heodang:

[B.A.P Hot Debut Story] Youngjae ③ “Joining JYP and placing first in the auditions…I felt dazed”

 

“How did the celebrities inside our televisions become a star?” 

With the outlooks on the entertainment industry rising one step higher, we as the public aren’t just curious about their glamorous images, but their back stories before they became celebrities as well. 

We have prepared the column “star story” in our publishing which not only tells a truthful side to stars, but their past that brought them to where they are today. This episode’s protagonist is B.A.P’s “brain” Youngjae, who has stepped forth into the music industry with his strong charisma.

Youngjae officially fell in the charms of music after he entered high school and in getting closer to his peers who attended the same academy he did, they would exchange their knowledge of music with one another.

“When I was a first year in high school, my teacher was very understanding of me in placing me with the hyungs of our academy and I spent a lot of time with the hyungs singing. I think it was a time where i9 was so into music that I didn’t even go home – I had a lot of fun playing and learning music at the same time (laughs).”

It wasn’t just Korean music that Youngjae was into, but he came across American music as well in broadening his music spectrum.

“When I first came across American music, I at first had revoked it and there were lots of moments where I listened to it due to it being required in our lessons, but I started growing onto it once I kept listening to it. Since then, I started liking pop to the point where there weren’t much Korean music on my MP3 player.”

And Youngjae lived in going crazy over music, yet he never had the intention of becoming a singer from the start.

“The more I thought about music, I started growing greedier. Instead of a singer, I had the thought of wanting to become a true musician. I thought that I should just naturally pursue in my own kind of music and it was stubbornness like none other (laughs).”

And it was during this time also that Youngjae began going to a lot of auditions. Many entertainment companies that one can recognize just by the name recognized Youngjae’s talents and had recruited him, even an offer from a male idol group of whom is promoting actively today. However, after much dilemma, Youngjae entered JYP Entertainment as a trainee and officially prepared for a debut, his age being 17 at the time.

“After 10 months of discussing with JYP, I ended up being a trainee and I don’t know why, but I didn’t want to dance at the time (laughs). But later on in time, I poured my entire focus into practicing dancing and that’s how I spent my time until the people around me told me to audition for JYP’s 6^th Audition. After auditioning by myself, I even advanced into the final round of auditions. Thirty teams competed and I placed first. I really didn’t know what to think of then (laughs).”

It was an anecdote of which his music skills were so advanced that it had shut down the other contestants from keeping up with him.

CREDITS: HERALD M (SOURCE); HEODANG @ TUMBLR  (TRANS)

(x)

heodang:

[B.A.P Hot Debut Story] Youngjae ① “Youngjae the ‘game maniac,’ his dream was to become a professional gamer”

 

“How did the celebrities inside our televisions become a star?” 

With the outlooks on the entertainment industry rising one step higher, we as the public aren’t just curious about their glamorous images, but their back stories before they became celebrities as well. 

We have prepared the column “star story” in our publishing which not only tells a truthful side to stars, but their past that brought them to where they are today. This episode’s protagonist is B.A.P’s “brain” Youngjae, who has stepped forth into the music industry with his strong charisma.

After Daehyun’s interview was Youngjae, who had an enthusiastic introduction and greeting the interviewer with his round eyes. In maintaining his “brain” image of the group, he logically began unraveling his past.

“I was born in a hospital in Bangbaedong of Seoul on January 24^th, 1994. When my mother was pregnant with me, she had a precognitive dream of my birth where a chili pepper was dangling and the night sky was in view. Siblings? I have an older brother with the age gap of eight years and I think I grew up without much trouble.”

Youngjae was born into a fairly wealthy family that wouldn’t trade what they had for others, but it was when the IMF hit that his lifestyle changed into a more difficult route. However, the young Youngjae never lost his smile despite the sudden change he faced in his life.

“When I was younger, my mother ran an apparel business but with the IMF, our family’s situation wasn’t at its best, even going into the extent of us living inside a container home from the factory of my uncle’s construction company. I never felt inconvenience, although my mother and older brother did. It was a rough time in my life but I always tried to think optimistically and I worked harder then (laughs).”

Due to financial issues, Youngjae had to live with his mother while his father moved away and the time Youngjae was alone increased. During that period of time, his friend was none other than computer games.

“I lived in a villa with my mother in Yongin and with her working, we moved to Seoul. At first, we lived in a small basement room in Bangbaedong and my mother worked at a shopping mall, so I would spend a lot of my days wholly alone. Since I liked playing games, I remember going to the internet café every day. Maybe it’s because I’m friendly, but I got along with the middle school and high school kids then (laughs).”

Youngjae reminisced as he said, “Although I lacked a lot, it was a time filled with happiness also.” Despite spending not a lot of time with his mother, he knew that it was all because his mother loved him. The interviewer was able to feel how much Youngjae thought of his mother.

Since kid Youngjae liked games, it was in 6^th grade that he had the dream of becoming a professional gamer.

“In 6^th grade, my dream was to become a pro-gamer. I liked Starcraft so much that I fell into the game every day. In 2002, I was playing that game despite it being the year of the World Cup (laughs). However, my parents weren’t so against the idea either, but that didn’t dream didn’t change till I was in my second year of junior high.”

The dream of becoming a pro-gamer didn’t last long for Youngjae as a certain event in his school trip during his second year of junior high routed him into a new dream.

 

CREDITS: HERALD M (SOURCE); HEODANG @ TUMBLR  (TRANS)

fuckyeahdalmatian:

 Dalmatian-  ER MV

heodang:

[B.A.P Hot Debut Story] Bang Yongguk① “They thought I was a mute because I couldn’t speak till I was 5..”

 

“How did the celebrities inside our televisions become a star?”

With the outlooks on the entertainment industry rising one step higher, we as the public aren’t just curious about their glamorous images, but their back stories before they became celebrities as well.

We have prepared the column “star story” in our publishing which not only tells a truthful side to stars, but their past that brought them to where they are today. This episode’s protagonist is Bang Yongguk who has stepped forth into the music industry with his strong charisma as the leader of the six-member group B.A.P.

Bang Yongguk greeted us brightly on a day in April filled with a spring atmosphere when we met him in his company. Because we’ve met him before during the days when he promoted in a duet with Secret’s Song Jieun with “Going Crazy,” we were able to interview him in a comfortable state.

We weren’t able to find the image of him shaking from nervousness before his first stage just a year ago as he exuded a confidence that was leader-like of him since he’s currently the leader of the idol group B.A.P.

 

“Hello, this is Bang Yongguk. I’m already nervous in telling our fans my story haha. What should I start with? Since I was born? Then I should talk about the precognitive dream my parents had before they had me. Hold on, let me call my mother haha.”

How does Bang Yongguk treat his mother? We thought that he would throw away his confidence that he carries as a leader of a team in showing aegyo to his mother but with not even much seconds passing by, those expectations were completely proven wrongly. He spoke to his mother on the phone with his normal deep voice which gave us the sense that he was a cold son.

“I was born in a hospital in Incheon on March 31^st, 1990. I’m the youngest out of two sons and one daughter in our family. When my mother was pregnant with me, she said she had a precognitive dream about me and said that there was a really high sluice that gated the ocean and when the sluice opened, the ocean water seeped through and there were only silver-gleaming sand left but in it were two clams. For the fans who caught on early might know that I have an identical twin. Of course, my older twin brother and I both look alike and the way we talk is alike as well.”

And that’s how Bang Yongguk saw the light in the world with his older twin brother as they spent their adolescent days together. Right now, he’s currently showing off the nation’s greatest rap skills but from what we’re told, he learned how to speak much later than other kids.

“I learned how to speak really late. I couldn’t speak till I was 5 so my family thought I was mute. Because of how I was, there were a lot of people who were deeply concerned about me and I played a lot during my younger days, I was also a kid who received a lot of awards when I was in kindergarten. I received a lot of awards in competitions like children’s arts or math competitions. My older brother always placed 1^st and I was always 2^nd though.”

However, he didn’t have many memories of his younger days as he confessed that it was due to his parents both working to earn a living for their family.

“Because both of my parents were working in Seoul to provide income for our family, I spent majority of my adolescent days at my grandfather’s house. Even for school arts festivals, my parents never came and at the time, I was upset since I was younger but my grandmother always did. I remember being embarrassed when she did since all the other kids had younger moms and I remember being jealous of them (laughs). But because I’ve always had a strong set of pride since I was younger, I never showed these kinds of emotions to my parents and instead would say that things were better this way haha.”

In a way, this may sound like a depressing story but the smile never left Bang Yongguk’s face when he told us this.

“I used to really like sports when I entered elementary school. I liked all types of sports. In third grade, I was recommended by my coach to sign up for little league baseball since I liked sports and in 6^th grade, I started soccer but because I caught the eyes of a recruiter from a different elementary, I even went to practice at a different soccer team in another school. Also, I entered a basketball team without my parents knowing in which I even advanced to the National Sports Festival. Back then, the anticipation of my surroundings were high and some even believed I’d become an amazing athlete. However, I wasn’t able to achieve that due to my parents being against it.”

Bang Yongguk continues to tell us that he’s interested in sports even to this day and because of various circumstances now, he enjoys watching it more.

“When I was younger, I had no toys to play with. I don’t hold the personality to make a lot of friends so at home, I only had my older brother and we’d find things for us to do together. Back then, we didn’t have proper equipment either so we’d use a broom as a bat and a cloth doll in replacement as a ball. That’s how we had fun playing and when I started elementary school, I started to get the hang of fitting myself around people when I started sports and my personaliy changed to a brighter one.”

 

And that’s how Bang Yongguk spent his elementary school days and when he moved onto middle school, he started adjusting to a new environment when he moved up to Seoul where his parents lived.

<B.A.P Star Story – Bang Yongguk② will be released on May 1^st>

 

CREDITS: HERALDM (SOURCE); HEODANG @ TUMBLR (TRANS); DO NOT REPOST ON TUMBLR

So this was the song he was writing while he was on the toilet? HAHAHHAHA