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Yoon Sang says cast Sung Si-kyung right away for "Play With Us" (2)

From left, Kim Kwang-min, Yoon Sang and Lee Byung-woo attend a press conference for their concert "Play With Us" held at the CJ E&M Center in Seoul, South Korea on July 26, 2010. [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]
10: Yoon Sang, you said you proposed [this concert] to Kim Kwang-min and Lee Byung-woo. What people are they to you?
Yoon Sang: Kim’s first album came out when I was in school. Before that, I had idolized the harmonic aspect to his keyboard playing. And then I think I got to meet him after he came back from studying abroad. At the time, there were many songs where the two participated in as the session and although they weren’t title songs, they proved to be huge nourishment to popular music. I was greatly encouraged when I heard that such a person had asked about me and said my music was okay. I believe I engraved myself into his mind from then on. (laugh) And Kim is not just my senior classmate from my school but also the person through whom I found out about the existence of music schools for pop music. These two people had a large influence in my decision to study abroad despite me being way past the age of 30. As for Lee, I had adored him since hearing his songs like “My Song” sung by Lee Kwang-jo. There was a uniqueness and individuality to the harmony he used which was something that didn’t exist back then. I remember saying hi to him so happily whenever we ran into each other at Nakwon shopping complex [sells instruments] even before we became close friends (laugh)

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Kim Kwang-min [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

10: And how do you guys feel being the ones who received the proposals?
Lee: Yoon Sang calls me his senior but I had always regarded him the same age as me. (laugh) Kim is someone I personally respect because there is just so much to learn from him musically. It's to the extent that when you work or practice with him, everything becomes clear and organized after he plays [the songs] just once. From my friend Yoon Sang (laugh), I receive a lot of consolation from his music more than anything. I felt so happy performing. How could I not be? Why do you guys act like you’re not? (laugh)
Kim: Because you keep going with the compliments. But I don’t know if I’m that talented. There was a time when I used to ask who’s music I’m listening to, and they were all by Yoon Sang. I’ve liked his music from a long time ago. And Lee and I have been friends for years now, although we had spent a lot of time apart because he was busy doing music for movies and it seemed he would only meet people in the movie business. (laugh) Yoon Sang is good at producing but also at composing and doing arrangements. He’s also good at using machines. He’s versatile and also full of emotions. What the three of us have in common is that we all do sad Korean-style music. Even when I played fast songs when I was young, people kept telling me they sounded sad. (laugh) I feel that from these guys’ music too.
Lee: It’s because of my unfortunate childhood. (laugh) And Yoon Sang’s DNA contains a mix of self-torture and humor.
Yoon Sang: You’re the only one who always thinks that.
Lee: He tells a lot of self-tormenting jokes. And he’s very good at them too!
Yoon Sang: I guess my jokes were touching. (laugh)
Lee: Kim doesn’t do self-torture but there’s a distractedness about him. He’s so hectic that it’s hard to tell where he has started and where he has finished. But everything goes into order when he sits in front of the piano. And I actually have a lot of concerns but I’m worried because I'm the type that doesn't look worried. People tell me that I look like I'm doing well when I’m actually having a really hard time. I’ve been holding concerts every October but they’ve said we should do this one before that so I had been very worried. But they told me not to worry, saying they’ll make guest appearances. You’re all ready for it right? I need to make it official right now. (laugh)

10: Then what are you worried about right now?
Lee: When I rehearse these days, I ask myself whether it’s okay for me to be so happy. There are times when the result is better the more intense the debate. There were times when the process went very well and I was so happy, but the result wasn’t as good. It may be because I’m performing with musicians that I like so much but we just have so much fun and are happy when we play.
Kim: So you think we won’t do well?
Lee: I am a bit worried. We think everyone will enjoy watching us play since we feel great while rehearsing but I also feel that maybe we shouldn’t just be feeling good about it.

Lee Byung-woo [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

10: Are there any incidents you remember in particular from rehearsals?
Kim: There were many good things. With Yoon Sang’s song “Love Is” that we played today, I and Yoon Sang were suppose to do it but Lee looked great playing the guitar for it so I’m telling them that they should do it. We change things around all the time.
Lee: You call that an incident?
Kim: We actually have more get-togethers afterwards. (laugh)
Yoon Sang: It's hard for us to stop practicing once we stop. Even when we're at places where we don't have instruments, they still become rehearsals.

10: All three of you are famous for doing various genres of music. Is there a new field you want to try?
Lee: I’ve lived my life embracing what comes to me rather than coming up with something new. So there’s nothing that I feel too strongly about when it comes to trying new things but I do dream of teaching young people whose dreams are to do music. And I want to do a lot of charity work too. I’ve been doing it once a while at the end of the year and I realized it felt heartwarming rather than thinking about the fact that I’m doing something good. So those are the things I’m very interested in these days.
Yoon Sang: I’ve been doing a lot of things related to music up till now so rather than wanting to do something new, I now want to be able to focus on one thing. I work in the pop music industry so reality may seem prettier to me than it actually is. But when I think of the music and sentimentality of young people these days, I feel a huge gap from them. It’s hard for me to form a bond of sympathy with them. I think it’s becoming even bigger than the generation gap. So I’m thankful that I can keep doing music despite being in such a reality. My biggest desire is to remember the determination I had when I first started my career and keep doing music, at least for the people who helped me reach where I stand today.
Kim: While rehearsing with Lee and Yoon Sang, I’ve come to realize that they are both hard-working and diligent people. I think I’ve been too lazy. I’ve lived a lazy life for a while, not writing that many songs, and thinking things can't get any better but I think I’ll try hard again after gathering my senses and reflecting on myself.

Reporter : Jang Kyung-Jin three@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@
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