Get to know CROSS GENE, rising star from Asia

CROSS GENE is a six-member multinational boy band based in South Korea. Signed under Amuse Korea, the group now consists of South Korean Sangmin, Yongseok, Shin and Seyoung, Chinese Casper and Japanese Takuya. They released their debut mini-album Timeless: Begins in June 2012, which peaked at number eight on the Gaon weekly album chart.

Since Takuya Terada is a Japanese actor, member, and leader of Cross Gene who is best known for his role as Rui Kiryuuin in Ai Ore! , we think it’s ok to interview them here. Moreover on February 27 last year, they revealed the PV of their song Shooting Star, also title track of their Japanese debut single album of the same name. The song was performed during promotional event for the drama Big in Japan for the first time. The single album was released on March 13 2013. This was followed by the Crazy digital single on the 29th of May 2013. And finally on May 31, Cross Gene held their first Japanese Concert Cross U at Shibuya O-East.

So let’s check out our interview with them.

Do you have any idea of how to spend your free time in Singapore?  

It’s our first time in Singapore and we are really excited about it! We can’t wait to eat paper chicken, kaya toast and laksa! We want to try out the local delights at hawker centers! We hope to have some fun in Resorts World Sentosa too!

In Sundown Festival, there will be many artists who perform. Is there anyone from the list that catches your interest?

We wish to collaborate with each and every great artist from different countries! We are especially interested with BIG ASS from Thailand. It’ll be really cool if we can incorporate our dance with their rock music.  Also we want to collaborate with WEAVER from Japan. They play beautiful piano which will be great for the ballad songs. It would be interesting to mix rap into the vocal unisons or singing in chorus! Casper can also do a Chinese rap collaboration with Chang Chen-Yue from Taiwan and REGINA from China.  Casper and Sangmin would also like to do a rap battle Singaporean artist Shigga Shay. That would be really cool too! We can expect many ways to collaborate with several artists. It would be great if there is such collaboration next year!

Please describe in one sentence about CROSS GENE music?

We describe ourselves as ‘A-POP (Asia-POP) Group’. We want to create a new genre of music of A-POP.

Which song would you recommend to the people who don’t know CROSS GENE yet?

We recommend ‘La-di Da-di’, which is our debut song. Our group has Korean, Chinese and Japanese members so we tried to express the mixture of 3 different cultures through the choreography for this song. There are some dance moves which was inspired by martial arts such as Karate, Taekwondo and Kung-fu. This will be the best song for people listening to our music for the first time.

What kind of message that you want to deliver to your fans with your music?

Shin: The theme of our songs is mostly on ‘Love’, which we sing for our fans.  We consciously create idea of ‘crossing international boundaries’ in our music. We wish to deliver the love songs across these boundaries. For myself, I have many fans from different countries and I’ll be really happy if many of them can unite together through our music.

To be in CROSS GENE for quite some times, what makes you think “I’m glad I am a CROSS GENE member”?

Shin: I once received a letter from a fan writing to tell us her life has become brighter after she came to know our songs.  This gave us motivation to believe in our music, to continue to work harder! We really want to thank our fans for supporting us.

Please leave a message for everyone who is looking forward in your live next month.

Hi fans from Singapore! It’s our first time visiting Singapore and to be honest we are quite nervous! But we are looking forward to see you guys there soon! Let’s have some great time together! I love you!
CROSS GENE will perform together with Asian superstars at the biggest music festival in Skechers Sundown Festival Singapore this upcoming 22nd November representing Korea. Get your ticket now at www.sundownfestival.sg

Fan meet will be held on the 21st of November, 7pm, at Changi City Point Arena @ Level 3 (nearest MRT Expo station).

Admission is FREE!