BTS Wings Concept Book [ENG]

❝ Interview : V ❞

<V>

『 When I first debuted, I couldn't even think there would be this many fans liking us, they vote for us a lot, send us a lot of supportive messages and letters. Every of those small hearts came together and turned BTS into a big tree, letting us bring good music, good performances and good sides of us. 』

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How did you work on your solo song "Stigma"?
"I have been wanting to make some kind of jazzy music like this one. I also enjoy stuffs like the movie <Born To Be Blue>. I composed and wrote the lyrics for the chorus myself and told them 'I want it to have this kind of feeling', then the producers made the intro and the bridge based on it for me."

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Was it hard taking a whole song on yourself?
"Truthfully the stage was beyond my capacity. I don't think I can fill the stage all by myself. I need to work on it, but it still remains a homework for me."
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What kind of performance do you want to create if you can one day?
"It's just my imagination but I want to sing on the stage alongside a trumpeter or pianist. I really like lyrical music, so I hope instead of being an exciting song, my song can be healing to people."

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You don't look nervous at all when standing on the stage with other members.
"First of all, I often try ad libbing so I don't feel nervous about it. Actually I don't quite like when everything's set in place, so I get more nervous if it's scripted or planned out. Also, when performing 'Blood, Sweat & Tears', I only had one thought in my mind, to be as charming and as sexy as possible. It was a little different from previous BTS songs, but that didn't make performing on the stage hard or awkward. Just go with it, this was my mindset. (laughs)"

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Do you yourself think you did well?
"(laughs) No, not up to that level. Should I say it's more like 'At least people can somehow watch my performance'? I don't know if I did well or not, but I think so far my performance still can't capture the hearts of all the audience."

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Aren't you being too humble?
"I'm sensitive about my performance. I think the members are the same too. We have to judge our performance with a cool head. We change our expressions and gestures every stage but there's always a lot of regrets left. What should I do to be able to fully dominate the stage? I'm curious."

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It has been quite a long time since you started to be active under the name of BTS, you must have gotten really well with the members at this point.
"It's like we were made for each other, we're extremely close. When the 7 of us get together we're seriously noisy, we can chat about the same subject for 3 hours. Suga-hyung surprisingly talks the most when it comes to a subject he knows well. (laughs) And personally, I have learned a lot about how to communicate with the members, or the limit to not cause them inconvenience."

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Do you play around less?
"Comparing to before, I really do. I originally played around a lot with the hyungs off stage. But now I plan to act calmly if there are other people around. Rather than saying it's because I have to manage my image, I would say it's because I don't want to be seen as an easy person."

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There was a time when you had to do both BTS' activities and acting at the same time.
"Both took a lot of energy so it was a little hard to balance things out. I had to film <Hwarang> while going on tour, and even had to leave for the tour between shoots. I didn't want to hear anything like 'He neglected BTS' activities to film the drama', or 'He said he would do activities with BTS but he mostly just filmed his drama'. In the end I didn't hear it at all. If I did anything wrong, it would all reflect on the whole image of BTS, so I worked even more earnestly."

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It must have been very stressful.
"There certainly were stressful times, but I couldn't use the excuse of having to film a drama to show I'm tired when the other members were also working hard on the tour. And the members helped me a lot too. Whenever they asked 'Are you tired these days?', it became my consolation. I used that strength to work even harder. Actually there wasn't any physical problem. I originally don't sleep much so sleeping a little less wasn't that hard."

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What are the members to V?
"My family? Because they're always beside me. They always help me, support me and look after me. They're the ones who know every detail of me. Sometimes I even think of them as my parents. The members probably don't know it though. (laughs)"

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Seems like you don't say that directly.
"Yes. I would like to use this chance to say few words to Rap Monster-hyung. First of all, I want to thank him for making BTS. BTS wouldn't exist without hyung. I want to say thank you for doing the leader role so well too. Actually, he could just talk like a leader and act like the other members, but Rap Monster-hyung is different. He takes responsible for bad things by himself and shares good things with us. Hyung is also the bridge connecting us and the company. It must have made him stressed out and hurt a lot, but hyung doesn't show it at all. He takes it all on himself. He is the best in this world to me. Even though when he comes back to the dorm, he breaks or spills something and loses his stuffs. (laughs) I think it's thanks to Rap Monster-hyung creating the atmosphere that the members can get along this well."

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What are you to Rap Monster?
"Honestly I think I let him down a lot. I'll be careful in the future. Even if I make just a small mistake, the public won't accept it easily."

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Does it mean you don't want to disappoint the fans?
"Yes. It takes a long time for fruits to grow on a tree. You have to keep watering it, looking after it and growing it with your whole heart. Only then can it become a healthy tree. When I first debuted, I couldn't even think there would be this many fans liking us, they vote for us a lot, send us a lot of supportive messages and letters. Every of those small hearts came together and turned BTS into a big tree, letting us bring good music, good performances and good sides of us. It's like a really beautiful tree with golden fruits. I want to pick even better fruits and give it to our fans. I need to show how the tree is slowly growing more and more."

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It can be said that your goal became clearer thanks to the fans.
"I want to become a singer who can make ARMYs proud. A singer whose fans can go anywhere saying 'My idol is BTS' and people around would marvel 'Wow'."

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Aren't you doing that already?
"I want to work harder. After all, we have big dreams. (laughs)"

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* bold - interviewer
* "..." - Taehyung's answers

★ Photos ★