They sing and play their own musical instruments. The good-looking quintet from F.T. Island wants to be somewhere in between a rock band and boyband

With their charming good looks and mesmerizing voices, it’s no wonder the five boys from F.T. Island (Lee Jae Jin, Lee Hong Gi, Choi Jong Hun, Choi Min Hwan, and Song Seung Hyun) earned the label of an ‘idol boy group’.

But wait, before we jump to any conclusions, these boys are also equally adept at composing their own songs and play their own musical instruments – from the drums, keyboard, to the guitar and bass.

So what are they? A rock band or a boyband?

Sporting matching black outfits with shiny ties and cute bowties for the press conference held on Friday afternoon for the Sundown Seoul’d Out Festival, Min Hwan, the band’s drummer replied, “As a boy group, with serious music, somewhere in-between would be good.”

Displaying maturity beyond his years, he continued, “Initially I thought that being an idol group (boy band) was a disadvantage for us, but as time goes by, we noticed a lot of positive points being a boyband – it is not a bad thing to be a boyband – but we really want to show our serious side in our music.”

Apart from singing, F.T. Island’s main vocalist, Lee Hong Gi, recently starred as one of the main actors in the hit idol drama series, You’re Beautiful and majority of questions opened to the floor of reporters circulated around the drama’s premises.

Sporting a sore eye, Hong Gi chuckled when he was asked to rate himself against his onscreen character and asked, “Do you think there is a similarity? I think maybe about 70% only.”

Instead of feeling pressurized and envious of Hong Gi’s sudden boom in popularity from the drama series, the open-minded boys look up to him and are planning to take it as a learning opportunity.

With no brewing animosity or jealousy amongst them, they said, “Yes, we all would like to have the opportunity [to act] if possible. We admire him and look up to him because he is somebody that is successful.”

This is the quintet’s second time in town after their first visit in June. Ardent fans will be delighted to know that they are slated to visit again early next year for an exclusive fan session.

Garnering the biggest cheers from the cluster of fans gathered at the airport, the entire arena went abuzz with excited cheers and screams throughout the moment the boys exited Changi Airport’s arrival hall on Thursday.

With such a large following of fans, we asked the boys about their craziest fan encounters.

“There is no one that is scary. Everybody is good. There are many fans who try to grab, hug or sometimes pull us, some way or other it can harm us but it is because they like us.”

And they win brownie points with their earnest rationale, “We can handle that much – we really like them [their fans] still.”

So are they a band that hopes to entertain the world, or do they have a different agenda and are set to change the world with their music?

“For us, if somebody really listens to our songs and music and is happy listening to it, of course we are very thankful. We have not portray our best potential through our songs yet, we will come up with better songs, better music. We are hoping for you, as a fan, and we, as an artist, we hope to bring everyone together, to be one.

“To change the world, well, not the case.”

credits: kokokoreano + Joanna Goh + primaoona 
Cr: asianfanatics