SBS Biz

■ SOUL INTERVIEW : BuskerBusker 'Brad'


-What was your childhood dream? Did you always want to be a band member?

▶I wanted to be baseball player when I was a kid. 13 or 14 all the other boys started growing very rapidly and I didn't. I have to give up baseball and only got into music because my two best friends. They were musicians and I thought they were cool. The only way I could . Because when they go to band practice I'd have to sit home and watch TV. So I tried and started with oen drum. Like this.

-Really?

▶When they thought I was good enough they gave me 2 drums. They always made fun of me because I never took lessons. So instead of using the base drum with my foot I would just hit the floor tom as my basedrum.  I would never use my feet so that was our style when we first started playing. Becuase I never knew any technique. And stil busker members we've never taken music lessons so that was also difficult for the show because they'd bring in sheet music to play and we couldn't.

-You always come up with very sentimental songs like 'Cherry blossoms ending'. Do you actually understand that stuff?

▶Bumjun explains it to me. He shows me the song on the guitar and then explains to me the sentiment and then I have to come up with the drumbeat. But sometimes before they explain the song meaning, I start playing and go really heavy and they go "No. This is actualy a sad song ".

-Do you get along well with Bumjun and Hyeongtae? I mean we are all humans I am sure you guys fight sometimes.

▶Just only because of the schedule. That's really the only disagreements that come up.

-Maybe Bumjun is more ambitious than you.

▶Not really. In terms of that we were too overworking and too busy at the first contract time. But in terms of what kind of stuff we want to do, we have to do a CF. We don't have to do it and like picking the product and stuff, sometimes we clash over that but if you tell us.

-What products doesn't he like?

▶Bumjun and Hyeongtae are very shy boys. Bumjun actually drove us here today but he wouldn't come in. So he's parked somewhere in 'Garosoogil'. I mean we hang out all the time but you try to get him in front of the camera, he shuts down. As open as he is with his music.

-So he knew you played the drums.

▶Yeah. He heard from a friend of mine and orignial drummer was called to the military service.

-Camera-shy?

▶Yes. Very camera shy.

-Are you jealous of each other sometimes? Maybe Bumjun of your looks or Danny. Bumjun is the vocalist so he gets more attention sometimes.

▶I think both the boys are jealous of danny. We can have an open relationship so many times, idols they will have a girlfriend or a boyfriend and people really could tweak them. In media, they say bad things about them. But I didn't know about that. So at the show I said "This is my girlfriend Danny". And all the cameras turned to her. Everyone said "May be you shouldn't do that". But I didn't know so I said it is what it is.

-I think they like you all the more becuase you are so genuine

▶It's all luck. Luckily they liked me more. But I think me and Hyeongtae are jealous of Bumjun of all his fan gifts. He gets all the best gifts! We get gifts too. But a big box would come. We'd open it up and have 3bags in it with our names on it. But Bumjun's bags wil be filled all the love letters. Even when people write me. 'I am your biggest fan' it's say give this letter to Bumjun and it'd be this long love letter.

-Most of the fan gifts are from girls. What about you? Are they fans or girls or guys?

▶Almost 90% of Busker's fans are girls. But I think I have the largest percentage of guy fans.

-I am sure Danny likes that.

▶Maybe because of my aggressive drumming, guys like that. Or machoness.

-Let' talk about Danny a little bit. I know she's very special to you. Was it love at first sight?

▶I think so. When we met in college two of our freinds were dating so we met that way. We started talking. And both of us were in dancestage of our lives. Every Saturday and Friday we'd go dancing and we met at dance clubs and hit it off. Towards ends of college, neither of us had any idea of what to do. So she founds teachers of Korea on website. She got instant acceptance and next day I said I will come with you. We knew little about Korea. But when we first came here we only knew Kimchi. We knew no korean and built up our lifehere

-You are finally getting married August 31st. This is having here in Korea. Is this becuase you feel this is your second home?

▶Actually it's become our first home. It's funny when we talk to our friends on skype. We say the word "home" we are always saying, we mean Korea. Because we rarely go back there in the past few years. we've only been there a couple of times.

-Don't you miss it?

▶We miss somethings. But in general it's like food or something, we just have it shipped over. Our families visit every once a while. It's mostly our famiy and friends. But in terms of life and living, we are perfectly happy here.

-Your nick name is apparently 'bbangsik'. How Korean do you feel?

▶That nickname didn't stick until we joined top10 of the show. People asked me when I was a teacher "Why did your parent name you 'Bread'". And I said "My name is not 'Bread'. It's 'Brad'". But for my students, it was 100% the same. When I said "Brad or'Bread' 100% the same. And so they were genuinely confused when my parents would name me that. When I joined the show, I am not sure if it was 'Kim Dohyun' or 'ULALA SESSION' that actually calling me 'bbang' as a name.

-"Hey 'bbang'!" Like this?

▶Yes. That was the name that was the first time, whoever called me that. Because in the top 11 there were 21 members and so I didn't know most of their names. So we all had nicknames for each other. When I talked to 'ULALA SESSION' I'd just go 'ULALA' I didn't know at least 3 or 4 weeks. I didn't know their names.

-What do you do with koreans?

▶Danny is a soju drinker I am a beer drinker. I hate the alcohol burn but she is a soju champion. Oh, mageolli. I like mageolli. But she can't touch mageolli.

-You are vegeterians.

▶Yes. We are both vegeterians. That' probably the biggest difficulty in our lives even than the kroean to navigate the korean cuisine. But we survive.

-So how long do you see yourself living here in korea?

▶Before the band started we had no-plan leaving. We still don't have any plans of leaving.

-What about Busker Busker? How long do you think Busker Busker will stay?

▶I don't know. We generally like to have fun. So probably when we don't have fun, we'll quit. But right now we are having fun.
-So what's your favourite Korean dish?

▶It's Bibipbab and Cheonggukjang.

-Really? Even I can't take Cheonggukjang.

▶I like it. It tastes like Campbell bean soup my mom used to make me. I dont't know why  koreans have such an issue with that.

-Thank you so much for interview.

▶Thank you.


<To be continued>


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