[INTERVIEW] Girl group SISTAR - Part 1

Hyolyn [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

My name is Hyolyn. My real name is Kim Hyo-jung.
I was born on January 11, 1991. I have a younger sister who is three years younger than me.
I was 4.2 kilograms when I was born. And it wasn't because I was a big baby but because I had seroperitoneum in my stomach so I had to go in an incubator. And I was a newborn so my organs had yet to settle in but my intestines got entangled so I had to get surgery for that, then a year later, I developed problems to my biliary tract so I got surgery for that as well. My entire family had rushed to the hospital for my operations, giving blood transfusions in case something might go wrong so when I performed for the first time on television, my grandmother called me on the phone and cried a lot. She said she was so proud to see me sing and dance on stage when I almost died back then. Now, I'm ridiculously healthy. (laugh)
The choreography for "Push Push" may look easy but it's very difficult. When our choreographer showed us the dance moves for the first time, we put on a straight face and said, "We can't do this while singing." (laugh) And we said we'll probably have to lip sync but we only practiced live, from day one. And when we want to take a bit of a break, the choreographer would yell out "Again!" so I really felt like I couldn't breathe. (laugh)
I think I tend to be a perfectionist. Beyonce's "Single Lady" that I performed on an MBC variety show is a song by a singer that I love so much and the performance for the song is so great that I begged my dance teacher to teach it to me. And I want to be able to sing well while dancing powerfully so I worked really hard but the first time I did it on television, ah, I didn't get to show even 20 percent of what I had practiced. I was so embarrassed afterwards because I felt that people would say "What was that?"
The first thing I do when I go home is to do the laundry. Since I was young, I've been the type that thinks of what I'll wear the next day and one day, I woke up to find that what I had been planning to wear was still in the washing machine all wet. It felt like the world had come to an end. (laugh) So even when I want to go to sleep after we're done with our schedule for the day, I can't go to sleep if there is laundry on the drying rack. (Bora: She'll be folding the laundry while saying, "Oh I'm tired!")
When SISTAR becomes more successful we hope to build a bigger rehearsing studio because there are a lot of trainees at our agency. And we weren't able to go on a summer trip together since we had to prepare for our debut despite liking playing and chatting a lot so we'd like to go on one and hold a party. (All: Yes, really!) Hmm... I also want to get a mobile phone. I had gotten rid of it while preparing for my debut.

Soyou [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

My name is Soyou. My real name is Kang Ji-hyun. I think people have come to think I'm innocent because of my name but I'm actually very easy-going. (laugh)
I was born on February 13, 1992. I have a brother who is eight years older than me and a sister four years older.
I was born on Jeju island and lived there up till first grade. Everyone says, "Wow, you're lucky" when I tell them that I was born on Jeju island but it's not that different from Seoul other than the air! (Dasom: I actually thought it was amazing too so I asked her before if she could teach me some Jeju dialect.) Some people sometimes even ask if there are apartments on Jeju island. (laugh)
I got cast as a singer at a school retreat I went on during my freshman year of high school. I sang Gavy NJ's song during a talent show and someone came looking for me. It turned out that an official from a talent agency had been there.
I've been a trainee for about three years including the time I was a candidate for girl group 4minute. So on the day of my debut, I felt happy to get to stand on the stage that I so longed to stand on rather than feel nervous. But I was tearing up so much while watching our pre-recorded session that I felt embarrassed so I went to the bathroom to cry. I think it felt different for me even more because 4minute was promoting their album as well. (Dasom: Don't cry.)
We received separate training to increase our physical strength while prepping for our debut. We'd be completely exhausted after about an hour and a half of stretching, doing weights and aerobic exercise but that's when we'd start practicing our dancing. So on the days that we were completely out of it because we are so tired, our teacher would put on calm music and we'd just pass out. (laugh)
We recently got a television and computer in our house. And it's great! We needed a computer to monitor what we do so as soon as we got one, I went into our fan website and read what our fans said about us.
The concept for our hair for "Push Push" was wavy hair. So on days that we have recordings, we'd go to the hairdressers early in the morning to get our hair and make-up done, then take part in dry rehearsals. So one day, I had straight hair but people couldn't recognize me. It was to the point that they asked, "Didn't you have a perm?" (laugh)
I like to observe people so I'll imitate them. (Dasom: She's really good. I'm sure she'll be able to imitate the way you speak as soon as we're done with the interview.) I imitated Park hee-jin on television but I usually imitate people around me.
I recently sang one of the soundtracks for MBC TV series "Naughty Kiss." I was under a bit of pressure about having to sing alone and it was difficult having to sing in a clear a tone as possible because I have a husky voice.
I actually very much want to sing by bringing out my actual voice. (Dasom: She has a great voice.) I'll do that one day when I have the opportunity to sing a duet with Hyolyn.
Like SM TOWN and YG FAMILY, my dream is for us to record project albums with artists from our agency as well as holding concerts together.

Reporter : Lee Seung-Han fourteen@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@, Jang Kyung-Jin three@