[Exclusive] Jay Park Performs in Australia, Talks About Vegemite, Upcoming Album, and More

Jay Park performed his first concerts in Australia this past weekend! On September 27 and 29, thousands of fans showed up to watch Jay sing, rap, and dance live in Melbourne and Sydney, respectively. We sent out our roving forum administrator boka to interview and photograph Jay as he proved to Australia why he’s one of the biggest solo acts in K-pop. We will follow up with a concert review shortly; in the meantime, check out our interview and photos below!

Have you been up to much since arriving in Melbourne?

Yeah, actually not much yesterday, just went to Madang and ate some food – a lot of food, haha. This morning we did the tourist thing, we went to Rutledge Lane and we went to Federation Square, we went to Parliament and rode the tram and just checked out some stuff.

What do you think of the Australian accent?

I think it’s awesome – to be honest, I can’t do it; I wish I could but I can’t.

Can you give it a go?

It sort of turns into an English accent, which is weird, you know? “Can you give it a go?”, like you know “G’day mate,” “Cheers,” haha yeah, I can’t really do it very well.

 Here, staff from hellokpop asks Jay to try some Vegemite! Did he like it? Read on to find out (or, well, we think you can deduce from the pictures)…

Have you tried Tim Tams or Vegemite?

I have not tried Tim Tams, I have not tried meat pies, but I’m going to try to eat the meat pie… yeah, Marcus [from Soulmanna Live] was trying to get me to eat kangaroo meat, which I’m probably not going to do. And yeah, I’ve tried Vegemite and, uh, I mean, it’s saltier than I thought – I thought it was going to taste like honey, but it’s really salty. But I can see how people could eat it…

[Marcus] Out of ten?

Out of ten? I’d give it… like a six, haha.

What’s your favorite type of cuisine?

Man, I like all food to be honest – I like Chinese food, I like Japanese food, I like Korean food, I like pizza, I like Vegemite, haha.

 Jay warms up the crowd in Melbourne

There’s a lot of street art in the laneways here, do you enjoy things like drawing or painting?

Oh, I used to be like, not like an artist, but I used to draw for fun when I was little, like I used to draw sharks and Dragon Ball Z characters and stuff like that. I’m pretty good at drawing Spiderman, and yeah, I think that stuff in Rutledge Lane – I think that’s crazy, ‘cause graffiti’s also part of hip-hop, so I’ve always been into that kind of stuff.

Are you looking forward to doing anything else while you’re here in Melbourne?

I wish I had more time here, but I’m leaving tomorrow morning and I have a show tonight, so there’s not much time to do more stuff.

Are you ready for your show tonight?

As ready as I could be, I mean we’re going to see how the soundcheck goes, ‘cause usually I do a soundcheck and I sort of see how I’m feeling today, then I know if it’s going to be like a good show, or if I’m going to get tired you know? So we’re going to have to see…

How’s the progress on your next album? How do you think it’ll compare to your current album?

I haven’t finished yet, so I don’t know how it’ll compare, because my first album, like I was so into it, I was like, oh man, this is going to be the greatest album ever, I was writing so many songs, recording every single day. But this album, I’m having trouble motivating myself to do it as much as the first album, because the first album I was like recording every single day, the songs just came to my head. But this time, I try to sit down and think of a song and can’t think of it, but the songs I’ve recorded so far are very good. This album, I’m trying to do the best work I’ve ever done, it’s not quite finished, but every time I write a song, I make sure it’s the best, every time I record, I try to make sure the vocals are on point, even the mixing – I’m trying to focus on everything in the production of this, so I’m sure it’s going to be a crazy album.

Your Jay Park TV episodes on YouTube have gained a large following, will you be filming here in Australia?

Oh, I wish, I wish, but my videographer went to Seattle for a wedding, and I’m going to go to Seattle next week, so it would have been pointless for him to, you know, go back to Korea, then come all the way to Australia, then go all the way back to Seattle in the span of two weeks. But yeah, next time for sure.

Do you have any favorite YouTube channels or videos (besides the Soompi channel, of course)?

Oh yeah, definitely. I like looking at covers, I like looking at comedy stuff, I like Timothy DeLaGhetto stuff, Traffik stuff, Dumbfoundead stuff, Ryan Higa, Kevjumba. Yeah, I’m a huge YouTube freak, that’s all I look at – I look at the battles, I used to look at Grind Time, like URL, King of the Dot, all the dance stuff, all the singing and cover stuff. I like all that stuff!

 Jay takes off his shirt, much to the delight of his fans…

Besides hip-hop and R&B, are there any other genres of music that you enjoy?

I respect all types of music because it’s not easy to be good at any type of music. All types of music have their own appeal to it, but I don’t really listen to much stuff other than hip-hop and R&B – I might try to do some Jason Mraz-y type stuff like just with the guitar. I think that stuff has a good little feel to it, so we’ll see.

You have been pretty busy touring the world, have you had any time off recently?

When I don’t have a schedule, I’m working on my album or I’m getting ready for a b-boy battle, or I’m practicing for my flips, or whatever you know? This is what I like to do so even if I have time off, I just do it all the time.

What are your plans after Melbourne and Sydney?

Initially I was going to go back to Seattle, just to take some time off, just to work on the album and meet some peoples up in LA, but I think I’m going to push that back to November, and I think I’m going to enter some b-boy battles in Korea in October while working on my album. And I’m also going on this special edition of Immortal Song just one time, yeah, that might be fun too.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with Soompi, always a pleasure, and good luck with your concert tonight.

Thanks!

With abs and tattoos like Jay’s, who needs stage costumes?

Good night!

Many thanks to Soulmanna Live for this opportunity to cover Jay’s first performance in Australia! And many thanks to Jay Park as well! The concerts were awesome! Check back for our upcoming concert review, and for those who want more Jay Park visual goodness, we will be posting larger versions of these pictures and more on our Facebook within the next few days!