[YANG HYUN SUK Interview ②] “PSY’s DREAM is my favorite… Fell in love with XIA’s voice”

[?????=??? ??] If there were a best music producer’s award for the year 2015, that should probably go to YG Entertainment’s president YANG HYUN SUK.

YANG made BIGBANG further consolidate their status as Korea’s best idol group, and successfully launched rookie group iKON. “World-star” PSY is sweeping music charts once again, while the project for CL’s solo debut in the United States is being proceeded smoothly. Plus, YG has completed contract renewal with PSY and BIGBANG, YG’s leading artists. YG artists rode high and YANG has always given his best help.

The climax that best-showed such enormous success of YG for this year was “Mnet Asian Music Awards”. BIGBANG took the best song’s award and best singer’s award, which are two of the three grand prizes given in the awards. The finale of the festival was given by PSY and the hottest issue created by the festival was 2NE1 who appeared on the stage out of nowhere. Group iKON also proved the big potential of themselves as a “monstrous rookie”, singing three songs in a row.

The key for the outstanding success of YG for this year was of course YANG HYUN SUK. He dominated Korea’s music scene with full energy and charisma, and has always given great success to YG based on his meticulous planning with rich sensitivity. Daily Sports had an interview with him, to talk about the year 2015 and the next year, right after PSY’s press meeting held on December 1.

- PSY has successfully launched his new album.

“Looking at him consistently feeling burdened by the unexpected success of “Gangnam Style’, I had a hard time, too. The success of the new album is the outcome of PSY’s hardships, efforts, and sweat. What I did was just staying on his side and giving some condolences. I really wanna give a big applause to PSY”.

- PSY’s new songs are creating sensation now. What is your personal favorite other than ‘’DADDY’’ or ‘’NAPAL BAJI’’?

“I personally like ‘Dream’, which is a song dedicated to the late Shin Hae-chul. I think everyone in my generation has some memories about him. I fell in love with XIA’s voice in this song. I really liked his voice, to an extent that I felt sorry for XIA that I haven’t realized how good his voice is so far. I understood why he is so popular. I will recommend him that he perform with PSY for PSY’s concert this month. I want to see how he sings on the stage directly”.

- You have renewed the contract with BIGBANG and PSY, the two most popular artists of YG.

“You know, the only YG artists who can call me a brother are BIGBANG and PSY. The others call me president, I don’t know why but that may be because they are much younger than me. Haha. What I mean is that even after these guys retire or move to another company, they will still be my brothers. As such, I have a big trust for them. If parents have their child get married, they will not live with the child any longer, but that does not mean that they are not family, for example. In some sense, because our relationship was not based on business in the first place, this kind of deep bond is possible. I met and communicated with BIGBANG every day from the days they were trainees. PSY had had a hard time before he joined YG, so he is used to difficulties he could face while working in this industry. So, it is easy to work with him. I and PSY always say to each other, ‘Even after we retire, we’re still together’. So, we’re like close friends”.

-The biggest issue created by this year’s ”MAMA” was appearance of 2NE1, I guess.

“That was a surprise gift for fans who really miss 2NE1. To keep it secret was so important. The members took different flights to go to Hong Kong and they did not went close to the awards’ venue before actually standing on the stage. So, they could not even do any rehearsal for the performance. Of course, they could not stay in the waiting room as well. After their surprise performance at MAMA, many people are curious about their comeback plan, but there still is no specific comeback plan for 2NE1. That was just a surprise gift for fans who have missed 2NE1 for a long time”.

2015. 12. 4.
Source: YG Life