Thomas Cook was the Artist Of The Month June at Mintpaper's and 3 month after starting, I finished the translation of the interview that came with it.
T/N: I realized while proofreading, that my english is still awkward and fail. I'm sorry for that. If there is something you don't understand, ask!
Highlights:
- talking about the time before his comeback and his search
- talking about producer Kim Dong Ryul
- My Aunt Mary's future (the reason I translated the whole thing, actually)
- the lovely that is Jeong Sun Yong.
Mintpaper: Finally we meet. We waited really long. I mean, there was always the talk about you coming back. I’m glad to meet you.
Thomas Cook: Because it’s Mintpaper, I can say it. Mintpaper had the biggest influence that the album came out even if just now.
M: I don’t really understand? (laughter)
TC: I got a proposal to appear at the Beautiful Mint Life around last winter. The talk about how it would be if it would coincide with the album release when I’m already appearing came and went. Because I also thought it would be better if I came to see the audience with an album, I worked on the album with the Beautiful Mint Life as a goal. But there’s no case where the album comes faster than expected. Still, because Mintpaper urged me on, I’m able to greet you now. (laughter)
M: Even though, I remember you doing a passionate performance last Beautiful Mint Life. It’s a bit late, but I’ll take this chance to thank you.
TC: Last year during the GMF I did it too quietly, so this time I set up a band. But because it rained… (laughter) But I tried really hard. The audience put on their rain outfits and listened really well. So I couldn’t not work hard. But still, I couldn’t follow up to the audience who accompanied me while being hit by the rain. It was a performance that will stay in memories for a long time.
M: After coming back, how long did it take to release the album?
TC: Actually, with the work on the songs 3 months and the recordings about 3 months, the job didn’t take that long. It took long until I was determined to start to write songs. It’s not that the songs come out only by having a notebook and pencil. There has to be a welling up of materials to write until they come out. That time was quite long.
M: So, how did you spend that time?
TC: I often met up with colleagues around me and talked and drunk with them and such. When my seniors had a performance, I went to the waiting room, greeted them and watched their performance properly and after that went with them grilling meat. (laughter) I say it like that but actually, we don’t just chatter, I feel and learn in those conversations about how people write songs and how they unfold their own story. Spending my time like that, the conclusion of it was ‘let’s do my songs. Let’s do my own thing’. All the people I watched where like that. Kim Dong Ryul, Lee Juck, Jo Won Seon, Yoo Hee Yeol, Lee Sang Soon, etc. everyone wasn’t for 1st place, but to make their own world. So that’s why they can do it for a long time. So that’s why there are people looking forward and waiting for them, I realized. The time I spend with them helped me a lot.
M: So did you worry about that in your break?
TC: I always did, but I couldn’t find an answer.
M: Somehow, it must have been a bit of a hard time?
TC: It was really difficult. Roaming around… But it’s like that. I like mellow kimchi. Yesterday I prepared kimchi. Until it’s matured, it needs time. That’s a matter of course. But when you don’t know these natural things, it’s too difficult. But time passes and looking at it, it is natural that it was difficult. Like going to one working place for a long time, I did one work for a long time. With the time passing, there are things I feel. It’s not that everything works like I want, and it’s not that something comes up when I just pretend to be smart… I always go on living. ‘Today there is the lacking, insufficient me.’ To accept that and make up for it, I have to study and work hard. Just thinking changes nothing.
M: Like that the song ‘아무것도 아닌 나 (absolutely nothing me)’ came out?
TC: That’s right. All the 8 songs on the album are products of what I worried about and came to know. I want you to look at it as one album that contains everything you feel while living.
M: So is there a special reason for the album title ‘Journey’?
TC: At first I also thought about making it ‘Essay’. With the thought of 8 Essays written by me. With the meaning of a travel I went on alone, I called it ‘Journey’. Before I started working on the album, I thought ‘it came what had to come’. From always doing My Aunt Mary together, I left and the lone feeling became really strong. There is also the feeling of having started Thomas Cook from 10 years long My Aunt Mary.
M: Looking at the lyrics, the majority are love stories and the vocabulary ‘you’, but taking a closer listen, everyone can become this ‘you’ and it’s also covered in worries about a life that is not just simple love stories.
TC: That’s right. The vocabulary ‘you’ can also become ‘me’. I heard that the majority of the words most people say are stories for themselves. I already said it earlier, but, you just need to look at it as songs filled with the worries and thoughts of me from that time.
M: It became a topic that Kim Dong Ryul participated as a producer on this album. It seems it has been a good experience for the both of you.
TC: I thought while working on my solo album, if I want to express better to the people what I want and what I want to express, wouldn’t I need to work together with a producer? But at my side was Dong Ryul and at first, when I lightly wrote songs or recorded, I asked for advice and requested help. But at some moment Hyung had come every day to the recording room. (laughter) Hyung is surely a huger musician than I am. From the aspect of experience and influence, he is by far a more excellent artist than me.
M: Speaking of which, looking at Kim Dong Ryul’s twitter, there were also a lot telling about the progress of Thomas Cook’s album.
TC: He became Thomas Cook’s press spokesman. (laughter) He says after my album came out he received greetings from people. Instead of saying that they are listening to it well, they said they’re listening to it.
M: Are you satisfied with the work with Kim Dong Ryul? Are you wondering how it would have been had you worked alone?
TC: Of course I’m satisfied. Firstly, if I had worked alone, the album would have been even later. (laughter) I’d maybe have done less of the spruceness that is now. I think if I had done it, I would have been maybe more persistent and it would have taken longer.
M: Jo Won Seon, Lee Sang Soon, and other co-artists participated in the album. Lee Sang Soon also participated in the music video.
TC: She was caught when she came by the shooting place by chance. (laughter) But I like them very much. Being together is nice and fun. Not only as a musician, but also as humans, we’re close and they are people I want to be with.
M: The music video too, fitting to the song’s atmosphere, it’s very lyrical and especially the mixture of the real photos and illustrations is impressive.
TC: It were the people whom I also worked with on My Aunt Mary’s “Green Tin Scooter” music video, the idea came from a really lot of people. They worked hard. (laughter)
M: I get the feeling your music is by far more clean and simple than My Aunt Mary’s.
TC: It’s a really natural flow. Should I say it’s similar to the situation of having used a room as three at first and then came to use it as one? At the place where each of the three used their space separately, you can change the positions of the furniture or can use it more broadly. It’s not something that’s intended on purpose, it’s a result that came out naturally.
M: On the other side, it seems to have the nice melodies and refined sounds one could feel at My Aunt Mary’s. What is the part with the most essential point in the album?
TC: I wanted to let hear the part where the best color of my solo could come out. I thought that also the listeners didn’t want something that is the same like My Aunt Mary. What I cared the most about was that it carries a certain unity and that the songs give a totally different feeling. So I wanted to reduce the superfluity and make it to 8 songs.
M: Looking through the internet, the reaction to ‘솔직하게’ and ‘집으로 오는 길’ seems good.
TC: It had been like that since My Aunt Mary. We take real pains to decide for the title song, and then… (laughter) Recently there are also often times when I release a single or am active with just one song. But since it’s a proof that they love various songs from the album, I’m very thankful. I don’t want to make music only I am satisfied with; I want to make music that can be shared with people.
M: If it’s like that, are there points to how the people should listen to Thomas Cook’s album?
TC: Sometimes, I search (the internet) for my name. There are two different kinds. There are people who are introducing my music. There are people who say who Thomas Cook is and what kind of album his is and people who write about the actual person and upload my music. Of course I’m also thankful to the former type, but I am totally happy about the latter type. Because, it means my music melted into the life of someone. The feelings then, the scenes, the memories; when I think about how they were together with my music in those things, I can’t hope for more. To me there is also such music. It’s not one usual song, but one that can belong only to me.
M: This might be a question the fans are interested in a lot. Will we be able to hear My Aunt Mary’s music again?
TC: Because each of us has his own activities. We’re not active (as My Aunt Mary), but we meet and talk often. Before we were active like this, we met and talked about one thing. For each to take a hold of many more subjects to talk about and then meet again. If we each gather a lot of stories, won’t we meet again and play together?
M: How is it possible to shoot profile pictures so handsomely?
TC: Between the internet Thomas Cook and the Thomas Cook you see for real is Photoshop. You have to use the techniques for the people, right? (laughter)
M: Talking about your future plans?
TC: I’m planning a concert at the Rolling Hall for four days from August 4~7.
M: The last question. Having made music for a long time, when you look into the future, as what kind of artist do you want to be remembered?
TC: Rather than ‘genius’, ‘musician with excellent skills’, I want to do ‘Jeong Sun Yong’-ish, ‘Thomas Cook’-like music. I want to be remembered as an artist having my own color, my own world. I don’t think that a visual result is necessary, it’s more that I have to go on searching for it. The words ‘album after 10 years’ are also a bit uncomfortable. But I know the truth that my greatest learning is not yet. So I want to ask you to look forward to the future Thomas Cook.
original
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