Things worked out surprisingly well for Daesung (22, Real name: Kang Daesung), who walked the road to becoming a singer despite his father’s disapproval. Contrary to his father’s expectations that he would give up after experiencing the hard times countless singer wannabes have to endure, Daesung was noticed by YG Entertainment representatives who had come to the academy to take auditions.
”Management agencies go to singing academies to choose trainees. A lot of agencies had come to take auditions but none of them chose me. I just thought to myself that ‘I must not be good enough yet’, and was focused on practising to get better. I secretly wanted to get into YG, but representatives from YG never came. Just when I was starting to think ‘I should go there myself to audition’, people from YG came and I luckily passed. In my mind I thought ‘God helped me’.
He was so grateful and happy that he just smiled no matter what. After 6 long months since joining MBC Academy, he had been chosen as a trainee by the company he’d dreamed of joining! Even when they gave him nasty chores to do, he just smiled. Everyday was a happy day. He was bursting with happiness, and his huge unfading smile showed it.
”I heard from the hyungs later on that they didn’t like me at first. I would smile even if they sent me on errands so they were like ‘What the hell is wrong with him?’ and felt like I was mocking them. I was just really happy that I’d been chosen as a YG trainee and that I could keep singing like I wanted to! I kept thinking to myself ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me!’, but to the hyungs who had trained for 7~8 years there, they didn’t like me appearing out of nowhere and smiling all the time like I was pleased with myself.”
Especially to Jiyong and Taeyang who had dreamed of going solo or duet, Daesung seemed like a disturbance to the upcoming ‘idol group project’. After all, it was true that Daesung was very unprepared compared to Jiyong, Taeyang and the others who had spent years refining and improving their talents to pro-level.
”Jiyong and Taeyang hyung were trainees for a long time, TOP hyung had been active underground, Seungri was a famous dancer back in Gwangju. I was lacking in comparison to them.”
He had an awkward relationship with the other members, who had all been together for a while. [except Seungri]
”It was really awkward between me and Seungri in the beginning. I’m the hyung so it would’ve seemed normal for me to send him on errands and stuff, but I had only arrived a couple of days before him, so I was polite to him. A polite relationship where neither of us crossed the line, should I say? Since it started off like that it lasted quite a while.”
Because of his stubborn father who took his education very seriously, Daesung had to live an exhausting lifestyle of going back and forth from school, home and practice rooms while the other members lived together in dorms.
"The other members could practice till really late at night since they lived like next door. There were so many things I had to learn after coming into YG, like dancing which I picked up for the first time, but I just didn’t have enough time to practice. All the things the hyungs had already learnt, I had to master their 7 years worth of hard work in as little time as possible to match their standards. I didn’t say so at the time but I was really anxious.“
At school, he only took classes in the mornings. Since he missed a lot of lessons, it was only fair that he didn’t know what they were talking about in class most of the time. The pressure from thinking he wasn’t good enough to match the other members in the practice room also caused stress. Every day was difficult for him in more ways than one.
”Even during class at school, I practiced breathing. Like breathing in and slowly letting it out. (laughs) When I went to the office, I would practice during breaks between lessons. But it still wasn’t enough to catch up with the others.”
Maybe he had suddenly overworked his throat too much. Daesung, who had always smiled and praised his luck no matter how tough things got, experienced a fatal hardship to a singer’s career- vocal cord nodules.
Translations by sjay.x @ bbvip
[Originally posted here]
