TVXQ discusses staying fresh after decade of performing

Going on nearly 11 years in the K-pop game, the members of TVXQ kicked off their latest international concert tour with two sold-out performances in Seoul over the weekend.

As the duo’s first solo concert in Korea in nearly two years, the first leg of TVXQ’s “T1Story” live concert tour attracted 24,000 fans, who flocked to Olympic Park’s Gymnastics Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.

Looking to maintain their originality and remain relevant as one of K-pop’s veteran acts, U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin said they are always trying to come up with new ideas to keep their fans guessing and coming for more.

“For this concert series we really focused a lot on what our concept would be,” Yunho said during a press conference held prior to the duo’s show on Sunday, which marked TVXQ’s 4,000th day since debuting. 

“I think we have made a lot of changes in terms of our live shows; from adding to our technicality, including a number of musical themes, performing acoustic versions of songs as well as having a thought-out storyline,” he added. “We are always trying our best to show fans something different, something they have never seen from us in the past.”

In the group’s local shows, Yunho unveiled his new self-written and self-composed dance track “Bang” to the public for the first time.

“In past concerts I have been known to unveil one of my self-composed and self-written songs, but this time around I even went as far as editing the single (“Bang”) myself,” said Yunho. “I like to think of this as a small surprise track (for concert-goers to enjoy).”

“For about two months we worked hard, bled and suffered,” said Changmin, who explained that in order to maintain their ideal body image for their tour, they received intense training that did not allow them to eat any high-cholesterol food.

“In this tour we included a number of our past hits (from when TVXQ was a five-member group),” he added. “There are some songs that we realized we hadn’t performed in a long time so we wanted to give fans the opportunity to not just hear our newer songs, but to be transported back to the history of TVXQ and stir up some fond memories.”

The group’s seventh full-length album, “Tense,” featuring the hit lead single “Something,” was released at the beginning of the year. The two members said that although nothing has been set in stone yet in terms of TVXQ’s next release, they assured fans that they will continue their musical endeavors with no end in sight.

“Our overall goal, our dream is and has always been to perform and stay together as long as possible,” said Yunho. “That is what is most important for us.”

Later this month TVXQ will perform shows in Taipei, Taiwan and Beijing on Dec. 13 and 19, respectively, with more concert locations and dates to be announced soon.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)