“To After School, it’s just starting now. We wish to be the group who will never forget our original intention.”
After School hinted the similar strong determination they shown when they first debuted. They shown the strong determination to continue climbing up without being too proud of themselves. It will be After School’s 3rd year since debut this year. After School’s stages are always full of energy as they put up strong and different performances every time. Cool, mature, controlled performances are their strengths.

Their 3rd year anniversary, but yet this is their first official album. The recently released “Virgin” album keeps After School’s strong determination intact. Title song “Shampoo” sees Japan Dashi Dance working with Won Taeyeon for the first time. Combining the delicate and emotional rhythm with After School’s smooth vocals, this song is receiving lots of love from everyone.
“This album means a turning point for us as well. We tried changing, and we did new challenges. When you hear the album, you will go ‘Oh! After School can do this type of songs as well, and with the appropriate emotions.’ We created this album with the mentality to offer a wide genre of songs in it. We had carefully prepared for this comeback and now we started again without losing our original intention.”

With the attitude of a new beginning, they put in a lot of hard work with regards to the dance choreography as well. Their previous promotions with “Bang!” sees them transforming into a marching band which caught the public attention. This time, they came back with tap-dancing. They practiced tap-dancing for 5 months. Just talking about it literally lets you sweat all the way to your soles.

“Actually we felt burdened after ‘Bang!’. It seemed that (everyone’s) expectations for us increased. To meet all these expectations, we practiced really hard with the time we had. If the fans think that we “did not relax our efforts”, we will be really thankful and happy.”

The After School that is always trying to change and take up new challenges will be having their solo concert and Japan promotions in the later half of the year. Everyone had worked really hard all these while and the activities for the later half of the year will the fruits of their labor.
“We actually wanted to start our Japan promotions early last year but because of the many major incidents in the country, we decide to hold it back. Possibly during Fall, we will begin our promotions earnestly and we hope for good results. We are happy just thinking that we will have a chance to meet our overseas fans.”

In their latest album, other than “Shampoo”, there’s also the song they used for tap-dance, “Let’s Step Up”. With songs like “잘 지내고 있죠”, “Funky Man”, “Dream”, Jungah and Raina’s solo songs “My Bell” and “시간에 기대어”, songs ranging from dance to ballad and house music, it’s a tightly packed album with 12 songs in it.
“We hope to be the group that everyone will always be anticipating our next stage. To achieve that, we have to put in lots of efforts. It’s okay if we don’t sleep a lot too. Thinking about the After School that will grow and develop as time passes, the tiredness will completely disappear. Now, it’s another beginning for After School. Please give us lots of advice and look forward to us.”

(Korean) Original: MyDaily
Translated by: misskahi.com

After School "Debut for 3 years, it's a beginning now"

source : asianfanatics