[INTERVIEW] EXO-K interview for Heraldm!

Living up to the name of Korea’s best entertainment company, SM Entertainment showed a new male idol group, they are EXO-K.

EXO-K composes of Chanyeol, Sehun, Kai, D.O, Baekhyun and Suho. As they’re SM Entertainment’s first rookie group after 4 years, all of the expectations were on their shoulders and they had a splendid debut.

Their debut song ‘MAMA’ was composed by the composer Yoo Youngjin, with the Gregorian chants and an orchestra’s imposing sound, it raised even more of EXO-K’s mysterious mood.

Armed with charisma and manliness, they’re letting the world know about the birth of a big rookie idol group whilst overwhelming the audience with outstanding singing skills and perfectly organized choreographies.

As opposed to their strong image on stage, the members of EXO-K are sticking together with an innocent charm that is much like their peer group, during the interview they showed their unique charms without losing their smiles.

“I usually laugh a lot and have a lively personality. I’m the style to receive anything with a joyful heart. My hobbies are playing instruments and listening to music. In 2008, during a SMART uniform model competition I also won an award.”(Chanyeol)

“I’m very shy with strangers but once we get closer, I have the kind of personality to go until the end. I’m the mischievious style who likes to joke a lot. Haha. I’m a special case because I was offered to join SM during my 6th year of elementary school through street casting but I rejected it and then during my 2nd year of middle school I passed the audition and got in. I started my trainee life then.” (Sehun)

“Hello. I’m in charge of the dance in EXO-K. I learnt ballet, jazz etc., since my 2nd year of elementary school. In my 2nd year of middle school I started to learn dancing for real so I have pride and confidence about it.”(Kai)


“I’m D.O in charge of the vocals. I liked singing ever since I was young but I participated in a province competition in my 2nd year of high school and even won. I think I did my best to sing as much as I liked singing.”(D.O)

“I’m in charge of the vocals with D.O. Starting from elementary school I liked singing so I participated in a lot of competitions too. In the team, I have the moodmaker’s role.”(Baekhyun)

“I’m EXO-K’s leader Suho. I wanted to become a singer ever since I was young so I was cast during my 3rd year of middle school and trained continuously starting from then. It lasted around 7 years. It’s a long training period? I did my best to get ready as I thought my chance would come. In the end my chance came like this.”(Suho)

EXO-K, during a not so short period of 100 days, had a promotion where they showed little by little the team’s color and each member’s abilities. The members who had to spend this long period waiting didn’t lose their patience and trained even harder.

“Everytime the members’ teasers were released I thought it was fun. We weren’t only waiting for our debut day to be done with our preparations, we never lost our patience to keep on training with a hardworking ethic to show a great and good image.”(Chanyeol)

“I thought of it as a period for the team to toughen up. I think that the pressure grew as the public’s expectations for us increased, so we trained even harder.”(Kai)



“I also thought that it would be nice if we debuted directly so we could meet our fans faster but I was happy we could get the team’s name EXO-K to be known to the whole world slowly. As for me, a 100 days is nothing compared to 7 years of waiting. It was a period where we could toughen up a bit more and become united.”(Suho)

As they’re one of this year’s best idol group, we asked them who they thought of as their rivals. While staying humble, the members replied with an ambitious look. 

“I think that really all the artists are very great. Recently I saw SHINee seniors’ stage and they performed it perfectly without missing out on the performance nor the live. I think they’re really amazing.”(Baekhyun)

“Rather than rivals, I want to become like Shinhwa seniors. I want us to become a long lasting group that will continue to promote even after 10 years. That’s why we talk a lot to each other.”(Sehun)

“Every weekend we have family meetings and during that time, we praise each other on what we did well and tell each other about our dissatisfactions without constraint. Rather than keeping it inside, if there’s a misunderstanding, I think that releasing it is better. But since we trained together for a long time, we know each other well so we barely fight over anything.”(Kai)

They ended the interview by promising that they’ll become a group that will always think first of their ambitious resolutions as a rookie group and of their fans.

“We think that celebrities are people who receive love from all of their fans, but rather than receiving, our team’s motto is ‘let’s give’. We want to give back love as much as we receive. We will pay you back with great performances.”(EXO-K)


source: heraldm
translation cr; emilie @ exok-trans