(x)clusive!: From Sun Up to Sun Down – first Sundown Festival in 2009
Editor’s story
Sundown Festival 2011 is coming yet again, next weekend! I still remember the first Sundown Festival concert in 2009 – the time when Korean Pop was still picking up, and it was rare to see your favourite Korean stars in Singapore. Definitely a memorable experience for myself too, as it was one of my earlier experience with interviewing Korean celebrities.

Sundown Festival 2009 featured purely Korean cultural and pop acts namely: The (amazing) Drawing Show, B-boys Jinjo Crew, power duo Mario and Park Shinae, soloist Lee Jisu, mighty performers T-Max, fun-loving FT Island and luxurious girl group Brown Eyed Girls.

I actually had the chance to conduct an email interview with T-Max, FT Island and Brown Eyed Girls as I was writing for Lianhe Zaobao, but no one seemed to read Chinese papers for K-entertainment then… Thus as an exclusive, for the first time, you (x)clusive readers will be able to read my interview with these three amazing groups back in 2009!
T-Max

Q: What strikes you first when you hear ‘Singapore’? (Like food, culture, weather, etc)
T-Max: We know Singapore as a very clean country. We didn’t have the chance to experience Singaporean food in Korea, so we would like to try various foods this time.
Q: Out of all the countries T-Max has visited, which was the most memorable?
T-Max: Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore. In fact, all the countries were memorable. We enjoyed it a lot because we experienced the different cultures of each country. And the most meaningful thing we felt is that Asia is One.
Q: T-Max hasn’t been active in the Korean Pop scene for sometime (in 2009, after their promotions for Paradise). What is T-Max up to recently?
T-Max: We are recharging our batteries while preparing for our first regular album..
Q: Singapore’s hit by the Boys Over Flowers craze – Since T-Max has 3 members, which any other artist would you choose to be the 4th ‘F4’ member in T-Max? Why?
T-Max: That is a tough question, hahaha! Since T-Max means Three-Max, hmmm well, since we are all guys, we welcome it if the 4th member is Geum Jan Di~~!!!
Q: If T-Max were girls, who in F4 will you fall in love with?
Kim Jun: Song Woobin. Without any particular reason, I feel attracted.
Min Chul: No comment.
Yun Hwa: Song Woobin …His leadership and masculinity.
FT Island
Q: Since you have visited Singapore in June, what do you like about Singapore?
FT Island: We liked everything from the schedule to the food and etc, but the best was meeting Singaporean fans. Since we do music, we like the time that we enjoy with fans on stage. Same in Singapore the last time, we liked it when we performed on stage for our fans who enjoyed our performance.
Q: Is there anything you wanted to do/try but didn’t have the chance to the previous time you were in Singapore?
FT Island: We researched various things about Singapore before visiting. There were several things we wanted to do, but the most of all we wanted to try the Duck Tour. It’s a city tour ride on a boat that looks like a truck that glides on land as well as on sea.. We saw it in a photo and it seemed very exciting. Since Singapore is an island country, a city tour on sea sounds great! We want to try it this time.
Q: What can Singapore expect from your performance at Sundown Festival 2009?
FT Island: Just like we performed at the last Singapore concert with a lot more fans than before, we hope when we do perform in Singapore next time, even more fans will attend. And we hope to establish FT Island in Singapore as well, with lots of local fans here.
Q: FT Island has been trying out new areas, with Hongki playing drums in the drama ‘You’re Beautiful’, Jonghun with the piano for FT Triple. Will you guys try dancing one day?
FT Island: We have lots of things to do and learn in regards of music, and instruments. And of course we would like to learn dancing, however because our FT Island members are all not good at dancing, we would like to refrain from it. Rather, we think the FT Island that plays instruments is cooler and better. And our fans seem to like us more when we play instruments.
Q: As students yourselves, do you have any special study tips to share for your fans who are studying?
FT Island: To tell you the truth, studying long hours without any break seems to interrupt concentration. We heard having a short break like studying for one hour and break for 10 mins is more efficient than studying long hours. And one more! We heard it is not always good to stay up all night. Enough sleeping hours helps one to remember better next day. Although these two suggestions are not special study tips, we want to share this because we think this is the most efficient way to study. Our Primadonna fans! Study hard!
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