[Interview] EXO-K, the 6 boys coming from an unknown planet “We really have superpowers”.

Firstly, when we met EXO-K for this interview, their looks were already great. Among the idols who debuted recently, EXO-K can definitely be proud of their outstanding visual, with the 6 people with various charms such as manliness and cuteness united in a team, there’s no doubt that they will rise up as idol stars in no time.

EXOPLANET is a planet out of our solar system, when asked to EXO-K about their name, they replied “I personally liked it. Because the group’s name was pretty, I was happy“(Chanyeol), “The logo was pretty too“(Sehun), as a group who had just debuted they were full of pride and excitation about their name.

EXO’s music video also attracted a lot of attention. In the music video, each of the 12 members have superpowers such as teleportation, fire, water, earth, light, etc. On a music program, they stated with calm faces “We’re coming from an unknown planet called EXOPLANET. All of our members have a superpower”, during that day’s interview too, they surprisingly said “It’s hard to say but we really have superpowers”, “We really came from an unknown planet” (Chanyeol) which made us smile thinking ‘how cute’.

The team has been under the name EXO, for around one year, from their training to their debut. Chanyeol perfectly replied “Training wasn’t really that hard. It was something we were doing because we liked it, and we were practicing for our dream to become a singer so we were always coming to practice happily”.

Their debut song ‘MAMA’ is in a genre that is authentically from SM, the SMP (SM Music Performance). “Because we have to show a good image for the performance but on the singing side too, we have to show the best performance so it was hard, but we practiced as much as it was difficult. When we first got the song, I really liked it. It was a style that SM didn’t show for a while. So I really liked the thought that it could be even more refreshing” (Chanyeol)

On April 8th, EXO-K had their debut stage on SBS ‘Inkigayo’ while EXO-M had it on the famous Chinese award ceremony ‘Music Feng Yun Bang’. When we asked them if they went only to see the reactions after their debut, they carefully replied “People around me told me a lot about it“(Kai), “I think people give us a lot of love and they treat us nicely“(Sehun) and smiled embarrassedly.

The reactions right after EXO-K’s debut stage were simply explosive. After only one performance, the number of fans grew exponentionally (D.O’s famous ‘grand orchestra’ didn’t help that at all) – the interest for the members as well as the number of fans posting pictures of them also greatly increased.

But after monitoring their debut stage, their first live performance, EXO-K said they were quite disappointed. As soon as the live subject came on, they each said a word “We blamed ourselves a lot thinking ‘are our skills only up to that?’. Of course there was the pressure of the first live and we never experienced it before but.. since we did a bit better the next day, we’re adjusting little by little“(Chanyeol), “It was the first time I felt out the sound was coming out from an in-ear too“(D.O), “We will show you after practicing more“(Kai) showing their disappointment.

D.O added proudly “We also made a lot of mistakes but I think that after doing it a few weeks, I’ll adapt to looking at the camera and will be able to show you a cool image” and while promising to work even harder “Even though we still have a long way to go”.

EXO-K who are actually living in a dorm together said there were having a ‘family meeting’ every Saturday. Every week, the 6 people take turns for the room cleaning or for the dish-washing during the family meeting, they also praise each other on their good points and resolve problems.

They’re showing a strong family mood and their chant is also ‘Let’s love’. EXO-K explained “Before going up on stage, during our family meetings, or when we’re nervous we shout our chant“(D.O) and “It means let’s love each other and let’s become a group that can love all of our fans and the staff who are working hard for us, it means let’s love everything“(Chanyeol). They said it was Suho who decided of this chant.

As their latest idol group, the Korean agency SM has a quite clever strategy. When they showed interest only for EXO-K, the Korean group during their debut, they also gave attention to EXO-M in China, like for their debut showcase where they all showed up. When we asked them if we’ll be able to see again the 12 members together, EXO-K said “Won’t we be promoting together later?”, they revealed that they were still focusing on promoting in Korea and China.

When we asked them what was their goal for next year, they replied it was the newcomer award as a rookie group. EXO-K said looking a bit unsure “Since there are a lot of great seniors, I think we will have to put a lot of effort”. Then we asked again “But EXO-K will still be able to receive it right?”, EXO-K reacted with grateful faces, they said confidently they were going to be able to show their superpowers; they’re filled with the freshness of the rookies who just debuted.

cr: source newsen; trans by emilie @ exok-trans
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[Interview] My name is Suho, D.O.

My name is Suho. My real name is Kim Junmyeon.

I was born on May 22nd, 1991, and I have a brother four years older than me.

The biggest form of rebellion I’ve ever committed thus far is when I fought with my brother in junior high. I got permission from my parents to spend the night at a sauna. I know that we fought over something really small, but I don’t remember it anymore. (Sehun: That’s so rebellious. / Kai: How could you sleep on your own?)

My skin is on the white side. Because of that, my eyebrows look a lot stronger and my double eyelids make me look young for my age. (Baekhyun: How can your eyebrows look strong?) If Kai’s double eyelids are considered charismatic, mine look as if they could embrace anything.

The supernatural ability that I’m most envious of is Kai’s teleportation skills, Lu Han’s psychokinesis, and Tao’s time control. I can control water, which I also think is quite cool.

As the leader, I keep my dongsengs in check by buying them a lot of delicious food. They come together quite nicely when I buy them chicken or Outback. Every Saturday, I make the group have a family meeting and tell them to say nice things about each other. We also talk about things we were upset about and try to work them out. In the end, we finish it off by shouting, “Let’s love!”

TVXQ’s Yunho hyung gives me a lot of advice. He told me not to reprimand the members for little things and to console them when they make mistakes by helping them summon the bravery to do better. In contrast, he told me to be firm and reprimand them harshly when they make mistakes regarding respect or manners. Super Junior’s Leeteuk hyung advised us to always stay together.

I studied really hard during my days as a student. I was the class president in elementary school and vice-chairman of the student body. I was also vice-chairman in junior high school but I stopped after I got cast in the company because it felt too pressuring. I didn’t rely on earning votes through my looks or anything. I think they voted for me because I was a model student, haha.

If we were to star in a real variety show, I think I’d do the best because the other members are really shy, hahaha. I’m the caring type so I’d just embrace everyone.

My name is D.O. My real name is Do Kyungsoo.

I was born on January 12th, 1993, and I have a brother older than me by three years.

A unique characteristic of mine is that the whites of my eyes are bigger than my pupils. Because of that, my fans nicknamed me, ‘Rich in Eye Whites’. Anyway, if it’s hard for you to distinguish us, just know that the member with a lot of eye whites is D.O.

Despite that Yunho hyung had just finished his Tokyo Dome concert, he called us after our first broadcast on SBS’s ‘Inkigayo’. He monitored each one of us and we listened to his advice with the cell phone on speaker mode. For now, we need advice on our stage performance rather than for variety programs.

I was a quiet student in school. I didn’t want people to know that I was training at SM so I didn’t tell anybody. I just spent my high school years quietly and then graduated.

My voice imitation of senior Oh Kwang Rok on MBC Music’s ‘Show Champion’ was not something that I had practiced. I always joked around by copying him and it just naturally became my personal talent. The member that actually has a lot of hidden talents is Baekhyun.

I honestly have no idea what I meant by the ‘What Play’ that’s written on my elementary school graduation picture. It must’ve been a popular phrase back then, but… Why would I have written that as my special talent?

Since elementary school, I’ve always loved singing or listening to music. I always participated in singing competitions in high school. I was cast by SM while on my way out from winning an award at a competition. I didn’t know what type of company SM was at the time so I had a hard time believing them. I remember thinking, “Is this real? What is this?”

When I made a comment mistake on our debut stage, I wasn’t thinking anything in particular. If I said that I did well during the rehearsal… would you believe me? I kept thinking that it was a live broadcast and repeated to myself, “Majestic, majestic, majestic…” I wasn’t able to look at the camera so when it came to my turn, all of the words in my head just disappeared. (Sehun: They were deleted.) I could only remember the first letter of the word so I instead said, ‘grand orchestra’. I was so out of it then that I didn’t even know I had used that word. I never want to see that broadcast again (sigh).

cr: source 10asia; trans by vitalsign @ exok-trans
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[Interview] My name is Chanyeol, Baekhyun

My name is Chanyeol. My real name is Park Chanyeol.

I was born on November 11, 1992.  I have a big sister who’s three years older than me.

Before I had my debut, when she was searching on Internet, my sister told me this “Ya, your old pictures are all here! I didn’t even know these”. These days, my sister doesn’t talk much about it but I think she’s really proud of me.

I’m exactly 185cm tall. Seeing how I didn’t grow for 2 years, now I’m pretty sure it stopped. And when I compare with others, my ears stick out a lot and my eyes are rather big. My teeth are also very even. It’s the national good teeth. Hahaha.

That’s why the fans gave me the nickname ‘Teeth Rich’. A while ago during a fansign, some fan gave me a little doll with eyes on its teeth. Because she seemed to have a lot of interest in me, I was surprised and really happy.

Out of EXO-K and EXO-M’s 12 members, my teaser came out the latest. It came out but because it was took so much time, my mother often told me “When is yours coming out? You’re the only one taking forever” when we were on the phone. My friends also said “Why isn’t yours coming? Didn’t you get kicked out of the team?”. Truthfully… I was also a bit nervous. Haha.

I started being a trainee at SM during my first year of high school. As the news spread out in the school, when I was passing by in the hallway, they would look at me curiously or, ah right, they also came in my classroom to take a look. I always had a lively personality but because it made me a bit embarrassed, I just sat still.

During middle school, I made with my really close friends a band called ‘Heavy Noise’. Back then I really liked Green Day, Nirvana, X-Japan, etc. During highschool, I entered the school’s band, it was called ‘Seiren’, I totally fell for Muse.

When we first practiced ‘MAMA”s choreography, I thought I was going to be the black hole. Euhaha. I thought ‘I’m in a big trouble’ but I practiced all night alone with Kai or Sehun, they taught me precisely the moves one by one so it was really a relief.

My superpower is being able to control fire. The phoenix summon…. doesn’t really work well on Earth. (Kai: Because the magic power is kind of weak here…) When we’ll promote for our next album, I think it’ll be really nice if I shoot fire for real.

My name is Baekhyun. My real name is Byun Baekhyun.

I was born on May 6, 1992. I have a seven-years older big brother. There’s a big age difference but we don’t have any problems about it. Ever since I was young, we were close, we were even shopping together.

I draw my eyeliner the thickest in EXO-K. Compared to the other members who look sharp, I look more round and my eyes are a bit small too. Ah, I’m forever getting effeminate. Hahaha. When I draw my eyeline, I think it makes me more good-looking but I got used to seeing my eyes without eyeliner.

I also got a know-how when I erase my eyeliner. You put eye makeup remover on a tissue, you put it still on your eyes so the makeup melts, then you can just wipe it off at once with cotton. At first it was hard since I couldn’t open my eyes but now I’m good at it. Before doing my debut, I couldn’t imagine I’d use makeup in my life…. Now I understand why women put on makeup. Hehe.

I joined the team the latest. The first one I got close to was Chanyeol who’s the same age as me. Because we were living in the same direction, we would take the subway and go home together after practicing, we had a lot of time to talk. It turned out that he was also my friend’s friend.

During high school, I was the mood maker. I think I mainly danced a lot to Rain senior and SHINee seniors’ dances. I thought I was doing my best dancing, but my friends thought it was really funny to see. (Kai: He showed it to us when we were trainees too, it’s really awesome. He must’ve been very popular. I wonder what he would’ve done if he didn’t become an idol? / Suho: I thought he was doing a live performance.)

Among the superpowers we have, the superpower I’m the most envious of is Kai’s teleportation. (Kai: I also envy myself.) If I had the teleportation power, I’d want to try entering a bank secretly.

I want to try a shameless role like the role of Lee Youngjae Rain senior had in KBS <Full House>. Since I haven’t learnt acting at all, I still don’t know how I’m going to do. If I get CF offers too, I’d want to try everything. But if I get a cool CF, I think it will have the opposite effect. This style really doesn’t match me.

I prepared a lot of imitations to show on variety programs. I can do Gibong, I can also imitate Oh Gwangrok. I can’t imitate the way my company’s seniors sing yet though.

Since they always see me face to face, I don’t know what would happen if I imitated them…. haha.

cr: source 10asia; trans by emilie @ exok-trans
please take out with full credits.