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syubjim · 11 months

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SUGA at ENDRECHERI MIX AND YOU with Tsuyoshi Domoto

👤 Before meeting SUGA-kun I looked up a lot of interviews of him, I got the impression that he is a very honest and strong person. I hope to spend the time leisurely today, but I have the thought that amidst busy schedule he makes time to be here so I gotta let him rest quickly. With that in mind, I hope to be able to talk with him comfortably.

-Introduction clips-

Listening to the latest album

👤 Before meeting SUGA-kun I listened to a lot of SUGA-kun's music

🐱 Oh my, thank you

👤 Listening to the most recently released album, firstly I thought that this work is such a pure album as a whole. Really pure. Because as people live, naturally we feel various emotions and in this day and world you can express it to your heart's content, but it's not necessarily a good thing to express it like that. It's important to exchange this emotion inside our heart, and the tenacity, agony, sadness, and more than anything happiness and love to realize that feeling, that they are important, it sits in the sound and lyrics and flows into my entire body, that's what I felt about the work.

🐱 Thank you

Tsuyoshi-san's impression of SUGA

👤 I wanted to know a little deeper about SUGA-kun so I looked up many interviews. I got the impression that he's a really honest and strong person. What do you think of yourself?

🐱 I'm someone that can say I like it if I like it, if I hate it then I hate it. Rather than being honest, I think it's just my personality since I was young. I think it's also reflected in my music. The music that I liked since I was young, I fell in love when the artists were telling their own stories then I started music, so I think I was influenced a lot by that.

👤 I think to be honest to yourself and to live as you are is not something that just anyone can do

🐱 That's right

👤 But I think, because someone who lives honestly like SUGA-kun delivered such a message, there are more people in the world who have been able to get out of their own sorrow and hardship that they go through and have that strength. So I think it's really impressive to live while always keeping that childhood's pure heart until now.

🐱 I think these days the world is especially very harsh to young people. Whenever I hear (someone say) that after listening to my music they gained strength or that it became their reason to live, it also gives me a lot of comfort. It's not that my messages are exclusively for young people, but if it becomes a comfort for those who are struggling and hurting in this world, I honestly think it's enough reason to make music.

👤 I feel the same kind of reason

What they have in common: 'Grandpa'!?

👤 We have something in common, I'm also called 'ojiichan'

🐱 *laughs* Me too

👤 For example, even when people around me are in panic I'll be like ...🧍‍♂️... My hometown is not Tokyo, I really like the hometown I was born in and I enjoyed the culture there so I was called grandpa and such. Knowing that SUGA-kun is also called 'grandpa' I felt some kind of familiarity.

🐱 I've been making music since I was very young, I've made music since i was 12. I started doing music work when I was 17, so I always worked with older hyungs and nunas and naturally I grew up a bit faster I think.

👤 Amazing. I watched your interviews and works while keeping on saying 'amazing'

Thoughts put into Agust D

👤 Can we listen to the meaning behind SUGA-kun's artist name, Agust D?

🐱 It's actually DT SUGA put backwards and becomes the name Agust D, DT is Daegu my hometown... Daegu... SUGA.. When i was young there was this thing, I first made Agust D 7~8 years ago, we debuted as dance singers, and even though I did rap and producing actually I didn't belong in the idol team nor did I belong in the underground rappers. It felt like being halfway when I was young, there was some kind of a victimhood where I wasn't recognized in both sides. So wanting to show the best things I could do, I changed my name, but because it's a character made for that, early Agust D music has a lot of anger and is destructive. At first when i made it 7~8 years ago I already had the thought of making it a trilogy. Now that it's finished, from such a very destructive and rebellious music to some extent a mature music, I think I've showed them all well. I think I've showed another persona really well.

About the moment when you want to write a song

👤 Talking about when the song becomes 1 (one) from 0 (zero), for me there were a lot of instances where the thought came to me when I was in the shower, so I came out, took notes, and went back in, this happened often.

🐱 I tend to record on my phone

👤 When is the moment SUGA-kun thinks you should write a song?

🐱 I think the most important thing for a person who does pop music (popular music; for general public) is sincerity. I don't really like the scenes that are shown a lot in media where a singer-songwriter or composer suddenly get an inspiration at a certain moment and starts writing. Because I just always carry around my equipment and work on music, and I work a lot, so that I simply have a lot amount songs with me.

🐱 When i made this album i certainly was stressed out, I had to write the lyrics, I had to write the melody, and I had to do the arrangement too, but normally when I work on songs I don't get stressed at all. There's a songwriter friend who I work with, the two of us made most of this album. With that friend, even when we're drinking we end up working. And since I'm going around with the band (on tour), while drinking together with the band I would suddenly play guitar, or play keyboard, and make songs that way. So normally when doing a song camp or working on songs it feels like I'm just playing around, so I don't think there's an exact moment when I suddenly get inspired. I just always carry equipment to able to record it whenever that happens, or seeing that these days handphone, smartphone recorders work so well, I appreciate them as much as possible and record (on phone) a lot.

🐱 And since you also work on songs you must know, but when you first make a song and listen to it you don't know if it's any good, but after a few months there are moments when you think, "Oh, this is really good?". For this album too, Haegeum the title song was already written 3 years ago and I just needed to re-arrange it to fit the trend. That way, I'm the type that just steadily work on music. I need to produce an album so I don't do it like hurriedly, the oldest song in this album is from 4~5 years ago.

👤 That's right, I don't use voice memo but there were many times I used it in private, for phrase or guitar riff, bass riff, rhythm pattern, or * makes music sound* ...I put them all first and when I make a song I give them a listen again and, "Oh this beat sounds nice?... Um this is not so good..." then I save a dormant beat or riff, melody and make use of it, there are cases like that.

About the number of tracks in a song

👤 There are also times when I talk to my friends (imply talking in terms of making music) and I'm getting more and more into it, then the number of tracks increase. I adjust that number of tracks and take out some or use some parts to balance them out. How many tracks you put in a song?

🐱 What does 'How many tracks in a song' mean?

👤 *explains* At the region, and guitar... So the bass, drum...

🐱 Ah you mean how many instruments I use in a track, right?

👤 Yes, yes. So voice...

🐱 For me it's different for every song, but this time in the title song Haegeum's case, apart from the beat there are not many tracks, just a Korean instrument called gayageum, a Korean instrument called haegeum, and a Korean flute called daegeum, and 808, snare, hi-hat, I kinda made it minimal-ly. When I make commercial songs, or various OSTs, this type of light music, instrumental music, I fill it with a lot (of sounds/instruments). So I think it's different depending on the song's vibe. These days minimal music is very trendy too so I think I tend to reflect on the situation, to reflect on the trend.

About traditional instruments, timbre, and musical scale

👤 There was a message that traditional instruments are important in making music for you, what is the sound or instrument that you consider important? For example for me, my hometown is Nara and there's an instrument 0distortion, this time as well in Haegeum I apply distortion oare called Nara. By playing the musical scale f that instrument with a guitand20where I applied electric nuanceC I can feel the atmosphere gf our country there, but I (implying personal colour) don't disappear. There are times when a funky music that are not usually applied on instruments a lot, and the way I often produce is after reversing it I chop it, that's the mix. For SUGA-kun too, is there any traditional instrument oout traditional inst

🐱 I surely did use them a lot, I used Korean traditional instruments a lot. But honestly it's not that I use them to let people know about traditional instruments, I just think of them as one of various instruments and sounds. And when I make a sound I like making one that not many people do, I like to use samples by cut, paste– by chopping them. For traditional instruments I either apply distortion, this time as well in Haegeum I apply distortion on gayageum, even though I don't know gayageum well. There are also instances where I applied electric distortion on voices and guitar. I really like making beats by making unique sounds that way. A lot of effects can be done on traditional instruments, so it rather makes a fresh sound. I use effects that are not usually applied on instruments a lot, and the way I often produce is after reversing it I chop it, that's the sampling method I use a lot. I actually use it in this album too. I think I tend to approach it (traditional instruments) as one sound. Honestly it's not that I wanna tell people about traditional instruments, seeing that I don't have a lot of understanding about traditional instruments too. I just approach it as a sound.

👤 When choosing a timbre, do you decide right away after getting an inspiration or do you contemplate about it a lot before deciding?

🐱 I'm not the type that worries about that when writing a song, especially since I make beat first then add melody and lyrics to it. Actually at first, together with the friend that I work with for 6-7 years, we just go "Shall we try doing something like this?", we tend to start off this way. But after starting with a particular song vibe, that song vibe doesn't come out in the end, a whole different song always comes out, that's how I usually work on many songs. When I was young, there were a lot of songs that I participated in, and when one got stuck it affected me badly mentally. But these days, just...even if I work on several things at the same time I don't get stressed, even though I tend to get stressed around the last minute of an album (production).

SUGA's future prospect

👤 In the future how do you think SUGA will change?

🐱 I only have this thought... While going on this tour, I have this strong conviction that I will perform even when I'm in my 50~60s. Honestly I have the most fun when I'm doing music, I have the most fun when I'm on stage, that hasn't change. It's just that since I was young I have to do various genres, so I'm not sure what kind of music I'll do in the future. I think being able to do all kinds of genres is my forte. But these days while the tour is going, after only rapping in the past, this time there are a lot of songs with vocals in it so I got to sing. There's a charm that only vocal has in its own way, so if there's a chance I wanna work on a lot of songs with the sound of acoustic band, and rap too separately in rap songs, if I can mix these two just right, won't I be able to do music for a longer long time. When I'm in my 50s will I rap? I wonder about that a lot hehe... I think to rap in my 50~60s will be very hard and I find a lot of fun in vocal parts so I wanna improve by doing various genres of music.

👤 What are you looking forward to in live concert in Japan?

🐱 Actually I couldn't do a concert in Japan since 2019 because of COVID-19. At that time a stadium tour was scheduled, but now two of our members are on military service so we're in a situation where we can't tour with all 7 members. I'm doing a solo tour, but honestly I longed for the fans a lot. Japan is one thing, but that time we certainly should've done all of the stadium tour, even though it wasn't for us to take responsibility , it wasn't our fault, the thought of wanting to do a concert soon was so prevalent and since last year while preparing the album— actually in a way it's an album that is made for the purpose of doing a concert. And fortunately since I was young — to call it a solo activity is a bit like that* — but I produced or wrote enough solo songs to be able to hold a concert, so I'm grateful for the younger early 20s me, for making it so that I can go on tour at any time.

🐱 It's a concert in Japan after a long time and Japan experienced COVID-19 just like us so I wish to relief the stress or such things that people have gotten from that time, (for people/fans) to really excitedly sing along and have fun together, dance, actually I think that's the biggest reason to do a concert.

👤 Today is the first time that I meet SUGA-kun and listen to many of his stories. Just like you, I express my performance in various forms, and my main genre is funk but other than that I enjoy and do various genres and I can think of it as fun because it feels alive, I enjoy music with that kind of feeling. As expected you have to enjoy yourself to deliver that happiness to a lot of people so everyone can gain the strength of that positivity... I felt that we share the same thoughts regarding that part. But just like I said it at first, I can really feel that SUGA-kun is definitely more honest and stronger than me.

🐱 Thank you

👤 Hereafter as well, I will watch SUGA-kun's activity and continue to feel that. I sincerely hope that hereafter SUGA-kun continues to live his life to the fullest as SUGA-kun is right now.

🐱 Thank you

👤 Originally I really was going to cut this interview shorter even just a little so that I can give you a break even just a little... Sorry, I talked too much, sorry.

🐱 [shakes head]

👤 I'm really happy to have met you. Thank you.

🐱 Thank you

👤 I had an interview with SUGA-kun and as expected along the interview I had the impression that "Even at this time he's encouraging a lot of people with the words he say that contain each and every thought of his". I think through this interview you guys have heard the words that can help you gain strength as well. For me along with the episode of SUGA-kun making music, I get to know more about SUGA-kun and in the future, any work he makes and how his life turns out I hope to be able to root for him, and I had an honest time with a heart full of love. Thank you.

-fin-

The japanese words (Tsuyoshi-san's) were translated from Korean (JP➡️KR➡️ENG) credit to sugajeong님 and B_bud님.

A little guide:

👤 Tsuyoshi Domoto

🐱 SUGA

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(context)

italicized words were said in English

#suga d-day promotion #bts japan interview #endrecheri mix and you #translation

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