. When ‘REALLY REALLY’ became a hit, iKON congratulated us, and we did the same for iKON. B.I told us our album feels good. We’re supporting each other like that.” (MINO)
Like the title of their new album, ‘EVERYD4Y’, WINNER hoped to communicate with the fans often while working on the album. Representative producer YANG HYUN SUK also promised the fans to create more opportunities for the fans to communicate with WINNER through his social media.
“The album contains our spirit to work hard, every day. We’re preparing for a lot of events, including fan-meetings and concerts. I think we’ll have more opportunities to meet the fans through this album than we did for the past 4 years (laughs). We hope us members will stay happy and close with the fans, during promotional activities for the new album.” (WINNER)
2018. 4. 6.
Kim Jae Hwan protested, “That was just me warming up,” and tried again by singing a line from G-Dragon’s “Untitled, 2014.” This time, people reacted with comments that he sounded more like the singer Cho Yong Pil.
