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[130719] Nell - Doran Doran cultural playground interview (translation)

Q: What were the members like during your school days? Jaekyung: I think I was 40% anger and 60% music. (all laugh) I think I was quite an angry student, and the other 60% just kept thinking about and loving music. Jongwan: It's such a long time ago (laughter), but well, I guess I was an ordinary kid, but at the same time not. I think I was similar to other kids my age. I was the same in terms of sensitivity, but then again I don't know how it was for other people. In my opinion, I was ordinary. Junghoon: I was pretty ordinary too. I was always listening to music in class instead of the teacher. Jaewon: It was the same for me, I was ordinary too. (laughter)

Q: So everyone was ordinary, except for Jaekyung who was filled with rage? (all laugh) Jaekyung: Everyone is angry at that age, I'm just the one who said it. Some people decide to be nice, but we all liked to play around back then. (laughter)

Q: Was there a particular reason why you decided to get into music? Jaekyung: I don't think it was a decision. I always liked music, so I started learning to play an instrument and all of a sudden I could play the songs I liked. I was into band music, but that's not the type of music you can play on your own. Luckily, I met Jongwan, and as we played together, I think we naturally ended up in this field. There was never a moment when we decided "we should do music!". Jongwan: It was just the most enjoyable thing for me. I've never been interested in anything else. And I've never thought "I want to do this" about anything else. At first it wasn't about writing songs, but I liked the the band culture of meeting up and jamming together. Junghoon: It's similar for me. I liked music so I naturally did it as a hobby more than most people, and so I ended up learning to play an instrument. Of course there were times when we just played around too, but us music fans used to meet in groups and go watch concerts and gigs together, and so I got naturally absorbed in that culture. We said "let's give it a try" among ourselves, and so I ended up getting into it, too. Jaewon: In my whole life, I had never found anything that peaked my interest. But then Jaekyung gave me Metallica and Pearl Jam CDs, and I got a huge shock. I got a shock and thought "I want to do this too, I want to try playing an instrument", and that's how it started.

Q: What are some musicians you personally like or receive influence from? Jongwan: There are too many. I think we just like all good music. We're not influenced by a couple of bands, but all music. Of course, we all like bands like Radiohead, and as for personal favorites, the list starts with Michael Jackson and goes on forever. Jaekyung: We listened to a lot of '90s music in our teens, and I think that had a lot of influence on us. We listened to lots of bands from the UK and the US, but that was a time when not only band music, but pop and other genres were starting to stir. I'd like to say that what came out when we started making music later in life was all the music we listened to in our teens, melted down and merged together. And it's still happening.

Q: What are your strong and weak points as a band? Junghoon: I think something special comes out of us combining all our individual emotions in our music. If I were to pick superficial charming points, I'd say Jongwan's voice, and that our sound is hard to find elsewhere. I think that's our primary charm. Jaewon: And the fact that we've been friends since we were young.

Q: Looking at your lyrics, the vocabulary is unusual and your sensitivity stands out. Where does that come from? Jongwan: Looking back, I think the fact that my family never settled down in one place but moved around a lot when I was younger gave me a lot of influences from many different places. I dislike being alone because of that, but I'm also very independent. You have more time to think when you're alone, you know. I was like that especially during puberty, in my teens, so I'm just guessing based on that. But honestly, everyone is sensitive to a certain extent. We all have it, it's just that some people don't have time to look into it. It could be because they're busy, or because it just doesn't interest them. But I do think everyone has it.

Q: Have there been times when you didn't get along, musically speaking, and when was Nell's biggest crisis? Junghoon: We've never run into any big trouble. There are times when we argue personally, but we always solve it quickly. I think that's the main reason why we've been able to stay together. Honestly, I think if anyone of us had the personality to create crises, then we wouldn't have started making music together to begin with. We started this band because we go well together to some extent.

Q: Kim Jongwan writes and composes most of your music, but do the other members understand the songs completely? Jaewon: We can't understand them to 100% like Jongwan does. Junghoon: Our albums make the listeners think of other things than we had in mind when we made them. I think it's similar to that. There are times when Jongwan explains a new song he's written, but we all get our individual associations. We're not left in the dark completely, though.

Q: Do the other members have any interest in composing? Jaekyung: We do it if we want to. As for me, I've made about 2000 songs that are just lying at home, but they've never been included in a Nell album. I might show it sometime if there's a good opportunity. They could become Nell songs, too. I think composing is something all musicians do. Whether or not they let people know about it is another question. Junghoon: We're all composing on our own. Jaewon: I'm just the rhythm, so... Jongwan: I remember you doing it before though? (all laugh) Junghoon: Why don't you show me~ (laughter) Jaekyung: I remember that too. (laughter)

Q: You have a very mysterious image, but you recently went on a talkshow. Can we expect a change in the near future? Jongwan: I don't think we'll change very much. In a sense, we went on that talkshow because we thought "we've been going for more than ten years and there are people who like us, but they want us to do certain other things, so we'll try and do this much". There isn't a big meaning behind it. It's not that we're saying "we're going to go on variety shows now!" or anything, but honestly, we don't promote a lot, so we feel sorry to the fans sometimes. We went on the show for the people who are curious about us. Junghoon: I think that program's format was perfect for us. It's not that we drew a line to mark how much we wanted to do; we just did as much as we could. Jongwan: It could be that we honestly just don't have a talent for those kinds of things. We don't have a talent for it. And to tell you the truth, we don't really like to talk about a lot of things outside of music. Since music is our job, I think we should stick to talking about that. If we do other things then we'll also start talking about other things, so we're just trying to control that to some extent.

Q: TV programs relating to band music are common now and people are saying "the glory days of bands are coming back". Do you have any thoughts of appearing on programs like those? Jongwan: Honestly, if these is the glory days of band music, then we're in big trouble. (laughter) Saying 'glory days' makes it sound so sad. I think it's more appropriate to think of it as many bands are currently making themselves known. When it comes to promotions, we're a band so we're not all of the same opinions. I think we'll just continue the way we have until now. (laughter)

Q: What is the difference between doing an individual concert and playing at a rock festival? Jaekyung: We're in charge of 100% of our albums, and I think it's the same with our concerts. On the other hand, festivals feel more like celebrations. We do our concerts like we make our albums. Only people who really like us come to watch, and we have countless meetings with staff to make sure we can express what we wish. It takes a long time so it's slightly burdening, but it also makes us that much more proud of ourselves once it's finished. Concert preparations are like album preparations, while festivals feels more like going out to have a good time. Jongwan: I think concerts feel more intimate. It has a sincere feeling. At festivals, we try hard to keep a fun atmosphere going, since people didn't come there only for us. And we want to have fun, too. At concerts we can express heavy topics through heavy songs if we want, and I think it's good that they (concerts and festivals) are different. It could become a bit burdening if we only did one of them, but concerts have their own feeling, and at festivals we can have fun with other teams that we like, so I think there's a good balance there.

Q: You've gone from opening festivals to headlining them. How does that feel? Junghoon: We opened for somebody once in 99, but from then on we became headliners. (all laugh) Jongwan: Because we show up late. (laughter) Junghoon: Another team asked us to open for them, but we got there late so they had to go on before us. It was a club performance, and we ended up going on last, even though it wasn't our intention. There were barely any people there, but it was fun. Back then. Jaekyung: They must have been so flustered. (laughter) Something that really surprises me these days is whenever we do interviews, people ask us about our younger days, how we got into music and so on. When we respond, I realize how natural working in music feels to us, something we never could have imagined back then. Playing with bands I like at festivals and seeing bands I've always admired come on stage before us in itself still feels so new.

Q: Can you tell me about the concert episode that stands out the most in your memory? Jaekyung: We'd probably all say different things, but personally I have a memory of being very flustered at the Christmas concert five years ago or so, when the lights went off in the middle of the show. There was a blackout but I just kept thinking "please let it be over soon". The fans didn't take it so hard, though. We were all flustered, especially whoever it was that was doing the ment at the time, it must have been so rough. When the staff looked into it, it turned out the power had gone out due to a small mistake, so we were able to continue the show, but it's still really clear in my memory. Jongwan: For me, concerts and albums are the same in the sense that I can't remember them well afterwards. Part of it is intentional, because I don't pay much attention to the past. But it's always good in the moment while we're performing. Something that sticks in my mind is a show we did in Daegu a long time ago, it must have been in March. We came outside after the show and it was snowing a lot. I was in a good mood during the show, the atmosphere was great, and when we came out it was snowing so much. Rather than the show itself, just the scene of the four of us and our manager in the car afterwards while it snowed felt so much like a movie. Like a memory with childhood friends. That's the one I remember the clearest. Junghoon: It's similar for me, I like all our shows. It's hard to pick one I liked the best, and I think I have more memories of things that happened while we were preparing for concerts than of the shows themselves. We had a performance in Jeju when we were young, about twenty four? The day before the performance the four of us drank at the hotel and had such a good time. Those are the kinds of things I remember. Jaewon: I remember seeing people cry while watching our performances, or getting even more into it than us and grabbing their heads while watching. Junghoon: I grab my head like that every day. (laughter)

Q: Could you give us a taste of your setlist for upcoming festivals? Jaekyung: We didn't decide on the setlist yet. (all laugh) Junghoon: Don't you think we'll play the songs that people imagine we'll play? We might. (laughter)

Q: People say your setlists are about the same every time. (all laugh) Jaekyung: This is really funny to us, because there are many times we spend hours and hours trying to decide on the setlist. But the end result is always similar. There are a number of reasons, but first and foremost, when I go to see a concert as a fan, there are certain songs I want to hear every time. We try to meet those expectations, and also, the songs we play nowadays are really strong. (laughter) We don't want to give their spots to other songs. But we do think it's time for a change. We're not changing just to change it, but because it would make it better.

Q: What do you spend the most time on aside from album making and practice? Jongwan: There isn't much time for anything else. (laughter) Junghoon: If I have time, I watch movies... Honestly, we barely ever have any free time to speak of... (falls silent)

Q: I guess you really don't (have time). (all laugh) It sounds like music is your work and your hobby. Jongwan: Yeah, other than music I think I all I do is meet friends, drink and talk. Jaekyung: We work for months on end with the same people, with the same same staff, so when we do meet friends it feels really special. Just like how people who work in offices treasure their time outside of work, we can't meet our friends for months when we're promoting, and though we do get to see them sometimes these days, I think that time is really important.

Q: What was your intention in creating your Gravity trilogy, and what does gravity symbolize? Jongwan: First of all, 'gravity' is a word I've always liked, and I think it's one with many possible meanings. That's why we started up this series. Even though we've been together for a long time, we had never released a single album, though they have their own unique good points. Full albums and single albums have their individual good points, but since we had never tried our hand at a single album, we thought it would be fun to give it a try. Making a full album usually takes between one and a half to two years, and we actually don't do concerts more than twice a year, usually. And we don't play a lot of festivals. So even though we are working for two years straight, from the outside it looks as if we're on hiatus. I think that's what it's like for bands these days. We're not on the kind side, but when people tell us to come out on TV shows to perform and we don't, we do feel a bit sorry. With single albums, we can come back with new music every six or seven months, so I think that's why we started this project. To see our fans more often, and because working in this way is fresh and fun to us. Junghoon: Regardless, when we release a full album, we have to decide on a title track. We could do double or triple title tracks too, but if we don't then people will generally only hear one song from the whole album. Of course the people who buy our albums will listen to all of them, but as for other people we can show them one or two songs more at a time by releasing them in this manner. Personally, this is what I think is single albums' strong point.

Q: If early days’ Nell released their sadness and anxiety in a resistant and slightly violent manner, then you release it in a relatively soft and bright way nowadays. Is there a reason for this musical change? Jongwan: Every time I hear people say that we are bright nowadays, I think 'the people of this country are seriously dark'. (laughter) I've never thought this album is bright. Junghoon: If they read the lyrics to Boy-X or Haven they'll think "it can't have been easy to produce lyrics this provocative".

Q: The lyrics are one thing, but the overall sound seems to have changed as you experiment with it. Jongwan: If you're talking about the music from our underground days, then yes, our sound was very gloomy back then. Because the sound quality was so bad. (all laugh) It was a subdued and unintentional sound that stemmed from our ignorance and lack of technical skills in our twenties. It wasn't lacking in terms of sensibility, but we had just graduated high school and had no know-how or information about recording at the time. We were so sad when we finished that album. I think we had never experienced anger like that before that moment. We were miserable once the recording was finished. "This is not the sound we wanted." I don't know what to think about people saying we got brighter. We work so hard on the albums until the moment they are released, but once it's out there, I don't think it's ours anymore. Then it's the listener's business. It's theirs from the moment they purchase the CD. I think we care less and less about what people say as time goes by. There's no need for us to care, and we couldn't live up to what they say even if we did. If they say we're bright, then I guess we're bright, if they say we're dark, then I guess we're dark. (laughter)

Q: As you've entered your thirties, has your world changed a lot? Jaekyung: Musically speaking, it has become so much clearer with time. I think we've entered the puberty of our musical lives. As Jongwan said, when we were younger we knew nothing so there were many things we couldn't express, and now we know too well so expressing exactly what we want is hard. Now we know clearly exactly what we want, so we get frustrated when it doesn't come out how we imagined it. That's both a musical pro and con, I think. If you manage to get past it, it's definitely a good point. I think looking at the world has become a bit more comfortable, in a way that it's less provocative? Jongwan: I've developed the ability to only pay attention to what I care about and leave everything else behind. Junghoon: I think I'm similar to how I was in my twenties. When you turn thirty you have the experience and there are things you need to do, but I still don't know about those things. I still get anxious and restless when things don't go well, and my thoughts and reactions while watching the news are the same. My face has gotten older, but I don't think I've changed a lot mentally.

1. Boy-X Q: We've heard Nell's criticism before in songs like Last Advice and Would You Please Shut Up for Just 1 Minute, which dealt with personal greed and selfishness rather than structural issues and worked out that anger indirectly, but Boy-X speaks of social issues very straight-forwardly. Jongwan: You could say that's the key concept of this album. We wanted to make it like an omnibus movie. But since there is no video (only music), we had to explain what we meant concretely, which is why I think it ended up so straight-forward. And actually, you could say it's not really that straight-forward, too, since we had to pour a lot of content into the song in a limited amount of time. There are a lot more incompetent people to talk about than just politicians, revolutionaries and preachers. It could be a lover, or your children, but since we couldn't include everything I focused on the things I'm normally interested in. 'What is the biggest influencing factor when people commit motiveless crimes or things like the Virginia Tech massacre, what is it that makes me so angry?' I tried to find focal points and narrowed it down to those four (politicians, revolutionaries, preachers and educators). I apologize to those people; you're not all like that, it's just that some of you are.

Q: So you could say that the narrator of this song sees from the perspective of the people who commit motiveless crimes, the Virginia Tech massacre etc, and in the end, the song places the responsibility on environmental factors? Jongwan: In a sense, it's neither an attack nor criticism of anyone, because I wanted to express the perpetrator's mental state rather than point fingers and say who did something wrong. I'm not saying 'society has gone wrong, let's change it', just that I think it's important to try and see from that person's perspective. And there could be people who look at me in the same way. When something like that (motiveless crimes) happens, we curse the person for their wrongdoings, but I wish we'd also think about why the person ended up doing what they did. That's what the song is about.

Q: It's not included in the lyric booklet, but the lyrics 'incompetent artists' can be heard as well. Jongwan: If you listen carefully, there are other lyrics after that too, but we purposefully made them unclear. Having things to find and figure out is another fun part of music.

Q: What kind of artist is the 'incompetent artist'? (Junghoon points at Jaewon and all laugh) Jongwan: The lyrics you can't hear explain that part. But well, it could be lots of people. There are people who are all talk, people who value words over actions, and people who make big noise over nothing. For me personally, that's the kind of people who seem incompetent. Some people probably see us in the same light.

2. Ocean of Light Q: It's a song that gives people hope, but has there ever been a moment when you have wanted to give up on music? Jongwan: Personally, I don't think I've ever felt that way. I don't know of a job more amazing than working in music. All jobs have their difficult parts. They say it's hard for people who work with music, poetry and writing, but we don't know other people's hardships. We don't know how hard it is to work in an office. Everyone goes through those things, so I don't think working in music is harder than anything else. Junghoon: If you're a musician and you quit music because you develop an interest in something else and feel like you'd do well at it, then that's fine, but I don't think it's right to give up thinking "this is too hard, I should just become a salesman or something". Business isn't easy either, you know? So if you give up because it's hard once, I think the same thing will happen again. I don't think I'm all that, but when my friends say "I'm so annoyed with my work, should I quit?" I always tell them "If you give up now because it's hard, do you really think you'll do better somewhere else?" (laughter). If you move workplaces because you find a better one then that's great, but yeah, I think it's similar to this. Jaekyung: I think people who consider giving up don't honestly like what they do. If they truly liked it, they wouldn't have those thoughts. They'd rather want to do more of it. Jaewon: I've still never found anything I like as much as music, so.

Q: Have you ever fallen into a slump? And if you have, how did you overcome it? Jaewon: It happens. And when it does, I just drink. (all laugh) Junghoon: We just pour alcohol into ourselves for two weeks. (laughter) Jongwan: You have to disinfect yourself. Help spur the slump along a bit. (laughter) Jaekyung: If it's a musical slump then you have to bury yourself in music to get out of it. All that drinking leaves you with is a hangover. (After the members protest) Well, once you get tired of alcohol, then you'll have the strength to work on music again. (laughter) Jongwan: He talks like this now, but he's the most reliant on alcohol out of all of us. (laughter) Jaewon: You know you're completely dependent on it too. (laughter) Jaekyung: I'm not pretending I'm the only one who isn't. What I meant was, let's all stop doing that. Let's all stop drinking. (laughter)

3. Perfect Q: So Perfect is a song about love. What is love to you now that you're in your thirties? Jongwan: We're not teaching 'introduction to love' and we can't define it (laughter) but I think it's something we all need in order to survive. Whether that's love for a lover, your work or your family differs from person to person, but we're so unhappy without it. I think we all need at least one thing we truly love, like we need food? Since we die if we don't eat. Love is still like that for me, even now that I'm thirty, and I hope it'll still be the same in my forties. I think love is very closely related to passion. If you are able to love someone, then that must mean you're that passionate of a person. Being able to love something passionately is one of the things that allow us to live life to the fullest. I think those two emotions are extremely closely related. Jaekyung: I don't know, since I've never been in love. (all laugh) I should. I should see what love is. Jongwan: We need to kick him out. (laughter) Jaekyung: I honestly don't know much about anything, not just love. (laughter) Junghoon: Well, I think love is something that fills you up. It could be love for a woman or your parents - there are many different kinds of love but the common denominator is that they all fill us up. It's something that fills us up naturally without us looking for it. You don't ask it, "please fill me up", but -- Jongwan: You sound like a gold digger. (all laugh) Junghoon: I've been the one on the receiving end. I was filled up psychologically, and filled the other party up physically. (all laugh) I'm joking, I think I wanted to receive more than I wanted to give back then. Rather than looking at someone and thinking "I want to do something for them", I think I just wanted them to fill me up in some shape or form. Jaewon: I think it's the most important thing. We make music because we love it, and we're together because we have love for one another. (laughter) Seeing that-- Jongwan: Bono (of U2) must be your ideal type, you're becoming like him. 'We are one', and so on. (laughter) Jaewon: (firmly) If you don't have that, you can't do anything. Wouldn't you be lonely? Jongwan: Today's concept is weird~ (laughter) Jaekyung: Is it Sting again? It feels like Sting. (laughter) Junghoon: "Let's all love one another." (laughter)

Q: Since Jaewon is married, you can just say your wife (laughter), but what are the other members' ideal types? Junghoon: Physically, all men would say a pretty woman. (laughter) Aside from that, this is a bit similar to what we talked about earlier, but when men are going through a hard time, they usually don't talk about it much. I'm one of those people. I don't necessarily need the other person to know that, but I'd like someone who could heal me in some way, whether mentally or... physically. (all laugh) Jongwan: These days I think my ideal type is a woman I want to get to know. There are women I don't really care to get to know when I see them, and -- Junghoon: Pretty women... (laughter) Jaekyung: You don't want to get to know them if they aren't pretty, isn't that it? (laughter) Jongwan: No (laughter), there are people who make you want to get to know them even if they aren't pretty, and I think that's their charm. I think my ideal type is a woman with many sides I want to know more about. Because I'd continuously be pulled towards a woman like that. I'm not attracted to people who don't give off that feeling, to people I don't feel a need to get to know on a deeper level. Jaekyung: This seems to change every time I think of it. If my ideal type is someone I think of a lot then there's Cell from Dragon Ball (all laugh), he has all possible strong points. It has to be a person like that, but people's characters are all different, you know? In my opinion, it's impossible to boil your ideal type down into one person. I think if I want to meet my ideal type, then I have to meet several different people. Having an ideal type in itself just doesn't work.

Q: But you know you can't combine different people's charms into one. Jaekyung: It works if we all live together. (all laugh) The other members: It's polygamy, polygamy~ That'd be Utopia. (laughter) Jongwan: I think it's similar to what I said about women I want to get to know. You think you know what's going to happen, but then there's another side you were unaware of... It's not that I want a polygamous relationship, I want to be able to feel that way about one person alone.

4. Burn Q: What do you want to say to young people who have passionate dreams of working in the music industry? Jaekyung: If you like music, I wish you wouldn't keep wondering about the future. Although, I'm not saying you should stop thinking of it altogether either. Sometimes I see juniors who only think ahead and never think about music, and I think it should be the other way around. That's what I want them to know. Junghoon: I don't think there are any right answers in life, but if I am to speak from experience, I'd say that having big dreams while setting short term goals is the way to go. Because, if for example you have this dream of becoming the biggest band in Korea, that's a very hard dream to fulfill in a short amount of time. Even if you know you have great skills and abilities, there will be many times when you can't make use of or show those abilities to the world. So I think that if you have big dreams and think to yourself "one year from now I want to go this much of the way, next year I want to have reached this position in that competition" and set up short-term goals like this, you'll fulfill them one by one and when you look back ten years later, you'll realize "wow, I really came this far" or "we really came this far". Although, that's usually not that easy. Since there are four of us there was always someone to hold onto us whenever we were stumbling, and I think that's why we made it through. Jongwan: Rather than speaking to other musicians, if I am to talk more generally, I'd like to say that even if you can fool other people, you can never fool yourself. If you don't follow your own aspirations, then there will come a day when you'll regret that decision deeply. There are many situations where you're unable to do what you want, but if you keep thinking things like "what will happen to me if I go for this", or "I have to protect myself so that that doesn't happen", then you will end up drifting away from the things you really want to do. Unless you're dealing with stocks (laughter), you need to keep a slightly aggressive mindset rather than trying to protect yourself. It's similar to soccer. You can end the game in a tie if you keep defending, but you can't win unless you score. Junghoon: But also, being a little adventurous when you're young will also be of great help to you. I think "failure is the mother of success" is really true. Jongwan: Honestly, it's the same thing. If you go at something aggressively then you get the pride of feeling like you've managed to do something, and you can draw strength from that, but if you keep defending yourself then you will only continue to get smaller. I think the younger you are the first time you experience failure, the better. Jaewon: I feel the same, I think first of all it's important not to be afraid. If you get into it when you're scared -- Jongwan: And that's why he got married first. (laughter) Junghoon: Most aggressively. (laughter) Jongwan: And he lost his fear. (laughter) Jaewon: Yeah, I have nothing to say. (all laugh) I think your attitude is the most important factor in whatever you do. You can't go into it in a panic. Jongwan: Also, this is how it was for us, surprisingly it's not important to know a lot of people, but if you have one or two people who you are genuinely close with, then that will be a great help to you. When you're going through a really hard time, there are only a few people who come to mind, you know, even if you know a lot of people. I think it's extremely important to have people like that next to you.

5. Haven "The main character of Haven wants to block himself off from the outside world and relies on drugs in order to turn away and escape from reality. He tells his lover not to cry over him, that this place isn't heaven but even so it is his haven." Q: From the song description and the lyrics it seems like it's a metaphor for drug use and suicide by shooting. What was your motive when writing this song? Jongwan: The album itself describes the process of escaping from misery or despair, and whether it's right or wrong, there are people who use drugs to do that. Even though I was young when I lived abroad, I had friends who thought like that. To others looking in, it might seem obviously misguided, but there are people who don't have any other choice. The word 'trigger' does appear towards the end but it's honestly more like an expression of 'let's end it, I wish it was over' rather than an actual suicide by shooting. I think it's similar to Boy-X. "Let's think about it from another perspective for once." I'm not a person like that, I just wanted to try and see from their point of view.

Q: Boy-X and Haven are banned from broadcast due to 'crude expressions' and 'cursing', and Parasite and The End of Beginnings from your first album received the same sentence because "the title itself is dirty and could cause displeasure to the viewers" and "the meaning is inappropriate and the lyrics are difficult to understand" respectively. You've made many other songs like them, but it seems like you pay no attention to this and stubbornly express whatever you want. Jongwan: I'm just glad we didn't get banned because of our faces. (all laugh) Jaekyung: There's no standard for it. If there was a clear line then we'd sure be annoyed by it, but at least we'd be able to understand. Jongwan: It's something I can't understand; I honestly don't know how much power broadcasting has nowadays. Looking at it objectively, there are many ways for people to listen to our albums either way, you know? There's the internet, mp3s and CDs. It's better for us to do what we want even if it can't be played on the radio. It would cause more harm if we modified our songs thinking "this isn't right" just so they could be played on the radio. I describe it as 'fun', this bliss that musicians experience when they express exactly the message that they want to get across. Even if it can't be played on the radio, there are still ways to listen to it, so there's no need to give that up. We see that as a given rather than us being stubborn. Even so, I suppose we couldn't keep cursing in our title tracks, huh. Junghoon: If we don't have more than one or two songs in mind for broadcasts then we don't think that way. We've never thought "oh, if we do this then it can't be played on air", but work comfortably on our songs. We realize later, "oh? I thought this would be okay for the radio, but it seems it got banned?" That's how we think of it at most.

6. Walk Out Q: You've said you intentionally recorded this while standing far away from the worst microphone you could find and added static to the mix. What was your intention with doing that and what is the meaning of this song? Jongwan: We wanted this song to feel like the ending credits of a movie. The previous track, Haven, explodes so dramatically and ends so strongly that we needed a song to wrap things up after it. If I was a director, there would be a specific feeling I would want people to carry with them after the movie ends, you know? I guess we could have recorded a clean and pretty sound, but the album in itself isn't pretty. I thought, "I'd like people to have a somewhat stunned feeling when it ends", so we recorded it this way, and personally I think we made the right choice.

Q: What kind of stories are you planning to use on the third part of the series? Jongwan: For the third installment I think we'll combine the first two parts and think more about those emotions and about gravity in itself. What we hold onto and try to escape from is important too but what are those emotions exactly? It will likely have various themes, it could be dreams, it could be love, it could be what money is to gold diggers (laughter). I think it'll be stories about those kinds of things.

Q: Will we be able to meet again this fall? Jaekyung: We always want to release our albums according to schedule but as we work on it, I don't know, we've never been able to release anything ahead of schedule. Even though we wish to. Junghoon: Let's say it'll be out next winter. (all laugh) Jaekyung: In that case we'll definitely be able to get it out there ahead of time. (laughter)

Q: What is the ultimate message you want to get across through this album and your music? Jongwan: Gravity always has influence on us but we can't feel it easily, and at the same time we can't escape from it no matter how hard we try. When you think about it, many things are like that. I think in a way, all the lyrics I write, and almost 90% of everything we feel is like that. I don't know if I believe in destiny, but I have this feeling that things end up in a certain way regardless of my choices. Love and separation is like that, too. We teamed up because we got together and said "let's play together", but I have this really strong feeling that it wasn't our choice, you see. I think gravity was the right choice for this, since we can lump everything together and talk about it as one concept. Most importantly, we wanted to talk about our thoughts about the question 'why did things turn out this way?'. Junghoon: We don't make music of the things we want to say in our daily lives. Jongwan writes his lyrics about feelings and thoughts he has every once in a while so we focus on them when we make music, when we plan the songs out. We don't make music to deliver a certain message. Jaekyung: I think it's like a record (of emotions and thoughts). Of course only the meaningful records get used on the albums. That's what I think. Jongwan: It's because, like we said earlier, music is our job and our hobby. Those are two things that don't work well together at all. Your work is something you to do earn money and to live as a member of society, while your hobby is something you do thoughtlessly because you like it. I think we make music to make life rich. And I think people listen to music for the same reason. I don't think my life is horrible because I feel sad emotions, I just think music is something that makes us think a lot of and helps us see from a different perspective. And so I think we're living a fun life. This is in a sense a truly fantastic occupation. We're telling our own stories, but it also helps us realize so many things. Things we didn't know about ourselves, too. It's not that I live every day with the thoughts I use in my lyrics. We realize new things about ourselves and experience a kind of catharsis, we make money from it, meet people, have fun in concert halls with lots of people who like us... It's really an amazing job.

Q: What do you want people to say about you ten years from now? Jaekyung: I hope Nell's albums will become like this -- like the bands I like, their music is good no matter how much time passes since its release. Like how music from the '80s is still good now. Jongwan: 'They're cool, it's good to see them', and above everything else "they're really living a fun life while doing exactly what they want". Also that we're good at what we do. I think I'd like to hear that. Junghoon: "They're the best~". That's what I like to hear the most. I want to keep hearing those words even in ten years' time. It's impossible to hear that from everyone, but even so, I'd like it if a lot of people listened to our music and said "they're the best, this team is the best". Jaewon: "These guys are really working hard." (all laugh) Junghoon: "They're not great, but at least they work hard." (laughter) Jongwan: "Isn't it kind of sad? They're working so hard but..." (laughter) Jaewon: We'll be over forty years old at that time -- (laughter) Jongwan: That's what you want to hear? (laughter) Jaewon: "Wow, these guys are working so hard even at that age~" This kind of thing-- Jongwan: "Why are they still like that?" (laughter) Jaekyung: "Let's not become like them." (laughter) Junghoon: Jaewon is bitter now. (laughter) Jongwan: I don't like your Bono concept~ (laughter)

Q: Lastly, is there anything you want the ministry of culture, sports and tourism to look at for cultural prosperity, such as 'vitalization of and security of diversity in the music world'? Jaekyung: (firmly) I wish the promotion fund for culture and art would disappear. (all laugh) Jongwan: That's his own opinion. If people use it for good things, then it's great. With a long-term plan. I don't think cultural prosperity is something that can be reached by a single person's work. There are things the government needs to do, things that musicians need to do, the broadcasting stations and the media. Even if they don't write things like "we need to develop our country's culture" it's a matter of assuming a little bit of the responsibility at a time. If you don't want to just make money of it, it can't end with a short-term issue making; it's a problem that can be solved by taking responsibility in your workplace and combining all these different ideas together, not one that can be solved by the government. I think us musicians will need to work hard, too. People keep saying there's a lack of diversity in music, and honestly I feel us bands are becoming more and more similar, too. Therefore I think we should all make sure we're working hard ourselves before talking about anybody else, because we can provoke others into action by making them think "oh, they're working really hard, so should I". That often happens to us. We'll see someone, juniors, seniors or foreign bands and think "why can't we do more than this, we have to work harder". I think we need to receive that kind of encouragement from one another, but it could take a very long time. Junghoon: People keep saying we're in a period of transition, but I think it'll go on for another ten or twenty years. Either way, we've passed the time when people just accepted being provided with culture. Now we're in a time when people use the internet and other mediums to find the culture they want to see, so the process has probably already started; high school and university students experience culture in that way now so in ten or twenty years from now, the cultural diversity will be much richer than now.

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