March 8, 2013 – f(♥)

Amber, “I Passed the SM Audition by Singing, Not Rapping”

“My dream was to be a scientist. Or an environmentalist. Becoming a singer felt like a far away dream. A dream that was out of my reach.”

f(x)’s Amber, whose dream was to become a scientist and who strolled around the streets of LA in pajamas and enjoyed playing basketball with friends, was a boyish girl like her current image. “I really liked music. I was in a band at church. My position was drums, guitar, vocals, and so on. I’ve done street performances too. I liked rock. My friends liked hip-hop so I listened to it a lot too.”

Amber, who wasn’t nitpicky over music, approached the dream that looked far away through SM Entertainment’s global auditions in 2007. Though as a rapper I think she is the best among current SM Entertainment’s female singers as her rap abilities are fresh and excellent, unexpectedly it was her singing ability that was the reason she passed at the time. “I passed SM’s global auditions by singing. Rap is something I naturally came to do. I liked it when I was young. Though not of a perfect hip-hop rap style, I liked Linkin Park and followed along to Eminem a lot too.”

If you listen to the song “Beautiful Stranger” from f(x)’s second mini album Electric Shock, which is reminiscent of a dark image, Amber’s heavy rap which penetrates beneath Krystal and Luna’s high vocals leaves an impression. Amber also said that she likes this song, and added “Gangsta Boy” and “Ice Cream” as f(x) songs she likes.

Then she defined f(x)’s music as “A genre you can’t define.” “Even a familiar melody will change if you put our voices over it. We can sing diverse songs because the voices of vocals Victoria unnie, Luna, Krystal, and Sulli are so different from one another’s. An already existing song becomes an entirely different one if we sing it together.”

I felt that with f(x)’s absence of eleven out of twelve months, a one-month promotional cycle is too short. Perhaps it is because nowadays girl groups make you dizzy with the overuse of comebacks and closing stages throughout the twelve months, but f(x)’s hiatus periods feel long and distant. When I brought up my dissatisfaction with such hiatuses, Amber spoke of f(x)’s indefinable music. “We need a year of preparation time. Because we must have fresher and more unique music for the fans and the general public to listen to, I think that preparation period is absolutely necessary.”

Even in the midst of preparing for a new album, Amber said that she juggles studying how to create songs and come up with lyrics. It occurred to me that a day may come when composer Amber’s song is included in f(x)’s album, and the voice of Amber, who doesn’t want to become trapped within the boundaries of being a rapper, once again sounded sincere. I want to become a person who uses her voice. Whether it’s through rapping or through singing, a person who uses her voice. I want to become a singer without an assigned title who creates a diverse voice that makes people go, ‘Oh, Amber does things like this too?’”

Source: MyDaily

Trans by 0wonhee @iheartfx.com