Saturday, August 24, 2013

Big Bang's Seungri on producing his new album and maturity

By JONATHAN HICAP, Manila Bulletin
Big Bang's youngest member Seungri said producing his second mini album "Let's Talk About Love" brought changes in him and he was satisfied with the results.
Seungri released the album last Aug. 19, which was also the date when Big Bang debuted in South Korea in 2006. He is currently promoting the album on music TV shows.
Seungri (Photo from Seungri's official Facebook page)

The album contains seven tracks: "Let's Talk About Love," "Gotta Talk To U," "GG Be," "Come to My," "Yoo Hoooo!!!", "Love Box" and a remix of "Gotta Talk To U."
He said being a producer of his own album didn't suit him at first.
"To be honest, I didn't take the offer seriously at first. Because I've never done such a work before. And the title of 'producer' doesn't really match my image. That title doesn't really suit my image. But thanks to this experience, there was a big change inside of me," he said in a video released by YG Entertainment on how the album was made.
When he started working on the album, Seungri said the question he asked himself was, 'What kind of message should I give to the public?"
"I'm 24 years old now, so I thought I'm mature enough to talk a little about love. I think [the] world 'love' can mean so many different things. I wanted to show those things in this album, so I chose the title 'Let's Talk About Love' before I started to work on this album," he said.
He added, "One day, CEO Yang [Hyun Suk] asked me, 'At this point in your career, shouldn't your music be more mature and evolved?' Ever since I heard that question, that was the only thing I could think about."
Seungri talked about how he writes songs.
"When I'm writing songs, I discuss ideas with other songwriters. Then I request a certain musical style, so they can make an accompaniment for me. And after that, I create specific melodies that can go with their sound," he said.
Ham Seung Cheon, who composed "Let's Talk About Love," "Gotta Talk To U," "Yoo Hoooo!!!" and "Love Box," said Seungri was quick to give his feedback.
"When we play something for him, he tends to give us really quick feedback. He would record the melodies he was thinking of and play them for us right away and he also shared all his ideas for lyrics with us," he said.
Composer Kang Uk Jin said Seungri knew what lyrics, tempo and concept he wanted for the album.
"I was quite surprised by that. He had a clear idea of what kind of lyrics. He even knew what tempo he wanted and concept he wanted for this album. When we sent him a song around 7 at night, he responded by at least 1 in the morning with melody guidelines," he said.
Seungri said he was very happy that CEO Yang Hyun Suk of YG Entertainment gave his approval to the album.
"At the time, our CEO Yang was there, our company's main producer Teddy and our members [Big Bang] were also there. After 3 seconds of total silence, CEO Yang said, 'It's not easy to tell you this but it's better than I thought it would be.' I felt so happy when he said that," he added.
He described the album as full of surprises including his image and concept for the album.
"I really thought a lot about transforming. While making this album, the words I heard most were, 'You changed a lot.' I think time changed me little by little," he said.
He added that the song "Gotta Talk To U" was done in just one day.
"Regarding the song 'Gotta Talk To U,' people might say 'Don't lie' if I say this, but this song was done in a day. There was a guitar track that Ham Seung Cheon and Kang Uk Jin created. When they said, 'Seungri, you want to hear this?' and played that for me, my immediate response was 'How's 'Gotta Talk To U' as the title of this song?' Story of this song is that I say 'I have something to tell you' to someone I love," he said.
Seungri said "Let's Talk About Love" is different from Big Bang's music as he was able to express his own music and emotions.
"The music I tried in Big Bang has its own unique color, but this album is full kind of music I wanted to try, emotions I wanted to express, and melodies I wanted to sing. I'm so happy that I was able to put out a satisfactory album," he said.
Link to my original article on Manila Bulletin online:

To contact the author, send email to sangchusan(at)gmail.com

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