Korean Music Discussion - Page 2585

EXID – “Exceed in dreaming” is what it stands for.

Yuji (Jung Yu Ji) – 1991/01/02
The main vocal, EXID’s Leader.



LE (Ahn Hyo Jin) – 1991/12/10
Talented rapper, is the team’s ‘unstoppableness’.



Hani (Ahn Hee Yeon) – 1992/05/01
EXID’s ‘Brain’ Hani.



Dami (Kang Hye Yeon) – 1990/12/08
The oldest Dami. She’s the team’s mysterious charm, and jack of all trades.



Junghwa (Park Jung Hwa) – 1995/05/08
Dance, and ‘Bright Future’ is the maknae Junghwa.



Haeryung (Na Hae Ryung) – 1994/11/11
Within the members, she is the team’s ‘Confidence’.

Yuji, Junghwa, Haeryung, and Hani were all JYP trainees.

[T/N – hagwon is other types of schooling outside of set education]

Junghwa while going to an acting hagwon* (outside of pub. edu.) dreamed of a career as an actor. She was at JYP for 5 years. In the beginning, when she was 12 she even appeared in Wondergirl’s ‘Tell Me’ music video. She didn’t debut in JYP, but she gained experience, something you cannot buy with money.

Also in the same time period, Junghwa also spent time together with Yuji, Haeryung, and Hani in JYP. For Hani who majored in psychology in China, she could not easily give up on her dream of a singer. In the midst of that, Yuji got cut from JYP and felt emotional distress.

“Coming out of JYP I thought the world was going to end. I was so depressed, for 2-3 months I stayed in my house. But thinking that this was the wrong way to deal with it, I prepared for exams, and now I’m in Seoul Art’s University majoring in Practical Music. And with good fortune, I became part of EXID”.

“The dream of being a singer, it hasn’t really sunk in yet for me. I am interviewing like this right now, but I feel nervous and don’t know what to say." – Yuji.

When Yuji was a JYP trainee, she was a skillful vocal that prepared with the current Sistar’s Hyorin and Secret’s Song Jieun as a 3 person group.

The leader of EXID Yuji, as she is the main vocal her singing is explosive, as it shows stability. “I have to work on it more”, she shows modesty that makes her singing skills stand out even more.

Yuji covering – Beyoncé, “Best thing I ever had”


In the case of Hani, during the 3rd year of middle school, she passed the 2nd JYP public audition, she trained with them for a year and then left for schooling overseas to China.

At the same time in the showcase stage, Hani received attention with similar looks of f(x)’s Victoria. She has an elegant appearance and a user of an appealing middle-deep voice. She says that she’s Victoria’s fan while containing her embarrassment, “I will get the fan’s attention with my colorful voice.” – Hani.

For Dami she was part of Nega Network for a short time. “I don’t know how you’ll see us, but we’re not the type to be nervous on stage. I’m curious on how our seniors will see our stages.” – Dami.

“It was my dream when I was young to be a singer, but I could not enter college on music related majors. Even though I could not give up being a singer. I failed, but Shinsadong Horangee president lead me. Right now I’ve come this far.” – Dami.

As the oldest of the group, Dani says that her secret weapon is her ‘eye-smile’. With a very younger appearance, she says that other members with aegyo-less responses, that she will show them an ‘Aegyo Storm’.

Haeryung’s beginning starts when she was in the 6th year of Elementary School, she became a trainee of JYP’s acting school, and up to the 1st year of High School, she practiced acting, dance, and singing.

[T/N – South Korean education system = Elementary 1-6th, Middle 7th-9th, High 10th-12th, so she trained for ~4-5 years.]

With a noticeable beauty type appearance, Haeryung is also unique and as a girl group member she has a secret weapon that anyone would be jealous of. Even during intense choreography, her hairstyle stays the same. (I don’t get this >.>)

[T/N – maknae = youngest of a group]

In the ’95 line, she may be the maknae but she is 168cm tall. ‘Giant Baby’ Junghwa has an innocent appearance, but shows powerful dance moves that gives her a hidden charm about her. She has shown youthful apperances in the music video with Yu Seung Ho, but when she goes on the stage she becomes a ‘Dancing Machine’.

LE in the past was part of a hiphop crew called ‘Jiggy Fellaz’ and had the name Elly, and did featuring for MBLAQ and Huh Gak’s songs, a skillful rapper. From the members, she the only personally scouted member by Shinsadong Horangee himself.

Collection of some of LE’s underground rapping period.


“Horangee-oppa contacted me if I wanted to do a girl group together; I thought it would be fun.” – LE.

During her underground days, Horangee had fallen for LE’s strong charisma (?).

“I performed and wrote songs in a small stage in Hongdae as a rapper. He says that he’s doing the work he wants to do, so he told me to enjoy your work. He told me in the beginning it’s hard to be good so don’t be nervous. Also saying he will make it fun for me so if it’s not fun anymore, to tell him so. He adds writing is also for fun, so let’s all have fun.” – LE.

“I helped film Untouchable-oppas’ MV, it had the 19 sticker on, a pretty harsh song. In that he said he was impressive by my harsh gestures (laugh).” – LE.


She raps from 2:40 – 3:00.

■From Victoria to Han Seung Yeon, 3 pairs that look similar?

What do you think about being mixed up with f(x)’s Victoria on your appearance.

“Yesterday I saw some youtube comments, it says that I look similar to Teen Top’s Niel sunbaenim. Maybe because my lips are thick they thought that. Of course I think it’s an honor” – Hani.
[*sigh* youtube comments :<]

Also LE says “Dami-unni sort of resembles Han Seung Yeon sunbaenim”, and when Haeryung took pictures for the album jacket, there were some talks of her looking like 2NE1’s Sandara Park.

With sunglasses, LE showed a charismatic two layered fashion sense (in effect).

On the stage LE shows a strong appearance but in dorms, she likes girlish things. “She sleeps in a sky color character-laden pajamas”, says her team.

■Any episodes while living in dorms?

"Hani/Haeryung has sleepwalking sickness, while asleep puts socks on, even phoning. At 5am she's calling me. I ask her next day and they don't even remember. Rather speaking with a serious face saying they didn't call." (laugh) - Yuji.

■Most of the members are from JYP starters, difference between Shinsadong Horangee and JYP?

“Honestly the past entertainment the company was so big we couldn’t communicate with the president well. But here we can directly talk with him, and friendly like an oppa and dongsaeng. The president says to call him Oppa. That there’s no affection. (laugh)” – Haeryung.

■How do you take care of your body?

"Maybe because I did some boxing, my body adjusted slightly maybe." - Haeryung.

“It’s coming back again. Before debut the dinner was soymilk, breakfast water. Lunch was half a bowl of rice and bean stew. We ate like that. But lately after shootings we stuff ourselves. Our activity has increased, now we can’t starve anymore. Recently if we touch each other’s foods, we get angry. Haha. - (Yuji, LE, Junghwa).

T-ara, 4Minute, B2ST, through them Shinsadong Horangee appeared as a producer. This girl group EXID is his first project. A hit song producer like him, will he be able to make hit idols, he is gathering attention. One day he met these 6 girls.

Before their debut. EXID came on the popular MBC program called ‘Infinity Challenge’, through Horangee’s twitter, after that event being labeled as ‘trainees’, they even became popular in search engines.

Infinity Challenge E.281 20111224
Their 10 second TV debut.
+ Show Spoiler +

“If it wasn’t for Shinsadong Horangee-oppa I don’t think we could have garnered this much attention. We’re thankful. But the title ‘raised by Shinsadong Horangee’ is so big, and since he’s so famous it is a significant burden.” – Yuji.

“Instead of high expectations, I think of this as strong interest and cheering. Since they are giving us attention, I think that we should put even more effort into it.” – Junghwa.

“When we rose up in the search engines, it was really cool. It was crazy. We were loud and clapped our hands, running around even. It was so cool that we took a screenshot." (laugh) – LE.



But this is not the only reason they are receiving this attention. The rapper LE had a song together called “Whenever I turn that song on” with Huh Gak which gained lots of attention, while in the music video it had EXID member Junghwa and actor Yu Seung Ho which captured lots of male fan’s attention. Could the members have been jealous of the first two members with the spotlight?

“It’s hard not to be envious. But there was no jealousy. It was for the success of the team. A team is not an individual. If our team does well, it’s good for everyone. So when their song entered the high tier, I felt great.” – Yuji

But there were other things EXID members were envious of. In the music video where the maknae (youngest) Junghwa acted with Yu Seung Ho.

“For Yu Seung Ho-sunbae it was his first time acting with someone younger than him, so I felt really gratuitous for this chance. During the shooting he was really friendly and gave me direction, while maintaining the shooting atmosphere. It was really a good experience. There was a bicycle riding scene, and I think I was a bit heavy. The bike was shaking. (laugh) So I asked ‘I’m a bit heavy right’ and he denied and said ‘It took me some time to maintain balance’ so I was really thankful for that. (laugh)” – Junghwa.

■Who are your role models?
Haeryung – “I chose Shinhwa because they promoted such a long time and shows strong friendship. Their stages show so much energy, and I want to be similar to their open personality”.

Yuji – "Role Models? There are so many good sunbaes, I just want absorb each of their positives”.

Haeryung – “After growing like that, I hope EXID can be role models to other new groups in the future."



■Right now before their debut, what is their goal for 2012?

“This year’s goal at the moment is the Rookie of the Year, but the first thing we want to do now is spread our name far and wide. Also to spread our debut song ‘Whoz that girl’, and after that hopefully we can get lots of love from fans. So we can reach that, we’ll have to do our best.” – Yuji.

They also add to say, that their dream and goal is an overseas solo concert.

On topic of what’s next, “Instead of just a simple popular group, I want to be a group to raise expectations based on the music, and I want to sing songs that many people will identify with." – Hani.

[AB Entertainment – Shinsadong Horangee created this company]



With strong concept pictures and strong accent filled team name, their ‘strong pose’ image could not be erased yet they were just bright talkative people. So Shinsadong Horangee trained them with a ‘Grazing Type Training’ for them to not lose their optimism.
[T/N – Grazing in this case, a lax more lenient approach. let it be, freedom?]

“We are a group that does things by themselves, there’s not really a person that gives us strict orders. So Horangee-oppa does this kind of teaching” – Yuji.

“Unlike other companies, we don’t have periodical planned dance and vocal lessons. But when we feel like we need them he gives them to us. Mostly we find good songs ourselves, practice singing and dance. So there wasn’t a ‘do this and do that’ type of training, not even once. So I think we can feel more responsibility through this." – Junghwa.

“While he checks up on us, he gives us the choice of leading direction. Through outfit, hair and even to concept. If we have an opinion we write it down, organize it and send it. The concept right now, it has a lot of our suggestions included and changed a lot” – Dami.

■A rivalry with Dal Shabet and Brave Girls

E-Tribe’s ‘Dal Shabet’, Brave Brother’s ‘Brave Girls’ are groups from producers that personally made them; it’s not a new thing anymore. On the thoughts of a rivalry stance, “They are our sunbaes and we still look at their stages and clap for them afterwards. We’re still rookies but I’m thankful that some people can say we can become rivals with them." – Haeryung.

“In the intro song ‘I Do’ he asked us to try to come up with the lyrics, so we came up with them. We are included in the album in lots of ways” – Hani.

A rare type of training, this ‘Grazing style training’, even with an overflow of new groups, we can see the future of their group color.



“Maybe call it a self-inventing group? From the lyrics, concept, outfits, hair in everything we are included so I think the difference we are our ‘own’ group. Not that we’re made from others, but we continue to create ourselves.” – Junghwa.

“Shinsadong Horangee-oppa sees us practice and gives us some advice but doesn’t say ‘do it like this’ kind of forceful teaching.” – Hani.

Even so Shinsadong Horangee is not being careless. ‘Instead of a perfect stage, learn to enjoy the stage’ is the cheering advice of Horangee for his team.

■We are not your typical girl group.

For them, Shinsadong Horangee is ‘Hometown Oppa’ kind of person.

Shinsadong Horangee uses a considerate style for his group. After their first debut stage, when they showed nervousness...

“In the M Countdown stage I was so nervous that I could not perform well as much as I practiced, but afterwards being immersed in practice and a successful Music Core stage", Horangee-oppa said, ‘You guys are really enjoying the stage’ and smiled at us. Instead of being hurt by his advice, it’s like a happy feeling that approaches us.” – Junghwa.

“After our first stage, he showed some dispirited appearances, he took us to a sushi restaurant. The result was overeating though (laugh)” – Hani.

“He buys us a lot of delicious foods, and if we just show even a little aegyo and ask him to buy meat, he does treat us” – LE.

[Best CEO? ^_^]

“Even gobchang (laugh)” – Hani.
Broiled beef(pork) intestines.

On Holidays they say he takes care of members that couldn’t go home, and counsels them on their worries.
“Before the album came out it was really tough, but each time he let me hear the songs he’s working on and showed me the music video concepts, while giving me courage. That gave me lots of strength.” – Dami.



As EXID’s CEO, Shinsadong Horangee is just 29 years old. He might be the youngest entertainment CEO at the moment. Because of that some episodes you cannot laugh at but they told us of one such time.

“Because he’s the president, we have to call him president definitely, and he responded ‘Park Jung Hwa-ssi, Jung Yu Ji-ssi’. Maybe he felt the distance of the word ‘president’ that he even called our names with our surnames. But right now we can comfortably call him oppa. You probably can’t see this in any other companies, where the CEO and the artists can get along so well, and it could be a reason that we can focus on the music so well.” – Group.

[T/N – adding –ssi is polite for someone you don’t know but adding the surname is like the limit of proper usage]

EXID brings a style that has some distance to Shinsadong Horangee’s musical stylings.

The title song, ‘Whoz that girl’ is a song that relays a message to the guy that left, a combined effort by Shinsadong Horangee and Choi Gyu Sung songwriter. (Also with another famous producer, Lado) In a French House style genre, this song removes electric sounds and is made on drums and bass. Even more they use old school type of sounds, it shows EXID’s unique musical color, and expresses the member’s singing ability well. It’s a different feeling from T-ara’s ‘Roly-Poly', B2st’s ‘Shock’, which are Shinsadong Horangee’s specialty.

“Before Horangee-oppa started making ‘Whoz that girl’ he consulted us a lot. Instead of a popularized style, he said an easily listening style would become the popular trend. Recently I think the public at the moment like music that is nice to listen to. Our title song ‘Whoz that Girl’ is comfortable, calm kind of feeling and we put in some analog-like emotions in it.” – Yuji.

[T/N – Referring to the analog generation before the 'digital' generation]

“It’s a song that fits us perfectly. He felt inspiration from the team and wrote the song so it’s not his color but our color shines through." – LE.

“If you look at a magazine or TV ‘It’s totally our style’ thinking like that we take a picture/capture and with a text message we send him immediately”, and “Our president helps us accomplish the things we want to do. He gave us strength that in our album that we are the main characters. Rather than other things, it’s a big support that he’s right next to us.” As they said including he supported them physically and spiritually in their message of gratitude. – Group.


Yuji, Dami, LE, Junghwa, Haeryung, and Hani.

With the start of their debut stage, they also started working on their following song. There is no set concept yet. Like it was all decided in the beginning, the members are writing down their ideas and wait for the approval (?).

EXID Member’s 6 person’s average height is 167.3cm pretty tall, and appearance show a mature feeling. If their follow up song was a cute concept, can they pull it off?

“Just because we’re tall, there’s no saying we can’t be cute (laugh).” – Dami.

The debut song did not pull it all out, but EXID members have a variety of appeals. If Yuji/LE is sexy, Haeryung/Junghwa a girlish style, Dami is mysterious and cute image, and Hani shows off dreamy looks.

“Even if I can’t be cute, there are members that can take on the cuteness.” – LE while showing her faith in her team.