Q: The new album was released after a year since the last album. What kind of message would you like to deliver to the fans who had been waiting?

G-DRAGON: A lot of things happened last year, so releasing a new album wasn’t very easy and I was very nervous about it. But it’s an album that each member took their time, to be active as five again, so I have a very deep feeling about it. I want to create and show a wonderful performance with all my might for all the people who had waited for us.

SOL: We feel very grateful to the Japanese fans since they have always supported us. This album will be released after all the incidents, so it means a lot to me, and also to BIGBANG. This album shows that our power of music and our color had become stronger, and I think it will be a turning point for us.

Q: I think BIGBANG’S “new color” is clearly shown on “FANTASTIC BABY”, featuring the Japanese lyrics made by VERBAL from M-flo.

TOP: “FANTASTIC BABY” is the most fantastic and the craziest song for BIGBANG. Most of our songs are expressed by rap, but when we tried to do that in Japanese, sometimes the lyrics didn’t match the rhythm and lines. So, we thought that if we collaborated with a famous rapper in Japan like VERBAL, maybe we could express our messages with beautiful Japanese words and create a good song.

Q: Speaking of “Upper-kind music” (a phrase used for music which makes you high), I think “FEELING” is a very good song with a big-scale feeling.

V.I: This song is awesome! (laugh) “FEELING” is a collaboration song by G-DRAGON and a famous DJ, BOYS NOIZE, so I think it’ll be a big hit in clubs. The rap is very groovy and cool, and the chorus by SOL and D-LITE is very powerful.

Q: And for the songs featuring Japanese lyrics, the opening of “BLUE” was very impressive.

V.I: The lyric, “Winter is gone and spring is coming” is very good, isn’t it? I think the feel of the cold winter ending and becoming warm again, how the warm days are coming, shows how BIGBANG is feeling right now. When the fans listen to this song, I think they would also feel their heart becoming warm, like, spring is coming.

D-LITE: I think we used to express more bright, hopeful images when we sang love songs, but this time we’re also expressing lonely, sad feelings. “EGO” is also a song like that, expressing love that one had never experienced before, like, love at first sight. You want to appeal yourself to your crush but she won’t look at you, so your pride is hurt. We expressed that kind of love for the first time.

Q: Do you guys ever fall in love at first sight?

D-LITE: I do, but I can never be her lover. (laugh)

V.I: That’s sad, isn’t it…(laugh) But Korean guys would always confess their love rather quickly.

TOP: I think V.I is a “GOOD BOY” because he tells his emotions honestly.

Q: (laugh) There’s a song called “BAD BOY” in this album.

SOL: (Laugh) Each member of BIGBANG is a “SHY BOY”.

Q: I’ve heard that D-LITE and G-DRAGON made “WINGS” together.

D-LITE: Yes. G-DRAGON made the outlines and I put in the lyrics inside it. The storyline is like, we all have hard and tiring days but for today, let’s forget about it and have fun, just for today everything is okay. I wrote that kind of lyric to match the beautiful melody.

G-DRAGON: It was my first time collaborating with D-LITE and as we worked we saw a vision that things are going to get better and better. So it was fun.

Q: You guys challenged some new things in this album, including the collaboration for “WINGS”. Did you feel pressure, or struggle?

G-DRAGON: Creating a song isn’t something you try hard for; it’s not something that comes out that way. You need to feel something in a certain circumstance or get some inspirations to give birth to a good song. So, my way of working is like enjoying every single situation that I am in at that moment. Especially for this album, I think I enjoyed all the work because all the members brought their energies into one, and we succeeded in making a “good picture” by communicating back and forth, like, “give and take”.

Q: We are looking forward to see your “passion” for the new album in the Japan tour!

V.I: Please come and have fun! Since this is our World tour, we want to show our power as an Asian artist to the world.

SOL: Our live stage is what we call “ENERGY”, no doubt. Each of us have our own, great energy and when we gather them, it becomes BIGBANG’s power, and we can feel it bigger when we get on stage. We worked with a famous producer, Laurieann Gibson in this World tour. So, this tour has a different meaning and I think the stage is different, compared to the past tour and the BIGSHOW. We focused to deliver our performance to the world and also to fans who are going to listen to BIGBANG’s music for the first time, by doing our best on creating music and producing our stage. We are looking forward to meeting our fans in Japan as an “upgraded” BIGBANG.

Source: Part 1 + Part 2
Translation by anmoada@twitter (THANK YOU SO MUCH! and Thanks to RealNadiah@twitter for the help as well ^.^)