F.T. Island on their Japanese achievements, comeback, and celebrity friendships

After achieving much success in Japan, the boys of F.T. Island have finally returned to their home turf more confident than ever. Their first Japanese album, “Five Treasure Island“, ranked at the top of Oricon’s weekly chart, the first for a foreign artist in Oricon’s 42 years of history.

The boys recently sat down for an interview with IS Sports in commemoration of the feat and shared their thoughts on their impressive achievements. Check it out below!


Q. “How did you feel when you first found out that you ranked in first on the weekly chart?”

“It felt like a movie. We were in the middle of our concert and one of our staff members ran up to the stage and held up a piece of paper that read, ‘You ranked first on Oricon.’ The fans that were watching us all burst out with emotions and we just burst into tears. We’re still not sure how the concert ended because we flew around on stage.”

Q. “It’s been a while since you advanced into Japan.”

“We advanced not as idols, but as a band. Like real Japanese rookie bands start out, we first began performing in clubs in front of audiences that didn’t amount to 100. It was because we took such a process that we’re able to stand where we are now. It’s been four years that we’ve been planting these seeds. We’ve performed in probably 50 or so small-scale performances.”

Q. “Was it difficult in the beginning?”

“We cried a lot. We had crossed over to Japan at the height of our fame in Korea, and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t upset with our CEO telling us to start over from the floor in Japan. All of our fans had just suddenly disappeared. Even while studying music in Japan, we thought of a lot of unnecessary things and were just very lonely and sad. We still remember the taste of the kyudong we ate in our 10 pyeong-sized dorm. We only ate bacon, ramen, and kyudong and did all of the housework ourselves. But CNBLUE ended up living in that dorm after us (laughter).”

Q. “Do you think your Japanese promotions helped you in the long run?”

“If we had been satisfied with our popularity in Korean, we don’t feel that our skills would have improved. The entire time we were in Japan, we took lessons from various different teachers and could feel ourselves really growing and improving. We’re proud of being invited to perform at the Summersonic Rock Festival. We also did 100% of the session in our latest album as well.”

Q. “Introduce your album, ‘Return.’ What does it mean?”

“Because of our Japanese activities, we weren’t in Korea often. This album is an expression of our return to Korea and our fans. We wanted to show our gratitude for waiting for us. Our title track, ‘Hello Hello‘, is a very upbeat, F.T.-style rock song. Although the beat is fun, the lyrics are actually sad in that it’s about a man holding back a lover that’s leaving him by saying ‘Hello’ instead of ‘Goodbye’. ‘Confession‘ is a song that features all five of our voices and it’s a song thanking our fans for being with us even when we caused trouble and made them upset. We think only a team like us where our popularity has been cut can truly feel gratitude towards their fans.”


Q. “Jang Geun Suk, who’s also close with Hongki, is very popular in Japan. Do you meet often up often?”

“Geun Suk hyung’s popularity is really the best. I can see why he’s called ‘Little Yonsama.’ I sometimes grab a drink when he’s in Japan. One time, we went to Izakaya and they kept showing the CF for Geun Suk hyung’s makgeolli brand on TV nonstop. It was fun at first until I got tired of seeing it (laughter).”

Q. “Are you close with any Korean teams?”

“We’re best friends with B2ST because the member ages all fit very closely. We sometimes go bowling together and go head to head, but we’re definitely better at bowling than they are. The last score was 4:1.”

Q. “Since you’re always going back and forth from Korea and Japan, it must be a bit uncomfortable to date.”

“You’re right. We don’t lie. We’re not the types to say we don’t have girlfriends on variety shows when we really do. Right now, we really don’t have any girlfriends.”

source: allkpop