Zhou Mi who has prepared for close to two years just to bring better music to everyone, has finally brought his first solo album back to his hometown. Returning back to Easy Studio, he talks about his work and life in another country while having photoshoots.
Non-stop revision in the process of preparing for the solo album
E: As compared to the last time when SJ-M released an album, how did you feel when you released your own solo?
Zhou Mi: There's Chinese and Korean included in this album, so I worry more when I'm doing preparations alone, partly because I don't have members with me, and I'm not sure if I can hold on with everything going on at once. It's also partly because I used to help members with their Chinese pronunciation, but now I have to watch out for my own Korean, since it's not my mother tongue. Even though I prepared for a long time, I was still really nervous at my debut stage, I didn't know how everyone would view me who was standing on stage alone.
E: Did you meet any difficulties or obstacles when preparing this album? Was there any burden?
Zhou Mi: It took a longer time than expected for preparation, I started in 2013, and only released the album at the end of last year. In these two years, I recorded the title track, then changed it again, recorded 8, 9 songs, and finally chose the tracks that would be included in the album, just to bring good music to everyone. It was a period where I kept revising everything to make the album more perfect.
*E: Just now you mentioned that the title hit you recorded was changed again, did this period of time cause you to have low spirits or any unhappy moments?
Zhou Mi: Actually it was not too bad, because honestly I didn’t really like my previous title hit. And right now with <Rewind> it is a song that I liked ever since I heard the demo, these type of music were not songs that S.M. would typically choose as a title hit. Coincidentally, I get to use this song to show a different side to myself, someone who is pretty adaptable.
E: I heard that you've been working out? How did you get this idea? What stage have you progressed to now?
Zhou Mi who turns into a perfectionist at work
E: You've wrote lyrics for SJ-M, EXO and other artistes, it seems like you're ambitious about song-writing?
Zhou Mi: I don't really have a lot of ambition towards composing, but what I do want is to perform pieces done by famous lyricists or composers. Sometimes the lyrics I'm given aren't really suitable for me, so I may edit them a little or just write new lyrics that I'll feel comfortable singing. Actually for this solo we received songs from others, but I wasn't really pleased about some lyrics, so I just decided to write all the lyrics in this album myself.
E: Are you a perfectionist at work? I feel like you have a tendency to be so?
Zhou Mi:, I'm not, but I try to be one at work. (laughs) Like for this album, I adjusted the key at least thrice. In every revision you never know what can be considered 100 marks, and since this is my first solo album, I'll surely give my best. When this album was released I thought it was not bad, but after some time I turn back and listen to it, my view is different again. I keep thinking "this part can be improved, if that part was edited it would be great!" I guess every artiste feels this kind of non-fulfillment about their work! This way you can be better next time.
*E: Previously you published a travelogue <Thai Perfect>, do you have any plans to publish another for a different travel location?
Zhou Mi: This depends on whether the company gives me time! Enjoying myself and penning a book is something that is really relaxing in my opinion. If I have a chance to publish another travelogue, I think I would do one that is entirely different style from that of <Thai Perfect>, the way it is collated the look and various details would be thought over once again.
Zhou Mi: Because my activities are mostly concentrated in Korea these days, when I have time I tend to go to the bookstores to take a look at book that introduce China as a travel location, thinking about my hometown Wuhan, then I would go read about Guangzhou, so if it is based on my perspective to introduce Chinese eats and places of interest to readers, I would think this is quite a nice idea.
E: Presently you've already tried at your hand in a lot of areas, do you have any other plans for your work in future?
Zhou Mi: Lately I've taken on a few MC-ing jobs in Korea, song programmes and TV variety shows. And now that I've released my own solo, I think I haven't been acting in a long while. If there's any suitable script or role, I'll probably consider taking it on.
Learning to be yourself after many years of debut
E: What's your biggest obstacle right now?
Zhou Mi: Since I'm still living in Korea, I feel like I need more practice for my Korean, so I'm continuing lessons right now. On singing, I used to sing ballads, but now I'm singing and dancing on my own, so I hope I can get more practice on my dancing. Another difficulty is that I can't come back. (laughs) If I could fly back more often to go on shows, I can show everyone my charisma on stage.
E: After debuting for such a long time and experiencing so many things, what is the most unbelievable thing that has happened to you?
Zhou Mi: The fact that I can join this band is one of the most unbelievable things. I never used to like K-pop, until a friend of mine showed me a picture of Siwon when he was younger and said he looked a bit like me, so I saved it. Then later star search people found me, and when they saw the picture of Siwon in my phone, they said "This is Siwon from our company, you'll be in the same band as him in the future". When I heard that at that time I was completely shocked. After that I went to find that friend who showed me the picture and told him about the news, he said to me "You must be lying!" I feel fate is really amazing. A lot of things that we don't know about are slowly happening right now.
E: In the music industry, do you have an idol whom you want to overtake?
Zhou Mi: In the past when I first joined the band, when I was at the side watching SuperJunior's performance I would think, this is what you call idols. Maybe it's because I went through a lot, but now I feel like "idol" is just a noun. I just want to be myself, make my own music, and gain everyone's recognition.
Trans by @blueeeeelf & @Vanet9 for @SunshineZhouMi
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